Online Program Book


	A18-133 Religion and Economy Unit Theme: Systems, Circulation, and Management of Devotion and Dissent Saturday, 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM Grand Hyatt-Bonham D (3rd Floor) 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, University of Chicago 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 San Antonio Convention Center-Room 205 (Meeting Room Level) 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, Wesleyan University 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 San Antonio Convention Center-Room 214A (Meeting Room Level) 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, University of Notre Dame 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 San Antonio Convention Center-Room 301C (Ballroom Level) 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 San Antonio Convention Center-Room 220 - Cantilever (Meeting Room Level) Janet Soskice, Duke University, 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 San Antonio Convention Center-Room 302B (Ballroom Level) 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 Steel, 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. Business Meeting Di Di, Santa Clara University, Presiding Dusty Hoesly, University of California, Santa Barbara, Presiding
	A18-140 Theological Education Committee Theme: Committee Meeting Saturday, 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM Grand Hyatt-Goliad (Second Floor) 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 San Antonio Convention Center-Room 303A (Ballroom Level) 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, Georgetown University Business Meeting Abdul Rahman Mustafa, University of Paderborn, Presiding Linn Tonstad, Yale University, Presiding
	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 San Antonio Convention Center-Room 217B (Meeting Room Level) 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 San Antonio Convention Center-Room 303C (Ballroom Level) 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. 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.
	M18-105 National Association of Baptist Professors of Religion Theme: November Meeting Saturday, 9:00 AM - 11:30 AM Marriott Rivercenter-Grand Ballroom, Salon M We welcome Dr. Angela Tarango (Trinity University, San Antonio), who will give this year's Plenary Address. NABPR's current president, Dr. Alicia Myers (Campbell University), will give this year's Presidential Address.
	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 San Antonio Convention Center-Room 218 (Meeting Room Level) . 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 .
	M18-104 Society for Pentecostal Studies Theme: New Testament Explorations of the Spirit Saturday, 9:00 AM - 11:30 AM Marriott Rivercenter-Conference Room 1 Melissa Archer, Southeastern University, Presiding . Andreas-Christian Heidel, University of Bern Pneumatological Self-Confidence, Scriptural Interpretation, and the Making of Scripture in the Letter to the Hebrews Abstract . John Christopher Thomas, Pentecostal Theological Seminary and Bangor University Prophecy and Tongues in 1 Corinthians 14.1-40: A Pentecostal Reading Abstract .
	P18-106 Søren Kierkegaard Society Theme: Kierkegaard and the Sense of the Religious Saturday, 9:00 AM - 11:30 AM Marriott Rivercenter-Grand Ballroom, Salon K . Elizabeth Xiao-An Li, University of Copenhagen How Do You Read?': Textual Senses of the Religious in Kierkegaard Abstract . Joseph Westfall, Other Listening in/to Kierkegaard: Musicality and Repetition in Opera and the Religious Discourse Abstract . Elisabete M. de Sousa, University of Lisbon Biblical Characters as Paradigms of the Aesthetic-Religious in Kierkegaard's Upbuilding Discourses Abstract . Marcia C. Robinson, Syracuse University 'Out over 70,000 Fathoms' with the Lilies and the Birds: Kierkegaard's Sacred Sensuousness Abstract .
	P18-103 Adventist Society for Religious Studies Theme: Cosmic Conflict: Out of Date, Up to Date? - Sabbath Morning Services Saturday, 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM Westin-Navarro A 9:00 -9:20 Devotional (paper) From the Minutest Atom to the Greatest World: Worship David A. Williams 9:20 -10:35 Sabbath School panel discussion. Title: "Cosmic Conflict: Out of Date, Up to Date?" Implications for the Curriculum at an Adventist Institution of Higher Learning Sigve Tonstad, Presiding 10:35-10:45 Recognition of the contributors to the book "Resonate!" 10:50-11:00 Break 11:00-12:00 Sabbath Service "Cosmic Conflict" Dr. Daniel Duda, President, Trans-European Division of the Seventh-day Adventist Church
	P18-102 Bonhoeffer: Theology and Social Analysis Unit and Niebuhr Society Theme: The Revolutionary Gospel: Paul Lehmann, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and Reinhold Niebuhr in the Context of Union Theological Seminary Saturday, 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM Marriott Rivercenter-Grand Ballroom, Salon G Joshua Mauldin, Center of Theological Inquiry, Presiding This panel is occasioned by the publication of a collection of thirty-three essays, sermons, and contemporaneous addresses by Paul L. Lehmann, The Revolutionary Gospel: Paul Lehmann and the Direction of Theology Today, eds. Nancy Duff, Ry Siggelkow, Brandon Watson. An influential theological voice in his own right, during his years at Union Theological Seminary Lehmann was both a close friend of Dietrich Bonhoeffer and a student and friend of Reinhold Niebuhr. A longtime colleague of James Cone, and among the first American readers of Karl Barth, Lehmann's works were likewise written to address a particular context, influenced early liberation theologies throughout the world, and remain surprisingly relevant for today. In recognition of the publication of this set of essays, this panel explores the interaction of Lehmann with both Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Reinhold Niebuhr, in the context of Union Theological Seminary. Nancy J. Duff, Princeton Theological Seminary Why Paul Lehmann? An Introduction Abstract . Gary Dorrien, Union Theological Seminary Threads of Friendship and Theological Contention: Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Reinhold Niebuhr, and Paul Lehmann Abstract . Robin Lovin, Southern Methodist University Christian Realism and Beyond Abstract . Andrea C. White, Union Theological Seminary Strangers and Gates: Barth, Niebuhr, Cone and Lehmann Abstract . Philip G. Ziegler, University of Aberdeen God’s Philanthropy as the Context of Christian Theology and Ethics Abstract . Ry Siggelkow, United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities Those who begin with prudence never get to prophecy': Paul Lehmann's critique of ethics Abstract . Brandon Watson, University of Münster Toward Revolutionary Permanence: Convergence and Divergence in Paul Lehmann and James Cone Abstract .
	M18-103 Booth University College Theme: Salvation Army Scholars and Friends Annual Meeting Saturday, 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM Grand Hyatt-Mission A (Second Floor) Isaiah Allen, Booth University College, Presiding Sponsored by Booth University College (Winnipeg, Canada), this event features paper presentations on Salvation Army history and theology. Anyone interested in learning more about the scholarship being done on the organization is welcome to attend. Andy Miller III, Wesley Biblical Seminary The Eschatological Foundations of William Booth’s Ecclesiology Abstract . Erica Bowler, McGill University Affection and Aftercare: The Women’s Social Work in late 19th- and early 20th-century Britain Abstract . David Bundy, Nazarene Theological College, Manchester The Salvation Army in France: From Pariah to Cultural Icon Abstract . Andrew Eason, Booth University College The Salvation Army, Politics, and British India: An Appraisal Abstract .
	P18-105 Society for Buddhist-Christian Studies Theme: Celebrating Thich Nhat Hanh: His Influence on Inter-Religious Thought and Practices Saturday, 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM Marriott Rivercenter-Grand Ballroom, Salon ABF Sandra Costen Kunz, Trinity Theological Seminary, Ghana, Presiding . Julius-Kei Kato, King's College London Presentation 1 Abstract Roger Walsh’s concept “transconventional” religion emphasizes understanding religion and spirituality primarily as a practice or applied philosophy that can deliver enlightenment and bliss to those who undertake its practice without an emphasis on believing something like a creed. Such a viable “wisdom path” could be attractive and beneficial to people in our secular Western societies, whether they still identify as religious believers, or are part of groups that self-identify as “Spiritual but not Religious,” “Dones” (“I’m done with religion) or “Nones” (I belong to no religion”). This paper explores the example and teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh’s work in this light. Nhat Hanh who stated that his way to renew and refresh Buddhism is by making it simple and very practical in daily life which can be understood as a contemporary wisdom path or spirituality that can speak deeply to seekers in our secular age. Marc Handley Andrus, Grace Cathedral and the Episcopal Diocese of California Presentation 2 Abstract In 2014 Thich Nhat Hanh spoke about the shock he felt upon learning of Martin Luther King, Jr’s assassination. In that statement, Nhat Hanh said that he made a “deep vow” to continue what Martin called “the Beloved Community.” Thich Nhat Hanh first heard the term “Beloved Community,” and the related concept at a conference in Geneva, Switzerland, from King, in 1967. After relating the above I will outline how King’s Beloved Community compares to a Buddhist world view, exemplified in the Indra’s Net metaphor, held by Nhat Hanh. I will also cover the main contributions Nhat Hanh made to the understanding of the Beloved Community. Mathias Schneider, University of Munster Presentation 3 Abstract The Vietnamese monk, spiritual leader, and social activist Thich Nhat Hanh has been one of the most influential contemporary Buddhist protagonists and a famous interpreter of the Christian tradition. However, from both Buddhist and Christian camps, he has been criticized as a shallow popularizer of Buddhism and a simplistic harmonizer in dialogue. In this paper, I will argue that Thich Nhat Hanh was an innovative Buddhist thinker in his own right who integrated Christianity in his global vision of mindful living. Deeply rooted in important strands of East Asian Buddhist traditions, he presented both innovative and challenging reinterpretations of central Christian doctrines such as Christology and Pneumatology. In this way, Thich Nhat Hanh’s work can be appreciated as a lasting contribution to Buddhist-Christian dialogue. Victor Thasiah, California Lutheran University Presentation 4 Abstract Environmental justice work both considers and addresses the historical and ongoing, disproportionate, negative impacts of climate disruption and environmental degradation on human and natural communities least responsible. The last book Thich Nhat Hanh (TNH) published before his death, Zen and the Art of Saving the Planet, represents his most comprehensive engagement with these issues. This paper will explore the possibilities and limitations of TNH’s perspective and practice for environmental justice studies and activism. Mobi Warren, Independent Scholar Presentation 5 Abstract For Thich Nhat Hanh, a poet and Zen calligrapher, every act no matter how simple or mundane was an act of spiritual art—an embodiment of ritual and a living expression of interbeing. Creative arts were woven into his daily life and teaching. He encouraged practitioners, people from diverse traditions drawn to the simplicity of his teaching, to engage in creative work, to deepen awareness by writing poems and composing songs, to draw and dance. Art-making in his teaching is a path to Awakening, and an act of Awakening itself. It is also an essential and powerful practice to plant seeds of peace wherever there is conflict, war, environmental degradation, and oppression.
	P18-104 Society for the Study of Christian Spirituality Theme: Presidential Address and Annual Meeting Saturday, 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM Hilton Palacio Del Rio-The Stetson (The Pavilion by Hilton) 2023 Presidential Address: Dr. Bo Karen Lee, Princeton University, "Body and Imagination: Healing Trauma through Ignatian Meditation and Bio-Spiritual Focusing.” 9:00 AM-10:15 AM. Annual Meeting: Dr. Michael O'Sullivan, S.J., Co-Founder and Executive Director of Spirituality Institute for Research and Education (SpIRE), Presiding 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM. All are welcome. For more information on the Society and its events, please visithttps://sscs.press.jhu.edu/; please send additional questions to Dr. Rachel Wheeler, Secretary, at wheelerr@up.edu.
	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 San Antonio Convention Center-Room 217C (Meeting Room Level) 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

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