Online June Annual Meeting 2025 Program Book

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. 

This paper examines the legal barriers faced by Believers of Muslim Background (BMBs) in Iran, with a focus on their impact on marriage, family, and religious conversion. By analyzing a case of a Christian couple who lost custody of their adopted daughter due to their conversion, the study highlights how legal ambiguities in Iran undermine the stability of BMB marriages. It argues that these barriers compel reconversion to Islam or lead to legal persecution, disproportionately affecting women. The paper offers an interdisciplinary analysis, bridging law, sociology, and theology.

Postcolonial South Asia often frames colonialism as a Christianizing project, portraying Christianity as foreign and incompatible with Indian identity. This narrative misrepresents the nature of colonial rule; it also erases the histories of indigenous Christian communities, such as the Thomas Christians, who trace their origins to St. Thomas the Apostle in 52 CE—more than a millennium before European imperialism.

This paper examines how postcolonial rhetoric weaponizes this myth to justify discrimination against Christian minorities, as seen in cases like the denial of burial rights to a Christian Adivasi and the conviction of Pastor Jose Pappachan under anti-conversion laws. Engaging with decolonial theorists such as Achille Mbembe, Aníbal Quijano, and Gloria Anzaldúa, the paper critiques nationalist revisionism that conflates Christianity with imperialism. By dismantling the binary of Christian colonizers vs. non-Christian colonized, this study advocates for a more nuanced decolonial approach—one that recognizes Christianity’s deep and diverse presence in Indian history.

This paper examines the legal barriers faced by Believers of Muslim Background (BMBs) in Iran, with a focus on their impact on marriage, family, and religious conversion. By analyzing a case of a Christian couple who lost custody of their adopted daughter due to their conversion, the study highlights how legal ambiguities in Iran undermine the stability of BMB marriages. It argues that these barriers compel reconversion to Islam or lead to legal persecution, disproportionately affecting women. The paper offers an interdisciplinary analysis, bridging law, sociology, and theology.

Postcolonial South Asia often frames colonialism as a Christianizing project, portraying Christianity as foreign and incompatible with Indian identity. This narrative misrepresents the nature of colonial rule; it also erases the histories of indigenous Christian communities, such as the Thomas Christians, who trace their origins to St. Thomas the Apostle in 52 CE—more than a millennium before European imperialism.

This paper examines how postcolonial rhetoric weaponizes this myth to justify discrimination against Christian minorities, as seen in cases like the denial of burial rights to a Christian Adivasi and the conviction of Pastor Jose Pappachan under anti-conversion laws. Engaging with decolonial theorists such as Achille Mbembe, Aníbal Quijano, and Gloria Anzaldúa, the paper critiques nationalist revisionism that conflates Christianity with imperialism. By dismantling the binary of Christian colonizers vs. non-Christian colonized, this study advocates for a more nuanced decolonial approach—one that recognizes Christianity’s deep and diverse presence in Indian history.

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.