Annual Meeting 2024 Program Book

This paper will argue hat religious teachings can provide can offer helpful, multidimensional perspectives to these discussions - the work of a non-profit, Artificial Intelligence and Faith (AIF) will be presented as a helpful model of the engagement of faith communities with AI. As part of this exploration, the paper will focus in on Buddhist teachings.  Drawing on both Buddhist canonical sources and contemporary teachings and scholarship, this paper will explore some examples of how Buddhist theory and practice can offer insights, conceptual analysis and practical wisdom for skillfully navigating in the Fourth Industrial Revolution in the context of bioethics.  

This qualitative study investigates the experiences of Korean immigrants with taegyo (“prenatal education”), targeting 30 participants and focusing on 'lived religion.' Taegyo, a traditional Korean prenatal practice influenced by spiritual and cultural beliefs, reflects a unique blend of Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism, and Christianity. Through in-depth interviews, this study aims to understand how Korean immigrants integrate these spiritual practices into their prenatal care within the U.S. cultural context. Data will be analyzed using modified grounded theory to underline the importance of integrating immigrant experiences and spiritual practices into healthcare, promoting more inclusive and culturally sensitive care. This investigation contributes to the broader understanding of the intersection between spirituality, immigration, health, and lived religion. The study highlights the importance of recognizing patients' lived religion to provide optimal reproductive care for immigrant populations of color.

Centuries ago, violence in Haiti was used as a tool by the enslaved population against European oppressors to fight for freedom and human dignity. In the 2020’s, violence continues to be used, but by Haitians against one another, to bring global attention to dehumanizing and dismal conditions in which the majority of the nation lives. Caught between gangs and politicians, a government in absentia, and global powers that have exacerbated harsh living conditions are healthcare workers continuing to model accompaniment to a beleaguered citizenry fighting for basic health. Modeled after the late Dr. Paul Farmer, this paper seeks to analyze the model of liberative medicine practiced by health workers in Haiti as they continue fighting the physical and political fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic that both exacerbated poor health conditions and a deteriorating government. Through their example, a model of health advocacy amid physical and political chaos has the potential to improve health promotion in other nations facing unending violence.

Democratic participation requires the development of one’s own voice. In popular imagination, such development is a private activity, occurring within an individual and apart from shared criteria and public reception. Such a view is democratically harmful and philosophically false.

Against it, I argue that Stanley Cavell’s reading of Wittgenstein and Thoreau offers a philosophically compelling and democratically wholesome account of how our voices develop. I conclude by inviting audience participants into an exercise in which they reflect on the development of their own voices, with particular attention to the texts, people, and questions who have aided this development. This activity shows the impact our understanding of voice development has on the way we prepare students to participate in democratic life.

West’s description of pragmatism in Prophesy! functions as an invitation to dialogue about the propriety of sources for revolution. Many readers of Prophesy! view pragmatism as an unnecessary source if it merely claims to provide one with an option to obtain freedom, self-referentially. What good is freedom if the government or the church cannot provide individual protections for black persons who profess to be free? Stipulating pragmatism as an ethical tradition was premature. West ends his genealogy in Evasion with an appreciation of “the black church”. Prophesy! would benefit from such a narration of non-religious sources. West’s genealogy in Evasion exhibits what it means to narrate an intellectual history of American philosophy as if the black church could conclude one such narrative. For the preceding reasons, this paper argues that the account of pragmatism in Propheshy! is to blame for constructive theorists missing the importance of class analysis in Prophesy!

The writings of Bahá’u’lláh (d. 1892) open many new vistas for students of religion. Scholars have observed that a phenomenon common to the world’s religions is the dogma that scripture cannot be translated from its original language, which alone, it has been believed, carries the exact meaning and sound of the sacred. This paper will explicate how Bahá’u’lláh challenged and ultimately rejected both the notion that scripture cannot be translated and the belief that knowledge of a particular language is a prerequisite of true faith. Special attention will be given to the history of the earliest attempts to translate the central book of the Bahá’í canon, Bahá’u’lláh’s Kitáb-i-Aqdas, from its original Arabic into Persian, Russian, and English, foreshadowing thereby its official translation into nearly forty languages, to date.

Analyzing the language of prayer in the compilation *The Prayers and Meditations of Baha'u'llah*, side-by-side in English and the original Arabic/Persian, a common structure is found in which a prayer begins with almost always the same opening praise of God *ṣubḥanika* (Glory be to Thee / Magnified by Thy name / Praised be Thou), followed by affirming the means (e.g., the Manifestation of God, blood of martyers, sighs of true lovers of God) by which one is empowered to make requests of God.  Then a request stated and there is an affirmation of God's power to do His will and a listing of some of His names and attributes. The author compares this basic structure to Islamic prayers from different traditions. He then reflects upon what this basic structure may convey about the nature of one's internal life as well as how prayer might become shared in interfaith devotional gatherings.  

Abstract

The African Presence at the Genesis of Baha’i History

One of the facts that has been unappreciated and understudied by historians is the presence of Africans at the genesis of Baha’i history.  These early black Babis and Baha’is are sometimes mentioned in passing in Baha’i histories.  But their lives have not been taken seriously, nor has their influence on Babi and Baha’i history been appreciated.  This presentation will focus on two Africans in the household of the Bab who were present from the first days of the Revelation, Haji Mubarak and Fezzeh Khanum.  These two servants, who were profoundly important in the lives of the Bab and his wife, Khadijih Bagum, have been largely ignored in Baha’i sacred history.  While it is understandable, and even forgivable,  that the nineteenth-century Iranian men who were the early chroniclers of Baha’i history would overlook the crucial parts played by women and slaves, it is no longer acceptable for contemporary Baha’i historians to do so.  This presentation will attempt to restore them to their rightful place.

The most recent survey by the PEW Research Center (2024) on religion found that for the first time the “religiously unaffiliated” or “religious nones” constituted the largest cohort (28%) of American adults, edging out Catholics (23%) and Evangelical Protestants (23%). Although it may appear as if this group shares some sympathies with certain Kierkegaardian attitudes in regard to Christendom, the institutional church, and normative culture in general, a closer look reveals that these Religious Nones, particularly the ones who describe their religion as “nothing in particular” (63%), are animated not so much by “inwardness” but by the evasion of commitments, either to the divine or to one’s community. Unable to articulate the conditions of belief or even a rich picture of human fullness, the lived spiritualities of Religious Nones reflects a detached perspective within an immanent frame that is closer to Kierkegaardian despair than to a genuine life of spirit.

This paper explores how those who no longer identify with a religious tradition or community may encounter the paradox of the eternal in time in edifying ways that foster the development of authentic selfhood. For one could easily argue along with Kierkegaard that becoming a self before God is certainly not guaranteed simply because a person might belong to a religious community, etc. In light of this assertion, it is argued that the individual may encounter the paradox of the eternal outside of any formal religious community and come to receive oneself as a single individual in relation to the eternal through the existence-communication of Christianity as communicated through the inverse witness and how this encounter with the inverse witness may lead an individual into the ongoing reception of one’s concrete particular self via the inward self-reflexive relational dynamics of coming to exist as a self before God.

This paper analyzes the congruity between Kierkegaard’s late polemical writings against the state church and his earlier writings critiquing “the public” or “the crowd.” Just as the public is everyone and no one at the same time, so blurred lines between church and state in Danish Christendom mean that the church is also made up of everyone and no one, for “we are all Christians” (*The Moment*). In both the church and the public, there is a temptation to lose oneself in the universal instead of stepping into the particularity of a relationship with God. Kierkegaard’s argument holds particular relevance for Christians who have chosen to leave their faith communities due to moral injury or spiritual danger.

The auxiliaires de l’Apostolat, established in 1917, are women who diverge from traditional practices by combining vows with a life as laypeople, active within society. Despite lacking formal canonical recognition, they served as an example for Lumen Gentium’s universal call for holiness. Consequently, they contributed to the international recognition of new forms of religious life. In return, the Council helped them to articulate and understand their vocation within the broader context of the Church’s mission. This paper draws upon archival material and interviews with auxiliaires who witnessed the Council. It highlights the importance of the study of the local reception of Vatican II and women’s roles beyond the Council floor, and illustrates how oral history can contribute to a better understanding of the Council.

In 2012, the Vatican accused The Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) of “radical feminism,” and yet only five years after the Council, LCWR faced similar accusations from other women. In 1971, Mother Mary Elise SND founded Consortium Perfectae Caritatis (CPC) with like-minded women to protest LCWR’s interpretation of Council documents, and to protect the preconciliar traditions of religious life. Using archival documents from LCWR and CPC, I argue that Lumen Gentium, Gaudium et Spes, and Perfectae Caritatis gave some ecclesial women the language to contest their relationship to the Church hierarchy, and for others to sacralize traditional gender roles for women religious. Even though the male council never discussed women’s place in the Church, women engaged with each other to decide what the masculine language of the Council documents meant for their gender. The disagreement between these women is an important yet untold part of that story.

This paper examines how female lay auditors’ lived experience of Vatican II contributed to the adoption of a gender equality agenda and, concomitantly, of a more explicit feminist stance by the World Union of Catholic Women’s Organizations, the largest movement of Catholic lay women involved in the international institutions. Because of its commitment to gender equality, the Catholic women’s organization did not limit her feminist activism to social justice and women’s liberation, but also militated in favor of women’s ordination. WUCWO’s gender equality agenda became increasingly challenged by new requests of cultural diversity in the 1980s. The complex dynamics of its reception of Vatican II highlight how the irresolute tension between two conciliar achievements –gender equality and cultural diversity.

The Kāliṅgabodhi jātaka is a frequently referenced early Pāli text that offers a categorization of Buddhist temples and their worship. It is particularly noteworthy since it enumerates three distinct categories of Buddhist sacred buildings known as cetiya (Skt.: caitya), which are supposedly approved by the Buddha himself. These three types of cetiya are as follows: sārīrika-cetiya, also known as dhatu[ka]cetiya to enshrine bodily relics; cetiya connected to an item or place worn by the Buddha, like the seat of Enlightenment beneath the bodhi tree or the tree itself (pāribhogika-cetiya); and a third “indicative,” dedicatory or commemorative kind called uddesika-cetiya. In this paper, I revisit the three types of cetiya from the Kāliṅgabodhi jātaka, suggest a new interpretation of the uddesika-cetiya category, and discuss the three types of cetiya connections with different modes of pilgrimage.

Mañjuśrī is portrayed as the founder of the Kathmandu Valley in the Svayaṃbhū Purāṇa, where he is shown playing a vital role in founding the Nepalese Buddhist tradition. The Vṛhat Svayambhū Purāṇa describes in detail the visit of Bodhisattva Mañjuśrī to Kathmandu Valley from Wutai Shan (Pañca-śīrśa parvat) with his two consorts, Varadā and Mokṣadā, and accounts of his draining of the water in the lake and the establishment of the Kathmandu Valley with many sacred places. This study will explore an account of Mañjuśrī and Wutai Shan in the Vṛhat Svayambhū Purāṇa, examining it in both the Sanskrit and Newari languages. It will trace the origins and development of the Mañjuśrī cult in Nepal and discuss the significance of Wutai Shan to this cult.

This paper describes the farthest premodern extension of Newar Buddhist traditions into China. First are influences brought by master Arniko (1245-1306) who came to China with a team of artisans in the Yuan dynasty. This gifted versatile artist became so renowned for his work in central Tibet that the Mongol rulers of China brought him to their new city, Beijing. Arniko built the "White Pagoda," a chorten at the center of the walled city. This paper will describe the evidence of Arniko’s 20-year presence in China and point to possible influences on Chinese Buddhist traditions, including other temples in Beijing, Great Wall gateways, and at the spiritual/pilgrimage center Wutai Shan. Part II will connect several of these sites to the records associated with two later Newar visitors, the monks Sahaja Śri (at Wutai Shan 1369-1374) and Śri Śariputra (1335-1426), who appear in the Chinese annals.

This study focuses on Manichaean and Buddhist archeological finds dating from the 9th-13th centuries that were discovered by German and British expeditions (1902-1916) at Kocho (Ch. Gaochang) in the Turfan region (Xinjiang province, PRC) of East Central Asia and are housed in the Asian Art Museum in Berlin, the British Museum in London, and the National Museum in New Delhi.  The examples examined derive from Ruins α and K, both of which attest an initial Manichaean and subsequent Buddhist occupancy.  Their specific find sites have traditionally been interpreted as “library rooms.”  The material evidence supplied by the physical conditions of the fragmentary manuscripts and painted textiles, however, indicates otherwise.  This study argues that the objects in question were found preserved as sacred waste in geniza-like repositories that were set up during the Manichaean phase (9th-10th century) and continued to be used during the Buddhist phase (11th-13th century) of these monastic sites.

This paper examines religious experience in the October fiestas commemorating the spiritual birth (initiation) of world-famous magico-religious healer and miracle worker, el Niño Fidencio (1898-1938). It situates contemporary Fidencista religious practices in the periphery as a response to the violence inflected by political and religious centers of power. An ethnographic engagement with the primary sources will demonstrate that for Fidencio’s followers—pilgrims attending the fiestas—“imposed suffering” is transformed into “joyful suffering” precisely because Fidencio himself is regarded as a divine presence. They acknowledge the crucial ways God and Fidencio have intervened in the violent yet mundane events that constitute life in the U.S-Mexico borderlands: border-crossing, detention, and deportation. I argue, therefore, that joyful suffering is an expression of religious experience in the periphery. Overall, this paper contributes to the growing interdisciplinary dialogue on migration, religion, and state-sanctioned violence in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands.

Throughout cultural history the monster has always been a good vehicle for the creation of an abject other and the subsequent harm they experience that is justification because of their connection to monstrousness. Yet with the rise of cultural appreciation for the monstrous and anti-hero tropes in popular culture and media, might the monster and monster theory also become a teaching space to explore and engage differently with the monster? Might we ask why we construct monsters and how we might look differently at those who have been constructed to be monstrous? How might monster theory become a fruitful space to explore positively positionality, privilege, and intersectional otherness? How might using the construct of the monster and monster theory work as a space to upend early college students notions of prejudice and help to broaden their empathy and worldview, as well as their social and cultural awareness.

In religious history, texts known as bestiaries taught readers about strange beasts and their connection to God’s revelation in nature. These ancient texts became the artifact that helped develop pedagogy of the beast used in a new class teaching the relationship between religion and the monstrous. In the spring of 2022, a private Midwestern university launched a successful new religion course that explored the intersection of monsters, religion, and popular culture. Part of the success was due to the use of project-based learning, scaffolding, and student-centered learning to craft a monstrous midterm around the artifact of the bestiary. This paper gives an in-depth explanation of how to use the “pedagogy of the beast,” offers a qualitative analysis of student experiences (with pictures), and concludes with suggestions as to how the bestiary project might be improved for courses exploring religion and the monstrous.

This paper explores the expansive realm of horror, particularly through the lens of monsters and their emergence as an essentializing category and framing of Blackness and Black religion. Examining Them (2021) and Girl With All The Gifts (2016), I argue for the development of a Black Monster Theory, or what I have termed as Black Teratology, to provide a platform for students to analyze the varying constructions of cinematic and literary monsters. Integrating Black Teratology into the pedagogical space provides students with conceptual tools, enabling them to delve into monsters’ cultural and religious dimensions, offering a unique perspective rooted in Black religious thought and culture. This pedagogical framework redefines the category of religious meaning and Black representation, acknowledging the multi-dimensional realities embedded in the ‘real lived experiences” of Black people, unfolding in monstrous productions. Thus, it fosters a deeper understanding of the intersection between horror, race, religion, and culture.

Throughout history, mystics from various cultures have acknowledged the powerful influence of a mysterious force associated with the human heart, and engage with such essence through ritual and ceremony. Melody, song, and chant have been integral to sacred rituals since the dawn of civilization. This research investigates the role of sonic and auditory elements in ritualistic practices, particularly focusing on the contemporary practices of Japanese Buddhist monk Yakushiji Kanho. This approach allows us to explore how sound and auditory experiences contribute to the connection with the divine, demonstrating the enduring relevance of these elements in spiritual rituals.

The study will focus on the role of music in Buddhism and religious practices in general, highlighting how rituals are integrated into modern-day popular culture. Furthermore, it will examine the use of Asian religious music in "New Age" spiritual contexts in the United States and analyze how globalization affects sacred music practices.

Musicologist Suzanne Cusick argues that music could act as a lesbian lover, that it might be sex itself, and that a lesbian relationship with music could liberate musicology from heteronormative dynamics—as lesbian relationships are inherently outside of this structure. However, she explores these dynamics as a monogamous relationship. Using Cusick’s work as a blueprint, this paper investigates relationships with music that are non-monogamous, like those in religious contexts. This paper will present how ideas of queerness, sexuality, and love interact with four potential relationship dynamics in the relationship between an individual, God, and music in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Namely, a polyamorous relationship, a relationship with un-ethical non-monogamy, an abusive relationship, and a relationship that incorporates BDSM. By engaging with Church archival documents, I aim to provide new perspectives on how scholars can examine power dynamics when there are more than two parties at play.