Annual Meeting 2024 Program Book

From its early inception with the Prophet Muhammad’s cousin and son-in-law, ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib (d. 661), Shīʾism has been seen as an esoteric, mystical sect within the Islamic world. This presentation examines how the Platonic and Hermetic microcosm-macrocosm paradigm is present in three early Shīʾite philosophical works. By using a close reading methodology, I examine how the Book of Foundations, attributed to the fifth Shīʾite Imām, Muḥammad al-Bāqir (d. 732), the thought of the famous alchemist Jābir ibn Ḥayyān (lat. Geber) (d. 816), and the works of the Brethren of Purity (cir. 870 – 950), I prove that Hermeticism was a real and distinct school of Islamic philosophy in their conceptions of the microcosm-macrocosm paradigm. I argue that this ancient Greek philosophical concept played an essential role in Shīʾite Muslims' conception of their relationship to the universe.

This paper centers one theme in the Ismā‘īlī works of Abū Ya‘qūb al-Sijistānī- Soul World- to pose a question: is it both the allegory and story of individual soul to adorn the natural realm and nature itself with the spiritual (rūhānī)? Engaging in the Neoplatonist and Late Antique philosophical heritages of Sijistānī presents perspectives on Universal Soul in dialogue with Universal Intellect. The doubleness (zawjiyyah) of Intellect and Soul parallels a relationship which exists for all existents in Soul World, between the natural and the spiritual. For the individual human being, God’s creation serves as a dynamic template to obtain and receive pure knowledge (‘ilm-i mahz), and be receptive to spiritual colours (ranghā-ye rūhānī), thereby defining what constitutes Soul World, Soul’s dialogue with Intellect, and the adornment of nature as spiritual, and providing insights into the philosophical terminology Sijistānī's works employ.

Sayyid Ḥaydar Āmulī marks a significant moment in the integration of esoteric Neoplatonism into Shiʿi history. Ḥaydar Āmulī’s era also saw the emergence of lettrism as a major intellectual discourse, at times challenging Sufism and monism, representing itself as a legitimate and independent intellectual paradigm. The surge of lettrism during this period led to a renewed interest in certain quranic terms such as the pen (qalam) and the tablet (lawḥ) as vehicles for conveying lettrist concepts, which were also deeply rooted and invested in Neoplatonic cosmology. This presentation examines how Ḥaydar Āmulī employs these two imageries to shed light on the Neoplatonic process of world creation as an act of divine writing. Furthermore, by juxtaposing Sayyid Ḥaydar’s framework with that of his Sunni counterparts, it is argued that Islamic Neoplatonism offers a valuable perspective to position Shiʿi thought as an integral component of the broader trajectory of Islamic intellectual history.

The paper examines the Shiʿite epistemological and psychological foundations of Sanāʾī’s theory of sanctified authority (walāyah) and highlights the role that Sanāʾī played in bringing Shiʿite Neoplatonic philosophy and Sunni mysticism into dialogue, by means of court-patronized mystical poetry. Despite the significance of many of his works as early specimens of court-patronized mystical poetry, Sanāʾī’s poems have been studied by only a handful of scholars (e.g. J.T.P de Bruijn (1983), Franklin Lewis (1995), Nicolas Boylston (2017), Zahiremami (2021)). In this paper, I will focus on Sanāʾī’s magnum opus Ḥadīqat al-ḥaqīqah wa shari’at al-ṭarīqah (‘The Enclosed Garden of Truth and the Law of the Path’, here after Ḥadīqah). Ḥadīqah was a book of Sufi advice which Sanāʾī originally dedicated to his royal patron, the Ghaznavid ruler Bahrāmshāh (r. 1117–1157). As a result, the book has a strong political dimension and demonstrates Sanāʾī’s systematic way of connecting Islamic, particularly Shiʿite, Neoplatonic psychology and epistemology to his mystical view of walāyah and ideal kingship.

What marks the edges of the field of interreligious and interfaith studies in our current moment? Representatives from the Emerging Scholars initiative of the Association of Interreligious/Interfaith Studies (aiistudies.org) will lead a discussion on current trends in critical theory and interdisciplinary research for this interactive workshop. Brief examples of graduate-level research that will be presented includes affect theory and Christian supremacy in religiously plural contexts; the liberal politics that characterize many common practices developed by interfaith organizations in North America; and the opportunities and challenges of interreligious approaches to environmental projects. The aim of our discussion is to invite other graduate students, junior scholars, and senior scholars into the conversation, working from the idea that the scholarship emerging from different disciplines could help us understand and identify what is on the cutting edge of critical scholarship in the (still) new field of interreligious and interfaith studies. 

This presentation opens a conversation about the evolving landscape of Interreligious Studies (IRS) within the broader taxonomy of the study of religion by asking about its inter- and multidisciplinary nature. How is IRS related to Religious Studies (RS), theological studies, Jewish studies, Islamic studies, and other fields beyond those represented in the AAR? This paper initiates a critical discussion on the academic classification or home of IRS and its relationship to other fields. By likening IRS to RS as ecology to biology, a thought experiment is opened – one that welcomes rigorous critical feedback – to examine IRS's roles, methods, pitfalls, and interdisciplinary potential. The session invites diverse scholarly insights to workshop IRS's academic positioning and identify gaps in scholarship to further enhance the field's future.

Interreligious/Interfaith Studies is an academic field that is inherently interdisciplinary. Engagement with the arts is a multifaceted aspect of this interdisciplinarity. This interactive workshop, facilitated by an interreligious-studies scholar/arts-professional, will enable a robust conversation about the interface between Interreligious/Interfaith Studies and academic study of (or engagement with) the arts. It will feature a brief assessment of the state of the engagement, as discernable in recently released arts-themed Interreligious/Interfaith Studies publications. During the ensuing discussion, attendees will consider questions such as the criteria by which particular engagements between religion(s) and art(s) _qualify_ as examples of Interreligious/Interfaith Studies per se; effective methods of critical inquiry into the arts as an Interreligious/Interfaith Studies theme; personal experiences of the interdisciplinarity of religion and the arts; or projects and publications that will further the practice and assessment of engagement of Interreligious/Interfaith Studies with the arts.

This paper explores the impact of physical spaces on interreligious dialogue by analyzing key works in interreligious studies from the last five years. While cognitive concepts like 'third spaces' and 'sacred space' have garnered significant attention, the actual physical venues of interreligious meetings has received less attention. The paper will investigate how issues of neutrality, inclusivity, and exclusivity manifest in recent literature on meeting spaces. This entails examining each work from an array of perspectives on the topic, including religious perspectives on spaces of other faiths and secular venues, as well as considering intersecting factors such as gender, class, race, and sexuality. Additionally, it explores emerging thoughts on the nature of supposedly neutral spaces. The paper aims to uncover emerging trends and theoretical frameworks while identifying unresolved issues. A brief comparison between theoretical discourse and practical examples will be included to assess the alignment between academic literature and current practices.

Teaching students a hermeneutic process can help them connect what they learn in interreligious and interfaith studies to their lives outside the classroom. The process begins by acknowledging each student’s unique starting point, and then moves through five further steps: first responses to what I’m encountering, self-reflection on those responses, understanding (including listening with empathy and asking with curiosity), reflection on what I’ve learned, and deciding what’s next. Students engage case studies by writing about their first responses and self-reflections on those responses; then, after applying an analytical template and practicing media-literacy skills to research the issues involved, students articulate how and why their minds have changed and how they’d approach a similar case if they encountered it in daily life. The process aims to foster an inclusive environment and help students practice intellectual virtues and metacognition, and students often report using it beyond the course.

How does a syllabus change when your target audience are not religion specialists? The author will discuss how they use "Understanding Religion: Theories and Methods for Studying Religious Diverse Societies" (California UP 2021) in teaching international relations, political science, and other students. Giving some background on the book, it is argued that showing that "religion" is a political category, makes it relevant to understanding society, human interaction, and how people position themselves in groups. The same skills and knowledge are also key in the religious/ interreligious studies classsroom.

In the Western world, we are witnessing the emergence of hybrid forms of religiosity; individuals who do not identify or belong to one religious tradition but identify with or combine elements from multiple religious traditions. Research has shown that people with a multiple religious belonging comprise as much as 24% of the population in the Netherlands, making it one of the largest religious minorities in the country. The word “belonging” has strong emotional connotations. The occurrence of people with a multiple religious belonging, a hybrid religious practice or a multi-religious identity invites us, scholars of religion, to reimagine religious belonging beyond a common understanding of “belonging to a religion”. The multiplicity of religious beliefs and practices to which individuals connect creates a new framework in which individuals experience a sense of rhizomatic belonging, which is both beyond religious traditions.

I propose a new framework that might be called “Way of Life Studies” that invites every person to bring their full self and their whole story to the encounter. This approach begins with the recognition that we are all individuals in context. Our understanding of and ways of approaching our lives is indistinguishable from our experiences alone and in communities with others and with the world. We look to the example of queer studies to help us. Religious identities, like gender and sexual identities are social constructs. If we use labels prescriptively to define people into different categories, we inevitably “straighten” them to fit our boxes and limit their flourishing. In contrast, we can invite each of us to describe ourselves, finding language to tell our stories and illuminate our connections with others

This approach would focus our attention on stories rather than identities, highlighting our experiences as our teachers. We would resist the normative influences of patriarchy and institutional authority and we would also free ourselves to bring our whole selves and hold space for expressing and experiencing transformations in all kinds of interactions. 

This paper will explore the non-violent, interreligious nature of the resistance during the 26-day occupation of the H.E.W. Building in 1977. Since the occupation took place over Easter and Passover, many of the activists celebrated their religious holidays in the building. Many of the organizers, such as Daniel Billups, drew on their own religious practices to lead and sustain the occupation. I will argue that the constraints of the occupation necessitated that these religious practices were interreligious and led to inter-riting among the occupants.

Using archival material from The Healing Community, an interfaith disability rights organization, newspaper articles covering the occupation, and memoirs from key disability activists, I will show that interreligious practice and inter-riting sustained the occupation through non-violent methods. This occupation can expand our notions about where interreligious ritual participation takes place and question the “host and guest” framework of interreligious practices.

We are creating an Interreligious Walking Pilgrimage on campus and its environs. On this pilgrimage designed by a team of faculty and students, college and community members are invited to engage in a multitude of religious experiences along our trails and walking paths. We are actively creating intermittent stations around campus where participants can scan QR codes that will link to meditations, music, poetry, and art from a variety of religious traditions.

Growing international tensions in the late 1930s tested Maude Royden’s deep pacifist convictions.   Concerned about Nazi Germany’s expansion, Royden also focused on Palestine. She toured the region in spring 1938 to witness members of her Peace Army offering welfare support to both Arabs and Jews. Public talks and written statements followed, including a book titled The Problem of Palestine, published in the spring of 1939.  A recognized public theologian, Royden’s calls for peace in the region reflected her vision for interfaith understanding and reconciliation. She argued that a Jewish state, while necessary, should not be built at the expense of the Arabs, and the British government should put aside imperial concerns and meet the needs of all inhabitants of the region. In 1946, when invited to testify to the Anglo-American commission (on Palestine), she warned that the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine would bring more conflict.    

Maude Royden was one of the best-known woman preachers in early-twentieth-century Britain; from 1917 she preached at the Nonconformist City Temple in London, famous for its liberal theology. Royden’s popular books and articles advocated a distinctively “modern” Christian sexual ethic and in successive editions of her best-selling Sex and Common-Sense (first published in 1921 and revised and reissued in 1947) we can trace the complex dialogue between Royden’s modernist theology and new psychological and psychoanalytic approaches to sex. By 1947, Royden was far from orthodox in her Christianity: she portrayed St. Paul as suffering from a “sex complex” and argued that Freud, like Christ (now dubbed “the greatest psychologist in history”), had played a key role in freeing humanity from the bondage of sin. In Royden’s account, Christianity and psychoanalysis converged to underwrite new justifications for chastity and heterosexual monogamy which would, she argued, work together to renew western civilization.

This paper address Royden’s travels to, interactions with, and publications about colonized India, all intriguing facets of her legacy. Widely recognized for her leadership in the Suffragist movement, as a preacher, and pacifist, her engagement with India remains a relatively obscure aspect of her life. Royden's 1934-1935 visit to India was a pivotal juncture, providing her with firsthand exposure to the resilience and fortitude of Indian women. In her writings, Royden eloquently articulates her encounters with individuals from colonized India, transcending the confines of colonial language and embracing a discourse rooted in mutual respect and genuine affection. Her narrative challenges the traditional dichotomy of colonizer and colonized, emphasizing the intrinsic humanity and dignity shared by individuals irrespective of their colonial affiliations. Her recognition of India's pivotal contributions during critical junctures, such as W.W. II, serves as a testament to the depth of India's significance beyond the confines of colonial subjugation.

In 2004, the Church of England published Mission-shaped Church: Church Planting and Fresh Expressions of Church in a Changing Context. This report both summarized and influenced the growth of innovative or “fresh” expressions of worship based on missional theology. These expressions and their theology were presaged by the Guildhouse, an experimental religious community co-led by Maude Royden in London in the 1920s and 30s. Like the millennial Fresh Expressions movement, the Guildhouse conceived of mission not as the imperialist saving of souls but as cooperating with others in God’s on-going restoration of the world through justice and peace: “mission at home.” These others included Mahatma Gandhi and Albert Schweitzer, who both lectured and preached at the Guildhouse. The Guildhouse also anticipated Fresh Expressions in its experimental liturgies and cell groups. This paper explores the Guildhouse’s liturgical and spiritual practices as expressions of Royden’s missional theology and a feminist church renewal.

Prior to the decline of BLM, scholars who attempted to embrace group differentiation and resist capital engaged in genealogical ideology critique. Keeanga Yahmatta Taylor argues that BLM should aim for liberation while Christopher Lebron argues that BLM is based in a tradition of equal dignity that values racial progress. Although liberation is a desirable goal, Taylor’s rich historical account avoids proposing it as a method. Cone's black particularity offers ways to use Taylor’s differentiating aim as motivation, not merely a teleology, and politicize Lebron’s appreciation of dignity. Locating a multi-causal account of liberation in particular practices eschews ideological capture by providing chocolate for the water in which protesting publics swim; that is, particularity for ideology. This paper argues that black particularity illustrates a practice of existential discovery that resists ideological conscription. Cone views radical practices that employ collective rage and grief as more meaningful than the instigation of such processes. 

Despite expanding the theological frameworks of embodiment, sexuality, and incarnation, the reality is that the inner logic of particular Black Church spaces requires or invites communal violence as a conduit to receive the work of God’s action in the world. Stemming from a broader exploration of the impact of exposure to religious violence on African American Millennials and Generation Z in Black Church spaces, this paper attempts to explore the sociopolitical and theological implications of practices of violence within the ecclesiology of the Black Church. Using results from a digital ethnographic analysis and interviews from Black gender and sexual minorities who experienced religious violence and trauma within Black Church contexts, this paper seeks to explore how explorations of Black ecclesiology must engage in trauma-informed and healing-centered theoethics to stop the occurrence of religious and spiritual violence within the Black Church spaces, specifically with Black gender and sexual minorities. 

The notion that Jesus was a nonviolent leader must be critically reexamined in a theological context.  A lack of written evidence of Jesus perpetrating violent acts does not mean he lacked violent intent. In fact, in his trial and his conviction for being the King of the Jews implies violent intent but, however, was unsuccessful with the insurrection. Similarly, Denmark Vesey, an insurgent against slavery in the United States, led a failed attempt insurrection and was tried and sentenced to death for his intent of violence. Using Denmark’s story as the methodology, this paper argues that Jesus attempted to instigate a violent insurrection, but did not succeed, resulting in his death for “treasonous” acts against his oppressor. If, according to Black Theology, God is on the side of the oppressed and Jesus’s liberation from Roman oppression could have involved violence, should a liberation theology support freedom through violence?

In this essay, we examine a contemporary religious movement, The Gathering: A Womanist Church that is centered around a theology of justice in action with an emphasis on a broad-minded belief system. These religious movements are intentionally less focused on doctrinal statements and correct beliefs for assimilation. Instead, this new movement is within the tradition of religion in action: the act of fighting for justice is the doctrine. We contextualize the dialectics of Black nihilism and Black theology through an appeal to the absurd in the face of hope.We argue that Black theology provides avenues to hope through a dialectic with Black nihilism. Black theology is one answer to Black nihilism. In turn, Black nihilism is a response to a failed Black theology of the past. Contemporary Black religious movements are a response and have made an epistemological and ontological turn to real notions of hope, meaning, and love.