This roundtable brings together anthropologists with diverse methodological, theoretical, and topical backgrounds whose recent publications have each nonetheless centered questions surrounding the accommodations and counter-movements that have emerged within various non-Western religious communities in response to processes of modernity and secularization. Panelists will include: (1) Mayfair Yang, whose work, Re-enchanting Modernity: Ritual Economy and Society in Wenzhou, China (2020), scrutinizes how investments in temple-building, rituals, and festivals operate to subvert state secularization in China; (2) Hannah Gould, author of When Death Falls Apart: Making and Unmaking the Necromaterial Traditions of Contemporary Japan (2023), which surveys how changing Buddhist death rituals and funerary equipment in contemporary Japan reflect adaptations and reactions to demographic decline; and (3) Eric Hoenes del Pinal, who examines the role of language and discourse in shaping and contesting Catholic identities among an indigenous Q’eqchi’ Maya community in contemporary Guatemala in “Guarded by Two Jaguars: A Catholic Parish Divided by Language and Faith” (2022).
In-person November Annual Meeting 2025 Program Book
All time are listed in Eastern Time Zone.
Why did the Son of God assume human form? For many in the Christian theological tradition, the answer is redemption—Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. But a few voices in the tradition have demurred, locating the divine motive for the incarnation supra lapsum, above the Fall. In this book panel, two recent proposals by Sam Wells and Edwin Chr. van Driel for a “supralapsarian” motive in the incarnation are critically examined and brought into conversation.
This roundtable will feature the work of six theologians who have engaged in a three-year long Templeton-funded Cross-Training grant with psychological scientists. Each theologian chosen to participate is committed to the flourishing of minority groups in their local context. The theologians were specifically trained in three critical areas: (1) education in and engagement with psychological literature, (2) mentor-training in labs, and (3) interdisciplinary collaboration with psychological scientists. Together with their psychological mentors, each theologian on this roundtable has proposed and carried out a theologically informed empirical project related to one of three areas: suffering, virtue development, or aesthetics. For these theologians, team-based projects were a new way to conduct and engage in interdisciplinary research. We believe this cross-training pedagogy provides a model for how theologians can collaborate both within and outside their field as interdisciplinarity becomes more integral to humanities researchers.
This roundtable will feature the work of six theologians who have engaged in a three-year long Templeton-funded Cross-Training grant with psychological scientists. Each theologian chosen to participate is committed to the flourishing of minority groups in their local context. The theologians were specifically trained in three critical areas: (1) education in and engagement with psychological literature, (2) mentor-training in labs, and (3) interdisciplinary collaboration with psychological scientists. Together with their psychological mentors, each theologian on this roundtable has proposed and carried out a theologically informed empirical project related to one of three areas: suffering, virtue development, or aesthetics. For these theologians, team-based projects were a new way to conduct and engage in interdisciplinary research. We believe this cross-training pedagogy provides a model for how theologians can collaborate both within and outside their field as interdisciplinarity becomes more integral to humanities researchers.
This session explores the presuppositions of Catholic Studies as a field within religious studies, and the long, complex, and shifting relation of contemporary Catholicism to its past histories. The three papers gathered here suggest that insights into facets of this dynamic relation can be found in very different aspects of the Catholic past. The first paper argues that the emphasis on Jesus’s bloodied embodiment in early modern Spanish Catholicism occurred in the context of Spanish debates over purity of blood and forced conversion. The second puts discourse about paganism in early medieval pastoral literature into conversation with contemporary debates about Catholic enculturation. The third interrogates Catholic Studies itself, in its relation to the “medieval,” the modern, and the "non-modern." In querying these varied relations to the past, we hope to encourage conversation between scholars of premodern and contemporary Catholic studies.
Papers
As Bynum shows in Christian Materiality (2011), premodern Christian devotees rejected the contemporary assumption that there is a profound distinction between living and non-living, body and object, animate and non-animate. This has significant implications for the study of late medieval Passion devotion. My case study focuses on the new emphasis post-1492 in Spanish Catholicism on Jesus’ bloodied embodiment, an emphasis which began in a climate marked by a newly-homogenous Christianity, the Inquisition, and the beginning of empire. Proposing that Pierre Levy’s term “hyperbody” best expresses the devotional depiction of Jesus’ body as fully yet inordinately human in its suffering, I take the first Vita Christi written after 1492 as a case study, showing how the Castilian archbishop Prejano drew on physiological and material discussions of blood to render Jesus’ embryology, fetal development, and torture in light of the Spanish debates over purity of blood and forced conversion.
Following the publication of working documents for the 2019 Synod on the Pan-Amazon Region, various elements within the Catholic Church condemned these documents as heretical by virtue of their allegedly "pagan" and "pantheist" content. This line of critique has endured through subsequent years, raising the question: why do some decry ecologically oriented Catholic moral theologies as heterodoxical endorsements of nature worship? Any attempt to address this question must look to the historical role of paganism in the Christian imagination, specifically to the pastoral developments of the Early Middle Ages – a period of constant encounter between religious “others” and dynamic emergence of syncretic religious formations in Europe. This paper will bring works of pastoral literature by Pope Gregory I, Caesarius of Arles, and Martin of Braga into conversation with the goal of exploring key characteristics of “the pagan” in the medieval (and perhaps contemporary) Catholic imagination.
If Catholic Studies is the quest to integrate diverse fields by uncovering the Christian worldview which inspire a variety of cultural products, then Medieval Studies cannot be reduced to Catholic Studies. The contemporary emphasis on the global Middle Ages only emphasizes this point. Nonetheless, if we approach the Middle Ages with tools developed to study other “non-Modern” societies, we can uncover aspects decidedly “non-Modern” aspects of the Middle Ages. Not only does this uncovering disrupt the idea that the Middle Ages readily flowed into Modernity, but it provides Catholics with resources to expand our imaginations in an un-Modern, or apo-Modernist, direction. In this paper, I pay special attention to the promise of this approach to the understanding of ritual today, allowing Catholics to appreciate aspects of the liturgy and of liturgical practice which we may not realize were operative or which might strike contemporary practitioners as superstitious or meaningless.
On the occasion of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso’s ninetieth birthday year, this roundtable celebrates, analyzes, and reflects on His Holiness’s legacy in the academic study of religion. The fields of Buddhist Studies, Tibetan Studies, and Contemplative Sciences have been particularly impacted by his vision and compassion. The speakers on this roundtable offer a scholarly reflection on HHDL's central role in the changing position and perception of Tibetan Buddhism since his exile from China in 1959. Leading scholars in the Academy will briefly comment and then the floor will be open to discussion.
The Boston area is the birthplace of American Pragmatism. Charles Peirce was born in Cambridge, and William James spent much of his career teaching at Harvard. The papers in this session will consider how the insights of the classical pragmatists can help us think through and expand contemporary conversations around epistemic responsibility, affect and emotion, and feminist thought and pedagogy,
Papers
This paper explores possible neurobiological foundations for some of the central claims of the classical pragmatists. It draws on the work of Lisa Feldman Barrett's How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain, as well as Joseph Ledoux's The Four Realms of Existence: A New Theory of Being Human, and The Emotional Brain: The Mysterious Underpinnings of Emotional Life. The paper considers three major shifts in the understanding of the brain, each of which provide biological support for classical pragmatic insights.
- The predictive rather than the perceptual brain supporting Pierce's pragmatic maxim and Dewey's connection of meaning to value.
- Interoception before exteroception supporting James's claim that emotions originate in the visceral needs of the body and that emotions are uniquely individual rather than shared by all animals/humans.
- Cognitive mapping in service of goals supporting Dewey's claims about the associational character of learning and politics.
How international borders function symbolically within public discourse differs notably from the empirical conditions that obtain in specific border spaces. This discrepancy has deleterious consequences, including border militarization, ecological degradation, and narratives of disorder that promote xenophobia. To respond to this problem and promote epistemic responsibility, this paper draws from C.S. Peirce, whose work on logic and semiotics is well-suited to borders for three reasons. First, borders are constitutively semiotic, logically triadic, and indicative of deeply held normative assumptions within public life. Second, Peirce’s contributions to the logic of relations, metaphysics of continuity, and link between theory and practice facilitate analyses of borders both normatively and descriptively. Third, pairing Peirce with borders yields a clearer understanding of the epistemic dimension of borders, facilitates the embedding of the symbolic significance of borders alongside iconic and indexical forms of signification, and integrates empirical studies of borders with those focused on public discourse.
Charles S. Peirce’s concept of abduction emphasizes the intuitive and affective dimensions of inquiry, shaping hypothesizing in our reasoning. This paper explores how the Five-Factor Model (FFM) of personality—specifically the trait of Openness to Experience—illuminates Peirce’s theory of abduction. Openness, characterized by intellectual curiosity, imagination, and aesthetic sensitivity, aligns with Peirce’s emphasis on feeling and curiosity in rational inquiry.
Analyzing Openness through FFM reveals two key insights. First, genetic predispositions significantly influence individuals’ engagement in inquiry, suggesting that Peirce’s ideal community of inquirers may not be easily attainable. Second, Openness evolves over time, with a decline in attitudinal flexibility, raising questions about the sustainability of Peirce’s fallibilistic conditions for inquiry. These findings suggest that Peirce’s epistemology may require nuanced considerations that accounts for cognitive rigidity in later life. Ultimately, this paper argues that the FFM can contribute to our understanding of abduction in contemporary cultural and psychological contexts.
This presentation illuminates the implications of Jane Addams’s feminist pragmatist approach to education for the cultivation of ethical freedom for democracy. Although she is one of the most influential feminist pragmatists in the United States, incorporating Christian faith and pragmatism through her activism at Hull House for democratic social reform, Addams has not received due scholarly attention in religious studies. I conduct a philosophical and historical analysis of Addams’s theory of social change by contextualizing it in her faith-based activism and pedagogy. After discussing the development of her pragmatist philosophy within the context of her activism, my presentation examines her philosophy of education and unpacks her racial and colonial ideologies to glean pedagogical insights for contemporary religious scholars. Drawing from Jane Addams’s pedagogy for democracy, I argue that religious education can contribute to ethical freedom by humanizing social relations with the virtues of ethical imagination, compassion, and creativity.
This session brings together scholars examining AI's disruptive and creative impact on religious traditions. This panel traverses multiple religious contexts—from AI astrology applications replacing traditional jyotiś practitioners to the role of religious scholars in developing AI moral awareness and agency. Papers explore the theological implications of AI companionship through feminist and mystical lenses, the possibility of constructing a virtuous AI moral agent, and emerging workplace conflicts when religious beliefs clash with technological imperatives. Together, these investigations reveal how AI technologies are not merely tools but active mediators reshaping religious authority, the meaning of moral agency, and spiritual practice. The panel invites critical reflection on what happens when ancient wisdom traditions encounter algorithmic reasoning, asking what religious communities stand to gain or lose as digital interfaces increasingly mediate their relationship with the sacred, and how religious perspectives might inform more ethical AI development.
Papers
The golden age of jyotiḥśāstra (astronomical treatises) spanned the third to ninth centuries CE, with select texts surviving into modernity. Jyotiś (astronomy) remains integral to South Asian culture, determining auspicious times for lifecourse events and guiding personal decisions. Traditionally, these Sanskrit texts required astrologers as intermediaries for calculation and interpretation. Recently, AI applications like KundaliGPT and VedicAstroGPT have emerged, offering astrological guidance through generative pre-trained transformer technology. This paper examines these AI systems' functioning and explores their broader implications on the relationship between Sanskrit śāstra, expert knowledge, and society. The analysis considers potential benefits and challenges as astrological practice transitions from human intermediaries to technological interfaces. By examining this intersection of ancient knowledge systems and modern AI, this study contributes to understanding how traditional practices adapt in technology-driven environments and questions what may be gained or lost when ritual practices become increasingly automated.
This proposal examines AI-mediated intimacy through the lenses of emotional capitalism, feminist theory, and Christian mysticism, focusing on questions of agency and freedom in programmable relationships. Drawing on Eva Illouz's concept of emotional capitalism, it argues that AI companions extend existing patterns of commodification in relationships, where human agency is increasingly shaped by market logic and algorithmic control. The proposal engages with feminist concerns about AI relationships reinforcing patriarchal structures while acknowledging their potential for providing emotional support and enabling identity exploration. As a theological counterpoint, it turns to Dorothee Sölle's interpretation of mystical ecstasy, which offers a model of love rooted in unpredictability and mutual vulnerability rather than algorithmic control. I ultimately ask what it means to be free when intimate relationships become programmable, calling for a nuanced understanding of how different forms of intimacy might reshape not only relationships between humans but also between humans and non-human entities.
AI systems currently act autonomously with ethical implications, and agentic AI is exploding in deployed applications. However, religious arguments based on deeply held beliefs about the human person often dismiss the possibility that AI can act with the experience and agency it appears to already have. Theological and philosophical clarity is needed between human characteristics and the appearance of those characteristics occurring in AI, but so are religious scholars providing wise guidance in developing AI moral awareness and agency. By demonstrating how to construct an AI moral agent, I demonstrate the value of science-engaged theological anthropology and how a more complete understanding of AI can incorporate deeper moral insights into guiding AI development. Developmental psychology can guide plausible understandings of AI moral development, and an AI moral agent can use awareness of human suffering to motivate a virtuous response, which with its stable dispositions, can make it a moral agent.
What happens when an employee’s actions, informed by her religious beliefs about AI, conflict with their employer’s expectations of their use of that technology in the workplace? Should an employer consider an employee belief’s that AI is divine when making work assignments involving the technology? How should an employee respond to employer requests to adopt and use a technology in such a way that the employee perceives to be a threat to human dignity and the uniqueness of humans in the created order? Are religious employees protected if AI tools are used to discriminate? Artificial intelligence presents pressing legal, moral, theological, and ethical questions for the workplace and beyond. The conversation is nascent about what protections exist for religious employees interacting with AI in the workplace in ways that implicate their religious identity, beliefs, and practices and this Paper aims to provide a roadmap for beginning to explore these issues.
This panel proposes to discuss metaphysics as a legitimate category in Buddhist philosophy, contra the assumption that Buddhist anti-essentialism championing the absence of self (śūnyatā) implies the anti-metaphysical nature of Buddhist philosophical thought. All three papers defend a rich and diverse usage of metaphysics to account for texts from different times and regions of the history of Buddhist philosophy: Theravāda thought (Buddhaghosa), Indian Madhyamaka (Nāgārjuna), and Chinese Madhyamaka (Jizang). They also use “metaphysics” variously to describe anti-realism, to highlight an approach opposed to phenomenology or the double structure present in its historical development in Greek and European philosophies. Some papers will lean more heavily on meta-theoretical and methodological considerations regarding metaphysics, others will resort to historical forays in the history of metaphysics in the West to provide a transhistorical and transcultural reflection on metaphysics.
Papers
This presentation challenges the interpretation by Maria Heim and Chakravarthi Ram-Prasad that Buddhaghosa’s work is purely phenomenological and not metaphysical. Heim and Ram-Prasad argue that Buddhaghosa is not concerned with the nature of existence but with training attention toward experience. In contrast, the presentation contends that Buddhaghosa makes genuine metaphysical claims about what exists.
This paper investigates the heretofore unstudied arguments marshalled by the Sui-Dynasty Sino-Parthian Madhyamika master Jizang 吉藏 (549–623 C.E.) to shore up the doctrine of mereological anti-realism – the position that nothing ever instantiates mereological properties or relations – for the Sinitic Madhyamaka or Sanlun 三論 tradition in which he is embedded. In his argumentation in support of mereological anti-realism, Jizang denies the intrinsic reality of mereological sums, the composites (Skt.: avayavin; Chi.: youfen有分), posited by rival Brāhmaṇical metaphysical theories, but also rejects the mereological reductionist doctrine – upheld by the earlier Abhidharma traditions of mainstream Buddhism – which postulates the fundamental reality of ontologically-simple parts upon which composites are conceptually constructed. An examination of Jizang’s Madhyamaka-oriented critique of Vaiśeṣika realism concerning composite substances brings to light the coherence of Madhyamaka Buddhist global anti-realism denying both the intrinsic reality of wholes and the parts upon which they are built.
Respondent
This panel investigates the ongoing legacies of colonial and imperial extraction in the Américas by examining the contested fates of sacred objects and the ethical, spiritual, and political demands for their return. Historically, colonialism and imperialism in the Américas were enacted through the theft of sacred objects; the legacies of dispossession are often reflected in their continued display and displacement. In this panel, three scholars present individual case studies from the Latina/o Américas to highlight the importance of relationships between religious groups and material religion and the disruption of these relationships when sacred objects are taken, stolen, (or otherwise acquired) from communities of origin. Together, these papers highlight the importance of “care” and “return” of sacred objects: Peruvian Catholics asserting the importance of cultural patrimony when three stolen paintings are discovered in Miami, Florida; the activist art of Glicéria Tupinambá in working to repatriate sacred objects housed in museums to her community in Brazil; and insight into ethical concerns and responsibilities related to processes of repatriating of sacred objects from collections housed at the Fowler Museum at UCLA.
Papers
In September 2024, a sacred object over 300-years removed from Brazil’s Tupinambá indigenous community returned to terra brasileira. A cloak of bright-red feathers, tied with intricate knots and sealed with local beeswax, the manto Tupinambá holds deep sacred and ritual importance for Tupinambá people, their activation central to communicating with more-than-human powers. Yet, until 2024, all existing cloaks were held exclusively in museums outside of Brazil. Artist Glicéria Tupinambá has been central to efforts for repatriation of these sacred objects. This paper tells the story of her multiple museum encounters with mantos Tupinambás: visiting European museums to study colonial-era cloaks, taking up cloak weaving for museum display, and merging art and activism through video-art installations. Theorizing secular aesthetics of museums in Brazil, this paper teases out Glicéria’s striking investment in museums, her work within and against the confines of museum institutions, and the persistent museological management of sacred Tupinambá objects.
Drawing primarily on examples from the Fowler Museum at UCLA, I will explore a variety of ways in which an institution that holds a significant number of sacred objects (or ancestors, relatives, non-human beings, etc.) in its collections can engage in processes of return. Responsible stewardship in contemporary museums increasingly includes negotiating the return of sacred materials to communities of origin or their recognized descendants. As understood here, "return" broadly encompasses a range of collaborative engagements between the museum and represented groups, including deaccessioning and repatriation as well as collaborative storage and care. In my discussion of specific cases, I will highlight key issues concerning the ethics and responsibilities of collection and collection management.
Around late 2016 and early 2017, the Peruvian Ministry of Culture with the assistance of the American FBI came to the realization that three stolen paintings from Cusco, Peru were in Miami, Florida. The investigation located all three paintings on the grounds of Corpus Christi Church within the city. Upon the extraction of these paintings, the parish community not only felt jilted but greatly questioned why the paintings could not stay with Corpus Christi, especially considering that a majority of the church's practitioners were Peruvian citizens. This situation highlights the significance of religious art in diaspora communities and the greater question of what defines cultural patrimony among Peruvian citizens living outside of the country. Religious paintings and artifacts are the center point of practitioner devotion and cultural exhibitions, but where do devotional paintings belong and who determines those circumstances? This paper explores these questions both in sentiment and practice.