Annual Meeting 2024 Program Book

This paper explores issues surrounding caste mobility and perception during the early 19th century by examining Santokh Singh (1787-1843), a Sikh commentator, historian, and poet, notably a member of a marginalized caste, the chīmpā caste, who were cloth dyers. The paper discusses Santokh Singh’s background, thinking through what it meant for a Sikh of a marginalized caste to be enlisted as a student under an important scholar in Amritsar at that time. This examination into Santokh Singh’s background also will focus on his interaction with royal courts, particularly Patiala, and how he married outside of his caste, and what that tells us about caste formations at this time. While Bhai Vir Singh argues that Santokh Singh and his writings were influenced by Brahmins who were also patroned under the same king, this paper will explore the role of caste within his magnus opus, the Sūraj Prakāś (1843).

Caste is a vivid feature of Wāris Shāh’s Hīr, a Punjabi Sufi text attributed to the mid-18th century, which recounts the tragic love story of Hīr and her lover Rāṅjhā. Farina Mir has noted caste as a recurrent feature of later colonial-era versions of the romance of Hīr-Rāṅhā, where “zāt (caste or kinship group)... figures in these texts as the most salient category of social organization” (The Social Space of Language 2010, 123). This was a feature of Wāris Shāh’s earlier version as well. This paper will explore the multiple dimensions of the articulation of caste in Waris Shah’s Hīr – in relation to Jaţness as well as other community definitions – to understand the meanings of caste discourses at this time, in this text. 

In the first-half of the twentieth century many upper-caste Punjabi Khatri men (or of cognate castes), most born in the second-half of the nineteenth century, wrote their auto/biographies reflecting on their life and achievements. They celebrated making it big from humble beginnings, noted successful professional careers or underscored contributions to public life. They addressed the significant changes they witnessed in their lifetimes, particularly the transmutations under colonial rule, and their often exhilarating experience of inhabiting colonial modernity. They started their life-writing by indexing their Khatri antecedents, some aware of the advantages it bestowed, others through invoking their ancestors’ lives. As an increasingly popular genre, the auto/biography became the medium through which these men inserted themselves in history-making and history-writing, insidiously becoming the inheritors of the nation-in-making. As historians of South Asia write of the subalterns outside the charmed circle of power, it is worth exploring how power and privilege buoyed others into dominance.

This paper examines how caste mobility and social order are imagined in Kuir Singh's Gurbilās Pātshāhī Das (1751), an early modern text in Punjabi-Brajbhasha about the lives of the Sikh Gurus. More specifically, it interrogates how Kuir Singh's positionality as a Kalal, a marginalised caste group, informs his discourse on caste and social order. While Murphy and Dhavan have discussed Kuir Singh's criticism of caste hegemony, there has not been much discussion on how Kuir Singh’s caste positionality informs his discourse on caste and social order of his imagined early Khalsa community. Through a close analysis of literary vignettes in Kuir Singh’s Gurbilās, my paper argues that Kuir Singh discourse on caste, and his choice of locating himself within an elite cultural field of courtly Brajbhasha literature contributed to creating a literary and social space to imagine upward social and caste mobility in early modern Punjab.

Drawing from the work of William Robert (Unbridled: Studying Religion in Performance), Cia Sautter (The Performance of Religion: Seeing the sacred in the Theatre), Mark C. Taylor (After God), Talal Asad (Formations of the Secular) and other scholars, this paper offers a firsthand record of the experience of adapting and directing the first staged adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's final novel Stella Maris. This adaptation that also includes roughly 20 minutes of original film (in part inspired by McCarthy's penultimate novel The Passenger, which overlaps with Stella Maris) shot on location by the director (who is also the author and presenter of this paper) and a small team in Montana, Arizona, the Yukon, and the Boundary Waters of nothern Minnesota. Those in attendance will learn about how the process of adapting, directing, and performing the play revealed powerful and subtle insights at the intersection of performance, philosophy and religion.

This paper investigates how the dance piece “Revelations”, a choreographic masterpiece created by American choreographer Alvin Ailey in the early 1960s, demonstrates a theological knowing process under the framework of Fourfold Knowing Event by James E. Loder, a practical theologian. In this study, the dance “Revelations” is analyzed as an “assemblage” under New Materialism, which presented a distributed view of agency. From this, the relationality between the living and non-living actors, like dancers, audience, stage environment, music, and culture, also emerges. This paper argues that the dance performance in “Revelations” facilitates a theologically transformational knowing process that helps people encounter the Holy Spirit in the face of the void constituted by the conflict between the living world and the self. This paper thus seeks to enrich scholarship by probing the relationship between dance, an aesthetic art form, and theological knowing through the close study of a twentieth-century masterpiece.

This paper looks at Tibetan Buddhist tantric ritual dances called *cham* to consider how they are co-realized through the interplay of dance manuals called *cham yig* and through the bodies of dancing monks in order to to think about how physical acts of religious piety can be studied in a way that considers both written and embodied textual traditions. It argues that the dancing body becomes an implement which inscribes in space the text of ritual choregraphy, the language of the divinities.  How can contemporary theories and methods in the study of religion help us think about the body as a legitimate site of knowledge production and dissemination? How can we conduct social and cultural analyses not through disembodied intellectual knowledge, but through the integration of embodied religious practices?

Paul Taylor’s "Beloved Renegade" is a modern dance choreographed to the music of Francis Poulenc’s "Gloria." Even though the words and music are liturgical, Taylor’s choreography is based on the life of Walt Whitman, a poet who largely eschewed traditional religion. Building on this unexpected combination, this paper examines the conversation between the liturgical text/music and the choreography in this piece as an example of the Catholic sacramental imagination. The "queerness" of the piece transforms a prayer of praise and petition into a celebration of incarnational theology.

This talk explores the implications of Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s view that both scripture and literature can serve as mediums that deeply affect and orient readers’ postures of attention and their ways of navigating within a wider world of concern. Critiquing the bibliolatrous, Coleridge advocates for a projective method of reading that enables reciprocal exchange, one where subjective experience becomes objectively available through its correspondence with the figures of Scripture, and where objective truths can become subjectively realized. After focusing on how and why Coleridge’s model of scriptural reading works I then consider what this model can illuminate about religion and literature more generally. A key consideration will be on how the dynamics of Coleridge’s model relates to a broader trajectory of participatory ritual, scripture, and rhetoric that can traced back to debates concerning theurgy in Neoplatonism and forward to the possibilities that have emerged within various strands of contemporary Ecopoetics and Ecotheology.

My paper explores the aesthetic dimensions of Qurʾānic passages that describe, sanction, or call for violence. Seen as problematic today, such passages are often ignored, explained away, or reduced to their historical contingency. The idea that they bear any aesthetic value seems ineffable, which conflicts, however, with the Islamic tenet of iʿjāz (the Qurʾān’s inimitability) that has mostly been defined in aesthetic terms. Scrutinizing our preconceived notions regarding religion and violence, on the other hand, helps shed new light on these passages. Reading violence-related verses diachronically with an open mind reveals their hermeneutic depth and aesthetic value. A non-teleological approach that embeds those passages in the greater narrative of the emerging Muslim community without presupposing their victory opens new avenues to appreciating them aesthetically and theologically. I argue that violence in the Qurʾān serves a particular aesthetic-ethical purpose, that is, to urge believers to critical self-reflection and God-consciousness.

This paper presents an example of al-Zamakhsharī’s interpretation of the use of the definite article in al-Baqara 2:5, “It is they who are the successful ones” (wa ulāʾika hum al-mufliḥūn) to show how communicative ideas from outside the discipline of tafsīr, taken from ʿAbd al-Qāhir al-Jurjānī and the field of rhetoric, came to inflect approaches to the Qurʾān at the granular level. This paper further shows how the intellectual debt of tafsīr to rhetoric can be traced by recourse to the ḥāshiya (metacommentary) tradition on al-Zamakhsharī’s al-Kashshāf and al-Bayḍāwī’s Anwār. Controversies that persisted throughout the post-classical period related to the interpretation of language and this verse, this paper concludes, had less to do with scholasticism and was instead reflective of underlying commitments to a communicative approach to language that had been derived from the field of rhetoric, which had motivated the interpretation of this verse in the first place.

This paper delves into a comparative examination of  Abū Manṣūr al-Māturīdī’s unique approach to Qurʾānic exegesis, highlighting his use of intra-textual analysis to interpret the so called anthropomorphic verses. Unlike his contemporaries, such as al-Tabārī (d. 310/923), whose exegesis relied heavily on philological analysis and Prophetic reports, al-Māturīdī adopts a method that seeks to understand Qurʾānic verses in the context of other verses, thereby offering a more Qurʾān-centric interpretation of verses that have often been subject to whimsical commentary. While celebrating al-Māturīdī's contribution to Qurʾānic hermeneutics, this paper also discusses the limitations of his approach, notably his occasional lack of philological rigor in comparison to the likes of al-Tabarī, al-Zamakhsharī (d. 538/1144) and al-Rāzī (d.543/1149). By exploring these nuances, the paper sheds light on a significant but under-explored method of early Islamic exegesis, offering insights about the potential of the exegetical literature in uncovering the meaning of the Qurʾān. 

This paper focuses on interpretive trends related to the Qur'anic concept of a created human nature or _fiṭra_ (Q 30:30). In particular, I seek to show the complexity of the debates surrounding this concept and the possibiities and limitations of simply delienating a Qur'anic concept of human nature. I will do so by highlighting both internal and temporal trends: working towards an understanding of the Qur'anic _fiṭra_ we encounter the existence of a ranger of interpretations as well as broad consensus _and_ important continuities and discontinues between different periods. 

In this essay, I analyze exegetical interpretations of the Qur’anic moral mandate of iḥsān (beauty/goodness) at times of conflict and demonstrate how certain interpretive choices can, at times, facilitate an exclusionary discourse that may undermine the moral call of the text. The three works examined are those by Ibn Kathīr (d.1373) which is the most widely circulated Qur’anic exegesis (tafsīr) in the world today, Sayyid Qutb (d.1966) who was an influential leader of political Islam, and Ṭabaṭabāʾī (d. 1981) who is a highly revered Shiʿi exegete, scholar and philosopher. This study is based on a holistic and methodical examination of the concept of iḥsān in the Qur’an and the way in which it is understood in various works of exegesis. The analysis also takes into consideration the possible impact of the historical context on the interpretations. 

Medieval imaginative meditation on the Passion required devotees to visualize the narrative scenes of Jesus’ tortures and Mary’s grieving response. However, in Passion texts composed in the Castilian vernacular during the first decades of an Inquisition whose primary remit was to police judaizing converts, the authors scripted for their readers meditations centering on violent anger and physical anguish, rather than compassionate sorrow. Castilian Christians extended the medieval anti-Semitic “Christ-killing” accusation to include scenes of malicious violence against not only Jesus but also Mary. This rendering of Jews as violent against women definitively shaped mystical experience in sixteenth century Spain: Juana de la Cruz’ visionary sermons included scenes of Mary beaten and knocked down by her fellow Jews, while the influential mystical teacher Francisco de Osuna recommended a visualization of Mary’s crucifixion to aspiring mystics. Mystical practice was thus not divorced from Castilian anti-Semitism, but rather reinforced it.

Scholars of mysticism are well-attuned to how mystical texts intersperse descriptions of intense bodily mortification and the ecstasy of divine love.  Queer scholarship exposes how mystical texts transgress conventional gender and heteronormative categories.  Postmodern psychodynamic scholarship insists that even distant medieval texts have something powerful to say today about how abjection and jouissance might intersect in the soul’s union with God.  Against the backdrop of these approaches, this essay investigates one of Christianity’s most cryptic mystical figures: Rebecca Cox Jackson.  A Methodist-raised 19th-century black woman who lived among white Shakers, Jackson fits in no one’s box.  Unlocking the possible meaning of her erotic and violent dreams and visions requires a special hermeneutical lens. This essay offers an intertextual reading of Jackson’s spiritual autobiography Gifts of Power using the writings of the late-20th-century lesbian French feminist thinker, Monique Wittig.

The question of how to interpret the rhetoric of violence and eroticism—and in particular, masochism—in the words of women medieval mystics has been the center of scholarly analysis for many decades. In my paper, I will briefly review this history then suggest an analysis that need neither dismiss this rhetoric as inherently pathological nor must it ignore or seriously downplay its existence. By taking seriously the interpretations of sexual masochism and its positive attributes as discussed by people who actually practice it today, we can make an argument that yes, medieval women mystics were masochistic and as such, they reflected the very characteristics of body-soul unity, empowerment, healing, and agency that practitioners say are positive results of their experiences. Only then will we be able to start seriously questioning what this masochistic tendency in mystical writing and contemporary sexuality means.

In this paper, I argue for a reading of “Force of Law” that positions it as both a continued engagement with Levinas’s conceptions of violence – in ways both affirming and critical – and as a corrective to some of Derrida’s own earlier thinking on violence. To make this case, I first trace Levinas’s views on non-violence as he sketches them in Totality and Infinity and Difficult Freedom and discuss Derrida’s critical response to these formulations and their role in Levinas’s broader ethical scheme. I will then explicate Levinas’ treatment of violence and non-violence in Otherwise Than Being as a response to Derrida’s critique and argue that his justification of the concept of non-violence is ultimately insufficient in the context of his ethical system. In light of this, I argue that it is all the more significant that in “Force of Law”, Derrida will forcefully trouble the notion of a justified violence.  

This paper takes up Jacques Derrida’s worry that Walter Benjamin’s notion of divine violence too closely mirrors the forms of mythic violence that it is supposed to undo. It places Derrida’s concerns in the wider context of Benjamin’s relationship of “intimate enmity” with radical conservative thinkers. The “Critique of Violence” was intended by Benjamin as one part of a larger political project, in which he sought to respond to the variety of forms of vitalist politics popular among both left- and right-wing figures in the early twentieth century. By setting “Critique of Violence” within this wider perspective, the paper underscore two important features of Benjamin’s politics: first, his assumption that emancipatory practices stand in an uncomfortable proximity to that which they seek to overcome and, second, his insistence that the realms of politics and of divine justice are not coextensive, with the result that their relation always remains troubled.

What is the relationship between modern finance, the violence of chattel slavery, and the formation of American religious identity? In this paper, I argue that the process of fashioning African captives into financial assets relied upon an apparatus of cultural and material violence that was fundamentally religious in nature and, in turn, that their status as liquid goods in the U.S. monetary economy positioned slaves as sacred objects in the nation’s religious economy. I thus approach the question of American religion not in terms of a particular tradition but by examining the religious logics structuring American social and political life. I draw on the work of Orlando Patterson and René Girard to read antebellum U.S. banking practices as operations of a broader sacrificial system serving to shore up American religio-political identity by positioning the enslaved as its quintessential victims, a renewable resource nourishing both its religious and financial life.

This paper asks how scholars of religion might approach Land as method. It considers what new insights and questions emerge when community situated theories of religion informed by long standing relationships to particular land bases are permitted entry into the critical study of religion? It attempts to participate in an Indigenous epistemology that labors to listen to the Land on the question of religion and considers what religious studies scholars might learn from the field of Indigenous studies that has long insisted Land and nonhuman beings also generate knowledge. Focusing in on Iiyiyiu histories of land-based activism it suggests that Indigenous appeals to religion that enunciate sustained resistance to the colonial project are acts of resignification and theories of religion in their own right born from a methodology of sustained relationships to place and histories of survivance.

This paper utilizes quantitative analysis of surveys conducted by the Association of Theological Schools (ATS) to explore the future of chaplaincy. Drawing from responses from 350-400 individuals serving or intending to serve as chaplains in the US and Canada, the study explores career options for chaplains, including multi-vocational roles. It investigates job positions held upon graduation and anticipated in five years, both within and outside congregational settings. Additionally, it assesses the effectiveness of chaplain education and identifies key skills and competencies. The findings provide valuable insights into the preparedness of chaplains for interdisciplinary settings and the outcomes of graduate education in chaplaincy.

This paper investigates whether the U.S. Federal agency charged with executing violence on its enemies also does violence to theological education systems. We trace the relationship between the Department of Defense (DoD) and theological education institutions as it develops from World War I to the present. Ted Smith’s work in The End of Theological Education (2023) provides the framework through which we examine how the dynamics of professionalization and individualization converge around military chaplaincy. The DoD requirements for chaplains contributed to the founding of the Association of Theological Schools (ATS) with the mass mobilizations of the World Wars. Moral outrage over Vietnam disrupted this dynamic relationship. In the wake of 9/11 and new wartime needs, the DoD unilaterally revised the requirements for military chaplaincy, which has hastened and exacerbated the forces of individualization in theological education: diminishing residency, reducing credit hour requirements, and changing accreditation obligations.

Expanding Chaplain Competencies: Tradition-Aware Chaplaincy is a project exploring the relationship between beliefs and practices of patients from multiple traditions and the ways participants engage healthcare. The project’s goal is to provide practical guidance equipping Association for Clinical Pastoral Education Certified Educators and Board Certified Chaplains to offer tradition-aware chaplaincy education and chaplaincy.  Interviews with leaders from each tradition and focus groups with members of each tradition provide the data for this qualitative research project. Participants are asked how those in their tradition make meaning, cope, make medical decisions, and navigate spiritual struggle in times of serious illness. Participating traditions include African Methodist Episcopal, Baha’i, Buddhist, Biblical Christian, Hindu, Humanist, Jehovah’s Witness, Muslim, Native American, Orthodox Jewish, and Roman Catholic. Competencies will be developed from the results of qualitative interviews with leaders and focus groups with members from participating traditions.

This paper examines the relationship between Hindu college chaplains and the students they serve through the lens of three models of faith development: one arising from a study of Muslim-American students (Peek, 2005); a second based largely on research conducted with Christian students (Parks, 2019); and a third that borrows from a Hindu framework (Gosvamin, 2003) that I seek to re-interpret here. Drawing from my doctoral research on Hindu student life in higher education and my lived experience as a Hindu college chaplain, I seek to juxtapose the stories of the Hindu student /chaplain relationship with these three faith development models. I hope to shed light on an under-studied, marginalized, and minoritized religious community within our field, as well as  suggest lessons that might be applicable to our evolving understanding of chaplaincy more generally.