This workshop invites graduate students, administrators, and faculty to imagine religion and theology PhD programs in ways that prepare students for diverse careers after the PhD. It will operate on the premise that programs can employ a more “agnostic” approach to career outcomes and prepare students for both faculty and non-faculty positions. The workshop will introduce practical resources for career exploration, discuss both explicit and implicit challenges to diverse careers, share both low- and high-effort strategies for professional development within programs, and suggest ways that our guild can adapt strategies modeled in other academic societies. This is an opportunity for honest conversation, ideas exchange, and to create a learning community.
Annual Meeting 2024 Program Book
.
.
Papers
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
This working group meeting is for existing members of the American Examples research workshop, as well as those interested possibly interested in participating in the future.
The first paper revisits the concept of monotheism through Schelling’s philosophical lens, enriched by Girard's insights into the nature of divine and human imitation. It presents an intriguing dialogue between biblical narratives and philosophical thought, shedding light on the evolution of religious consciousness.
The second paper expands the conversation into the realms of theology and social justice, exploring how the Cross shapes historical and contemporary political realities. By placing Girard and Lonergan in dialogue with Ellacuría's political theology, it offers a pathway to a political praxis rooted in love and informed by a deep understanding of human tendencies towards victimization.
Papers
This paper provides a response to Christopher Haw’s book Monotheism, Intolerance, and the Path to Pluralistic Politics by evaluating it within the understanding of monotheism developed by F.W.J. Schelling in his philosophy of mythology and his philosophy of revelation.
First, Schelling’s conceptions of natural theism, relative monotheism, successive polytheism, and absolute monotheism are interpreted from the standpoint of René Girard’s mimetic theory. Examples from the book of Genesis are used to illustrate Schelling’s ideas. Second, these ideas are compared with Haw’s discussion of Girard’s understanding of monotheism as a “refusal to divinize victims.” Schelling’s philosophy is shown to be illuminated by mimetic theory and Haw’s treatment of it.
Regarding Genesis, the evolution of a conscious awareness of God is discernible in the five cycles of Genesis and in some parallel mythologems in Hesiod’s Greek mythology. Five points in particular are discussed by using mimetic theory together with some Schellingian interpretations.
René Girard and Bernard Lonergan both offer theologies of the Cross that recognize God as having definitively marked history through the Cross and Resurrection of Jesus. For Girard, the Cross reveals God as fundamentally the God of the innocent victim, as well as own tendency to scapegoat and create victims. Lonergan notes that the Cross and the redemption that emerges from it has resulted in a “change for the better” in history. Despite the claims of Girard and Lonergan, the scandal of social sin on a grand scale persists. How can this be? And what does this failure to see mean for politics - our shared social life - today? This paper offers tentative insights into this problematic by placing Girard and Lonergan in dialogue with Ignacio Ellacuría and his political theology of the "crucified people." Taken together, these authors offer important principles for a Christian political praxis rooted in love.
Students come to the study of religion with a variety of perspectives. Some are people of faith with a strong interest in affirming and defending their beliefs. Others may be curious about both familiar and unfamiliar religious traditions or looking to critically engage childhood religious experiences. Still others question the social value of religions, particularly when religious rhetoric sparks violence and sociopolitical divisions. In this open roundtable discussion, we will explore how religious diversity and even hostility within or toward religious traditions creates challenges and opportunities for teaching and learning in religious education and religious studies classrooms. Participants will be invited to share strategies for acknowledging differences, fostering respectful conversations, and wrestling with intractable conflicts. (Bring your own lunch.)
Richard Boothby is a leading Lacanian theorist, who has recently published Embracing the Void: Rethinking the Origin of the Sacred (Northwestern University Press, 2022). This session will provide an opportunity to hear Prof. Boothby speak about this work and its relation to the question of the figure of the mother in the production of political order, a conversation adjunct to his “Notes on the Most Radical Possible Theology” in Embracing the Void.
Can nonviolence be a practical and sufficient method of dealing with violence? This is a common question. Regardless of any suspicion about nonviolence’s feasibility for facilitating change, however, nonviolent resistance is a way for ordinary people to advance rights, freedoms, and democracy using methods such as protests, strikes, and boycotts, and it has historically been twice as effective as armed struggle in achieving major goals. From Indian independence to the U.S. Civil Rights Movement, to the anti-Apartheid struggle in South Africa, to “people power” in the Philippines, to the first Palestinian Intifada, to recent pro-democracy campaigns in Hong Kong, Sudan, and Guatemala, nonviolent resistance has been a powerful force for change – although it has not always succeeded. This talk explores the power and potential of civil resistance during a time of rising authoritarianism and political violence in the U.S. and around the world, with a focus on the crucial role of religion and religious actors in advancing nonviolent change and examining what it means to move from theory to practice.
The Status of Women and Gender Minoritized Persons in the Professions Committee and the Status of Racial and Ethnic Minoritized People in the Professions Committee will co-sponsor a mentoring lunch for women and gender-minoritized people. The luncheon is open to female-identified and gender minoritized members of AAR at any stage of their professional journey and offers space for candid conversations about the challenging issues which the participants are facing. This AAR member luncheon requires an advance purchase. Add this to your registration by MODIFYING your AAR Annual Meeting registration. Tickets not available after October 31.