World Christianity Unit

For the 2026 June meeting, the World Christianity Unit plans feature one session solely within our unit. We are hoping that our session will speak in some way to the AAR presidential theme of Future/s. 

We invite proposals that explore how Christian communities around the world imagine, negotiate, and bring into being various futures, whether social, theological, ecological, technological, or political. The theme offers an opportunity to consider how Christian actors draw on dis/inherited narratives, material practices, and ritual sensibilities to craft possibilities that move beyond dystopic inevitability or superficial hope. Possible approaches include the reimagining of theology and ethics in global contexts; eschatological and apocalyptic sensibilities that shape communal horizons; and changing patterns of Christian belonging amid processes of deconversion, disaffiliation, or reconfigured religious authority. We especially welcome proposals attentive to generational and technological transformations—such as the role of Gen Z and Gen Alpha, digital networks, artificial intelligence, and other modes of emerging Christian practice.

Finally, we seek to explore the multiple crises and uncertainties that frame contemporary Christian life and that animate diverse visions of the future. We invite proposals that address how Christian communities imagine ecological futures amid accelerating environmental degradation; how conflict, migration, and political instability reconfigure Christian identities and moral commitments; and how local practices or traditions perceived as “disappearing” shape communal responses to vulnerability and change. We are especially interested in papers that illuminate how Christian narratives, rituals, and social ethics are mobilized to confront global precarity, generate resilience, or articulate alternative social worlds.