In-person November Annual Meeting 2025 Program Book

Mohamed Meziane’s States of the Earth attends to the materiality of the phenomenon we’ve come to call “secularism.” Far from just a set of beliefs, orientations, or even behaviors, secularism performs literally dirt-y work, unearthing the treasures of Earth in the name of industrial paradise. Material as this work undoubtedly is, Meziane suggests it is framed by a cosmo-theological revolution. Cosmologically, the heavens are “sacrificed” or “dissolved” in favor of an increasingly disemboweled Earth. Theologically, the sovereign is (both numerically and geographically) fragmented and disseminated.

In appreciation of the author’s cosmotheomaterial account of the secular, this response turns to the recent techno-industrial recreation of human efforts in space. How might we understand the increasingly entrepreneurial storming of the “dissolved” heavens? As self-professed saviors design extra-terrestrial colonies built from lunar and asteroidal mines, are we witnessing an extension, transformation, or reversal of the secular-etractive paradigm? What do we make of the abandonment of heaven for Earth as the techno-prophets abandon Earth for the heavens?

In The States of the Earth, Mohamed Amer Meziane contends that “Secularization is not the decline of religion but the birth of a new climatic order” (xiv). Using Sylvia Wynter, I trace how antiblackness is a precursor to processes of secularization as well as that which organizes not a “new climatic order,” but an enduring Christian medieval geographic order that renders black spaces climatic to extract from the earth. Weathering black spaces unveils the “energic” function of black fungibility (Hartman 1997) in which blackness functions as an open state of energy which can be converted from one form to another (Lethabo King 2019). Black energic fungibility subjects black bodies to forms of extraction (Williams 1995) but also reveals possibilities for black life to transform and maneuver beyond “states of the earth.” Attention to the construction of blackness reveals a different story and emphasis on secularization, imperiality, energy extraction, and climate.

Meziane’s magisterial The States of the Earth ends with a somewhat mysterious subterranean provocation.  “This work,” the final sentences read, “…calls for another…work that doubles its lines by its subterranean presence, a presence irreducible to that of the fossil states of the earth.”  If the Secularocene and the “sacrifice of heaven” “overturn[ed] the earth” through the colonial dissemination of empire, as Meziane insists, then what was exposed when the earth was turned over?  While drill bits penetrate the depths of the earth to fuel modernity, no one has traveled to these realms of intense pressure and temperature.  If the heavens were “sacrificed” as a realm of divine difference, becoming instead a material realm that mortals could investigate and (eventually) travel to, then the same sacrifice has yet to occur for the realms below the earth.  Even as speculation on the heavens continues to bring science close to religion, as Mary-Jane Rubenstein has suggested, speculation on the realms below the earth has received no comparable scientific/religious rituals.  -cont-

One indelible mark of this era for fossil states was the confounding “problem” of Islam, which seemed to confound the disciplinary techniques of secularism—that is until the fateful fall of the Ottoman Empire in 1920. For John R. Mott, this combined with the discovery of oil in Persia (with the assistance of U.S. missionaries) and the larger crashing of the industrial West into “the Moslem world” signaled a Muslim downfall and an opportunity for “Protestant Powers” to finally remake the world. Meziane, too, has his finger on the pulse of 19th century Orientalism and the role of fossil fuel in the acceleration of 19th century imperialism. But rather than my Protestant, mainly Anglophone archives, Meziane offers an Arab/North African perspective on the colonial dimensions of the Anthropocene. 

This paper examines the bahbsang—the Korean kitchen table—as a sacred cultural site where Korean and Korean American women navigate identity, spirituality, and heritage while resisting diasporic racism and sexism. Grounded in Song Nam Soon’s conceptualization of bahb (rice) as essential to Korean diasporic life, the bahbsang transcends mere nourishment to serve as a critical locus for cultural continuity, resistance, and transformation. Historically contextualizing the bahbsang, the study highlights Korean Christian grandmothers’ negotiation of patriarchal and Confucian norms through culinary practices encapsulated in sonmat, a repository of emotional and embodied wisdom. Extending into contemporary diasporic realities, it explores evolving culinary rituals, including honbap, as forms of personal empowerment and collective resilience. Ultimately, the paper reconceptualizes the bahbsang as a dynamic feminist theological space, framing everyday culinary labor as powerful, sacred acts that affirm women’s authority, agency, and integral roles in shaping cultural and theological discourse.

Culinary heritage disputes, such as the Indonesia-Malaysia rendang controversy, illustrate how cuisine becomes entangled with political economic interests. Dubbed as gastropolitics, such conflicts often involve accusations of theft. Nation-states quarrel over the right to claim the dish as their national cuisine and leverage it to bolster nationalism and augment tourism for economic gain. This presentation critiques the racial capitalist logic underlying gastropolitics, where modern nation-states assert ownership over cultural heritage that oftentimes are older than the nation-states themselves. Against this framework, I propose understanding cuisine through the lens of cultural commons, as conceptualized, among others, by Elinor Ostrom, Charlotte Hess, and Christian Barrere. Cultural commons emphasize communal management, shared stewardship, and dynamic evolution. As an alternative political economy, it moves beyond rigid notions of national ownership. By reframing cuisine as a collectively sustained and evolving heritage, this approach fosters a more inclusive and equitable recognition of culinary traditions, acknowledging the contributions of diverse communities beyond national boundaries.

Not Yet Uhuru: The Colonised South Africa Plate: Meat holds profound cultural significance in South Africa, symbolising community, status, and tradition. The “braai (barbecue) is celebrated as a unifying national ritual” in the post-apartheid era, transcending racial and class divisions as people gather around the grill. In seeking solutions to reduce meat consumption, we must review all aspects of our lives, including our relationship with food. However, this effort requires recognising and acknowledging the role of South Africa’s National Braai Day, which this paper argues is exploited by corporate South Africa to position meat consumption as central to the South African plate. This, in turn, reinforces the narrative of daily meat consumption as a component of the cultural heritage of Black South Africans prior to colonisation.

This paper aims to examine the idea of ​​a ‘great free man’ presented by Seon Master Daehaeng, which focuses on the realization of human nature, interconnectedness, and development of the society. Daehaeng spoke of the freedom to pursue the inherent nature of all people, to empathize and be compassionate with each other as interconnected beings, and to make progress in society by utilizing inner wisdom; to let go of self-centered mind is an essential method of practice in daily life. The paper also explains our direct experiences through counseling with the most unfree prisoners, including death row inmates and life sentences for years, from the perspective of the true human dignity and the transforming power of compassion. It illuminates that true individual freedom and happiness are directly connected to others and society, and that everyone has the inherent freedom to cultivate inner wisdom and compassion to contribute to humanity.

L'Encyclopédie, published in France between 1751 and 1772, is a monumental 35-volume work compiled by Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d'Alembert, key figures of the French Enlightenment. Diderot’s entry on Philosophie des Chinois offers a rare Enlightenment perspective on East Asian thought, yet it presents challenges in translation, particularly in its distorted rendering of Chinese names, terms, and references. Our talk critically examines these difficulties and explores how Diderot’s work contributes to the legacy of Eurocentric Enlightenment perspectives on non-Western traditions. Central to our discussion is the paradox of freedom—while the Enlightenment championed liberty and knowledge, it remained constrained by its own cultural biases. Diderot’s engagement with Chinese philosophy reflects this tension, revealing both an expansion of intellectual horizons and the persistence of Western epistemological frameworks. We thus consider how Enlightenment freedom both enabled and restricted ways of knowing across cultural boundaries.

This study examines how, despite the achievements of women’s liberation in Korean society, confrontational feminism has paradoxically reinforced patriarchal sexist codes. It critically analyzes the gendered ontological and epistemological foundations of the liberal humanist subject, inherited by confrontational feminism and proposes an alternative feminine subject marginalized by both patriarchy and feminism. Engaging with the Presidential theme, it interrogates the liberal humanist notion of freedom, presenting instead a subversive conception of it rooted in our feminine subjectivity, i.e., freedom from–not of–the ego. Central to this discussion is salim, a Korean homonym meaning household labor and “life-giving.” Drawing from Laozi, Nietzsche, Levinas, Deleuze, and Byung-Chul Han, this study will explore how their ideas mutually enrich one another, ultimately conceptualizing salim, in a multifaceted way, as a model of postmodern feminine subjectivity—the Salimist. Finally, the works of Korean female artists will be analyzed as aesthetic manifestations of the Salimist.

Religious conversion is a deeply personal and transformative process that encompasses cognitive shifts, mystical experiences, and intellectual awakenings. The Urantia Book fosters unique conversion experiences, often occurring outside institutional religious frameworks, through self-guided engagement with its teachings. This paper applies phenomenology, psychology of religion, and AI-based pedagogy to examine how individuals experience Urantia-based spiritual transformation. Drawing on William James’ The Varieties of Religious Experience and James Fowler’s Stages of Faith, the study explores the psychological and developmental aspects of these conversions. Additionally, the paper investigates the role of artificial intelligence in mediating religious engagement through algorithmic exposure, AI-guided theological discussions, and adaptive learning systems. By integrating personal narratives, cognitive analysis, and technological mediation, this paper provides a multidimensional approach to religious conversion, contributing to broader discussions on faith development, digital spirituality, and the evolving relationship between AI and transformative belief systems.

Although the current academic discussion on religious conversion predominantly considers conversion as a process, the number of empirical studies that explore the same converts in different points in time remains limited. Also, there is still little research on the asylum seekers’ conversions from Islam to Christianity following the so-called 2015 refugee crisis. This article provides a longitudinal perspective through revisiting the experiences of Iraqi forced migrants in Finland, first interviewed in 2017–2018 and then six years later in 2023–2024. While religious conversion has been defined in various ways in different academic fields, faith traditions and societal contexts, this study takes a data-driven approach and analyzes what conversion means in these data. The results show that conversion can signify different things to different individuals, as well as the same individuals at different times, providing perspectives useful to academia and societal actors dealing with religion and forced migration. 

In many Christian traditions, baptism is generally conferred on infants, who cannot consent to the sacrament. What happens if, as teenagers or adults, they later reject their initiation into Christian faith? This paper will reflect on the Debaptism Movement, which has been gaining popularity across the West in recent years. It will begin with a history of the movement, outline the ideologies, practices, and forms of community that draw nonbelievers together, and explore Christian responses. What can Christian communities learn from the beliefs and practices that undergird Debaptism, what do they reveal about the way Christians understand and live out their shared ecclesial life, and how might theologians seriously engage (a)theologies of baptism as they seek to dialogue with the modern, secular world?

Street shrines are an emerging phenomenon in Indian cities as they function well in and around urban public spaces, often along crossroads, roadsides, and highways. Positioned close to the road, street shrines serve both as religious sites for devotees and as spectacles for passersby. In this paper, I examine one such street shrine in Ahmedabad, India. Drawing on ethnographic findings from my preliminary fieldwork, I argue that street shrines create undetected and encrypted spaces—not as acts of resistance, but as byproducts of the city's rigorous planning of public spaces, in the form of what I claim as JUGAAD- a south asian phenomena which means creative and cheap use of second-hand products, in this case a byproduct space. To support my analysis, I engage with Michel de Certeau’s conception of everyday life, using it to examine the activities of shrine caretakers as tactical maneuvers, in contrast to those outside the shrine who, largely unaware of its intricacies, function as strategists. By conducting a micro-study of street shrines in Ahmedabad, this essay seeks to uncover the encrypted places within the public infrastructural developments in cities.

Under the leadership of Rev. Cecil Williams, Glide Memorial Methodist Church emerged as vibrant center for progressive social activism in San Francisco. Various radical social groups, from the Daughters of Bilitis to the Black Panthers, found a home at Glide, and Glide lent its theological and institutional support to such organizations’ work. Building on archival work with the Glide Historical Records, this paper considers Glide as a node within a larger network of radical social activism within the San Francisco Bay Area. This paper centers the early ministry of Rev. Cecil A. Williams and the connections he, and other religious leaders, built with Black Power activists such as Angela Davis and Bobby Seale, and argues that our understanding of radical American politics during the Black Power era must consider the role churches played in creating sanctuaries for the revolution.

This paper examines the religious roots of growtheology, a term which refers to the system of beliefs behind a civil religion that deifies economic growth and urban development. It also explores the opportunities for a Christian and generally religious resistance to the infinite pursuit of economic growth at the expense of people and planet under the banner of “degrowth” organizing. To this end, it turns to the city of Charlotte, North Carolina, the banking capital of the Bible Belt, to critically examine the theological beliefs behind the city manager’s proclamation in July 2024 that “cities are either growing or dying” (Sands 2024). It turns to grassroots anti-gentrification and environmental justice organizations across the Queen City to show how “degrowth” social movements perform prophetic or iconoclastic functions, critiquing the unequal benefits as well as the social and environmental costs of the city’s suburban and urban explosion.

New contexts appear for religious eschatological reflections. This presentation focuses on the transhumanist vision of Ray Kurzweil and compares it with the ecological eschatology of Bruno Latour. Kurzweil argues for a horizontal understanding of the future without divine interference, for a continuous negotiation between spatial and temporal aspects of the future, and for a continuation of the present into the future but mostly with an emphasis on non-materiality, i.e., mind-uploading. Latour shares the horizontal framework but focuses entirely on the spatial aspect since times already up for the planet’s ecological system, and he emphasizes continuity for the material world since the entanglement of the biosphere makes salvation without the ecosystem unintelligible. The comparison highlights some of the particular themes in transhumanism eschatology and informs new conversations on religious eschatological reflection in general.

In this paper I argue that theological understandings of human nature are a major component of people’s views of human enhancement technologies. After examining studies regarding public perception of human enhancement technologies and studies exploring public perceptions of evolution, I contend the primary difference in views from these studies is how invasive enhancement technologies are. The resistance to enhancements that could change human nature I believe is connected to a theological anthropology that is too anthropocentric, and an extension of the position that humans were created by God in their present form at least 10,000 years ago. In order to address emerging technology, theology needs to do more constructive work regarding human nature and how humanity could evolve into one or more species other than Homo sapiens, both through natural and technologically assisted means.

Purchasing advantage and merit is a frequent topic for both secular and theological ethicists.  Similar attention has been given to questions on the commodification of certain goods and the moral nature of blocked exchanges. Less common, however, is sustained consideration of the  moral nature of the market itself as it affects and effects the moral perception of the purchase.

Presenting biotechnological enhancements within a market framework allows the user, and the larger society, to ignore, deny, or circumvent the moral status of (1) the goods purchased and (2) the permissability of the action of purchase itself. Framing the enhancements as "options" and "choices" that are offered freely in the market square obscures the moral questions involved and diminishes the ability to recognize and address these questions. Differentiating between enhancement as "purchase" and enhancement as "action" provides a lens through which to examine the moral and ethical issues at stake.