All time are listed in Eastern Time Zone.
A diverse panel of Latino/a theologians and scholars of religion engage the latest work from Christopher D. Tirres, Liberating Spiritualities: Reimagining Faith in the Américas (Fordham University Press, 2025).
The AAR 2025 theme of freedom provides opportunity for the Ecclesial Practices Unit and the Latino/a Religion, Culture and Society to explore the emancipatory potential of autoethnography. As Gloria Anzaldúa’s autohistoria-teoría illustrates, self-historical writing provides critical, analytical, and spiritual insights to theorize experiences against broader sociocultural discourses. This session explores the conference theme of “freedom” by engaging the following questions:
The Lived Religion approach to religious studies emerged in the late 1990s out of the field of American religious history. It has sometimes been proffered as a modality of religious studies that attenuates the field’s imperial and civilizational biases, and has inspired work widely beyond its original Christian American purview, in Asian, Africana, and Latinx contexts.
This panel opens a retrospective on lived religion. We come together from diverse subfields to ask: What does it mean, and has it meant, to designate “life” to religion? What sorts of work have been availed by this approach? What sorts of work have been occluded? In what ways has lived religion contributed to a cultural reorientation of religious studies? What has it meant for the study of religion in America? What has it meant for the study of religions elsewhere? And what is the relation of the center and periphery?
The Lived Religion approach to religious studies emerged in the late 1990s out of the field of American religious history. It has sometimes been proffered as a modality of religious studies that attenuates the field’s imperial and civilizational biases, and has inspired work widely beyond its original Christian American purview, in Asian, Africana, and Latinx contexts.
This panel opens a retrospective on lived religion. We come together from diverse subfields to ask: What does it mean, and has it meant, to designate “life” to religion? What sorts of work have been availed by this approach? What sorts of work have been occluded? In what ways has lived religion contributed to a cultural reorientation of religious studies? What has it meant for the study of religion in America? What has it meant for the study of religions elsewhere? And what is the relation of the center and periphery?
Celebrating the tenth anniversary of the Chinese Christianities Unit, this Roundtable uses the recent three-volume set Modern Chinese Theologies as a starting point to discuss the growth and present construct of the field of Chinese Christianity through a theological lens. The panel explores how geographical, linguistic and historical experiences have shaped the parameters of research, as it discusses the division of Chinese theology and Christianity by ecclesial identities (mission denominations versus independent Chinese churches); by region or country; and by reception context (academic or church setting). Without foreclosing long-debated questions such as the relationship between denominational belonging and theological development, or socialism and Christianity, the panel will focus on two topics of much recent interest: the expansion of debate on Sinophone and diasporic theologies (and their contested nature), and recent trends in the mainland academic project of Sino-Christian theology.
Celebrating the tenth anniversary of the Chinese Christianities Unit, this Roundtable uses the recent three-volume set Modern Chinese Theologies as a starting point to discuss the growth and present construct of the field of Chinese Christianity through a theological lens. The panel explores how geographical, linguistic and historical experiences have shaped the parameters of research, as it discusses the division of Chinese theology and Christianity by ecclesial identities (mission denominations versus independent Chinese churches); by region or country; and by reception context (academic or church setting). Without foreclosing long-debated questions such as the relationship between denominational belonging and theological development, or socialism and Christianity, the panel will focus on two topics of much recent interest: the expansion of debate on Sinophone and diasporic theologies (and their contested nature), and recent trends in the mainland academic project of Sino-Christian theology.
This year our seminar investigates the role and meaning of language and its forms of expression—poetic foremost—in the sinographic sphere, where the Literary Sinitic Buddhist canon was used and shaped. In this second session, Jean Tsui's paper explores the Ming philosopher Wang Yangming's (1472-1529) invention of “song poems” and the implications of creating forms without content for his philosophical vision. Jiangnan Li's paper investigates how Song Emperor Taizong’s (r. 976–997) poetic compositions shape new religious meanings by blending Buddhist, Daoist, and Sinitic literary and musical forms. Laurie Patton's and Heather Blair's responses will bring our presenters' work into broader conversations on language and poiesis that this seminar has fostered, including last year’s discussion of poetics in early and medieval South Asia.
This paper examines the evolution of the Ming philosopher Wang Yangming’s 王陽明 (1472–1529) poetry and his invention of “song poems” (歌詩 geshi). Through examining the rhyming and stylistic features of Wang's invention of the “Singing Method Synchronizing the Nine Tones and the Four Seasons” (jiusheng siqi gefa 九聲四氣歌法), a compositional method that sacrificed literary refinement for musical consistency, the paper explores what it means for Wang Yangming to create poetic form without content, the implications of pursuing morality without a moral reference, and how Wang’s invention of the “song poem” aligns with, complicates, and potentially jeopardizes his philosophical vision.
This paper investigates the poiesis of language in Song Emperor Taizong’s 宋太宗 (r. 976–997) poetic compositions—Mizang quan 祕藏詮 (Explanation of the Secret Treasure) and Xiaoyao yong 逍遥詠 (Chants of the Unfettered)—completed around 988 and preserved in the Korean Buddhist Canon. Blending Buddhist gāthā, Daoist chant, and Sinitic poetic and commentarial forms, these works exemplify a syncretic style that allowed the emperor to shape new religious meanings through poetic expression. The texts’ flexible form, interlinear commentary, and rhetorical ambiguity enabled the integration of Buddhist, Daoist, and Confucian elements while advancing esoterism as a central theme. This paper argues that it was through the poiesis of language—the creative shaping of meaning via hybrid poetic form—that Taizong articulated his role as interpreter and harmonizer of the Three Teachings, utilizing poetry as a powerful medium of imperial ideology and religious synthesis.
This roundtable session focuses on two new books on religion and politics in France: Muslim and Catholic Experiences of National Belonging in France: Rethinking Boundaries, Inequities, and Faith in the Republic (Bloomsbury Academic 2024), by Carol Ferrara; and Fraternal Critique: The Politics of Muslim Community in France (Chicago, March 2025) by Kirsten Wesselhoeft. Together, these two works not only shed fresh light on recent French politics related to religion that receive scarce attention in anglophone discourse, but they each develop core central concepts – francité, for Ferrara, and fraternal critique, for Wesselhoeft – that have broad applicability for scholarly analysis of religious communities and the politics of belonging in multiracial postcolonial nation states. The interdisciplinary panel of discussants will open up the wider questions and interventions that come out of these two works taken together, and will underscore their impact for the study of religion in and beyond Europe.
This roundtable session focuses on two new books on religion and politics in France: Muslim and Catholic Experiences of National Belonging in France: Rethinking Boundaries, Inequities, and Faith in the Republic (Bloomsbury Academic 2024), by Carol Ferrara; and Fraternal Critique: The Politics of Muslim Community in France (Chicago, March 2025) by Kirsten Wesselhoeft. Together, these two works not only shed fresh light on recent French politics related to religion that receive scarce attention in anglophone discourse, but they each develop core central concepts – francité, for Ferrara, and fraternal critique, for Wesselhoeft – that have broad applicability for scholarly analysis of religious communities and the politics of belonging in multiracial postcolonial nation states. The interdisciplinary panel of discussants will open up the wider questions and interventions that come out of these two works taken together, and will underscore their impact for the study of religion in and beyond Europe.
These papers chart new directions in Quaker Studies in both content and method.
This paper will trace the development of Quaker argumentation over women's ministry as expounded in three Quaker tracts in the 1650s, by Richard Farnworth; Priscilla Cotton and Mary Cole; and George Fox. The first two feature a higher degree of spiritualization of the Apostle Paul's passages on gender and women's ministry, both making the argument that "women" should mean those who are "weak in the spirit," mostly male priests. Fox's tract balances support of women's prophesying with traditional views of women's submission to husbands. This paper considers the role that such differences likely played in the substantial divisions that developed among Quakers in England, most notably between George Fox on the one hand with his traditional views, and that of James Nayler and Martha Simmons on the other hand, as they enacted a Christological sign of Nayler's 1656 entry into Bristol, similar to Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem
This paper discusses the methodological framework and initial findings of the first-ever World Survey of Friends in 2024, which was conducted among the participants of the World Plenary held by the Friends World Committee for Consultation in 2024. The survey was run by Woodbrooke's Centre for Research in Quaker Studies, which has a 35-year track record in surveying Quakers in Britain, and it gathered responses of Quakers from across the world and the breadth of theological traditions. In that context, this paper compares the challenges of constructing a new, global and multilingual survey with those of administering a well-established survey within a single territory. I argue that the quantitative approach to such a survey has academic value but that it can be significantly enhanced when combined with qualitative comments and interviews detailing individual experiences.
Quaker women in Kenya express their faith through the “Kuhambiza itaya” (Lighting the lamp) ritual, symbolizing the Quaker belief in the inner light—the idea that everyone carries “that of God” within them. This ceremony celebrates women’s servant-leadership in socio-cultural and religious spheres, honoring their exemplary service and achievements within the Quaker church. Blending Quaker spirituality with African cultural traditions, the ritual uses modern artifacts like the lantern lamp to embody existential spirituality. This study explores how Kenyan Quaker women integrate Quaker existential spirituality with cultural practices through Kuhambiza itaya, highlighting the localization of a global religious tradition. Conducted in Western Kenya, where Quakerism has deep roots since 1902, the research employs field studies, interviews, focus group discussions, and participant observations. Grounded in Webster’s (2009) theory of existential spirituality, it examines how individuals derive meaning and purpose through relational experiences, offering insights into the ritual’s cultural and spiritual significance.
