In-person November Annual Meeting 2025 Program Book

Mysticism is often associated with inner liberation from the prison of the confined self into union with the Divine. But how does that liberation work in times of political persecution and repressive authority? This paper explores this question by focusing on two Eastern Orthodox mystics, St. Matrona (d. 1952) and starets (elder) Nikolai Guryanov (d. 2002), who operated in the aggressively modernizing, scientized and anti-religious, context of 20th century Soviet Russia. Drawing on content analysis of their biographies and the concept of “mystical consciousness,” this paper unpacks the patterns by which St Matrona and Father Nikolai dealt with Soviet authorities to continue their trajectories of liberation. These include being “lost” in a city or a small island, acting as (holy) fools, using mystical visions and prayers, and relying on as well as liberating others. These can be seen as elements of a mystical consciousness they cultivated in themselves and others.

The Cambridge-educated Indian nationalist and mystic Aurobindo Ghose, later Sri Aurobindo, was heavily involved throughout his life in the cause of Indian independence from British colonial rule. Early on, this took the form of impassioned literary argument in the pages of self-published periodicals like Bande Mataram and the Karmayogin, where he couched his political arguments in the language of Indian spiritual and cultural renewal. Following several pivotal mystical experiences, his attention shifted toward his own yogic practice, framed by an evolutionary esotericist metaphysics of cosmic transformation into divinity. He understood Indian independence, and, during WWII, the victory of the Allied forces, as key developments in this process, and focused his own mystical practice on achieving these ends. From his meditative perch in Pondicherry, India, Aurobindo and his partner, Mirra Alfassa, engaged in psychic battle against the Axis forces and worked to influence the “play of forces” supportive of Indian independence. 

This paper examines the mystical dimensions of Nancy Eiesland’s The Disabled God, positioning her as both a revolutionary and a traditional mystic deeply influenced by Latin American liberation theology. While mysticism is often characterized by solitary, direct communion with the divine, liberation theologians have redefined it as an experience of God within the context of communal commitment and social transformation. Eiesland’s work embodies this integration, demonstrating that her mystical engagement is not separate from her political activism but is, in fact, deeply intertwined with it. By drawing on liberation theology, this paper situates The Disabled God within a mystical tradition that challenges power from the margins and offers alternative ways of perceiving and relating to the divine.

For many Americans, a world without prisons cannot be fathomed. Joshua Dubler and Vincent Lloyd have argued that punishment has been almost inextricably tied to justice in our collective imagination, making it hard to comprehend a justice system that is rooted in anything other than punitive measures (Dubler & Lloyd 2020). I believe this has a deeper effect on American consciousness around abolition – because the carceral logic is so deeply imbedded, abolitionist discourses seem illogical and therefore inconceivable to many. 

In this presentation, I argue that prison abolition movements can gain much from using mystical modes of rhetoric to allow readers to imagine the world anew. While respecting the rational, clear-sighted moral arguments for abolition from Angela Davis, Ruth Gilmore Wilson, Mariame Kaba, and others, I follow Malcolm X’s directive to achieve liberation “by any means necessary” and present a new mode of communication to the abolitionist discourse: the mystical.

“Were the Spirits Silent or Silenced?” argues for the return of the spirits to the study of Black Spiritualism. It proposes that secular progress narratives (which emphasize political liberation above other spiritual outcomes) have so dominated the field of Religious Studies that studies of Black Spiritualism are bereft of the spirits themselves. This analysis of extant literature recontextualizes and retheorizes the current relationship of the field to the gods, the spirits, and other more-than-human entities. Religion, particularly Black Spiritualism, can be about power while also not necessarily being about empowerment. It is about the power to heal (or to harm) and the power to communicate with those that have passed on. It is rarely about personal empowerment or an exercise in someone “finding their voice.” This paper explores the methodological implications of recognizing our “braided-ness” with the more-than-human while envisioning a future for the study of spirits.

The rise of plant intelligence is both an epistemic and ethical event, revealing the contradictions of an age that has wielded knowledge in pursuit of mastery over nature—only to find that human mastery now demands its own undoing. Prominent botanists argue that recognizing plant intelligence requires reforming the scientific method, surpassing its limits to grasp cognition beyond the human. But this assumes that knowledge takes root in an antecedent ground revealed once we get our methods right. Drawing on pragmatist readings of Hegel, I argue that knowledge is instead rooted in the shifting criteria of historical authority, which change as thought’s boundaries are redrawn. Thought takes root not in fixed foundations, in other words, but in justification’s provisional grounds. The recent emergence of plant intelligence thus marks not just an expansion of knowledge but a reckoning with human mastery as the criteria justifying our domination of nature shift beneath us. 

Situating human freedom and agency within the context of more-than-human forms of freedom and agency can correct false understandings of freedom as independence. The possibility of complex forms of freedom is predicated on the prior existence of simpler forms of freedom and carry with them heightened modes of interdependence and vulnerability.  Recognition of the dialectic of freedom and dependency can correct human exceptionalism without obscuring the distinctive forms of freedom and agency that are possible for language-using animals.  This paper develops such an account in dialogue with the philosophical anthropology of Helmut Plessner, Hans Jonas’s notion of “needful freedom,” and contemporary philosopher of biology Evan Thompson’s understanding of the autopoietic character of living organisms in constant exchange with their surroundings. 

The underworld, as a mythical space in western culture, has often been associated with fear, horror, or damnation. It hasn’t typically been a space of desire: it’s not the sort of place that people dream of ending up. And yet, something has been changing in the underworld. The work of scientists—ecologists, foresters, mycologists—is revealing an underworld that is more alive, and more life-giving, than the underworld of western histories. Is this new underworld becoming a zone of salvation, rather than damnation? Or is the chill of horror in the underworld something we just can’t shake? This paper offers an experiment in plant, and fungal, thinking in order to explore—in conversation with roots, dirt, and mycorrhizal networks—the intimacies between life and death, beauty and horror, or possibility and closure that underworlds may have always (and may continue) to confront us with. 

At the margins of Islamic orthodoxy in the 9th century, an esoteric philosophical society, the Ikhwān al-Ṣafā’ (Brethren of Purity), engaged the public in a utopian and equitable vision of collective life. Within their renowned encyclopedic treatise, Epistle 22: The Case of the Animals versus Man occupies a special place. This paper identifies three registers of critique within the animals’ grievances and humanity’s defense of its assumed superiority: anthropocentrism, logocentrism, and ethnocentrism. By integrating these critiques with the Quranic notions of Mīzān (balance), Khalīfah (lieutenancy), and Amānah (trust), this paper explores how this allegorical fable reveals the link between ecological injustices and unjust social imaginaries. The successors of the Ikhwān, the contemporary Ismailis, have continued this tradition of environmental stewardship. This paper maps the shared moral imperatives espoused by the Brethren onto the mission of the Aga Khan Development Network, an institution that has mobilized global efforts against climate crises.

This presentation seeks to extrapolate data and trends relating to the esoteric book trade in Britain during the latter half of the Twentieth Century via a close examination of the notebooks of Doreen Valiente. The data presented can shed light on esoteric bookselling in general as well as on the early development of Wicca more specifically, considering Valiente's important contributions to the religion during its first decades. The notebooks reveal what books Valiente sought and purchased, the bookshops she frequented in Brighton, London and Glastonbury, and even – on occasion – the topics of the conversations and gossip she exchanged with or about the proprietors. An analysis of this data – as well as supporting materials in the form of letters to/from relevant booksellers – can serve to illustrate the role of the esoteric bookshop in the production and distribution of 'Rejected Knowledge' within the occult – and more specifically, Wiccan – milieus during the period.

Appalachia has struggled under a spell of disenchantment cast by books such as J.D. Vance's Hillbilly Elegy. New works of speculative fiction resist this critique by social elites, re-enchanting Appalachian landscapes and people through Pagan themes of nature spirituality, fey beings, and magic. We will look at two novels and a serialized horror podcast to examine the important role of speculative fiction in re-enchanting both landscape and regional identity in a Pagan mode.

The landscape of politics in the U.S. and around the globe is fraught with anxiety, distress, and suffering. What role can pastoral/spiritual care play in dealing with the resulting violence and political trauma? An important method to address these highly-activating times is a turn to embodiment. As Bessel Van der Kolk and other trauma theorists remind us, our bodies literally “keep the score” of the pains and traumas in our lives. Bodies are always communicating, even without conscious awareness. In pastoral/spiritual care, feminist, womanist and intercultural scholars of pastoral care have emphasized the importance of attention to embodiment in healing, notably in the healing from trauma. Yet embodied praxis requires more attention to be integrated in the field. This paper explores the components of a body-centered approach to pastoral/spiritual care, including attention to embodied compassion, body psychotherapy, and spiritual practices that center embodiment. 

In an era marked by political polarization and competing narratives of truth, this paper examines how humour in prophetic preaching cultivates cognitive virtues essential for critical engagement with unjust systems. In this paper I argue that Jesus’ use of hyperbole, irony, and satire in the Synoptic Gospels models cognitive virtues such as pattern recognition, error detection, and intellectual humility—skills that empower congregants to interrogate dominant narratives and envision transformative alternatives. Integrating Walter Brueggemann’s prophetic imagination and Steven Gimbel’s Cleverness Theory, this study demonstrates how humour disrupts oppressive ideologies and equips communities to evaluate political rhetoric and misinformation. Addressing the AAR’s 2025 theme of “Freedom,” this work offers a homiletic method grounded in biblical exegesis, positioning humour as a pedagogical tool for fostering cognitive agility and resistance to authoritarian epistemologies.

This paper will examine the limits and distortions of how preachers deal with political tensions and division circumstances in preaching, particularly in matters related to rising right-wing extremism and Christian nationalism in the South Korean context, and suggest a new homiletical method and direction to respond to the challenges and desire of justice, truth, reconciliation, and freedom.

This study analyzes the anti-democratic conflicts of South Korea, particularly focusing on the political injustice emerging from the alliance between conservative political forces and extreme right-wing Christianity. It examines the sermons of key pastors who lead and mobilize right-wing Christian groups, as well as those of major church pastors who are impotent in the current situation. Through this analysis, the study seeks to uncover the underlying problematic structures within these sermons. Finally, it explores the directions and theological discourse necessary for sermons that respond to political suffering and suggests practical structural forms for such preaching.

The recent landscape of politics in the United States has further marginalized communities that were already vulnerable based on their identities. One notable example is the significant increase in hate crimes targeting the Asian American community in the United States following the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper aims to explore the empirical question of how specifically Korean American women pastors approached preaching and providing pastoral care following such acts of hate crimes against Asian Americans. The research will draw from a range of seven to ten preliminary interviews with Korean American women pastors to investigate how having Korean American women leaders ultimately helps shape the theological and political subjectivities of their congregants. The new findings of this work will provide a deeper understanding of the dynamic between Korean American women pastors and their congregants, which then can help churches develop new strategies to empower and motivate their community towards civic action.

Title: Practical Theology in Politically Fraught Times: A Transformational Response to Christian Nationalism and White Nationalism

Abstract The contemporary political landscape, marked by increasing ideological polarization, Christian Nationalism, and the erosion of democratic institutions, necessitates a robust engagement from practical theology. This paper explores how practical theology can offer prophetic critiques of unjust political systems through the lens of Transformational Leadership. Using the Four I’s of Transformational Leadership—Idealized Influence, Inspirational Motivation, Intellectual Stimulation, and Individualized Consideration—this study examines the work of ecclesial leaders such as Episcopal Bishop Mariann Budde and Human Rights activist Bishop William Barber as prophetic voices against the rise of Christian Nationalism and White Nationalism in America.

With the vast increase in the phenomenon of eco-anxiety (Hickman et al., 2021) as a result of human-induced climate change, many people are seeking to reconnect with the Earth in sustainable and loving ways. Rooting oneself in nature offers psychological and spiritual benefits, and a garden is a place where people can connect with one another, with nature, and with God. This paper offers practical theological insights from the praxis of spiritual gardening with kids as a transformative location for pastoral care. Drawing on a case study, and integrating multidisciplinary research from psychology, children’s spirituality, and religious education, this paper considers three concrete pastoral care practices that can take place in a garden to help children cope with eco-anxiety.

In this paper I take seriously the need, at times, for dissemblance, but argue that telling, or disclosing, is also an act profoundly concerned with black futures. I explore the relationship between disclosure and place-making through the lens of Black women's writing. I argue that being in diaspora requires reckoning with the idea of place, even when one has been sold, stolen, or fled from their original home. I draw on Jennifer Nash's characterization of Black feminist theory-voice as "affectively saturated," "deliberately revelatory," and grappling with the ethics of disclosure. Using these categories, I consider how the work of Audre Lorde, the Black lesbian feminist poet warrior, does the work of telling and making place. Ultimately, I suggest that tellings, or the act of speaking one's truth, are spiritual work that create the space for struggle and pave the way for future(s). 

This paper examines Brazilian artist Castiel Vitorino Brasileiro’s 2023 installation which combined bricks, eucalyptus trees, earth, tarp, and basins to create a “Fictitious Museum of Objects Stolen by the Police.” Drawing on Tavia Nyong’o’s theories of “afro-fabulation” and “queer and trans aesthetics,” I argue Brasileiro’s work is an afro-fabulation—invoking the technology of the museum to work both with and against it. The installation not only “fabricat[ed] new genres of the human out of the fabulous, formless darkness of an anti-black world.” It called into question the human altogether, drawing on Umbanda and other Afro-Brazilian religions to insist on the memory and soul of objects, invoking both the history and agency of Afro-Brazilian religious materials confiscated by police. Saturating her museum with Umbanda theology, Brasileiro responded to the secular force of the museum with counter-theology, pursuing cosmological alternatives to address historical violence, dissolve difference, and access spiraled forms of time.

At the heart of this essay lies a critique of the economy of salvation through the three-time sale and re-sale of a six-year-old Black enslaved girl in mid-1800s Tennessee. While her bill of sale conflates “sound” with her capacity to possess the mental and physical faculties needed to produce capital, each slave sales her in the discovery of her refusal to speak. This refusal unsettles the presumed transparency between Black flesh and its assigned economic and social value, revealing the limits of biological legibility under racial capitalism. The line of inquiry proceeding the conclusion that “she was absolutely an idiot and of no value” questions the function of speculative value and how the act of exchange, confirmed by ocular-centric fantasy, qualifies the public conversion of unsound flesh into speech. By further investigating why the forced translation of the commodity is salvific, this paper engages Black exchangeability as a ritual of perception that deifies gender as biologically sovereign. 

Who “owns” mosques in Türkiye is a layered question, particularly regarding women’s varied roles and experiences. While mosque architecture often reflects male-centered frameworks, women’s relationships with these spaces are not uniform. Some see mosques as central to worship and social engagement; others avoid them for cultural or personal reasons. KADEM’s “Camiler Hepimizin” (“Mosques Belong to All of Us”) project evaluates “women-friendly” features quantitatively but does not capture women’s subjective perceptions. This paper compares two contrasting examples in Istanbul—the Fatih Hafız Ahmet Paşa Mosque (low score) and the Üsküdar Valide Cedid Mosque (high score)—to explore how women negotiate mosque spaces in practice. Drawing on Michel de Certeau’s tactics, Edward Soja’s Thirdspace, and Doreen Massey’s power-geometry, I investigate how women engage, transform, or bypass these environments. Addressing the conference theme of “freedom,” this study reveals how “counter-hegemonic” spatial practices emerge, ultimately reshaping notions of worship, belonging, and spatial justice.

In the first three months of 2024, Kenya reported 97 femicide cases, adding to over 500 intimate partner femicides recorded between 2016 and 2023. This alarming trend has spurred the Kenyan feminist movement to demand action, leading to protests and the establishment of a 42-member government taskforce to address gender-based violence. Feminists are challenging religious and cultural norms that perpetuate patriarchal structures, often trapping women in cycles of abuse and denying them freedom. This paper explores the complex interplay between love, freedom, and systemic gender-based violence, analyzing femicide cases and feminist responses. It highlights how Kenyan women are resisting oppression, advocating for systemic change, and redefining love and freedom to prioritize safety, equality, and autonomy. Using a feminist lens, the paper critiques entrenched ideologies and calls for religious and cultural institutions to reinterpret freedom and love in ways that promote gender justice, emphasizing consent, autonomy, and mutual respect in relationships.

This paper explores how Jewish women in Harbin, China (1898–1950), negotiated freedom within a self-governing diaspora community on a multi-ethnic frontier. Preserving Jewish identity amid Russian, Chinese, and Japanese influences, they defied historical constraints—displacement from pogroms, Japanese occupation—often underexplored by scholars emphasizing men’s contributions to economic and public life. Drawing on local archival sources—diaries, memoirs, and pictures—and comparisons with other diaspora communities, this research underscores their negotiated freedom as a model with contemporary relevance for multi-ethnic religious contexts. I argue that Jewish women secured freedom through education and ritual, blending biblical traditions with local practices—schools merging Jewish and Russian learning, Passover seders with Chinese elements. This process, termed “diasporic midrash,” a lived reinterpretation of tradition, sustained Jewishness without rabbinic authority, shaping Harbin’s cultural fabric. Their pragmatic freedom anchored resilience, offering a regional feminist lens on gender and religious identity with lasting resonance.

Complementarianism, a Christian and post-Christian understanding of gender in which men and women are understood to have intrinsically different bodies and characteristics that “complement” one another, is generally understood by western feminists as a discourse of patriarchal oppression. However, in this paper, the authors drawn on an indigenous theory of gender proposed by a group of learned nuns in contemporary Tibet to argue that the association between patriarchy and complementarianism is not universal, and should not be mapped onto non-western and non-Christian contexts. Rather, the Tibetan nuns’ theory of complementarian gender roles, working in tandem with a shrewd interpretation of the lived identity of motherhood as sources of liberative compassion, serves as a localized argument for gender equality in contemporary Tibetan Buddhism. 

This study explores how Korean women experienced freedom and liberation during and after the Japanese colonial period through the poem 어머님 말씀 (Ŏmŏnim Malssŭm), meaning ‘Mother’s Words,’ by Korean poet Gunho Kim. Based on stories passed down from his mother, the poem is one of the earliest literary works to address the suffering of Korean comfort women. The poem not only emphasizes political liberation but also conveys a deeper longing for true freedom from oppression.

Based on the poem, this research interrogates whether political liberation led to genuine freedom or if oppression continued to manifest. It also examines how the historical experiences of Korean women shaped their identity, spirituality, and acts of resistance. This study offers fresh insights into the ongoing struggle for freedom and justice among Korean women, aiming to contribute to a broader understanding of women’s rights, resistance, and the enduring impact of historical trauma.