Annual Meeting 2023 Program Book

Using theories of ritual in Adam Seligman, et. al., and Tanya Luhrman, this paper discusses it as a neglected, yet essential strategy in supporting recovery from moral injury. Examples from an evidence-based process that supports recovery in veterans will illustrate how ritual can be especially useful in handling struggles with role conflicts and moral contradictions by engaging inner ambivalence without individuals having to manage the struggle alone to change their own feelings. In ritual, participants are enabled to play with multiple roles and identifications, recover moral agency in offering empathy and compassion to others and in participating in resolutions of ambiguity and conflict.

The creation of various rituals to acknowledge life changes or life changing injustices often serves a therapeutic role for an individual and the power of these should not be denied, but there exists a need to consider the role of ritual beyond individual needs that also serves as a reminder about the extreme power wielded by political bodies as they propagate structural realities. Jonathan Shay and others have done excellent work in turning to Ancient Greece to discuss difficulties in an individual’s nostos, but a structural element can be addressed in that history that deals with violence and moral injury. Through a reading of Aeschylus’ *Eumenides* and by highlighting the role of *Choes* celebration, which tried to grapple with the wrongdoing of Orestes being integrated into the history of Athens, this paper will highlight the value of communal reflection on the structures that both elicit and challenge moral injury.

I argue that moral injury researchers should take interest in Kant’s rational theology as a way to address moral injury. I explain his concept of the highest good as the state of perfect distributive justice, which he treats as the final end of our moral strivings. Kant thinks that this end is unachievable without divine assistance, so his conception of our moral life gives rise to the argument for postulating divine existence. I then present the moral-psychological benefits of this postulate he mentions. I finish by pointing out what moral injury researchers and Kant scholars can learn from each other. What Kant effectively points out is that our existence of being finite but still called to the life of morality makes us vulnerable to moral injury. Also, his theology can be useful in dealing with the moral injury caused by unintentionally perpetrating harm on those who do not deserve it.

In this paper, I show how DREAM of Detroit, a Muslim neighborhood revitalization organization on Detroit’s West Side, encourages especially young non-Black suburban Muslims to perceive the material “ruin” of a disinvested urban area in new ways. If experiences of space and embodied feelings like “safety” are learned social products rather than features intrinsic to a physical environment, DREAM participants mobilize and inhabit a religious imaginary of “prophetic community” to feel the city as a space of safety, belonging, and Muslim kinship across patterns of racial and class segregation endemic to Metro Detroit. Drawing on recent interviews and participant-observation with DREAM leaders and participants, I bring together theories of place-making and racial affect with scholarship on religion, perception, and material culture to examine how participants develop new perceptions of (properly) Islamic space that challenge prevailing moral geographies in which urban space is a metonym for Blackness, danger, and aversion.

In the essay “Eastward Ho!”, published twenty-five years ago in the edited volume “Retelling U.S. Religious History,” Laurie Maffly-Kipp follows Orthodox Christian institutions across North America from west to east to illustrate what she calls “a world history of American religion” seen from the Pacific Rim. In this framework, Orthodox Christians number prominently within a dynamic, global history that looks outward from these shores, crossing oceans and linking continents, and which is contingent upon migration, globalization, and geopolitics. This paper reconsiders the methodological interrogations and scholarly impact of “Eastward Ho!” from two, interwoven perspectives. For the established field of American Religions, has its call for broader inclusion manifested a more nuanced view of Orthodox Christianity in its diverse North American contexts? And for the growing subfield of Orthodox Christian studies, what are the possibilities for adapting its model to suggest a global history of Orthodox Christianity seen from North America?

Much attention has been paid recently to public forms of engagement for scholars of religious studies. Podcasting, social media engagement, and writing for popular outlets have frequently been touted as effective methods for translating and sharing research and applying insightful analysis to contemporary issues. However, in today’s deeply segmented media landscapes, audiences for these venues tend to self-select around particular political, cultural, and religious orientations. In such environments, it is difficult for scholars and educators to engage with audiences that could benefit from exposure to critical thinking on issues related to race, religious diversity, and history. Historic tours offer a unique opportunity to bring together diverse gatherings of people in learning experiences. Methods of storytelling, site visits, and group experiences have the potential to evoke emotional connections and open up receptivity to deeper levels of religious literacy, and more thoughtful reflection on understandings of power and privilege.

Basil is considered an Origenist by many scholars. In exegetical works, a strong influence on his Homilies on Psalms and even on his Homilies on Hexaemeron was assumed in previous scholarship. This paper will reconsider these claims. The evidence for a direct use of Origen’s works on Genesis is surprisingly weak. The influence of Origen on Basil’s exegetical techniques in the Homilies on Psalms is limited to only some homilies within this collection. The paper argues that Basil’s rejection of allegorism reacts already to the first steps of the Origenist controversy in the 70ies and can be contextualized into the exegesis of Gen. 1 in the fourth century. However, the influence of Origen on Basil as exegete seems to be limited.

This paper provides a thorough study of the surviving fragments of Marcellus’s *Contra Asterium* where Origen’s own writings and doctrine are explicitly or implicitly under examination. Marcellus regarded Origen (and in particular Origen’s *Peri Archôn*) as the principal corrupting influence on Paulinus of Tyre, Eusebius of Nicomedia, Narcissus of Neronias, Asterius of Cappadocia (‘the Sophist’), and Eusebius of Caesarea. Marcellus’s expectation that the connection between Origen and this *ad hoc* alliance of fourth-century bishops will produce an effective critique indicates the controversial status of Origen’s theological legacy during the decade that followed the Council of Nicaea. I will argue that Marcellus’s primary objections to Origen’s theology are (1) its “learning from philosophy” and (2) its particular conception of divine unity as a communicable reality (in which creatures are able to share through deification).

Scholars translating Maximus the Confessor have frequently conflated σάρκωσω and ενσωματώνω into the same word, leaving the reader to believe Maximus means the same thing by these two different words. In this paper, I will highlight the distinction between σαρκόω and ἐνσωμάτίζω in Maximus within the tradition of Origen’s concept of God becoming “all in all.” I will argue that once properly disambiguated, Maximus the Confessor argues for a progression from God becoming flesh to all of creation becoming embodied. That the logos became flesh so that He could become embodied. To move creation from flesh to body God became flesh. Since Christ is the essence of all virtues the enfleshing of Christ gave all human flesh the ability to remain flesh but become embodied. The movement from flesh to the body—the energy of God in the virtues—is the process by which God becomes “all in all.” 

Our presentation begins with a colophon to an illuminated, Tibetan xylograph copy of the _Ratnaketuparivarta_ where the donor is said to have commissioned the text so that women would never again be reborn in female bodies. Moving away from the interpretive frame of the colophon, however, we argue that the _Ratnaketuparivarta_ itself recommends—even commends—birth in a female body in certain circumstances. Through a close reading of this text, we argue that there is more than one way to realize birth in the female body in the Mahāyāna tradition and that the text, despite the colophon, opens up space for Buddhist practitioners to understand themselves as having intentionally chosen female rebirth for soteriological ends and with soteriological implications.

The paper poses the question of whether the traditional teaching on deification can provide avenues for expanding the idea of holy sexual desire beyond monogamous lifelong marriage. A case can be made from within the Greek tradition that physical desire is a consequence of the growth in holiness in general, opening the way for a consideration of the goodness of sexual expressions in many forms. Drawing from three touchstones, Origen’s Commentary on the Song of Songs, Dionysius the Areopagite’s Divine Names, and Symeon the New Theologian’s Discourses, I propose that desire that finds its object in God intensifies its pleasure in creatures. The final part of the paper reflects on what this means for expanding the Christian discussion of same-sex desire beyond the habitual channels of marriage parallelism.

Maximus the Confessor’s Ambigua 41 famously requires humanity to overcome sexual differentiation in order to reach God. When humanity fails, the God-made-human accomplishes the task in himself. But how exactly does the singular event of the incarnation direct the re-creation of all human persons, particularly when sexual differentiation remains very much in evidence? This paper advances conversations already underway by acknowledging that the incarnation depends upon collaboration between Mary and God. Drawing from recent scholarship on Mary as well as work on gender identities and sex development, the paper argues that in the incarnation, Mary and Christ partner to mediate sex difference. This collaboration opens mediation to all other bodies. Moreover, Christ’s dependence upon Mary demonstrates how the virtues of mediation undercut gender essentialism as well as other forms of oppression. Finally, Mary’s actions in the incarnation disclose how God heals all human divisions predicated upon sex difference.

This presentation will include reflections on recent developments and theological approaches towards sexuality from within an Orthodox Christian perspective. Special attention will be given to how these developments and approaches might help Orthodox Christianity better address LGBTQI+ lives and concerns.

Evangelicals have proven capable of changing their views on contested issues in light of popular opinion, but abortion remains sticky. Following the overturn of Roe v Wade, many evangelicals have not challenged “pro-life” discourse, but xvangelical authors Glennon Doyle and Jen Hatmaker open avenues to think about “pro-life” in a different way. By taking into consideration the emotional and physical labor of the pregnant person as the one whose life is under attack, Doyle and Hatmaker shift the focus of (anti-)abortion discourse. This paper offers a close analysis of the rhetoric employed by Doyle and Hatmaker in speaking about the highly contested issue of abortion and points out the feminist trajectories these authors are on. It critiques existing narratives about abortion, to which these authors are responding, and demonstrates the ways their approaches may further or hinder an evangelical audience in following suit in support of reproductive justice.

This paper explores the intersections between biblical interpretation and the legacies of settler colonialism in the lands now called Australia. It brings Ruth 2 into conversation with the poetry of Narungga woman Natalie Harkin, drawing on feminist and contrapuntal reading strategies and through the eyes of a ‘Settler’ woman. In the conversation that unfolds, the paper explores how women’s work is framed within interpretations of Ruth 2 alongside the use of Aboriginal women’s domestic labour in the Australian context as a means of colonial and religious domination and control. Through bringing these diverse texts together, the paper contributes to a broader question of how Settler Australians might read biblical texts and settler colonial contexts in ways that do not perpetuate colonial structures but contribute to constructions of work and community that might be liberative and decolonizing.

This study considers early Pentecostalism’s construction and praxis of “woman’s work” through an examination of the work, challenges, and solidarities among three founding members of early American Pentecostalism: Aimee Semple McPherson, Lucy Farrow, and Lizzie Woods Robinson. These leading women pioneered and influenced Pentecostal denominations through their work as women. Although they were shapers of early Pentecostalism in the US, their work as women is often neglected, and some women are still not ordained in some of the Pentecostal denominations. This study further explores how they viewed the interpretation of the biblical word ‘ēzer found in Genesis 2:18 (help meet/helper), specifically regarding “woman’s work” or their labor as women. It clarifies how “woman’s work” in the Pentecostal church has been defined and redefined in praxis and theory over time, which provides insight as to how it should be viewed today.

St. Domnika was a deaconess near Constantinople in the late fourth century. While some writers minimize the role of the female deacon as one only concerned with protecting women’s modesty, Pauliina Pylvänäinen’s excellent analysis of the functions of female deacons in the _Apostolic Constitutions_ presents the θεραπεύειν of the female deacon as related to the bishop’s spiritual work. She exercised healing in a way the male bishop could not, in women’s spaces and in private conversations. The liturgical and hagiographical tradition of the deaconess Domnika is a case study for evidence of Pylvänäinen’s theory that women deacons participated in the work of spiritual healing. We can trace the development of her veneration from the fourth century image of deaconesses presented in the _Apostolic Constitutions_ through her hagiography to her ecclesial hymns, finding an image of pastoral care and spiritual healing throughout.

What are the proper ends of medicine? Some bioethicists—particularly religions ones—have argued that the proper end of medicine is health. The healing view of medicine, however, rules out things like gender-affirming care, vasectomies, and physician-assisted death. Bioethicists who object to the healing view of medicine have argued that medicine is aimed instead at the patient values. In this paper, I argue against both of these views and instead offer an alternative—what I call the flourishing view of medicine. According to the flourishing view of medicine, the proper end of medicine is human flourishing. If my account is right, religious bioethicists cannot oppose procedures such as gender-affirming care or physician-assisted suicide merely on the grounds that they do not contribute to health. What instead they must show is that they do not contribute to human flourishing.

Recent approaches to medical education – most especially in the training of doctors and health care professionals – have emphasized the values of “Social Accountability,” defined by the World Health Organization as “the obligation [of medical schools] to direct their education, research and service activities towards addressing the priority health concerns of the community, region, and/or nation they have a mandate to serve.” But what is the character of that obligation? How is Social Accountability conceptualized in relation to societies and their institutions or the pursuit of social justice and care? This paper draws upon the emerging body of literature on Social Accountability and connects its implicit values and ways of representing the relationship between societies and their institutions with the scholarly study of religion and the formation of social bonds of trust that span the division between religion and secularity.

Voluntarily Stopping Eating and Drinking is a legal means of hastening death through refusal of food and fluids – a topic rarely addressed in Christian Protestantism. Leveraging the well-established and validated Theory of Planned Behavior, this research elucidates clergy and congregants’ normative beliefs and anticipated tactical support for VSED, including their reactions to Christian-based justifications for this end-of-life option. Such reasoning includes that VSED is a “fast into eternal life” and is based on the example of Jesus Christ, who, in the face of ongoing suffering, determined the end of his own life when he stated, “It is finished,” and gave up his spirit – an insight originally argued by John Donne in Biathanatos (1647/1982). This qualitative research study reveals that individuals aiming to VSED in the face of terminal illness may have their intention affirmed by a church community, but will likely require additional caregiving support to achieve a hastened death.

In a recent paper titled “Whole body gestational donation,” Anna Smadjor endorses the practice of using the bodies of (wo)men who are brain stem dead to gestate foetuses. In this paper, I will set aside ethical evaluation of the practice of whole-body gestational donation and instead focus on what Smadjor’s argument implicitly assumes about what it means to be pregnant and what it means to “create new life,” to borrow her words. I ask the question: How does this “creation of new life” match with theological accounts of creation? I explore four interrelated theological areas to understand what it means for humans to be pregnant: co-creation, givenness, vulnerability, and mutual asymmetry. It is my contention that Smadjor’s argument is based on the fundamental conception of pregnancy as the gestation of a foetus within a vessel rather than the intersubjective and interpersonal relationship between a mother and a child.