Organized by The Institute for the Study of Values and Spirituality (ISVS) and Faculty of Theology at Dokuz Eylul University

Organizing Committee: Dan Chițoiu (ISVS & UAIC), Corina Domnari (ISVS & UAIC), Ahmet Tașkın (DEU & DEUST)

Introduction: The conference Searching Spiritual Values in Times of Uncertainty seeks to initiate a critical and ongoing engagement on the place of spirituality within a world undergoing profound transformation, digital disruption, and instability. At the heart of this gathering lies a guiding inquiry into how spiritual values can be understood, articulated, and lived under contemporary conditions marked by epistemic fragmentation, technological acceleration, the expansion of digital environments, and overlapping global crises.

We inhabit a historical moment in which inherited structures of meaning are increasingly unsettled. Epistemic authority is contested, truth claims are fractured within post-truth environments, and digital technologies reshape the conditions of knowledge, perception, and communication. Simultaneously, humanity faces ecological degradation, political volatility, and social dislocation—conditions that destabilize established ethical frameworks and collective orientations. In this context, uncertainty is no longer episodic but structural, defining the horizon of contemporary life.

Yet this condition of uncertainty has also generated a renewed search for meaning. Spiritual values, once largely confined to institutional or doctrinal settings, now reemerge as critical resources for orientation, interpretation, and human flourishing. This reemergence does not signal a simple return to tradition; rather, it demands a reconceptualization of spirituality as a dynamic, interpretive, and lived practice that integrates epistemological inquiry, ethical reflection, and existential experience.

However, this reorientation does not resolve the tensions it seeks to address. Instead, it brings into focus a set of fundamental questions that structure the inquiry of this conference and are explored through the contributions gathered in this conference:

– How should the contemporary condition of crisis be interpreted, and can spiritual or religious frameworks provide a credible response to this state of unreason?
– In what ways does uncertainty function not merely as a threat but as an opportunity for rethinking identity, relationality, and the ethical significance of “the other,” as expressed in concepts such as ubuntu?
– How are spiritual values preserved, transformed, or rearticulated through language, narrative, and cultural memory in times of crisis and historical disruption?
– How do digital environments and emerging forms of mediated life reshape religious authority, moral experience, and the processes through which individuals reconstruct meaning under conditions of uncertainty?
– To what extent can spiritual practices and values serve as mechanisms of conflict transformation, enabling the reconfiguration of selfhood, relationality, and communal life?
– How can spirituality be understood as an embodied practice—across traditions such as contemporary religious movements—that sustains continuity while adapting to rapidly changing social conditions?

This conference responds to these questions by approaching spirituality not as a fixed domain of belief, but as a field of inquiry, interpretation, and practice. Bringing together perspectives from philosophy, theology, linguistics, psychology, and religious studies, it examines how spiritual values are reconfigured, transmitted, and lived within contemporary conditions of uncertainty. Through interdisciplinary and intercultural engagement, Searching Spiritual Values in Times of Uncertainty positions itself as a space for critical reflection and constructive dialogue, aiming to rethink how meaning, responsibility, and human flourishing can be articulated in a world defined by instability and transformation.

Program_Searching Spiritual Values in Times of Uncertainty

Time: April 28, 2026, starting at 10:00 (UTC +3) (Istanbul time)
Join Zoom Meeting: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89804105376?pwd=H2zRuJjqHsHdjkXjSmn8XZrOakzVNr.1
Meeting ID: 898 0410 5376, Passcode: 416793