In-person November Annual Meeting 2025 Program Book
All time are listed in Eastern Time Zone.
Please note that this schedule is subject to change and is currently being updated. Please excuse our appearance as we finalize the schedule. If you have any questions, please contact annualmeeting@aarweb.org.
The Psychology, Culture, and Religion (PCR) Unit is offering the pre-conference workshop titled “Reimagining Hope: Finding Ways Forward in Challenging Times.” This interactive workshop will focus on both theologies of hope and empirical psychological science research on the nature of hope and its function in people's lives. It will be facilitated by Dr. Barbara McClure, the Christie Cozad Neuger Professor in Pastoral Theology and Practice at Brite Divinity School, Texas Christian University.
Friday, 3:45 PM - 5:15 PM | Hilton Back Bay, Maverick A (Second…Session ID: M21-304
The goal of the panel, “Perspective and Choice,” is to examine the relationship between perception as a cognitive episode and freedom, or the way in which one can choose to see reality in some way or another. We want to bring the resources of dharma traditions to discussion in philosophy such as epistemology and the psychology of perception, showing how language, concepts, ideas, etc. construct the phenomenon within the individual.
• Christian Theology and History: Martin Hanna, Andrew University • New Testament: tbc • Old Testament: tbc • Philosophy and Ethics: Zane Yi, Loma Linda University • Practical Theology: Dan Serb, Newbold College • World Religions/Missiology: John Jones, La Sierra University
17:15-17:45 Additional Sectional Meetings
• Black Theology Group: Olive Hemmings, Washington Adventist University • Women in Theology Group: Lena Toews, Union Adventist University
This session interrogates the relationship between the work of Karl Barth and thinkers in the sphere of Black Theology. The panelists will look backward and forward, reflecting on key moments in years gone by and thinking generatively about scholarship in Barth studies and Black Theology in the years to come.
This session interrogates the relationship between the work of Karl Barth and thinkers in the sphere of Black Theology. The panelists will look backward and forward, reflecting on key moments in years gone by and thinking generatively about scholarship in Barth studies and Black Theology in the years to come.
Papers
The theology of Karl Barth was influential for both Paul L. Lehmann (1906–1994) and James Cone (1938–2018). These two theological contemporaries remained committed to the revolutionary character Barth’s theology offered, both politically and racially. This paper revisits a crucial period in American theology and religious life, turning to two significant events in the 1970s. The convergence and divergence of Lehmann and Cone’s theological program gleaned from these events will be used to discern their constructive output based in their christological commitments, both in heavy dependence on Karl Barth.
Through the examination of these two contextually situated events, significant theological insight is gleaned, shining particular light on current discussions of the revolutionary character of theology and the promulgation of the concerns of Black and liberation theology. The conclusions drawn in the paper will focus on what Lehmann called the “revolutionary movement” of Barth’s theology. In so doing, these two barthian theologians shed new light on contemporary conversations surrounding race, theology, and philosophies of revolution.
This paper aims to buck a disturbing trend among Black liberation theologians, namely, that they hastily jettison engagement with Karl Barth's thought. It argues that James H. Cone, the pioneering member of Black liberation theology, was right to draw on Barth, and in so doing, the early Cone alerts readers to an often-unnoticed liberative potential of Barth’s theology. Despite his shortcomings, this paper argues that Barth proves useful for Black queer liberative ends. But this paper is not merely an apologia although it is indeed that. By drawing insights from queer theorist Sara Ahmed and theologian Hanna Reichel, this paper aims to tease out what makes Karl Barth—or any thinker for that matter—useful along with the affordances Barth’s Christological perspectives offer Black queer theological reflection.
A CONVERSATION ABOUT 1 TIMOTHY James Sedlacek and Christopher Hutson
SCJ invites friends and colleagues from all streams who identify with the Stone-Campbell Movement tradition for fellowship, light refreshments, and interesting conversation. For additional information contact William Baker (scjeditor@aol.com)
Join us for a celebratory book launch of The Oxford Handbook of Lived Buddhism. Authors from this volume will speak on the case studies they provide in the handbook, plus ways their work can be utilized in the classroom. Meant for students at all levels, the Handbook of Lived Buddhism provides instructors and students diverse circumstances of Buddhism lived and practiced across cultural contexts, to deepen the engagement and study of Buddhism as a lived religion. This roundtable discussion will highlight many of the chapters within the volume, to offer a preview of the work for scholars, educators, and students.
