Online June Annual Meeting 2026 Program Book

This paper theorizes memoir as womanist methodology by examining how Black women's personal narratives of grief constitute authoritative sources of theological and phenomenological knowledge. Drawing from my forthcoming book Mourning in the Margins, I argue that integrating lived experience with scholarly analysis enacts Alice Walker's womanist principle that "the personal is political." Through phenomenological attention to my grandmother's death and my anticipatory grief, I demonstrate how embodied storytelling disrupts Enlightenment epistemologies that privilege "objective" knowledge over experiential wisdom. This methodology centers Black women's tears as sacred texts, the body as archive, and grief as an epistemology that reveal what systematic theology and trauma studies have rendered unintelligible: that Black women's grief is simultaneously personal, historical, political, psychological, physiological, and spiritual. By employing a "bookend" narrative structure—opening and closing each theoretical exploration with personal anecdote—I show how womanist scholarship refuses the false binary between rigor and vulnerability, between academy and ancestor.

This paper examines contemporary iterations of Carnival in the U.S. and Global South as diasporic spaces where Black femme sensuality, spirituality, and aesthetic performance converge on grounds of both the sacred and secular. While often understood as near exclusively secular cultural festivals, Carnival traditions remain deeply rooted in African and Afro-Caribbean religious cosmologies. I argue that these sites function as spaces where Black women renegotiate embodiment, spirituality, and relationality within the conditions of late-capitalist empires.

Drawing on the work of Sylvia Wynter, scholars of Black religion and womanist thought, and scholars of queer, feminist, and sexuality studies, the paper considers the Caribbean and the Black American metropolis as interconnected diasporic sites for rethinking Black ontology and African(a) womanist theology. Through attention to embodied performance, diasporic music cultures, and festival practices, I suggest that Carnival and what I regard as “Carnival theologies”  permeate through popular culture today and operate as forms of cultural technology through which Black women articulate alternative modes of being and relating to the human, earth, and divine, often expanding the conceptual boundaries of womanist religious thought across the African diaspora.

“This is not a time for business as usual.” In the Black Church, this claim feels especially urgent. Although Black women make up about 70–80 percent of active members in historically Black congregations, they remain underrepresented in senior pastoral and denominational leadership. This gap reflects deeper problems in church structures and beliefs that shape who is seen as qualified to preach, lead, and represent God.

Drawing on interviews and survey responses from Black women clergy across several denominations, this paper explores how they navigate these barriers while creating new possibilities for leadership, community, and theology. Using a womanist framework, I center Black clergywomen’s lived experiences as a source of theological insight, describing this work as “womanist futuring.”

Their stories challenge narratives of despair by offering forms of God-talk that reimagine authority, calling, and community. Rather than accepting marginalization, these leaders build networks of support and model justice-centered leadership, offering powerful visions for the future of the church and religious scholarship.

Sacred Feminine theologies and iconographies are trans-religious - fluidly summoned,
transmitted, reflected, and reinforced across multiple contexts in liturgy and praxis. The synchronous "seeing" of the Sacred Feminine as a theistic vision of sovereignty, empowerment, embodiment, protection, justice, and hope is a defining characteristic of Her presence and a method of Her endurance.

The Sacred Feminine as a trans-religious theology of liberatory hope is a divine counter-narrative that transgresses hegemonic dis-embodiments). Embracing a womanist/Black feminist theo-ethical and spiritualist lens, this presentation weaves theologies and theodicies of the Sacred Feminine in African/a Heritage Religions (AHRs), Sakta Hinduism, and the Black Madonna of Catholic Christianity to "midwife" a shared telos of justice on behalf of the most structurally vulnerable in our societies. The Sacred Feminine is an audacious hope - a theistic vision of justice and liberation embodied as womn, as Black, as wholly Divine. Midwifing a shared teleological see-ing of Divine Feminine as a justice ethos is an urgent function of a theology that meets the needs of the times we face. 

This paper argues that Tao Yuanming’s work provides distinct methodological resources that we can employ as we face challenges in our lives. The first is the creative use of moral exemplars from the past; the second is grounding ethical reflection in everyday experience. Tao never arrived at a single definitive resolution to human problems. What he did develop, however, was a distinctive way of living with these challenges.

This paper builds on previous scholarship that sees Tao as a philosopher of humanistic endurance by arguing that Tao makes an important and distinctive contribution to ethical and existential thought through his orchestration of methodological approaches. Tao draws on multiple philosophical traditions as well as his own lived experience to develop responses to the vicissitudes of life. While I do not argue that Tao’s conclusions are universally applicable, I do argue that the methodology he employs is worthy of emulation.

The role of common people within the ethical and socio-political framework of early Chinese thought remains largely underexplored, partly because they are often assumed to have been treated merely as passive subjects within a meritocratic order. Yet the two major early Chinese traditions, Confucianism and Mohism, propose markedly different forms of meritocratic governance. Mozi portrays ordinary people as participants in political life, arguing that the ruler should be a virtuous worthy whom everyone can recognize and endorse. By contrast, Confucian thinkers such as Xunzi emphasizes the ruler's duty to ensure the basic welfare of the common people instead of recognizing their political agency. Many scholars attribute this difference to their distinct ethical theories. I argue instead that the key divergence lies in their political epistemologies—specifically, whether ordinary people can understand the proper organization of socio-political life in accordance with Heaven’s processes.

There is a plurality of work dealing with the concept of moral progress, but from among these texts we can isolate two main camps. On the one hand, you have teleological conceptions of progress. Moral progress, these thinkers, involves transformations in social practices that move us closer to some defined end. On the other hand, you have pragmatic conceptions of progress, which see moral progress as movement away from problems into an open-ended future, not constrained by definite ends.

My paper seeks to bring Confucius into the scholarly debate, in order to complicate the narrative of progress. Specifically, this paper posits that Confucius’ relationship to the Zhou dynasty provides a model for thinking about progress that is not cleanly captured by either the teleological or the pragmatic models of moral progress.

Aaron Stalnaker states in his book, Mastery and Dependence, that many people question the existence of “ethical experts” (Stalnaker, 2). Stalnaker pushes back on this sentiment and argue for the existence of (also the need for) ethical masters. Even with the existence of moral experts, however, the question of “what motivates people to want to learn from them” remains to be answered. I argue the answer is in seeing moral teachers as idols.

Agreeing with Stalnaker on the belief that moral teachers are important for society, I explore the gravitas of moral excellence, which some ancient Greek and Confucian thinkers see as motivation to follow moral teachers. This attraction evolves into idolization for one’s teacher, which is key to moral pedagogy.

This paper argues that Tao Yuanming’s work provides distinct methodological resources that we can employ as we face challenges in our lives. The first is the creative use of moral exemplars from the past; the second is grounding ethical reflection in everyday experience. Tao never arrived at a single definitive resolution to human problems. What he did develop, however, was a distinctive way of living with these challenges.

This paper builds on previous scholarship that sees Tao as a philosopher of humanistic endurance by arguing that Tao makes an important and distinctive contribution to ethical and existential thought through his orchestration of methodological approaches. Tao draws on multiple philosophical traditions as well as his own lived experience to develop responses to the vicissitudes of life. While I do not argue that Tao’s conclusions are universally applicable, I do argue that the methodology he employs is worthy of emulation.

The role of common people within the ethical and socio-political framework of early Chinese thought remains largely underexplored, partly because they are often assumed to have been treated merely as passive subjects within a meritocratic order. Yet the two major early Chinese traditions, Confucianism and Mohism, propose markedly different forms of meritocratic governance. Mozi portrays ordinary people as participants in political life, arguing that the ruler should be a virtuous worthy whom everyone can recognize and endorse. By contrast, Confucian thinkers such as Xunzi emphasizes the ruler's duty to ensure the basic welfare of the common people instead of recognizing their political agency. Many scholars attribute this difference to their distinct ethical theories. I argue instead that the key divergence lies in their political epistemologies—specifically, whether ordinary people can understand the proper organization of socio-political life in accordance with Heaven’s processes.

There is a plurality of work dealing with the concept of moral progress, but from among these texts we can isolate two main camps. On the one hand, you have teleological conceptions of progress. Moral progress, these thinkers, involves transformations in social practices that move us closer to some defined end. On the other hand, you have pragmatic conceptions of progress, which see moral progress as movement away from problems into an open-ended future, not constrained by definite ends.

My paper seeks to bring Confucius into the scholarly debate, in order to complicate the narrative of progress. Specifically, this paper posits that Confucius’ relationship to the Zhou dynasty provides a model for thinking about progress that is not cleanly captured by either the teleological or the pragmatic models of moral progress.

Aaron Stalnaker states in his book, Mastery and Dependence, that many people question the existence of “ethical experts” (Stalnaker, 2). Stalnaker pushes back on this sentiment and argue for the existence of (also the need for) ethical masters. Even with the existence of moral experts, however, the question of “what motivates people to want to learn from them” remains to be answered. I argue the answer is in seeing moral teachers as idols.

Agreeing with Stalnaker on the belief that moral teachers are important for society, I explore the gravitas of moral excellence, which some ancient Greek and Confucian thinkers see as motivation to follow moral teachers. This attraction evolves into idolization for one’s teacher, which is key to moral pedagogy.

Debates about artificial intelligence tend to revolve around a recurring set of concerns: agency, consciousness, and the proper locus of responsibility. This paper brings classical Yogācāra philosophy into conversation with these discussions — not as a metaphysical doctrine but as a conceptual toolkit for analyzing layered cognitive structures. Drawing on Yogācāra accounts of recursive conditioning and appropriative self-grasping, I argue that advanced AI systems are better understood as stratified architectures of patterned activation than as emergent subjects. This framing makes the distinction between functional recursion and reflexive appropriation philosophically available in a way that much current discourse lacks. By situating technological systems within a model of conditioned emergence, the paper redistributes agency across socio-technical networks and refines ethical analysis without attributing subjectivity to machines — demonstrating, in the process, how Buddhist philosophical resources can function as genuine conceptual engineering within contemporary technology discourse.

In this paper, we propose ways theologians might respond to questions of human distinctiveness that arise from reports of religion-focused interactions with generative artificial intelligence (AI) systems. Through thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke, 2012), we examine two data sets: Reddit users’ reports of their or others’ religion-focused interactions with generative AI systems; and app descriptions, reviews, and commentaries associated with generative AI systems designed for religion-focused interactions (e.g., Bible Chat). Preliminary analyses suggest that users of generative AI systems disregard distinctions between human-human interaction and human-computer interaction (HCI) in such religion-focused exchanges.

Disregard for distinctions between human-human interaction and HCI poses a problem for theologians. Human distinctiveness has traditionally been central to theological anthropology, but recent critiques of modernity question strategies that bolster the category of the human. How might we address the question of human distinctiveness posed by religion-focused interactions with generative AI systems without replicating the harms of modernity?

Co-authored by Sydney Elaine Brammer, University of North Florida

A NYC subway sign reads: "friend: [noun] someone who listens, responds, and supports you." The advertisement is for friend.com, which promotes an AI friend that you can wear as an always-listening pendant around your neck. What draws the eye, however, is not the advertisement but the words "not your" added above the website. Another graffitied friend advertisement reads, "JOIN THE LUDDITE RENAISSANCE." This paper explores anti-AI movements and their raison d'être and considers Luddism as an ethical response to the many dangers of AI. I engage the Hebrew Bible narrative of the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11, in which humans seek to build a tower to reach the heavens, i.e., the arrogant pursuit of fame and power. In an age of globalization and technological advancement, a careful reading of the text can lead us into important considerations about hubris and progress. 

Twenty-first-century leadership is often characterized by a "Machiavellian pragmatism" that prioritizes the accumulation of power over communal flourishing. Grounded in the bifurcations of Enlightenment dualism, this leadership void has left both civic and ecclesial spheres struggling with deep polarization and systemic disintegration. This paper proposes a restorative model of kenotic facilitation as a framework for missional leadership and prophetic witness.

By integrating the relational ontology of John Zizioulas with the historical exemplar of St. Francis of Assisi, I argue that spiritual leadership find its most potent expression through the voluntary self-emptying (kenosis) of positional power. Drawing on lived experience and qualitative data from Participatory Action Research (PAR), the study brings Foucault’s theories of power into dialogue with Habermasian communicative action. The result is a praxiological model that empowers the community to move beyond hierarchy toward a perichoretic, interdependent pursuit of shalom in a disrupted cultural landscape.

This paper examines how clergy and lay leaders tend to the spiritual wellbeing of congregations that have experienced numerical decline. It provides analysis from a pilot study including long-form interviews from revitalizing and redeveloping parishes in the Episcopal Church. The analysis considers practices intended to promote spiritual revitalization for the whole parish as well as the devotional, prayer, and self-care practices that sustain church leaders during times of transition that can be challenging to them personally, spiritually, and vocationally. This paper is intended to establish the scaffolding and parameters for a larger-scale, ecumenical study to advance academic knowledge and support religious communities by describing and analyzing best practices to promote spiritual well-being for their constituents amidst organizational change. 

In our increasingly volatile world, Christianity needs leaders prepared to stand firm in the maelstrom of change. Recent leadership scholarship emphasizes complexity, adaptive systems, and the need for leaders not only to permit but also to embrace and maintain tension. Complexity scholars assert that organizations transform within “adaptive spaces” where perspectives collide, conflict, and connect. Such spaces are chaotic and can tear organizations apart, but when held properly, they innovate without sacrificing continuity. Organizations, including churches, therefore, depend on leaders to create and hold these spaces for their communities. But what type of leader is needed to facilitate and hold these tense spaces without resorting to control, withdrawal, or burnout?

This paper puts complexity leadership scholarship in conversation with the mystical theology of St. John of the Cross. It suggests that St. John’s spirituality offers a vision and an itinerary for standing within chaos without succumbing to it. 

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Theology Without Walls is not so much a theological project comparable to, say, process theology, as a subfield, more like comparative theology.  Rather than following a comparative template, TWW can be done in any number of ways.  There are top-down approaches that start with a metaphysical or other comprehensive frame.  There are bottom-up approaches that start with personal insights, experiences, situations, or commitments.  The basic argument for TWW is the imperative, for any truth-seeking project, of taking in all available data.  The religious traditions are not themselves data so much as rich lodes of spiritual data.  Ultimately, the discernment of the relevant data is an epistemic challenge, a task that falls to each of us.  Our theology seeks to provide a meaningful interpretation of the data.  It is, to quote Paul Knitter, “all spiritual experience seeking understanding.”