Online June Annual Meeting 2025 Program Book

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Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion

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APRIL (Association for Religion and Intellectual Life)

Baker Academic

Baylor University Press

DE GRUYTER

Indiana University Press Journals

RNA (Religion News Association)

Reading Religion

Search the Online June Annual Meeting program book with keywords, participants' names, program unit or seminar name, etc.

Tuesday, 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM (Online… Session ID: AO24-101
Roundtable Session
Hosted by: Buddhism Unit

Modern Indian Buddhisms have been strangely sidelined or even ignored in the field of Buddhist Studies, despite their potential for productively reshaping the discipline. Scholars of Buddhism in South Asia typically focus on premodern texts and philosophies, with the still-prevalent idea that the living tradition "all but disappeared" in the 13th century. However, cutting-edge publications are transforming our understanding by shedding new light on the multifacetedness of modern Buddhisms in India, and their transregional connections. Authors from across disciplines will share key findings from their publications and draw out future lines of inquiry. Themes explored will include unarchived bahujan, migrant and regional histories, diverse anti-caste formations, the built environment and aesthetic battlegrounds, gendered religious labor, shifting political alliances, and the roles of monasticism and laïcized meditation. Issues of caste and castelessness are entangled in all of the above, bringing much needed sensitivity to the study of Buddhism in South Asia.

Tuesday, 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM (Online… Session ID: AO24-104
Roundtable Session

This roundtable session brings together experts and leaders in the history, context, and practice of Palestinian Lutheran Theologies. We will consider histories of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land (ELCJHL), empire, occupation, settler colonialism, justice, gender, sumud (steadfastness) for justice in Palestine and Israel, liberation, and peace. We'll ask into Lutheran themes in current Palestinian Christian theologies, engage questions of solidarity, and, finally, ask what role the academy should play at this moment in history. As theologian Willie James Jennings writes in his "Foreward" to Munther Isaac's Christ in the Rubble, "the wider Christian world has too often failed to be alive to God and see Palestinian suffering on the map and has failed to walk alongside our Palestinian Christian kin as they traverse this impossible terrain" (Eerdmans, 2025). This session turns our attention and action to that walk and that terrain.

Tuesday, 11:00 AM - 12:30 PM (Online… Session ID: AO24-102
Papers Session

Noting the 1700th anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea, this session explores new developments in the conciliar structure of Orthodoxy, including new approaches to the relationship between Nicaea and scriptural hermeneutics and the crisis of conciliar unity caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Papers in this session will explore such topics as a Christology that combines the boundaries established by the Nicene Creed with the narrative and theological symbols of Israel’s Scriptures; an analysis of the relationship between the epistemology of modern physics, Orthodox mysticism, and the nature of revelation; and the establishment of the Ecumenical Patriarchate’s Orthodox Church in Lithuania in 2024 as a response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Papers

This paper proposes a complementary Christology that integrates the traditional Nicene framework with the rich narrative, vocabulary, and symbols of the Scriptures. While the Nicene Creed defines the divinity and humanity of Christ using Hellenistic philosophical categories, it does not fully convey the scriptural narrative from which early Christian understanding emerged. Drawing on Second Temple Jewish theology and apostolic writings, this paper explores how early followers of Jesus articulated a Christology embedded in Israel’s story. By recovering this biblical vocabulary, the article presents a Christological framework that resonates with both Jewish and non-Chalcedonian Christian traditions. This approach offers a path toward theological rapprochement by reaffirming a shared monotheistic heritage while enriching Orthodox faith expressions through scripturally grounded language.

Chaos theory in physics shows that systems with nearly identical initial conditions can diverge exponentially, revealing the sensitivity of complex dynamical systems. This intrinsic unpredictability challenges strict determinism and has profound implications for epistemology and theology. Similarly, human knowledge evolves along divergent trajectories, as individual experiences shape unique interpretations even when the same text is encountered. This paper examines how these insights challenge the notion of absolute linguistic revelation in sacred texts such as the Bible and the Quran. Since language is inherently interpretive, subject to cultural drift, and reliant on personal experiences, the idea of an unchanging divine message is problematic. By integrating insights from physics, information theory, and hermeneutics, this study critically investigates whether a fixed divine message can persist amid the dynamic evolution of human language, lending support to mystical traditions that prioritize experiential knowledge. 

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has intensified scrutiny of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) as both an ideological force and a tool of Russian expansionism. Lithuania illustrates the securitization of religion, as the government facilitated an alternative Orthodox jurisdiction under the Ecumenical Patriarchate. In June 2022, five Russian Orthodox priests were dismissed from the Lithuanian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate) for supporting Ukraine. They appealed to the Ecumenical Patriarch, who reinstated them in 2023 with Lithuanian government support. In February 2024, the Ecumenical Patriarchate’s Orthodox Church in Lithuania was officially registered. This paper examines Lithuania as a case of religion’s securitization, analyzing how church-state relations shift in geopolitical crises. It further explores how securitization intersects with postcolonial trauma and reshapes religious and political authority in Eastern Europe.

Tuesday, 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM (Online June… Session ID: AO24-202
Roundtable Session

The recent uptick in white Christian Nationalism runs parallel to the dominate political climate in this country. Public Theology will be a vehicle for promoting violent rhetoric against LGBTQIA+ persons.  Public Theology and Violent Rhetoric Examined in a Queer Womanist Critical Ethnography offers the Quintessential response to this unfortunate trend. The stories in the book exemplify the lived experience of people who have found the freedom to live and let live while being faithful to their spiritual convictions.  Panelists will evaluate the trajectory of violent rhetoric and comment on the usefulness of the book in helping to dispel the mythology that surrounds LGBTQIA+ persons and the concept of faith.

Tuesday, 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM (Online June… Session ID: AO24-201
Papers Session

In contemporary nation states with a rising, or well-established, commitment to a state religion, converts face a hostile legal system that transforms conversion into a deeply political act, with sometimes devastating consequences.  The case studies in this panel show how the governments of both India and Iran place significant burdens on converts. They discuss how anti-conversion laws in India weaponize the rhetoric of Christianity as “foreign” and how the legal ambiguity of Iranian marriage laws deny converts the rights and protections afforded Muslim citizens.  Employing the lenses of postcolonial theory, history, legal studies, sociology and theology, these papers explore the constraints faced by converts in contemporary theocracies or quasi-theocracies.    

Papers

Tuesday, 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM (Online June… Session ID: AO24-204
Papers Session

In a world increasingly marked by violence, scholars, as part of civil society, are not exempt from persecution. For the first time, the American Academy of Religion and the MESA Global Academy from the Middle East Studies Association, will organize a panel featuring scholars who were forced to flee their homelands for political reasons. These scholars will present interdisciplinary approaches to Middle East Studies and explore opportunities for future collaboration between the organizations. This panel is co-sponsored by the Religions, Social Conflict, and Peace Unit.

Papers

This paper explores the complex and evolving relationship between Canadian missionaries and the Armenian communities within the Ottoman Empire from the early 19th century to the early 20th century. Drawing on missionary correspondence, institutional records, and Armenian sources, the study investigates how Canadian Protestant missions, initially driven by evangelical and educational goals, came to play a significant role in the cultural, social, and political lives of Ottoman Armenians. The paper examines the mutual influences between missionaries and Armenian communities, highlighting how these relationships were shaped by shared religious affiliations, diverging national interests, and the broader context of imperial politics and rising ethnic tensions. It also considers the missionaries’ responses to the Armenian atrocities, tracing the transformation of missionary activity from religious outreach to humanitarian advocacy. Ultimately, this study reveals how Canadian missionaries, often overlooked in Ottoman historiography, became entangled in the complex web of intercommunal relations and imperial decline, leaving a lasting impact on Armenian memory and Canadian foreign engagement.

This paper critically engages with the shifting forms of violence targeting minority communities in the contemporary Middle East. The paper explores how religion has historically shaped, and continues to structure, narratives of rights, national identity, and political legitimacy in the Middle East. Religion operates through law and cultural memory to define who belongs, who is protected, and who may be excluded. Historically, extreme religious discourses, embedded in both state and sectarian institutions, have been instrumental in justifying violence, marginalization, and the targeting of minorities, especially those associated with collapsed regimes. These dynamics are often tolerated, silenced or normalized under the rhetoric of national stability. This study calls for a critical engagement with these narratives nationally and internationally , rather than deferring justice in the name of short-term peace and hopes of stability. By analyzing the enduring fusion of religion, violence, and legal-cultural power, the paper contributes to a deeper understanding of identity, governance, and rights in the region.

The Crimean Tatars, approximately 250,000 people, constitute a Muslim community in Ukraine. They lived in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea before the Russian annexation of the region in 2014. The Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022 made the situation more difficult for this community as they started to face a higher level of oppression under Russian rule. This paper will elaborate on the changing status of Crimea in the modern era and how it affected the Crimean Tatar community through policies of mass deportation, oppression, and Russification. It will especially focus on the period after the end of the Cold War and the post-2014 developments, as Russian authorities imprison many Crimean politicians and activists, while highlighting the activities of the Crimean Tatar community and their organizations locally and globally. 

This study analyzes the religious discourse in video content disseminated by Hamas’s military media department via official Telegram accounts during the Gaza War (2023–2025). Focusing on speeches by military spokesperson Abu Obayda and footage of military operations, it investigates how religious rhetoric is used to frame resistance and justify armed actions. Traditionally centered on governance and diplomacy, Hamas’s media strategy has shifted toward emphasizing armed resistance through its military wing, the Al-Qassam Brigades. Using critical discourse analysis, the research explores how Abu Obayda has become the central voice of Hamas’s media communication, marking a transition from political leadership to military representation. The findings show a strategic use of religious language to position Hamas’s actions as defensive and morally justified, while portraying Israel as the aggressor. This evolving media approach highlights how Hamas leverages visual propaganda to reinforce its identity as a resistance movement and reshape its messaging in the digital era.

Historically, faith and political power in Afghanistan maintained a relationship of indirect mutual cooperation. However, this dynamic shifted in 1978 when the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) seized power through the April Revolution, marking the rise of collective atheism. The Cold War and Soviet intervention in 1979, aimed at stabilizing the deteriorating communist regime, not only altered the nature of Afghan communism but also transformed its atheist foundation into a puritan religious movement, framing the conflict as a struggle between two forms of Islam: the “fake and American” versus the “true and egalitarian.”

This study examines that transformation, focusing on two key aspects. First, the role of a religion-friendly communist government in fostering Islamic jihadism. Second, the evolution of Afghan jihad from a religiously minimalistic movement to a global and maximalist force. The study argues that Afghan jihadis of the 20th and 21st centuries were shaped by the atheistic communism they opposed, meaning their movement cannot be fully understood through religious rhetoric alone. The analysis draws on sources from Afghanistan’s modern intellectual history and Vassily A. Klimentov’s examination of over 17,000 pages of Soviet Telegraph Agency reports from 1978 to 1988.

Tuesday, 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM (Online June… Session ID: AO24-203
Roundtable Session

This roundtable session will convene scholars to review and discuss Engaged Jainism: Critical and Constructive Studies of Jain Social Engagement (SUNY). Comprised of an introduction and 17 contributor chapters, Engaged Jainism explores the application of methodologies from Engaged Buddhism, Yoga Studies, and other fields of academic inquiry to Jain Studies, while also emphasizing the interdisciplinary and cross-traditional significance of using “engaged” methodologies in religious studies. The session will feature reviews from scholars from the fields of Engaged Buddhism, Jain Studies, and Yoga Studies who will pose questions to the editors and contributors who will respond and discuss the editorial vision and broader implications of the volume for these fields. The session will conclude with Q&A and discussion, inviting audience engagement. By fostering interdisciplinary collaboration, this roundtable aspires to make a significant contribution to the academic study of religion using “engaged” methodologies, while simultaneously advancing a new paradigm in Jain Studies.

Tuesday, 1:00 PM - 2:30 PM (Online June… Session ID: AO24-200
Papers Session

Since the formal foundation of the academic study of Christian spirituality, methodological questions have remained crucial for the guidance of research in the discipline. Recently, there has been a resurgence of interest in this topic: What kind of "imaginary" should spirituality draw on for an understanding of its basic parameters of inquiry? How do different methodological starting points impact the discipline's self-understanding? The session analyses a range of fundamental methodological referents including i. the notion of "spirit" in the music of Willie Nelson, ii. the concept of "embodiment" explored through an East Asian etymological approach, iii. "spiritual practice" framed within transformative relationality as understood, for example, by M. Buber, P. Ricoeur, and H. Thurman, and iv. "human intelligence" as the primary means through which spirituality is activated resourcing pragmatic and liberationist methodologies.

Papers

In this study, I seek to elucidate the embodied and relational implications of 靈性 (Língxìng), rendered as spirituality, through an East Asian etymological approach that challenges Western-centric origins. Within Chinese ideographic structure, 靈性 is a compound of 靈, which signifies a “relational spirit,” and 性, which indicates “innate nature.” This term etymologically underscores not only the cosmotheandric spiritual nature inherent in humans but also the integration of body and spirit. 靈性 plays a central role in exploring the spirituality discipline of East Asian scholars, and it also complements the early Western dualistic meaning of spirituality rooted in a rigid ascetic Christian context. Such an East Asian etymological analysis would contribute to interdisciplinary studies of Christian spirituality transcending the barriers of any centralism. By doing so, this proposal aims to create an inclusive space for interplay between East Asian and Western spiritualities, suggesting an embodied understanding of all lived spiritual experiences.

This paper argues for the centrality of spirituality, especially in times of cultural crisis, outlining a methodology of spiritual companioning called Just Listening that works as a fulcrum of action between justice and freedom. The paper draws upon the work of Martin Buber and his concept of I and Thou, and Paul Ricouer’s hermeneutic of mimesis praxeos, as well as Martin Luther King, Jr., Howard Thurman and other voices in marginalized communities. These inform a methodology of spiritual practice rooted in the concept of belovedness that moves toward the notion of beloved community. This employs a circular, iterative process—present, proximate, grounded, unknow(n), and discovery—to cultivate transformative relationality. Through active steps of pause, notice, and encounter, persons and communities deepen their own self-understanding and just relationship with the other and wider creation.

This paper discusses the concept of "Spirit" in the music of Willie Nelson. Beginning with a Christological concept album in 1971, Yesterday's Wine, Willie Nelson used music as a medium to discern a theology of spirituality. This procedure reaches a climax in the 1996 album spirit. This record is a series of explorations into the meaning of “spirit” as an experienced reality. More than a claim that the concept affords numerous meanings, the album posits that this multivalence is the meaning of Spirit. This idea finds support from works such as Charles Taylor and Friedrich Schiller, who help to explain the potency of Nelson's exploration. For spirit, both its poetic and symbolic presence means that the album is not an attempt to explain Spirit. It is an event where the meaning of Spirit is discovered. Its meaning is lived-through in the lyrical poetry and fragile sonics of the album. 

In what ways can spirituality be a life-giving resource in our death-dealing age? What methodological resources can help to inform our study of spirituality?  In this paper, I argue that pragmatic and liberationist methodologies have much to offer. I approach philosophical pragmatism and liberation theology as non-reductive empirical discourses that foreground the role of human intelligence in promoting human flourishing.  Such an approach helps to expand our understanding of spirituality as a pervasive quality of human experience, and it sheds significant light on spirituality as an active function of human intelligence.  Within a pragmatic model of inquiry, knowing is an “adaptive activity” that involves a dynamic process of doubt, belief, inquiry, and judgment.  As I show, in both pragmatism and liberation theology, human intelligence, broadly understood, is a—if not the—primary means by which human beings transact with the world and through which spirituality is, in fact, “activated.” 

Tuesday, 3:00 PM - 4:30 PM (Online June… Session ID: AO24-301
Roundtable Session

Speculative fictions provide common ground from which to explore questions related to religion, theology, and spirituality. In this session, we plan to outline and apply theoretical tools of implicit theology and secular spirituality that help students to negotiate new relationships among the unfamiliar and intersecting categories of theology and religious studies and of religion and popular culture. Paying special attention to the emotions elicited by particular operations within works of speculative fiction, we demonstrate how interaction with these fictions accomplishes implicit theological and secular spiritual work. After introducing our categories and methods, and describing the contemporary context(s) which invite their application, we will lead participants in hands-on work with specific examples (such as fiction by Octavia Butler and/or Ted Chiang and streaming series such as Severance and Midnight Mass) and invite evaluation of their utility in participants’ own contexts. 

Tuesday, 3:00 PM - 4:30 PM (Online June… Session ID: AO24-300
Papers Session

Democracy is experiencing multiple crises globally. Far-right leaders invoke threats from people of specific religious identities to justify harsh restrictions on minorities and violation of rights to freedom of expression. The right to freedom of religion or belief is used to justify limiting the rights of women and LGBTQIA+ populations. Religious imagery and rhetoric is mobilised on behalf of civilisational and “strongman” geopolitics that openly subverts claims to a rules-based international order.These developments raise a core question for scholars of religion: Are these cracks in democracy's facade new, or has democracy always been on the edge of this crisis? In an effort to understand the entanglements of religion in democracy’s current moment of crisis, this panel examines the phenomena of US foreign policy, transnational Catholic democratic mobilization, interrogations of the intersection of secularism with national security and polarization, and the uses or abuses of the concept of religious freedom.

Papers