Online June Annual Meeting 2025 Program Book

In Christian theology, the Holy Spirit is described as the Giver of Life. At the same time, in both anecdotal testimony and scriptural record, the Holy Spirit is associated with periods of Kairos. Its presence is felt in extremes of experience. A question arises for the twenty-first century theologian: as the earth enters a great extinction event and Homo sapiens sapiens faces the likelihood of perishing as a species, how do our various historical pneumatological configurations now serve us?  In this paper I will ask questions about the Holy Spirit’s role in the process of extinction. I will argue that to maintain a working pneumatology in the Kairos event of the sixth great extinction, the Giver of Life must also be read as inhabiting a paradoxical role as a Giver of Death, an advocate for the cyclical renewal of the Creation, for what is sustainable and “good,” human or otherwise. 

Jürgen Moltmann’s understanding of hope includes personal, social, cosmic, and divine eschatology. Although the first three categories are delineated in depth, Moltmann’s discussion of divine eschatology, which he articulates as when God will be “all in all,” would benefit from further exploration. Richard Kearney has proposed a perspective of God as the eschatological God who may be, a future possibility of God who makes the impossible possible. Kearney’s position attempts to overcome the theist-atheist divide to talk about God again. This paper argues that Kearney’s philosophy of the eschatologically possibility of God helps to buttress Moltmann’s proposal of divine eschatology.

Despite being the first person to produce a full-length mystical work in the German vernacular, Mechthild of Magdeburg has been largely overlooked in discussions of dipolar theism’s mystical genealogy, especially compared to Meister Eckhart. This paper argues for her inclusion, both to rectify historical oversight and to enhance the credibility of dipolar theism’s claims to a mystical genealogy. Dipolar theism, rooted in Whiteheadian metaphysics, emphasizes God’s dynamic engagement with the world but has neglected historical figures who embody this concept. Mechthild’s The Flowing Light of the Godhead demonstrates divine responsiveness, making her a crucial figure for process theologians to consider. By engaging with Mechthild’s work, dipolar theism can refine its theological discourse, address critiques of its historical oversights, and deepen its engagement with the mystical tradition. Ultimately, this study calls for a broader and more inclusive exploration of mysticism within process theology.

The Process philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead and Jain philosophy converge on their perspectives of interconnectedness and the nature of ultimate reality. Whitehead's Process philosophy views reality as dynamically interrelated, with peace being a process of becoming and an intuition of permanence. This resonates with Jainism's concept of mokṣa (liberation), where the soul attains the permanent state of a siddha, free from karmic material yet undergoing origination and destruction while maintaining permanence. Both philosophies emphasize the dipolar nature of existence—Whitehead’s primordial and consequent nature of God, and Jainism’s dravyārthika (substantial) and paryāyārthika (modal) viewpoints of substances. Furthermore, Whitehead's prehensions and Jain meditation (śukla dhyāna) highlight transformative experiences that foster deeper connectedness to reality. This paper argues that despite differences in their notions of soul and liberation, Process philosophy and Jainism share profound parallels, suggesting a complementary understanding of interconnectedness, the process of becoming, and the creative unfolding of existence.

This paper brings asexuality studies to bear on Marcella Althaus-Reid’s indecent theology to consider: How can Althaus-Reid’s indecent theology aid us in theologizing asexuality? And how might asexuality studies speak back to and enrich Althaus-Reid’s indecent theology. Despite the hypersexuality and latent compulsory sexuality of indecent theology, Althaus-Reid’s work helpfully unveils and critiques the pervasive cisheteropatrichy latent in mainstream Western “Theology” (including many liberation theologies), and second, returns to the material conditions of the poor, including the sexual dimensions of their lives, as an alternative starting point for indecent theological reflection. Returning theology to lived experience can, and should, move us to engage experiences of asexuality. 

This paper examines the state’s vested interest in producing children as “proper” future citizens by juxtaposing two seemingly disparate legal frameworks: the religious freedom protections afforded to Amish parents in Wisconsin v. Yoder (1972) and contemporary legislative prohibitions on gender-affirming healthcare for transgender youth in Tennessee. By analyzing these cases through queer theoretical approaches to futurity, childhood, and citizenship, I demonstrate how debates ostensibly centered on “parental rights” reveal deeper state concerns with maintaining normative citizen formation and reproducing particular national imaginaries. The religious exemption granted in Yoder and the recent wave of anti-transgender healthcare legislation in states like Tennessee (2023) illustrate how the state selectively supports or overrides parental authority based on its assessment of whether the resulting children will conform to desired models of citizenship. 

While Joseph Massad’s Desiring Arabs extends Edward Said’s study of Orientalism by incorporating a sexual dimension, it is less satisfying from a feminist and queer perspective. It struggles to reject Western Orientalist discourses while avoiding local nationalist frameworks that reinforce misogyny and homophobia. Islamic feminism challenges Massad’s critique by resisting both Western essentialism and patriarchal structures in the Middle East. Far from being contradictory, its existence defies binary classifications and Eurocentric taxonomies. I argue that Islamic feminism already embodies strong globality, positioning itself as a postcolonial transition toward a global feminism that transcends religious differences, not through secularization but by fostering shared ground while preserving diversity. This article reviews research on Islamic feminism over the past twenty-five years and addresses key criticisms, including religious belief and personal choice, its relationship with secular feminisms, veiling, theological debates, political and economic critiques, queerness, and Islam’s intersection with human rights.

This paper brings Judith Butler’s work on freedom and subjection into conversation with Gregory of Nyssa’s belief in the autexousia—self-determination—of the human psyche (soul). Both thinkers are deeply committed to human liberation. Both offer critiques of the discursive practices by which structures of domination are naturalised—in Gregory’s case, chiefly in his condemnation of slavery. Moreover, both consider ‘male and female’ binary sex to present a particular affront to human freedom and flourishing, with Gregory anticipating the eventual eschatological transcendence of sexual difference. This paper advances a Butlerian reading of Gregory’s writing on freedom, while suggesting that his theology offers an apophatic route through the aporias in Butler’s poststructuralist account of subjectivity. I suggest that Gregory provides a view of the human psyche, imprinted with the freedom of the divine, that resists being reduced to the human subject, which (as Butler recognises) is constituted by power.