In this session, the Chinese Christianities Unit features papers that push the historiographical boundaries of our field. While rooted in examinations of historic missionary work and local inculturation, the papers in this session explore how the competition of Chinese national ideologies, often regarded in studies of China and Sinophone worlds as secular, can be genealogically and historically traced back to various Christian threads. In this way, the study of Chinese Christian histories can be seen to contribute to the examination of national ideologies in China and beyond. Topics that the papers in this session explore include Chinese communist theologies, 'Cold War Christian Chineseness' in the thought of Y.T. Wu, the influence of Margaret Barber on Watchman Nee, and the appropriation of Christian Reconstructionism among urban elite Christians in China.
This session brings together five papers exploring 20th and 21st century Chinese religions at the "intersections" where different forms of practice (unofficial and state-sanctioned, religious and non-religious, traditional and modern, for instance) meet.
In this roundtable, a group of scholars who have collaboratively compiled a sourcebook of new critical translations of works relating to women in Chinese religions will speak about their forthcoming work, its contribution to the field, and its applications in the university classroom. Tentatively titled Teaching Women in Chinese Religions , the work focuses on women’s life-stages and how religious practices and rituals shaped norms around female identity and bodies. With chapters on roles like daughter, wife, mother and non-mother (nuns and shamans), and life-stages like girlhood, marriage, and widowhood, the book contributes to filling a critical gap in the diversity of teachable texts about women’s religious lives in Chinese history and culture. The panel aims to introduce the themes of this work, give audience members practical approaches to using its contents in the classroom, and create a forum for open discussion of best practices for teaching religion, gender, and literature.
As do humans, Buddhist agents, materials, traditions and practices migrate. Between ethnic groups, crossing borders and travel overseas. This round table engages in a critical investigation of theory and research methods in the study of the migration of Buddhism in relation to contemporary Chinese societies. By coming together and sharing different approaches the panelists in this roundtable will reflect on the richness and complexity of this broad topic. In this session, Buddhism is treated broadly and inclusively, and looking at Chinese societies in their multiplicity.
By coining the term “gendered dilemma,” the panel investigates the situations with the presence of multiple gender norms, leading to inconsistencies and contradictions, consequently forging a new set of power/knowledge regimes. The dilemma surrounding sexual constructs, the concept of lust, and visions configures a rich multivocality in response to the tension and reconciliation emerging from the clash between the Buddhist and pre-established socio-cultural gender norms. Three papers in this panel seek to broaden the historical scope, spanning a transformative period of Buddhism from the late second to the eleventh century, presenting an examination of the “gendered dilemma” by textual comparison and analysis of early Chinese Buddhist sūtras with Confucian classical texts, a discourse analysis of gender convertibility in Mahāyāna sūtra narratives, and art historical analysis of female agency in possessing visuality in Northern-Song scriptures.
This roundtable brings together scholars working on a wide range of materials, cultures and periods to discuss the body and technologies of reproduction. The reproductive body is the site and technology of much religious and spiritual practice in East and South Asia. Narratives of embryology—whether physiological and saṃsāric or spiritual and transcendent—inform such practices. Bodily practices are often understood in relation to reproduction and may directly impact procreation. This roundtable focuses on how the reproductive body informs religious practice and narratives of bodily procreation. The roundtable features contributions on the placenta as the source of mortality in Shangqing Daoism, embryogenesis narratives in Epic and Purāṇic literature, the Daoist body as a self-contained site of asexual reproduction, the Indian alchemical *Rasaratnākara* on embryo development and procreation, spiritual embryology in haṭha yoga, embryology and cosmology in Chinese female alchemy, and childlessness and ontogenesis in Bengali (Baul) songs of *sādhanā*.
Given that a core foundation for Christian spirituality and spirituality in general is the human capacity for self-consciousness and the concept of slow knowing (lectio / visio divina) and given that designers of artificial intelligence are working towards greater capacity for “AI self-awareness” and speed in knowing, what do we conceive as the future interaction between AI and Spirituality? AI’s potential contribution to spirituality, morality, contemplative practices, and prayer are engaged in this session.
This session examines the interplay between Christian spirituality, ecological discourse, and the contemplative facets inherent within religious belief and practice. Drawing upon a diverse array of theological paradigms, these papers center on deliberative engagements concerning the urgent need of creation stewardship and the call for Christians to assume custodial roles in the preservation of the Earth as an adjunct to spiritual praxis. Also considered is the emotive resonance elicited by instances of environmental degradation, fostering discourse on the ethical mandate for compassionate responses and proactive engagement with the vulnerability of our ecological home.
Diversity in Christian spirituality has been the norm since the ancient development of its practices, traditions, and prayer forms. Regretfully individuals and communities – living with or in the shadows of disability – historically have not been included in this diversity and even at times have been willfully rejected from it. This session aims to critically analyze from multiple perspectives the positive contributions of how persons living with disabilities have provided a deeper understanding of, and contributed to, the dynamics of spiritual and human growth.
The idea of ‘affordances’ is catching the imagination of a growing number of theologians. First proposed by psychologist James Gibson, the notion highlights how living beings perceive and draw upon their natural or designed environments in terms of what they offer or ‘afford.’ On our panel, theologians discuss how the notion of affordances allows us to rethink our work with texts and traditions, doctrines and communities, spaces and places, people and things. In discussion with one another and the audience, we explore new avenues of thought, pitfalls and potentials.
Panelists will discuss Judith Wolfe's The Theological Imagination: Perception and Interpretation in Life, Art, and Faith (Cambridge University Press, 2024), followed by a response from the author.
In The Disabled God Revisited: Trinity, Eschatology, and Liberation (T&T Clark 2023), Lisa Powell offers a constructive critique of and elaboration upon Nancy Eiesland's seminal text The Disabled God: Toward a Liberatory Theology of Disability (Abingdon Press 1994). At the heart of Powell's proposal is a portrait of the Trinity that emphasizes God's deep solidarity with creation, the marginalized, and the disabled. As she sketches this portrait, Powell brings disability and liberation theologies together with an unlikely conversation partner - Barth studies. The result is an account of divine origins that includes vulnerability, care, and interdependence. This panel is an appreciative interrogation of Powell's book, examining it from numerous theological perspectives. Powell will be present to engage the panelists and the audience in conversation.
This panel offers alternative ecological paradigms and social movements that intersect with environmental activism across cultural and religious landscapes. The first paper introduces the concept of maroon ecologies, highlighting their resistance against property-driven conceptions of freedom and relevance for alternative socialities in neoliberal capitalism. The second paper examines the interplay between labor, faith, and land reform in El Salvador, emphasizing the role of liberative Christian visions to foster solidarity and cooperative engagement with the environment. The third paper focuses on Kallen Pokkudan, the 'mangrove man' of Kerala, analyzing his ecological activism through new materialist theory and addressing the challenges faced by the Dalit Pulaya community. The editors of "Liberating People, Planet, and Religion '' connect the discussion to Christianity's ability to challenge exploitative capitalism and promote ecological and economic justice for the flourishing of all beings. Together, these papers offer critical insights into environmental activism, faith-based solidarity, Dalit identity, and religion’s potential for social transformation.
This panel explores cutting-edge scholarship using current cognitive theories applied research to the study of religion, religions, or religious-related phenomena. It is intentionally broad on scope, focusing on the most-recent and novel applications of CSR.
Approaches to formalize CCC include neuroimaging studies, computational modeling, phenomenological analysis, and ethnographic research. Each approach aims to identify cognitive capabilities involved, understand cultural influences, and integrate findings into a biocultural theory of CCC. The proposed panel, comprising diverse studies on demonic presences, tulpamancy, alien encounters, and shamanic guides, seeks to synthesize these insights. It aims to delineate variations in experiences and their underlying neurocognitive mechanisms while considering cultural dynamics. The panel also intends to engage in discussions with attendees, potentially leading to a collaborative book on a comprehensive theory of CCC phenomena.
This panel examines noncanonical and paracanonical genres to highlight the ways karmic thinking is embedded in three different social contexts. First, against the backdrop of the Yuan Mongol court’s demotion of Confucian literati and elevation of Buddhist monks, Confucian dramatists promoted Confucian family moral responsibility through the use ofBuddhist karma in both individual and collective terms as a transformative force for the entire family. Secondly, Ming literati argumentation on whether a monk could finish a blood-copy of the Huayan Sutra through three successive reincarnations reveals how late Ming literati conceived of karma and reincarnation. And finally, the third historical case examines sponsorship of the printing and distribution of the Yongle Northern Canon as a means to generate merit for one’s own future rebirths, consolidate power, and support Buddhist monastic institutions. Our discussant will juxtapose these noncanonical understandings with those of Buddhist canonical theories of karma, particularly Yogacara.
