Online Program Book


	A18-129 Qur'an Unit Theme: Interpreting and Translating the Qur’an Saturday, 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM Lauren Osborne, Whitman College, Presiding This panel includes papers from a range of perspectives on translating and interpreting the Qur'an. Johanna Pink, University of Freiburg Validating languages, universalizing the Qur’an: Qur’an translation and language politics from Volapük to Romani Abstract Why did a Catholic priest translate segments of the Qur'an into his self-made language Volapük? What use is a Qur’an translation into a variant of Tamazight so purified of Arabic expressions that few Tamazight speaker are able to understand it? Most studies of Qur'an translations do not offer answers to these questions because of their focus on the communicative function of translations. Conversely, this paper argues that the production of Qur’an translations has a performative function that makes them no less important than the much better-researched Biblical translations. The paper will center marginalized languages and show how the Qur’an is positioned in attempts to define their status, and how these languages in turn define the status of the Qur’an. While the production of Qur’an translations in such cases has a largely symbolic quality, their mere existence contributes to centering the marginal and making the obscure visible. Mykhaylo Yakubovych, Mykhaylo Yakubovych, "Authorizing" Translation of the Qur'an: Muslim World League as a Forerunner of Institutional Interpretations Abstract This article explores the role of the Muslim World League (MWL) in authorizing translations of the Qur’an. Established in 1962 by Saudi Crown Prince Fayṣal b. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz Āl Saʿūd, the MWL aimed to assert moral and political authority over the entire Muslim world. The article argues that Qur’an translation was an important part of the MWL’s strategy for promoting Islam globally. Despite the Qur’an being considered an “untranslatable text,” the MWL successfully completed six translation projects in languages such as Japanese, Yoruba, and Turkish. Through analyzing the history and stories behind these translations, the article shows how the MWL’s experience contributed to the Muslim community worldwide by providing “authorized” translations. This idea of institutional authority in translation, where the role of publisher, reviser, and approving body played a decisive role, went beyond the individual experience of the translator. The article concludes that the MWL’s success in authorizing Qur’an translations played a pivotal role in establishing the King Fahd Glorious Qur'an Printing Complex, which remains the largest Qur’an printing and translation factory today. Younus Mirza, Shenandoah University Did Ibn Kathir Write the Last Two Chapters of Ibn Taymiyya’s “Introduction to the Principles of Qur'anic Hermeneutics”? (Muqaddima fi usul al-tafsir)? Abstract Ibn Taymiyya’s "Introduction to the Principles of Qur’anic Hermeneutics," (Muqaddima fi usul al-tafsir) has arguably become one of the most important classical manuals to understand the medieval Qur’anic commentary tradition and its hermeneutic viewed as normative way to understand the Qur’an. However, in the most recent edition of the Muqaddima, the editor Sami b. Muhammad b. Jad Allah contends that the last two chapters are wrongly attributed to Ibn Taymiyya and are in fact the writings of Ibn Kathir. Jad Allah makes his argument based on the chapter’s writing style, pre-modern citations and various manuscripts. I am inclined to Jad Allah’s reasoning but believe more pre-modern and manuscript work needs to be done to conclusively establish the argument. This discussion is significant because it speaks to the construction of modern exegetical orthodoxy and how the medieval tradition has been transmitted to us. Aysenur Cam, The Concept of “Israf” in the Qur’an as Epistemic Waste Abstract This paper examines how, within the ontological framework of the Qur’an, the concept of israf or waste can be understood in not only material terms but also epistemic ones. This paper argues that within this Qur’anic framework, epistemic waste occurs when the meaning-content of an existent entity is unacknowledged or insufficiently apprehended by its recipient. Utilizing Said Nursi’s (d.1960) hermeneutics of approaching the cosmos as scripture or ayat in which divine names are constantly being manifested, this paper examines how israf as conceptualized throughout the Qur’an, looks to the epistemological nature of the world in which all entities are carriers of divine names not to be wasted, materially and epistemically. Understanding israf within the broader theological epistemology of the Qur’an can be a critical step in constructing an Islamic eco-ethic that is not divorced from the broader telos of its scripture. Leenah Safi, Chicago Theological Seminary Exploring Shura* as Revelatory Relational Practice* Abstract This paper elucidates a Quranic framework of shura as a relational theology of care. Drawing on four references from the Quran this paper highlights what may be considered an implicit norm as encouraging a theology of relationality in interpretation of Revelation and Divine communication between caregiver and careseeker. Engaging with Toshiko Izutsu’s Revelation as a Linguistic Concept in Islam, Grau and Wyman’s What is Constructive Theology? this paper posits shura as a practice of care in Muslim practical theology.
	A18-130 Reformed Theology and History Unit Theme: Reformed Confessions and the Nature of Church Saturday, 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM Cambria Kaltwasser, Northwestern College, Orange City, Presiding Reformed Christianity have written, debated, confessed, and even divided over confessions and creeds for hundreds of years. In this session, the Reformed Theology and History Unit considers the complex and contested nature of confessions in the ecclesiology, theology, and history of Reformed Christianity. The first paper examines Karl Barth's lectures on the Reformed confessions during his formational tenure at Göttingen, considering how his own views on confessions was shaped by his study of both Lutheran and Reformed history within his German speaking academic context. The second paper turns to the American context and offers a ciritcal analysis of the Presbyterian concept of the church's spiritual nature. The final paper offers a constructive reading of Reformed Confessions within a global and plural context through a theology of confessional hospitality. Michael Allen, Reformed Theological Seminary The Ethical Connection from 1923 to 1523: Barth’s Assessment of the Reformed Confessions and Their Horizontal Focus Abstract Karl Barth’s Theology of the Reformed Confessions characterized the Reformed confessional texts as more ethical in orientation and more horizontal in focus than the symbols of their Lutheran counterparts. He goes so far as to say that “this understanding of Christianity as the connection, grounded in God and effected in humans, of the invisible divine truth of life and the visible renewal of human life …” simply is “the positive Reformed doctrine of Christianity” (147-148). He builds there on earlier claims made in lecture cycles on Calvin and Zwingli about the ethical and horizontal distinctiveness of the Reformed tradition. This paper examines his source material to explore ways in which he does render early Reformed confessional concerns from 1523 onward but also in what ways his analysis was inflected by his engagement of Luther studies in 1923. charles regli, Baylor University Embodied Church: A theological critique and alternative to the Presbyterian doctrine of the "spirituality of the church" Abstract Common interpretations of the American Presbyterian doctrine of the “spirituality of the church” have been criticized by historians as a theological rationale for the church to avoid addressing racial injustice from slavery to desegregation. In this paper, I supply theological argument to complement these historical criticisms. Common interpretations of the “spirituality of the church” intend to offer a distinction between what political concerns the church can and cannot officially address. I argue that the common interpretations typified in the seminal figures of Stuart Robinson, James Thornwell, and Charles Hodge offer distinctions that are unable to offer guidance in the application of scriptural moral teachings that have social dimensions. As an alternative, I draw upon John Calvin’s and the Westminster Confession of Faith’s recognition that the moral law applies to church and state alike to undergird an understanding of the church that can address political concerns, without sponsoring a state church. Henry Kuo, Greensboro College Towards Confessional Hospitality: A Synodal Way to Find the Truth that Unites Confessing Churches Abstract The double bind that Reformed catholicity presents is that churches confess catholicity but their "confusing provincialism" leads to an idealized catholicity that, Karl Barth warns in The Theology of the Reformed Confessions, becomes unity deferred. The symptom of this problem comes in the proliferation of multiple locally-grounded confessional statements. This presentation suggests that there needs to be a way to bring churches from different contexts to the table in a way that is hospitable to many, even if it does not mean uniformity or comfort. This presentation calls this way, “confessional hospitality.” Drawing on Jacques Derrida's dialectic between conditional and unconditional hospitality, confessional hospitality considers the possibilities for local churches to confront universal evils by learning how to talk with each other through Reformed confessions. Thus, confessional hospitality paves the way for a connectional unity without connecting it with a specific institution or structure. Business Meeting Joshua Ralston, University of Edinburgh, Presiding Christina Larsen, Grand Canyon University, Presiding
	A18-131 Religion and Disability Studies Unit Theme: Spirituality and Morality: Struggle, Agency, and Imagination from Disability Contexts Saturday, 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM David Scott, Independent Scholar, Presiding Papers in this session will explore spirituality and morality as it emerges from specific disability locations and contexts: 1) Humanistic Deaf spirituality emerges in fiction and role playing games, and Deaf players create meaning in the midst of the struggle for self-determination and autonomy in the face of continued encroachment on Deaf communities, languages, identities, and bodies. 2) Black disabled men bring wisdom to the struggle towards thriving, esp. in the spirituality arising in the lives of Black disabled men, spirituality that is a profound source of strength and inspiration marked by softness and an ethics of care. 3) Nineteenth-century epileptic colonies highlight how epileptics were positioned on the borderline between madness and sanity, and how religious ideals and practices linked with medical authority, valorizing eugenic biopolitics and positioning religion as a moral good and disciplinary strategy. Kirk VanGilder, Gallaudet University Imaginative Gameplay and Deaf Spirituality Abstract Through examination of the fictional world of Sara Nović’s novel Tru Biz, the Inspiriles role playing game developed by Hatchling Games, Sign: A game about being understood from Thorny Games, and the online role playing game, Deafverse, this paper will track the expression of a humanistic Deaf spirituality rooted in finding hope and creating meaning in the struggle for self-determination and autonomy in the face of continued colonialist encroachment on our communities, languages, identities, and bodies. Robert Monson, United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities Softness Can Save Us: A Black Man’s Look at Disability, Religion, and an Ethic of Care Abstract This paper takes a multidisciplinary and multilevel look at Black disabled men in society as they struggle towards thriving. As we look at constructs of masculinity, ableism, and a theology that promotes wellness, what wisdom do Black disabled men bring to the table? Andrew Monteith, Elon University “A Disorder of the Borderland Between Body and Soul”: Eugenics Era Epileptic Colonies, Religion, and the Medicalization of Morality Abstract Nineteenth-century experts produced medical theories in which the physical integrity of the brain dictated one’s ability to recognize morality or perform it. Psychobiological health thus determined the extent to which one could be moral. In the later nineteenth century, some states began building new institutions to segregate certain types of disability, including epilepsy. Medical experts argued that epileptics straddled the line dividing sanity from madness. Even sane epileptics, however, were typically considered morally suspicious and a dangerous threat to others. Modeled after Germany’s Bethel epileptic colony, New York’s Craig Colony for Epileptics absorbed an old, remote Shaker site in order to segregate epileptics from everyone else. Once institutionalized, epileptics’ lives were managed for them. Like most US epileptic colonies, Craig saw religion as a moral good and helpful disciplinary strategy. Chaplains’ religious ideals and practices conversed with medical expertise, valorized eugenic biopolitics, and anchored religious services in medical authority. Business Meeting Heike Peckruhn, Daemen College, Presiding David Scott, Independent Scholar, Presiding
	A18-132 Religion and Ecology Unit Theme: Dwelling with Pedagogy: Religion, Ecology, and the Craft of Teaching Saturday, 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM Elisha Chi,, Presiding This roundtable on the pedagogy of Religion and Ecology reflects on how and why—not just what—we teach in this area. Teaching in Religion and Ecology (and related courses) requires meaningful reflection and continual revision as both the natural world and our students’ relationships with it continue to change. Panelists will share methodological opportunities and challenges in this area as well as resources for teaching (community based, alternative media, online) that they have had success with or are developing. They will each conclude with remarks on their curiosities or hopes for ongoing pedagogical development within Religion and Ecology. A respondent with pedagogical experience will offer a response as well as discussion questions, opening the conversation with session attendees and facilitating the further exchange of perspectives and information between all participants. Panelists Amanda Baugh, California State University, Northridge Whitney Bauman, Florida International University Judith Ellen Brunton, Harvard University Christopher Carter, University of San Diego Joseph Witt, University of Tennessee Responding David Aftandilian, Texas Christian University
	A18-133 Religion and Economy Unit Theme: Systems, Circulation, and Management of Devotion and Dissent Saturday, 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM Rebecca Bartel, San Diego State University, Presiding Six panelists consider the systems, circulations, and managerial practices of devotion and dissent in a hybrid panel of short paper presentations and roundtable-inspired conversation. Case studies vary across geography, tradition, race, gender, and other markers of human distinction and social difference-making. Panelists consider the impacts of highway construction on black spiritual landscapes and remembrance practices, mail-order fundraising networks and shadow economies among the Pallotine Fathers, the entrepreneural practices at a Shinto shrine and among evangelical homemakers, and the un/waged labor embedded in Hindu standardized testing systems and as central to the genre of "speaking bitterness" among Catholic nuns in China. A formal response and Q&A to follow short presentations with a business meeting held immediately after. Timothy Rainey, St. Olaf College “all we knew was Rondo”: Urban Streets as a Sacred and Singular Social Field Abstract When the construction of Interstate 94 in St. Paul, MN, ripped through the African American community of Rondo during the 1950s and 1960s, it spawned resistance campaigns, cultural preservation efforts, and, more recently, restorative agendas funded by local foundations and city governments. Associated with famous residents such as Roy Wilkins and August Wilson, the Rondo community has risen to national notoriety. Animated by thriving professional, athletic, and social clubs, hair salons, newspapers, banks, restaurants, and labor unions, before the implementation of eminent domain under the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956, Rondo was the Twin Cities' Black Wall Street. In this paper, I employ interviews conducted in the summer of 2022 with members of Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in St. Paul, MN – to describe how recollections of the displacement and destruction of Black sacred centers inspire new memory landscapes where religious and business life intertwine as integrated and orienting belief systems. Archna ., University of Tsukuba, Japan A Shinto Shrine as a Company: Focusing on the Management of Religious and Economic Interests of a Shinto Shrine in Japan Abstract This paper elucidates what a Shinto shrine is in relation to business enterprise. When I worked in a Shinto shrine for the first time, I was told that a religious organization is different from shoubai (business). Through the language, the shrine was trying to emphasize the difference between a shrine and a commercial enterprise. However, I was bewildered when a kannushi (Shinto priest) called himself a salaryman (corporate employee) and shrine a company. This contradiction led me to reflect on what is the difference between a religious corporation and a business corporation. In this paper, I will explore the interpenetration and tension between religious and economic interest in a Shinto shrine, from the perspective of the insiders. Although seeking economic (secular) gain is not appropriate for a religious (sacred) organization, a shrine cannot operate without economic interest. How does the administration manage the shrine, maintaining the appropriate relationship between them? Hannah Ozmun, Home Economics: American Evangelical Women and the Moral Dilemmas of Wage Work, Consumerism, and Dependency Abstract In 1995, evangelical financial counselor Larry Burkett published Women Leaving the Workplace, a book dedicated to helping American evangelical women quit their jobs and become homemakers. Placing Women Leaving the Workplace in historical context, this paper examines three moral problems in Burkett’s text: the problem of wage work, which took women from their children and left the home vulnerable; the problem of consumer culture, which depleted wages, distracted the family from spiritual pursuits, and resulted in debt; and the problem of dependency, particularly dependence upon welfare, which threatened the moral fiber of both the family and the nation. Burkett solved these problems by encouraging women to bring the workplace home—to import business practices into homemaking and to start home-based businesses. In contrast to the midcentury ideal of the housewife who depended on her husband’s wages, Burkett praised the female entrepreneur as a moral exemplar for an emerging postindustrial economy. Andrew Kunze, Purdue University Testing Devotion: Waged and Unwaged Labor in Swaminarayan Hindu Standardized Testing Abstract This presentation analyzes one of the world’s largest Hindu standardized testing systems by comparing the waged and unwaged intellectual labors of its test administrators and test-takers. In the early 1970s, the Swaminarayan Hindu sub-group called BAPS (the Bocasanwasi Akshar-Purushottam Sanstha) inaugurated a standardized testing system, which currently tests around 50,000 devotees annually, from young children to senior citizens. This presentation draws on 13 months of ethnographic fieldwork and interviews from 2018 in Ahmedabad, Gujarat and Chicago, Illinois, with the salaried devotees who administer the testing system and the transnational, unpaid devotees who study and complete the exams every year. Ultimately, I argue that both waged and unwaged devotees engage in knowledge production labor that is invaluable for BAPS as an institution. The small number of waged administrators produce the officially sanctioned theological and historical knowledge standards of BAPS, while the large numbers of unwaged test-takers generate quantifiable yet intimate data on the organization’s transnational community, which organizes and ranks their massive devotee following. George Bayuga, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs The Labor of Complaint: Chinese Catholic Nuns and Post-Socialist Religious Economy Abstract Who does the “work” of the Catholic Church in China? This paper documents Catholic nuns’ religious labor in the context of Chinese post-socialism. Drawing from Chinese nuns’ stories of trial and struggle, this article argues that the nuns engage in a labor of complaint. First, they perform various tasks on behalf of the Church. Second, they engage in communicative labor, via a Chinese linguistic genre known as “speaking bitterness,” to call attention to their under-compensation. Drawing from recent scholarly attention to complaint, this article highlights the thankless work that Chinese Catholic nuns perform to make their religious labor for the Church recognizable and the gendered social forces that inhibit their complaints from being heard. This multilayered process situates complaint not merely as communicative labor, but also as a phenomenon dependent upon everyday work—where the labor of complaint bridges multiple domains of work to stake claims for redress. William Schultz, “Mail-Order Mendicants”: Religious Authenticity in an Age of Mass Fundraising Abstract This paper will use the Pallottine Fathers, an order of Catholic priests, to examine how new forms of fundraising challenged notions of religious “authenticity” in the twentieth-century United States. The Pallottine Fathers were pioneers of direct-mail fundraising in the early 1970s. The order sent out millions of pieces of mail every day, each one containing urgent pleas for money and heart-rending pictures of starving children. Pallottine letters also touted the “Pallottine sweepstakes,” with prizes ranging from dinner sets to new cars. This strategy was fabulously successful; the order raised millions. However, investigations revealed the Pallottines were using this money to build a real estate empire rather than to feed starving children. This paper will show how the “shadow economies” of religious fundraising cast a shadow on the American ideal of religious authenticity. Responding Deonnie Moodie, University of Oklahoma Business Meeting Kati Curts, Sewanee: The University of the South, Presiding Rebecca Bartel, San Diego State University, Presiding
	A18-134 Religion and Politics Unit Theme: God & Guns: Exploring the Intersection of Faith and Firearms in the United States Saturday, 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM Kristin Kobes DuMez, Calvin University, Presiding White American evangelicals own firearms at the highest rate in the country, while Jewish Americans own them at the lowest rate. What accounts for such a disparity? This interdisciplinary paper panel proposal utilizes historical, sociological, and digital methodologies to answer this and related questions, such as: What doctrines or communities contributed to the formation of the American Christian gun culture? As mass shootings proliferate, do Jews and Christians respond in different ways? The scholars of this panel provide a first step in exploring this scholarly lacuna, beginning with the mid-nineteenth century with an examination of the mythmaking of Samuel Colt, before examining how fundamentalists and evangelicals went from supporting limited regulation of firearms to bundling them into their religious identities. Finally, this panel examines how different congregations and synagogues react to mass shooting tragedies, contextualizing the responses according to congregants' religious identities. Joseph Slaughter, Joseph and Sam: Sanctifying Colt and his Firearms Abstract Samuel Colt’s revolvers helped create what we now call American gun culture, thanks in large part to his wife Elizabeth’s work after his death in 1862. She actively shaped how Sam was remembered through stone memorials, charitable foundations, and literary works. Most notably, this included building a grand gothic church near his Hartford, Connecticut factories in 1866. While the church is certainly noteworthy for how it incorporates gun iconography into its exterior (including intertwining with crosses), inside, its Memorial Window depicts Joseph of the biblical book, Genesis, complete with a face that resembles Sam Colt. This window reflects Elizabeth’s effort to paint Sam as a Protestant American hero, baptizing the products of Colt’s Patent Fire Arms Manufacturing Company, and laying the groundwork for the “God and Guns” culture that views Christianity and gun ownership as not only as inseparable, but intrinsic to what it means to be a “true” American. Michael McVicar, The Insane Traffic in Guns: White Conservative Evangelicals and Firearms in the Twentieth Century Abstract Over the course of the twentieth century, the attitudes of white evangelical and Fundamentalist Protestants toward the regulation of firearms shifted dramatically. Before the 1950s, evangelicals and Fundamentalists—if they discussed firearms at all—generally supported the limited regulation of the private ownership of firearms and rarely considered the theological implications of gun ownership. By the end of the twentieth century, however, these attitudes evolved, with many conservative evangelicals viewing the ownership of firearms, the protection of the second amendment, and the resistance of the regulation of firearms as core aspects of their religious and political identities. This paper traces the evolving views of white conservative evangelicals’ views on the regulation of firearms during the twentieth century. Throughout, the paper attempts to illustrate these changes by comparing how mainline evangelical protestants, Neo-evangelicals, and more conservative Protestant groups began developing competing interpretations of guns and their place in American society. Jenny Wiley Legath, Princeton University “Slaughter of the Innocents”: Pastoral Discourse on the Uvalde School Shooting Abstract After yet another mass shooting occurs in the United States, what do religious leaders say to the people in their congregations who come to worship? Using the tools of digital humanities and discourse analysis, I explore the diversity of pastoral discourse around gun violence by examining transcripts of worship services immediately following the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas on May 24, 2022. Religious leaders took many different approaches in addressing their congregations that weekend, but they each articulated a vision of how the congregation should respond to gun violence that was linked to their religious identity. It is my hope that identifying the scripts, core narratives, and themes that emerge from this discourse has the potential to impact the devastation of gun violence in this country. Business Meeting John Carlson, Arizona State University, Presiding Ann Duncan, Goucher College, Presiding
	A18-135 Religion in Europe Unit Theme: Author Meets Critics: Coping with Defeat: Sunni Islam, Roman Catholicism, and the Modern State Saturday, 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM Carol Ferrara, Emerson College, Presiding Jonathan Laurence's 2021 book, Coping with Defeat: Sunni Islam, Roman Catholicism, and the Modern State, traces the surprising similarities in the rise and fall of the Sunni Islamic and Roman Catholic empires in the face of the modern state and considers how centralized religions make peace with the loss of prestige. Author Jonathan Laurence and a prestigious cast of scholar-critics will reflect on this rich and multi-dimensional book, offering responses to, critiques of, and engagements with Coping with Defeat. Panelists Ebrahim Moosa, University of Notre Dame Sarah Shortall, Noah Salomon, University of Virginia Candace Lukasik, Mississippi State University Responding Jonathan Laurence, Boston College Business Meeting John McCormack, Aurora University, Presiding Carol Ferrara, Emerson College, Presiding
	A18-136 Religions, Medicines, and Healing Unit Theme: Decolonial Strategies: Indigenous Healing Justice Reform Saturday, 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM Alfredo Garcia, Harvard University, Presiding This roundtable addresses the urgent matter of decolonizing health care practices and advancing Indigenous methods of healing justice reform. This interdisciplinary discussion brings together the fields of Indigenous Studies, Africana Studies, and Women's Studies by employing historical, sociology, and theological methods of study. Presenters examine Rastafari women's ritual work and healing justice initiatives, Indigenous spiritual practices to address the historic trauma of white supremacy, Indigenous youth's religious engagement as a measure of health outcomes, Mujerista Theology to advocate for Latina women facing Covid-19, Pagan theology of relational-hedonism to better hospital health care, and a Theology of Powers in safety-net hospitals. Ultimately, this roundtable illuminates Indigenous methods as an ongoing decolonial practice to fight for marginalized religious communities, which propose their own solutions for global health inequities. Shamara Alhassan, Arizona State University “We are Spiritual Beings Having a Human Experience”: Rastafari Women’s Healing Justice Abstract Rastafari, as a technology of healing for Black women, has been an under-articulated area of analysis in Rastafari Studies and Religious Studies because sistren were often excluded from chalice reasoning rituals that brethren sanctioned and that anthropologists witnessed. Despite such exclusions, Rastafari women have cultivated rituals of healing, which recover them from the triple negation of being Rastafari, Black, and women and achieve justice. This paper explores Rastafari women’s healing justice as central to Rastafari philosophy and integral to innovating healing technologies for more equitable futures. Jeannine Hill Fletcher, Fordham University Spiritual Capital for Healing the Historic Trauma of White Supremacy Abstract Following the model of Maria Yellow Horse Brave Heart, this paper examines spiritual practices that might provide grounding necessary for US institutions to aid in the healing of national, historic trauma inflicted by ideologies and practices of White supremacy. Brave Heart’s model addresses historic trauma through (1) truth-telling (2) understanding the trauma (3) releasing the pain and (4) transcending the trauma. While Brave Heart’s spiraling steps are guided by the centrifugal pull of Return to the Sacred Path for indigenous communities, her model has been adapted by institutions like Jesuit-run Red Cloud Indian Boarding School to address the historic trauma of those who also have been perpetrators and beneficiaries of the sins of White supremacy. Identifying spiritual capital in the archives, this paper presents a grounding that might sustain our efforts to name White supremacy as a national trauma perpetrated through White Christian institutions, and to hold those institutions accountable. Margaret Kelley, University of Kansas Nicholas G. Cragoe, University of Illinois Urbana Champaign Elise Duwe, University of Illinois Urbana Champaign Religious Engagement, Health, and Well-Being for Indigenous and Immigrant Youth Abstract The ways in which the association between religiosity and measures of personal and social well-being differs between groups, in particular for immigrant and indigenous adolescents, needs further investigation in the scholarly literature. Using data from Wave I (n = 14,384) of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent and Adult Health, we investigate the impact of religious engagement (religious affiliation and religious participation) on measures of health and well-being (physical, social, and psychological health) for adolescents aged 11-19 in the United States. Using regression techniques, and indigeneity and nativity as moderators, we demonstrate the impact of cultural identity on the relationship between religion and health. While there is a robust overall relationship between religious engagement and perceptions of well-being, it is partially moderated by an individual’s identification as indigenous or foreign born. Thus, the varied dimensions of situated religiosity rooted in social identity frame one’s experience of health and well-being. Alejandra Salemi, Duke University Lo Cotidiano : A brief history of Latinas in the U.S experiencing public health harm through a lens of of Isasi-Díaz's Mujerista Theology Abstract Intersectional perspectives of people within historically marginalized communities are challenging mainstream narratives and the lessons found within Mujerista Theology allow for the contextualization of modern Latina experiences in the United States. Through the case study of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, this paper will look at lo cotidiano of the everyday for a Latina in the U.S through Ada Maria Isasi-Díaz’s five main form of injustices: exploitation, marginalization, powerlessness, cultural imperialism, and systemic violence. Providing examples of how the COVID-19 pandemic and other accompanying crisis support the theological arguments laid out for many decades, this paper hopes to highlight the importance of Mujerista perspectives that advocate for the advancement and protection of Latinas. Mujerista theology will be applied through a lens of policy, economics and health disparities in hopes of both naming and resisting la injustia experienced by Latinas while also celebrating las luchadoras que son las mujeres Latinas. Nathan Knutson, Harvard University Pleasurable Medicine: Revitalizing American Healthcare in the “Post” Pandemic Era Through a Contemporary Pagan Theology of Relational-Hedonism Abstract At present medical decisions made across the spectrum of modern healthcare are obliged to fit a provider’s understanding of idealized human longevity to find support. As witnessed during the depths of the pandemic, the longevity stance crumbles when there is no ideal patient outcome, leading to disproportionate amounts of moral injury, burnout, and disconnection. This paper introduces an alternative philosophical structure into the American healthcare system, something I call relational-hedonism, modeled on the ethical and theological framework of contemporary Paganism. Changing the underlying philosophical motivation that defines America’s medical system will be the most substantial and sustainable intervention we can undertake to combat the inequalities seen today. By prioritizing a relational form of pleasure where patients and workers forge mutual joy instead of longevity or utility within our “post” pandemic era of healthcare we can actively re-invigorate our damaged sense of common humanity and salvage the soul of American medicine. Fernando Ona, Tufts University Samuel Lowe, Boston Medical Center Nithya Swaminathan, Tufts University Brandon Oddo, Boston University School of Medicine Jennifer Frush, Boston Medical Center Briana Barnett, Boston College School of Social Work Leveraging a Theology of the Powers to Address Health Inequity in Spiritual Care Provision in Safety-net Hospitals Abstract Theology of the Powers can inform spiritual care at safety net hospitals by providing a framework for understanding the spiritual dimensions of these issues, and for addressing them in a holistic and compassionate manner. This paper reflects on a mixed-methods study conducted at safety net hospitals. Based on findings, strengthening spiritual care at safety net hospitals requires a multidisciplinary approach involving collaboration between healthcare providers, chaplains, social workers, administrators and community organizations to confront gaps in spiritual care provision as well as identify mechanisms to transform challenges and barriers to increasing the resources, capacity, and support for spiritual care services in low-resourced healthcare settings. A Theology of the Powers at safety-net hospitals can provide a powerful and transformative perspective for strengthening spiritual care, helping to support patients and families through the complex social and cultural forces that shape their lives and working to promote healing and justice in our communities.
	A18-138 Science, Technology, and Religion Unit Theme: After “After Science and Religion”: Do Science and Religion Have a Future Together? Saturday, 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM Janet Soskice,, Presiding Each of the papers in this session responds to the Templeton-funded “After Science and Religion” project, which sought “to rethink the foundations of Science–Religion Discourse” in the wake of Peter Harrison’s landmark historical study, The Territories of Science and Religion (2015). Harrison urges us not to think of science and religion as natural kinds, but rather as historical “territories” with shifting, overlapping boundaries. His anti-essentialist thesis puts the very existence of a field of science and religion in question—hence, “After Science and Religion.” This session brings a discussion of the “afterlife” of Science and Religion to the AAR. Attending to the overlap between the territories of science and religion suggests some relationship, wherein science is always situated within some broader worldview. The question is whether this worldview is compatible with religious worldviews—whether Science and Religion have a future together—or whether alternative categories are necessary. Paul Tyson, University of Queensland, Australia Imagining A Resurrection For Natural Philosophy Undergirded By Christian Faith, After Science And Religion Have Really Died Abstract Science and religion are not natural kinds, but they are constructs of our pragmatic and secular life-world. Their future looks good as long as the life-world upon which they depend persists. This short paper explores what might bring that life-world to an end, and then imagines what a resurrected Western Christian faith undergirding a new natural philosophy might look like, after science and religion have died. Andrew Davison, University of Cambridge Metaphysics Takes Care of itself Abstract The ‘After Science and Religion’ project has included notably criticisms of the influence of a scientific mindset on Western intellectual culture, alongside a deflationary sense of the role of attention to natural science for theology. Here, I argue that the same metaphysical framework that is in play in these criticisms (broadly scholastic, and with particular sympathy for the Radical Orthodoxy school) points rather in the other direction (on account of its metaphysical and epistemological realism), and that the natural sciences – as they are actually practiced, and not as they are presented in rather a decontextualized fashion – could be more of an ally than an enemy in getting beyond the reality that these ‘After Science and Religion’ authors see as denuded, and have criticized. Matthew Gummess, University of Notre Dame The Incompatibility of Science and Religion as a Problem with Theology, not Science Abstract What makes for the appearance of incompatibility between science and religion? Some contributors to the “After Science and Religion” project attribute incompatibility to scientists’ assumption of naturalism. In this paper, I argue that the appearance of incompatibility actually stems from upstream theological assumptions about the meaning of the Christian doctrine of creation. In particular, an overemphasis on creaturely participation in God as the consequence of creation can lead to a view that finds non-participatory outlooks, such as naturalism, totally incompatible with theism. I offer an alternative reading of creation as a corrective, which emphasizes the difference between creatures and Creator. Keeping this difference in view creates room for the study of the natural world apart from explicit reference to God, and for a theological reason: the “ever greater dissimilarity” between Creator and creature warrants a mode of explanation that seeks to understand creatures as different than God. Sarah Lane Ritchie, University of Edinburgh “Let a Thousand Flowers Bloom”: Questioning the Value of Methodological Debates in Science & Religion and Science-Engaged Theology Abstract This paper discusses the relationship between the field of science & religion and what has come to be known as “science-engaged theology,” with a particular emphasis on the methodological debates and “turf wars” that inevitably arise in such disciplinary evolution. It is argued that while science-engaged theology’s emphasis on disciplinary and thematic specificity has been a productive advance within the more general area of science & religion, ongoing methodological debates about the “correct” way to conduct such research continue to prove unhelpful. The paper claims that future progress in science & religion and science-engaged theology will be dependent on an expansive and inclusive posture amongst scholars, such that a variety of methods and commitments are seen as necessary for the overall organismic flourishing of the science & religion research area. Eugenia Torrance, University of Notre Dame An Apophaticism of the Human: Gregory of Nyssa & Neuroscientific Naturalism Abstract Many of the contributors to the “After Science & Religion” project suggest that the methodological naturalism of scientific practice inevitably entails metaphysical naturalism. Ironically, these authors agree with Christian physicalists, members of the Science & Religion field, who maintain that the successes of neuroscience render the soul obsolete. This paper offers a theological interpretation of the successes of neuroscience that draws on both the theory of the incomprehensibility of the human being developed by Gregory of Nyssa and recent work in the philosophy of scientific models. This reinterpretation of neuroscientific success allows theologians to value neuroscientific models that rely on the mind-brain identity thesis without dismissing traditional beliefs in a separable soul. This paper models a more local approach to “Science & Religion” that focuses on particular concerns arising from particular sciences in the context of a particular theological tradition. Mark Harris, University of Edinburgh After Scientism Abstract This paper looks at the identity of the science-and-religion discipline and asks where the present concerns about essentialism are taking us. I look critically at the After project's concerns about scientism and methodological naturalism, and suggest that a constructive way forward might be to start thinking about the disciplinary identifier of 'theology of science': a cousin to history of science and philosophy of science, both of which disciplines are fully essentialist in name if not in practice. Josh Reeves, Samford University In Defense of “Science and Religion” Abstract This paper evaluates the philosophical conclusions that Harrison draws from his anti-essentialist philosophy in the two volumes associated with the “After Science and Religion Project.” While I agree with Harrison’s criticisms concerning early scholarship in science and religion and value his historical scholarship, this article raises questions about the philosophical conclusions that Harrison draws from the history of science. I worry that Harrison’s project is too skeptical towards the categories “science” and “religion” and places too much emphasis on naturalism being incompatible with Christian theology. One can accept the lessons of anti-essentialism—above all, how meanings of terms shift over time—and still use the terms “science” and “religion” in responsible ways. I defend the basic impulse of most scholars in science and religion who promote dialogue; a complete rethinking of its intellectual foundations is unnecessary, much less is science and religion “dead,” as Radical Orthodox theologian John Milbank and “After Science and Religion” project participant has recently proclaimed.
	A18-139 Sociology of Religion Unit Theme: Sacred Objects and Embodied Faiths: Identity, Power, and Meaning across Religious and Global Contexts Saturday, 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM Di Di, Santa Clara University, Presiding This panel explores how religion is embodied and materialized across diverse contexts and faith traditions. The first paper presents a novel denotative using participant-produced photographs approach to understand lived religion in three Latin American cities. The second paper examines how members of two Sikh communities in the US and England negotiate their religious and racial identities. The third paper analyzes the Abrahamic Family House in Abu Dhabi as a case study for how religion is materialized and theorized in the Arab world. The fourth paper takes a historical sociological approach to investigate how women in the African Methodist Episcopal Church have acquired and exercised power to resist patriarchal social structures and white supremacy. Overall, the panel offers a nuanced understanding of the materialization and embodiment of religion across diverse contexts and highlights the need for a more comprehensive understanding of religious identity, power, and meaning. Gustavo Morello, Boston College Gaelle Bargain-Darrigues, Boston College Beyond words. A denotative analysis of participant-produced photos of meaningful objects in the context of a study on lived religion in Latin America. Abstract Can visual data provide insights that words do not reveal? Meanings of objects in visual studies are usually captured through elicitation meetings. In this article, we propose to explore them from a purely visual standpoint and assess the methodological and substantive benefits of such denotative approach. We used a database of 660 photographs produced by 228 participants in three Latin American cities. Following a “lived religion” approach, respondents were asked to present an object that was ‘meaningful’ for them. Analyzing these pictures beyond words, proved useful to operationalize a large corpus of visual data, facilitate the transmission of the results and build a representative classification of the types of objects most commonly brought by participants. We conclude that a denotative analysis of participant-produced visuals ‘beyond words’ represents an untapped opportunity to challenge existing representations and elicit new research directions, which, in turn, require returning to verbal data to be elucidated. Simranjit Khalsa, University of Memphis Looking Glass Sikh: Minoritized Identity Construction Abstract Sociologists and social psychologists such as Charles H. Cooley have long understood the self to be fundamentally social. In this paper, I apply Cooley’s theory of the self to Sikhs’ reflections on their identity as Sikh. I draw on in-depth interviews with Sikhs to unpack identity construction processes for members of minoritized communities. My respondents strive to present an idealized image of “Sikh” in contexts characterized by discrimination towards Sikhs. They actively seek to present an idealized image of Sikh in response. Further, I find unpack the implications of Sikhs’ views of their interactions with non-Sikhs for racial identity. Through a comparison of Sikhs in racially distinct groups, we are able to better understand the role of both race and religion in influencing the looking glass self. This has important implications for our understanding of the social processes that underpin racial identity and the flexibility and durability of whiteness. Angela Bernardo, Sapienza University of Rome Materializing Religion: the Abrahamic Family House in Abu Dhabi between Authenticity, Legitimization and Recognition, the Interfaith Call on Human Fraternity, and Fight against Terrorism Abstract This paper aims to analyze the Abrahamic Family House (AFH) in Abu Dhabi, UAE, as an example of how religion is theorized and discourses on religion are materialized in the Arab world. The AFH is a larg government-sponsored multi-religious space, which includes a mosque, a church and a synagogue with a shared garden and a central forum, which “functions as a visitor experience center, where an immersive exhibition will introduce visitors to the [project] and invite reflection on the three faiths” involved in it. The AFH was inaugurated on 16th February 2023 and has been opened to visitors since 1st March 2023. It represents the materialization of the principles (among other, the importance of dialogue among religions believing in God and the rejections of any forms of religious extremism) set out in the 2019 Document on “Human Fraternity” signed by Pope Francis and the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Ahamad al-Tayyib. Jualynne E. Dodson, Michigan State University FIRST CENTURY-A PARADIGMATIC STRUGGLE: WOMEN, POWER, AND THE AFRICAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH (1797-1900) Abstract This paper reports on historical sociology research that conceptually centered ‘power’ as the ability to impose ‘will,’ no matter opposition, and viewed ‘power’ as a dynamic, interactive social phenomenon, not static organizational position. It is an exploration of African Methodist Episcopal Church women acquiring and using ‘power’ to extraordinary impact on the denomination’s first century of emergence and organization. Consideration of slavery, sexism, and racism are explored as social context AME women had to encounter as they adjusted and struggled against the Church’s male-domination structure. ‘Everyday’ women, not necessarily leaders, prominent or renowned, are the paper’s focus. The research demonstrates women’s effectiveness in causing changes in denomination authority structure to include women. An exemplary and contemporary consequence of their struggles was the 21st century election of a woman Bishop. The paper will surely generate cross-fertilization between Sociology of Religion and other disciplinary arenas.
	A18-140 Theological Education Committee Theme: Committee Meeting Saturday, 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM John Thatamanil, Union Theological Seminary, Presiding Jacob Robinson, American Academy of Religion, Presiding .
	A18-141 Theology and Religious Reflection Unit Theme: The Mysticism of Ordinary Life and Critiques of Normativity Saturday, 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM Daniel Horan, Catholic Theological Union, Presiding In this roundtable discussion of Andrew Prevot’s The Mysticism of Ordinary Life: Theology, Philosophy, and Feminism (Oxford, 2023), panelists will discuss mystical means of critiquing normativity, an intersectional turn in feminist studies of Christian mysticism drawing on Latina and Black/womanist traditions, and the relationship between theological and philosophical (or secular) interpretations of mysticism. Panelists Nichole Flores, University of Virginia Linn Tonstad, Yale University Michele Watkins, University of San Diego Responding Andrew Prevot, Boston College
	A18-142 Womanist Approaches to Religion and Society Unit Theme: Walking Through the Valley: Womanist Explorations in the Spirit of Katie Geneva Cannon Saturday, 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM Emilie M. Townes, Vanderbilt University, Presiding Marking the fifth anniversary of noted social ethicist Katie Geneva Cannon’s untimely death, the panelists, who are also the co-editors of this volume, explore how Cannon’s conception of womanism can be used in moral thought through four themes that were important in Cannon’s work: sacred texts, structural poverty and communal solidarity, leadership, and embodied ethics. Cannon argued that dominant (normative) ethics was designed, however unintentionally, to mark those of darker hues as morally deficient if not bankrupt because of its understanding of what constitutes virtue, value, identity, and theological standpoint. Cannon’s writings and lectures and classes ushered in other persistent voices that disputed this methodological and moral valley. Panelists Stacey Floyd-Thomas, Vanderbilt University Alison Gise Johnson, Angela Sims, Colgate Rocherster Crozer Divinity School Business Meeting Melanie Jones, Union Presbyterian Seminary, Presiding Valerie Miles-Tribble, Berkeley School of Theology, Presiding
	A18-143 World Christianity Unit Theme: Boundaryless Christianity Saturday, 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM Alexander Chow, University of Edinburgh, Presiding This panel considers the concept of boundarylessness in World Christianity, both as a phenomenon and as an academic field. The first paper highlights the impact of online church opportunities among Northeast Indian Christians living in New Delhi in the COVID-19 era. The second paper, calling attention to the experiences of Adivasi Christians in India, questions the likelihood of a truly boundaryless Christianity, emphasizing the ways in which boundaries reflect attachments to specific spaces, individuals, and objects, even in the age of digital media. The third paper attests to a boundaryless Christianity expressed through Nigerian female gospel artists’ expansion of boundaries within global ecumenism. The fourth paper makes the case that boundarylessness should be considered not merely a characteristic of World Christianity, but in fact as a guiding methodology for the field, opening up new avenues analysis regarding the national, continental, linguistic, and religious boundaries that so often go unquestioned. Iliyana Angelova, Digital Christianities and Christian belonging in a (post-)pandemic world: ethnographic insights from urban India Abstract The extraordinary circumstances that the world’s population experienced at the onset of the global Covid-19 pandemic and thereafter posed seemingly insurmountable challenges to our habitual ways of life. As individuals and communities struggled to navigate new ways of interacting with and supporting each other, the very nature of our human sociality was put to the test. Across Christian congregations, face-to-face fellowship was quickly replaced by online services and online worship, which resulted in new forms of religious experiences, new ways of community-building and new constructions of belonging. Based on recent ethnographic fieldwork conducted in New Delhi (India), this paper explores the strategies through which Christian churches in New Delhi have sought to sustain fellowship during and in the aftermath of the global Covid-19 pandemic and the experiences of their congregants who have meanwhile strived to maintain a life of Christian devotion. Elsa Marty, University of Chicago A Boundary-less Christianity? Digital Ministry, Earthly Attachments, and an Incarnational Faith Abstract Drawing upon interviews with Adivasi (indigenous) Christians in India as well as my own experience as a new mother during the pandemic, I highlight the challenges for moving beyond place-based and geographically tied religious expressions. Although digital media offers enormous potential for cross-cultural engagement, I argue that it has not and is not likely ever to result in a boundary-less Christianity. Interweaving ethnography and autobiography, I explore the ways that boundaries reflect our earthly attachments to places, people, and things. I suggest that Christianity, as an incarnational faith, calls us to engage with rather than try to transcend these earthly attachments. Itohan Idumwonyi, Gonzaga University Boundaryless Spirituality: The Transnational Migration of Nigerian (African) Gospel Music Across the Global Abstract This paper situates the influence of transnational linkages of Nigerian (African) Pentecostal gospel music (NPGM) with its diverse languages within the discipline of World Christianity. It focuses insight on Nigerian women’s use of technology to assert their spiritual, cultural, and economic relevance in broadening the frontiers of World Christianity towards ecumenism. The women, considered subalterns and unclean in ritual places, have become valuable resources for advancing ecumenism in world Christianity. The presence of NPGM in unexpected global religious landscapes points to the “reverse mission” theory advanced by scholars. While human migration has been the focus of scholarly debate, this dimension of NPGM transnational migration is yet to be widely researched. Therefore, this paper utilizes multiple disciplines to theorize how Nigerian women use technology to reshape and make expressive contributions to transnational religious practice and affirm how World Christianity could be more inclusive of different voices, particularly those of subaltern women. Paul Chang, University of California, Riverside Boundarylessness as Method: Authenticity and Power in the Grand Decolonizing Project of World Christianity Abstract Boundarylessness is proposed as a guiding methodology for studies of World Christianity. Boundary-crossing has always been a major theme in the field of World Christianity. It can be problematic if it reiterates national borders, continents, languages, and world religions as “natural,” but it does not have to essentialize such boundaries. Instead, it can point to the dynamism and incoherence at the heart of Christian claims, especially to the ways in which cultural assumptions have been continually reiterated and naturalized from the very first years of the Christian movement. As a method then, boundarylessness makes such “natural” assumptions queer again, opening up space for new discourses, both critical and constructive. The classic canon of Christian theology, for instance, seems strangely over-reliant on Greco-Roman foundations, whether in scholasticism, Protestant Reformation, or Enlightenment. Questions of “authenticity” and “indigeneity” also seem misplaced. Instead, boundarylessness focuses on the changing negotiations that constitute Christian authority.
	A18-137 Sacred Texts, Theory, and Theological Construction Unit and SBL's Reading, Theory, and the Bible Unit Theme: Climate Fiction, Literature, Religion, and the Anthropocene Saturday, 9:00 AM - 11:30 AM . Scott Hubbard, University of South Carolina "From Death to Truth": Thaumaturgical Turn in Contemporary Theorizations of the Anthropocene Abstract This paper responds to the theoretical recontextualization of the Anthropocene as put forward by Lynne Huffer in her 2017 article, “Foucault’s Fossils: Life Itself and the Return to Nature in Feminist Philosophy.” Huffer’s return to the ontological categories of “truth” and “death” to theorize human ethical response to climate change speaks to a burgeoning thaumaturgical attitude, which the Anthropocene carries within contemporary theorization. This attitude finds powerful instantiation and enhancement in contemporary works of climate-fiction (Huffer 84). This paper will provide readings of three such novels: Lydia Millet’s A Children’s Bible (2021), Amitav Ghosh’s Gun Island (2019), and Matt Bell’s Appleseed (2021). Each of these works fronts religious and/or mythographical ritual and praxis as a way of creating a new inerrancy by which its human subjects must grapple with a revolutionized ethical life in the midst of climatic disaster. Everett Hamner, Western Illinois University Making End-Times New: Climate Lit & Film as Contemporary Mythology Abstract Mythologizing climate destruction and action has become a regular undertaking of contemporary literature and cinema. Turning to novels by Margaret Atwood, Octavia Butler, N.K. Jemisin, Kim Stanley Robinson, and Richard Powers and to films and miniseries from Darren Aronofsky, Patrick Somerville, Paul Schrader, and Bong Joon Ho, this paper shows how fantastic and realist climate stories similarly redefine reliable knowledge and meaningful intervention. Focusing on climate fiction’s embodied, messy depictions of scientific research alongside its mystical, uncontainable experiences of enlightenment, the paper suggests how theological and philosophical breakthroughs must now come in the midst of climate destruction and action. Eschewing simple optimism or pessimism, it finds in these tales evolved forms of the uncertain, risk-taking hope pursued by theologian-ethicists like Willis Jenkins, Catherine Keller, Jürgen Moltmann, and Michael Northcott. As our oldest wisdom books also attest, living well in the end-times means making them into beginning-times, too. Meredith Warren, University of Sheffield “If we can make it through this winter, we’ll be ok”: apocalyptic thought in Waubgeshig Rice’s Moon of the Crusted Snow Abstract Contemporary apocalyptic fiction often relies on nostalgia to construct a dichotomy between the present troubles and an idealized (or at least tolerable) past. That construction assumes that the nostalgia is universally shared — that the present disruption to the status quo is dangerous and that a return to "normalcy" is the desired (if not actual) outcome. In Waubgeshig Rice’s Moon of the Crusted Snow (2018), the author inverts nostalgia and apocalypticism to demonstrate how the Anishinaabe were already a post-apocalyptic people when the Internet, satellites and capitalism abruptly end. Many Indigenous thinkers understand the Indigenous peoples of North America to have already survived an apocalypse: From the theft of land to the theft of children, Indigenous communities have survived through multiple ends of the world. Rice’s novel highlights that a return to white settler capitalism is far from desirable since that system represents a continuing apocalypse that began in 1492. Rhiannon Graybill, Rhodes College Woman as Land or Woman as Planet? Abstract .
	A18-144 Academic Labor and Contingent Faculty Committee Theme: Academic Labor and Contingent Faculty Committee Working Group Luncheon with Open Discussion Saturday, 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM Nicole Kirk, Meadville Lombard Theological School, Presiding Anyone interested in academic labor is welcome to join us. Hosted by the Academic Labor and Contingent Faculty Working Group, this annual gathering and business meeting brings together those concerned about changes in academic labor for discussion and a place to brainstorm ways to advocate and support contingent faculty and sustainable employment for all faculty. We will also have discussion tables on various topics, including the gig economy, contingent faculty scholarship, publishing, burnout, best practices, and more. Panelists Willie J. Jennings, Yale University
	A18-150 Plenaries Theme: Plenary Address: I Saturday, 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM .
	A18-200 Academic Labor and Contingent Faculty Committee Theme: Academic Labor and Contingent Faculty Post-Lunch Discussion Saturday, 12:30 PM - 2:30 PM Nicole Kirk, Meadville Lombard Theological School, Presiding Immediately following the Academic Labor and Contingent Faculty Lunch, linger for conversation, connection, and support. Panelists Willie J. Jennings, Yale University
	A18-201 Black Theology Unit Theme: Mulatto Theologizing: Exploring Hybridity at the Intersection of Race, Ethnicity and Religion Saturday, 12:30 PM - 2:30 PM Jennifer S. Leath, Queen's University, Presiding These papers explore racial and theological hybridity and contested notions of ethnic purity and impurity as it relates to Christian theology, human bodies, and Afro-Judaism. Ten years ago, Mulatto theologizing was hailed as the “New” Black theology that constituted a significant theological shift in its development. This panel will explore the impact of this “shift” ten years later. Andre Key, Claflin University Black Judaism and the Problem of Ortho-ethnicity Abstract In this paper I will discuss a problem unique to the study of Afro-Jewish communities, the problem of ortho-ethnicity (proper people). For practitioners and scholars of African American religion, questions of orthodoxy (proper belief) and orthopraxy (proper practice) have been leveled at particularistic interpretations of Abrahamic traditions regarding their beliefs and practices. Regarding the existence of Afro-Jewish traditions, the additional phenomena of ortho-ethnicity (proper people) emerges as a response to Blacks as Jews that renders orthodoxy and orthopraxis secondary. In essence, the level of ritual observance and adherence to accepted doctrines are inconsequential if the Black as Jew in question is regarded as unacceptable according to rabbinic law (halakha). I am arguing that rabbinic law (halakha) itself has been racialized and the appearance of Blacks as Jews necessitates a need to authenticate individuals or entire communities on the presumption that Blackness in of itself raises suspicion. Altagracia Perez-Bullard, Paola MarquezLeones, Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary Theologizing Afro-Latinamente: Naming, Claiming, and Theologizing Black Latine Realities Abstract The theme, La Labor de Nuestras Manos, can evoke for those of African descent, the desire to make visible contributions that, although critical and life giving, have been invisiblized. Afro-Latine peoples, especially those born in the U.S. are empowered by the continuity of critique and scholarship present in African American work/labor. Black theology, together with Latinx, Latin American and other liberation theologies, inform their self-understanding within Christianity in the U.S., and have implications for their engagement in theological reflection in faith communities, especially as these communities participate in social justice movements in the U.S. What are the risks and possibilities of an engagement between Black theology and Latinx theology centered in Afro-Latine realities? What methods can be utilized if Afro-Latine realities have been concealed/erased from Latinx and Latin American Theological reflections? Nathaniel Lee, Mulatto Bodies and the Body of Christ: The “New” Black Theology Ten Years Later Abstract Ten years ago, in an article for The Christian Century, theologian Jonathan Tran heralded the work of three black theologians—J. Kameron Carter, Willie J. Jennings, and Brian Bantum—as inaugurating a “new black theology.” According to Tran, these three thinkers represented “a major theological shift that [would]—if taken as seriously as it deserve[d]—change the face not only of black theology but theology as a whole.” Now that ten years have passed, this paper asks: Has it? And arguing that it has not, I offer reflections on why it has not. My central my argument is a critique of the way Carter and Bantum offered their revised understanding of racial identity and hybridity by reimagining the identity Jesus through mulatto/a identity. I conclude by suggesting that the appeals made by their colleague—Willie J. Jennings—to “land” and “language” point toward a more constructive path forward. Responding Brian Bantum, Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary
	A18-202 Bonhoeffer: Theology and Social Analysis Unit Theme: Bonhoeffer and "La Labor de Nuestras Manos" Saturday, 12:30 PM - 2:30 PM Karen V. Guth, College of the Holy Cross, Presiding The papers in this session take up the 2023 presidential theme: “La Labor de Nuestras Manos.” Two of the papers do so through critical engagement with Gustavo Gutiérrez’s critiques of Bonhoeffer’s “theology from the underside” and the limitations of his “modern settler theology.” The other two turn from this focus on economic-oriented critiques to politics, considering the potential of Bonhoeffer’s theology as a resource for truth-telling and humanitarian interventions. Christopher Whyte, University of St. Andrews "Theology from the Underside": A Critical Analysis of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's "View from Below" Abstract Gustavo Gutiérrez and Lisa Dahill offer critiques of Dietrich Bonhoeffer that commend his self-sacrificial witness while questioning whether Bonhoeffer’s account of suffering is sufficiently nuanced or particular. In contrast to these observations, Bonhoeffer, in reflections like “The View from Below,” indicates that his understanding of history is rightly informed by the experience of suffering. With that in mind, I undertake a critical analysis of Bonhoeffer’s account of oppression based on the aforementioned critiques. I first consider how Bonhoeffer’s biography and theological influences both aid and impede a full-blooded understanding of modern injustice. I then consider how those tensions influence Bonhoeffer’s articulation of suffering in his late theology. Finally, I offer methodological recommendations for theologians inspired by Bonhoeffer’s life and witness. These suggestions affirm Bonhoeffer’s example while relying on Christ’s self-revelation through the Spirit towards a better reckoning with the particular blind spots that impede the work of our hands. Andrew Clark-Howard, Charles Sturt University Bonhoeffer, Gutiérrez, and the ‘Limitations of Modern (Settler) Theology’ Abstract Gustavo Gutiérrez argues that Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s theology offers a critical diagnosis and laudable exemplar of both the possibilities and limitations of modern Protestant theology in its incomplete analysis of the abuses of power, class, and economic exploitation that lie at the heart of the western, capitalistic enterprise. This paper therefore offers a radical, social reading of Bonhoeffer’s 1933 Christology lectures via Gutierrez in order to recontextualise Bonhoeffer’s idea of the “proletariat Christ” in the context of indigenous-settler relations today. Specifically, it takes Gutiérrez's diagnosis of Bonhoeffer as axiomatic for those of us who participate in theology as white settler peoples in the lands now called Australia and New Zealand. Such modern (settler) theology can only go so far when it fails to take seriously the depths of the injustice and violence which such settler societies are built upon within the histories of European colonisation and displacement of First Peoples. Shinkyu Lee, Oberlin College and Conservatory Between Conscience and Tyranny: Arendt and Bonhoeffer on Truth and Politics Abstract Arendt’s and Bonhoeffer’s thoughts, once reconstructed via a critical dialogue, can provide much-needed insight into applying religious truth claims to politics. Arendt emphasizes the role of plural voices for free politics. For her, a solution to the spread of misinformation is to establish and maintain a robust public sphere. For Bonhoeffer, though, this method is limited and incomplete. He argues that Christians must see the world as a space of solidarity among the oppressed, and a Christ-reality that resists both theocratic legalism and vulgar voluntarism must guide their actions. However, Arendt’s sharp judgment of the dangers of a modern society suggests that even a modest version of religious practice cannot remain intact in the face of modern socioeconomic forces. Through a novel interpretation of their political theologies, this paper investigates a way for religion to be a conscientious voice in politics yet eschew becoming a tyrannical force itself. Judith Bollongino, Ethical dilemmas and political decision-making. How Bonhoeffer's insights on culpability deepen the ethical reflection Abstract This paper tries to examine if Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s general insights deepen the ethical reflection of political decision-making today – exploring the issue of humanitarian interventions. Therefor one can highlight Bonhoeffer’s ideas as general orientation marks: 1. Identifying a situation to be one of “complimentary culpability”, 2. Failing to realize an ideal, such as a fundamentally pacifist attitude, 3. Taking responsibility for acting unjustified pending only on one’s conscience and 4. Proving the last necessities. Bonhoeffer's life and his theology are closely interwoven. Therefor Bonhoeffer’s contemporary context and situation need to be considered. Thus, the time immediately before Bonhoeffer's imprisonment can be considered the creative period of his theological insights, which ethically reflect on the aspect of culpability in hopeless situations. These “situations of complementary culpability” can be generalized as situations of ethical dilemmas. Bonhoeffer’s deep theological insights lead to an anti-principled ethical stance. Business Meeting Karen V. Guth, College of the Holy Cross, Presiding

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