This roundtable discussion will consider the themes and approaches of the recent volume, The Oxford Handbook of Friedrich Schleiermacher, edited by Andrew C. Dole, Shelli M. Poe, and Kevin M. Vander Schel. This volume provides authoritative interpretations of developing trends in contemporary Schleiermacher scholarship from both German and English-speaking scholars and seeks to offer a comprehensive view of Schleiermacher’s writings and influence from a wide range of interpretive perspectives. It includes treatments of Schleiermacher’s historical, philosophical, and theological works, including lesser-known contributions that are largely overlooked in Anglophone scholarship, while also locating his work in a broader intellectual context and highlighting the ongoing constructive potential of his thought to inform contemporary avenues of scholarly research in philosophy, theology, and the study of religion.
In-person November Annual Meeting 2026 Program Book
The 2026 November Annual Meeting in Denver, CO: Friday, November 20 - Tuesday, November 24. All times are listed in Mountain Time Zone. For more information about the November Annual Meeting, co-hosted with the Society of Biblical Literature, click here.
Please note that this is the preliminary schedule and is subject to change. We anticipate a mostly final schedule in mid-August. If you have any questions, please contact annualmeeting@aarweb.org. For Other Events, your event is not confirmed until you received notification from AAR staff.
An interdisciplinary panel on Robert MacSwain's Saints as Divine Evidence: The Hagiological Argument for the Existence of God (Cambridge University Press, 2025). This session explores the potential epistemic significance of unusually holy lives, drawn from multiple secular and religious traditions, for contemporary religious belief and practice, with ‘saints’ considered under three distinct categories: (1) radical altruists, (2) embodied sources of religious experience, and (3) enacted life narratives. Chaired by Hans Harmakaputra (Philosophy, Religion, and Classics, Augustana University), the panel includes Barbara Zimbalist (Literature and Cultural Studies, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley), Meghan Page (Philosophy, Loyola University Maryland), William Wood (Theology and Religion, Oxford University), and Jonathan Tran (Duke Divinity School). The author, Robert MacSwain (School of Theology, University of the South), will respond.
In “Senior Scholars Review Their Early Work,” four senior scholars from diverse fields will evaluate their earliest work with responses from two junior scholars. Using the genre of the academic review, this panel will consider the afterlives of academic works and how we can marshal those afterlives in the service of the field.
This panel examines Sikh political thought and its engagements with sovereignty, nationalism, technology, and global governance. Spanning early modern Panjab, the colonial/technological encounter, and contemporary US politics, these papers map how Sikh communities imagine and negotiate political authority across time. Together they offer a rich, multi‑scalar account of Sikh political imaginaries — constitutional, spiritual, technological, and diasporic.
Papers
This paper argues that the Technocene provides a more philosophically rigorous framework than the Anthropocene for understanding the contemporary epoch, identifying modern technology as the primary geological and spiritual force. By critiquing the Anthropocene’s assumption of universal human agency, the study situates our current crisis within the planetary dominance of Heideggerian "Western humankind." Central to this inquiry is the existential tension faced by the Sikh community: the necessity of adopting modern technology for survival versus the subsequent transformation of their spiritual praxis.
The investigation explores three dimensions: the introduction of a "technological way of thinking" following the 1849 fall of the Sikh Empire; the resulting secularization and Westernization that severed traditional bonds with land and language; and the historical resilience of Sikhs against rationalization. Finally, the paper assesses how Artificial Intelligence—as an intensification of calculative logic—tests the endurance of Sikh spiritual resilience in a technologically conditioned global landscape.
In this paper, I examine the tensions between pluralism and religious nationalism in the US looking at how they have both shaped the Sikh experience. Religious nationalism is on the rise globally, and the US is no exception. Christian nationalism has only become more influential in recent years. Simultaneously, the ideology of pluralism is increasingly subject to critique. Studying pluralism and religious nationalism by drawing on the Sikh case has the potential to shed light on religious nationalism generally, theories of immigrant integration, and the Sikh response to religious nationalism.
The 75th anniversary of Adorno’s Minima Moralia and his “Theses Against Occultism” provide a timely occasion to assess the confluence of spirituality and politics. Panelists on this roundtable will examine how spirituality, esotericism, and the occult have been vital to political movements and actions on both the left and the right. Though Adorno was sharply critical of astrology and other New Age beliefs, this panel considers the metaphysical tradition as a whole to be neither good nor bad, just as traditions like Christianity and Islam are neither good nor bad. Instead, relying on their original empirical research, panelists will analyze the specific ways in which metaphysical beliefs and practices have guided and buttressed activity across the political spectrum. As metaphysical spirituality moves from the margins of society into mainstream and popular culture, it’s more important than ever to consider its political range and the modes to which it tends.
The 75th anniversary of Adorno’s Minima Moralia and his “Theses Against Occultism” provide a timely occasion to assess the confluence of spirituality and politics. Panelists on this roundtable will examine how spirituality, esotericism, and the occult have been vital to political movements and actions on both the left and the right. Though Adorno was sharply critical of astrology and other New Age beliefs, this panel considers the metaphysical tradition as a whole to be neither good nor bad, just as traditions like Christianity and Islam are neither good nor bad. Instead, relying on their original empirical research, panelists will analyze the specific ways in which metaphysical beliefs and practices have guided and buttressed activity across the political spectrum. As metaphysical spirituality moves from the margins of society into mainstream and popular culture, it’s more important than ever to consider its political range and the modes to which it tends.
This roundtable asks: What can the future of teaching Native American and Indigenous religious studies course look like in contrast to earlier practice? How can theories and methods from Native American and Indigenous studies offer critical interventions and adaptations to religious studies pedagogy, making any course more responsive to questions of social justice? In lieu of probing Indigenous religious traditions themselves, this roundtable argues for understanding the relationship between Indigenous religions, power, and justice. This involves interrogating the study of religion as an academic field and considering Indigenous contestations and engagements with traditional approaches. Together, the participants speak to the sacred of place, Native American and Indigenous relationality, and ethical relations between Native American and Indigenous, and non-Indigenous peoples. Altogether, this roundtable offers non-specialists who find themselves teaching content related to Native American and Indigenous religions a resource for a decolonized, future-oriented pedagogy.
These papers analyze the external creation of our human capacities - including both our minds and even our wombs. These papers offer three critical perspectives for analyzing these emerging technologies: 1) the fundamental alienation that might accompany new reproductive technologies, 2) the potential distortion of the Image of God caused by botched human enhancements, and 3) the importance of metaphysical precision for resolving ethical debates. Together, these papers seek to clarify challenges within the debates around transhumanism and human enhancement over theological anthropology, ethics, and virtue.
Papers
In Nick Bostrom’s formulation of the “orthogonality thesis” in Superintelligence, he restricts the scope of “intelligence” to “something like skill at prediction, planning, and means-end reasoning in general.” I argue that Bostrom’s claims about “intelligence” are much better understood as claims about deinotēs, or “cleverness,” a trait which Aristotle identified as a capacity “to be able to do the actions that tend to promote whatever goal is assumed and to attain them.” Using the theistic ethical framework outlined by Robert Merrihew Adams in Finite and Infinite Goods, I argue that cleverness is an “impure excellence” (i.e. an excellence bound up with a deficiency) which cannot be properly attributed to God. Therefore, efforts to enhance human cleverness (whether by digital or biological means) result in human beings becoming “caricatures” of God, distorting the imago Dei by exaggerating certain features of God at the expense of others.
Ectogenesis—the process whereby humans are artificially gestated outside of the womb—may be around the corner. In recent years, researchers have made inroads toward such a breakthrough. In this paper, I explore the implications of ectogenesis for contemporary debates in bioethics. I also identify a serious danger ectogenesis poses: it may allow us to overlook the integral work that makes possible the birthing and raising of human beings. Being gestated artificially, in isolation from other humans, may reinforce the widespread illusion of humans’ fundamental separation from one another, traced in numerous state-of-nature theories of politics and justice. This is not an insuperable danger, however. We already stand in great need of a greater appreciation for humans’ interdependence. The possibility of ectogenesis, which may be just over the horizon, gives us an even stronger mandate for underscoring the interdependent nature of human beings. Religious traditions are uniquely positioned to do precisely that.
Within the dialogue between religion and transhumanism, transhumanists tend to focus on the objections that are raised against a given technology in order to overcome objections to technological development. However, this means that transhumanists can minimize the importance of philosophical and theological questions that are raised by their advocacy. For example, new advances in artificial intelligence such as large language models show signs of reasoning, but are they truly intelligent? Transhumanists tend to minimize these questions because they may undermine future technological development. Given the tendency of LLMs to hallucinate, philosopher Shannon Vallor suggests that it is better to understand our current rendition of AI as a mirror, rather than as a mind, as is the default within AI research. The dialogue between religion and transhumanism depends on the ability of critics to confront and resolve the fundamental questions that naturally arise from technological development.
Teaching theology and religion is both intellectually rigorous and deeply human work—shaped over time by experimentation, challenge, and discovery. This panel celebrates the release of Thinking Teaching: Stories, Insights, and Strategies to Ignite Reflection, Discussion, and Imagination by Nancy Lynne Westfield. Drawing on decades in the classroom, the book invites educators to pause and reconsider the habits, assumptions, and possibilities that shape their teaching. Join a distinguished group of teacher-scholars as they reflect on enduring questions of vocation, creativity, and growth. Together, they will explore how educators sustain imagination, adapt to changing contexts, and continue learning across a lifetime of teaching. Attendees will receive a complimentary copy of the book and learn about a new Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion grant opportunity to support faculty conversations in their own institutions.
This session investigates the intersections of transcultural theory, recognition, and moral theological formation in contemporary migration. Utilizing philosophy, ethnography, and theology, contributors examine how religious communities shape migrant agency amidst mobility and inequality. The panel first explores transculturalism through recognition theory, analyzing how belonging is negotiated—and sometimes contested—within religious spaces. A moral-theological critique follows, centering on African Pentecostalism; it challenges the “sanctification” of mass emigration and proposes alternative frameworks that value local presence and resistance. Finally, ethnographic studies of Ghanaian migrants in Australia and transit migrants elsewhere illustrate how religious discourses serve as “knowledge systems” to contest marginalization. By framing transcultural religion as a site of active moral and political negotiation, this session moves beyond neutral cultural descriptions. Instead, it highlights how recognition and resistance are formed within the “Third Space” of migration, offering new insights into the spiritual and social landscapes of global diasporas.
Papers
The dominant narrative within migration studies often focuses on the linear journey toward a final destination, often overlooking the liminal existence of transit migrants—those who are stuck in an unfamiliar place with nowhere to go and no possibility of returning home. Drawing from Homi Bhabha’s concept of sly civility and James Scott’s notion of hidden transcripts, I argue that transit migrants are not passive victims but agents of resistance. This paper explores how transit migrants negotiate power and enact resistance within a liminal temporality. Their existence, and their split identity, offer a vivid challenge to the system that renders them invisible. Aware of their powerlessness, their resistance often takes subtle forms. These indirect acts of resistance become vehicles of critique used by the powerless while allowing them to remain anonymous.
This paper examines how Ghanaian Pentecostal migrants in Sydney generate transcultural religious discourses that negotiate belonging, contest racialized marginalization, and reframe their presence in Australia as spiritually purposeful. Drawing on long‑term ethnographic fieldwork (2014–2023) with the Sydney branch of the Church of Pentecost International Australia Incorporated (CoPIAI), the paper argues that migration catalyzes new cultural and religious formations that exceed national, ethnic, and doctrinal boundaries. Through discursive strategies such as interpreting crises as “Signs of God,” adapting witchcraft narratives to Australian sociopolitical realities, and reconfiguring local Pentecostal prophecies of national revival, migrants construct hybrid identities that bridge Ghanaian cosmologies and Australian contexts. Engaging transcultural theory, discourse analysis, and reverse discourse, the paper demonstrates how migrants creatively retool homeland idioms and hostland imaginaries to produce new moral worlds, ritual practices, and forms of belonging. This case illuminates transculturalism as a lived, embodied process central to African diasporic religious life.
Pentecostalism in Africa has legitimized mass youth emigration from sub-Saharan Africa to the West through special prayer rituals and a triumphalist narrative of reverse mission and kingdom expansion, spiritualizing departure as divine vocation. This paper argues that such a vision reflects a failure of moral-theological formation on a continent whose burgeoning youth demography is the fundamental determinant of its future. Drawing on Nietzsche's critique of Christianity as a "religion of pity" in The Antichrist and Katongole's call for a new Christian social imagination, it contends that Pentecostalism's sanctification of the japa phenomenon dulls the instinct for presence and willful resistance to forces militating against collective flourishing on the African continent. In response, the paper proposes a moral-theological framework that foregrounds the "will to flourish," reclaiming Africa's youth not merely as missionaries elsewhere but as protagonists of an African future: present, resistant, and transformative.
Transculturalism has been discussed mainly from specific cultural, ethnic, and sociopolitical perspectives. This essay will enrich the current discussion by exploring a philosophical theory of transculturality. The essay argues that recognition theory provides a comprehensive framework to further explain the ‘mechanism’ by which the transcultural process shapes migrant identities. Recognition theory assists us in evaluating what might be considered as a positive or successful, rather than a negative or unsuccessful, transcultural process. In addition to exploring the theoretical basis transculturalism, statistical data and lived examples from Canadian immigrant churches are used to show how the proposed theory aligns with actual lived experience.