Annual Meeting 2024 Program Book

Almost no scholarly attention has been devoted to the question of Christianity in Jewish literature. This paper begins to address that lacuna, but in so doing asks what it means to think Christianity in Jewish modernity at all. Taking a cue from scholars that urge us to consider Christianity beyond the rubric of religion, I ask how literature registers the Jewish encounter with Europe as a distinctively Christianizing affair. I bring post-colonial and deconstructionist accounts of secularization into conversation with Cynthia Ozick, who is distinctive among modern Jewish writers for her openly theological rendition of literature. Attending to the Christian figuration of literary mediation in Ozick’s writings, I argue that modern Jewish literature confronts Christianity as a framework of language and loss. Jewish literature, then, is not an expression of Jewish life, but a translational archive of the fractures and ghosts engendered by the organizing mediation of Christianity in modernity.

Nancy Jay glossed historical biblical criticism as the originary interpretive tradition of “hermeneutic philosophies of understanding.” This paper offers one way into thinking about the disciplinary transpositions of biblical hermeneutics by considering representations of historical criticism and its alternatives in Erich Auerbach’s “Odysseus’ Scar.” If, as James Porter and others argue, Auerbach’s account of Homer and Genesis is to be understood as a critique of German National Socialism and its Protestant theological institutions, the throughline of this critique is best centered not on philology, but on historical criticism, the specific hermeneutic most effectively structured by and generative of modern anti-Judaism. Against this context, Auerbach deems historical criticism a method appropriate to Homer but not the Bible, advancing instead his own conception of how the Bible represents its universal historicity.

Abstract: Previous scholarship has studied the figuration of Jesus of Nazareth as the suffering “other” in twentieth century Jewish thought (Hoffman 2007, Stahl 2012). Following the maternal turn (Benjamin 2018), I look to read how Jewish authors read Jesus’ grieving mother Mary as a site of loss, grief, and survival in the context of the Holocaust. Reading with Benjamin, Fackenheim (1968), and Levinas (1982), I assess the figuration of Mary, the mother of Jesus, in three pieces of twentieth century Jewish cultural and intellectual production: Anna Margolin’s 1929 Mary cycle, the anonymous poem “To the Mother of Our Generation” (“Tsu der mamen fun undzer dur”) from the Ringelblum archives, and Marc Chagall’s 1976 “Descent from the Cross” (“La descente de croix”). With attention to the movement of grief, gender, and embodiment, I argue that in contrast to the figuration of Jesus as suffering “other” and victim, in twentieth century Jewish thought, Mary emerges as a symbol of the suffering survivor.

Emerging neurotechnologies combine neuroscience with AI to collect and interpret human brain data, connect brains to machines or other brains, and modify neural functions. This paper explores questions about human and individual identity, agency, and moral responsibility raised by these technological prospects. From a Protestant Christian standpoint, these questions are addressed in light of two biblical and theological themes: the image of God and the body of Christ. The *imago Dei* is understood “performatively”: not so concerned with defining humanity as with “actively *seeking* humanity” (Alistair McFadyen) where the humanity of some is placed in doubt. In dialog with Dietrich Bonhoeffer, I argue that a faithful performance of the *imago* will enact the vision of human sociality offered by the metaphor of the body of Christ: one of mutual interconnectedness without loss of identity, in which agency and responsibility can be shared and mutually supported without being lost or obscured.

In this paper I will explore the use of computer brain interfaces (CBIs) for moral enhancement. One of the types of enhancement that will be discussed is a reduction of violence. However, this raises questions about control and free will, so while there may be solid philosophical reasons to prohibit requiring this kind of moral enhancement, there may be compelling theological reasons why people might choose voluntarily to do so. The concluding section will focus on the relationship between moral enhancement and virtue. While there is not universal consensus, there does seem to be some agreement amongst scholars that using gene editing for moral enhancement cannot engineer virtue. The question posed here is whether CBIs and their use can bring about virtue, or if they simply allow people to act more morally. My tentative answer is that this is more complicated of an answer than with gene editing.

The ability to connect and exchange information facilitates the work of God. For many liberal theological traditions, this is the primary way God works in the world, through people and their relationships. The love of God is communicated through speech-acts among created beings. Consequently, in the postmodern conext of the Network Society and Information Age, theological interaction with technologies like brain-machine interfaces tends toward an affirmation of enhanced communication. Anything that may enhance our ability to connect honors our created nature as relational beings and the work of God in the world. Theologians generally recognize the importance of embodiment and the importance of embodied autonomy. Jeanine Thweatt, for example, suggests a contextual, compassionate somatic ethic that asks, “what can this body do? And what does this body need?”[1] Theologians affirm embodiment, but particularly in light of brain-machine interfacing, what matters about the particularities of embodied information and its flow?

This paper is concerned primarily with brain-computer interfaces (BCI) and the potential for harm when we seek more intimate communication and relationships through this emerging technology. Specifically, the theological insight of Thomas Aquinas and the philosophical work of Stanley Cavell are taken up to help us better understand our desire for community, the limitations of that desire, and the psychological violence that follows our crashing up against these limitations. It is argued that a goal of BCI technology for unadulterated communication and relationship is not only likely to fail but even be a source for psychological torment. The closer we as humans come to the inner life of others, the more we are faced with our perpetual separateness—a separateness that leads to violence both internally and, in extreme cases, externally. Such violence not only informs the current development of BCI in relation to disability but broader hopes for enhancement.

Healthy faith produces human flourishing, and healthy faith reveals that women, men, trans, non-binary, Black, Brown, White, Asian, able, disabled, rich, poor, middle-class, and more are all equal. They are equally created by God, infinitely loved by God, and universally called to lives of meaning, purpose, and joy. Recognizing this truth, ethical Christianity must model egalitarianism, universalism, and inclusion to the world, making use of all members’ talents and placing them in service of the common good. The tripersonal Trinity, in which distinct persons generate divinity through love, provides the conceptual ground for this inclusive disposition. Interpersonal uniqueness energizes the divine community, such that unity-in-difference is the very source of all reality, the image in which we are made, and the state for which we are intended, both ethically and politically.

What is a person? In the last 50 years, both psychology and theological anthropology have moved from a rational model of personhood to a relational model. From a disability perspective, relational models of theological anthropology represent an improvement over models of anthropology and psychology which place rationalism at the locus of personhood, emphasizing instead that personhood is most appropriately understood in relationship to the whole community. Yet, autistic persons often struggle with sensory processing disorders and social anhedonia that make relationality challenging. This paper challenges theologians to rethink the definition of relationality and of the imago dei by exploring unique features of the autistic experience and how those features express the imago dei as mediated by the Holy Spirit.

Power is affective and consequential: its material effects often serve as evidence of the relations of a particular cultural context, historical period, or geographical location. Conceptions of divinity, often envisaged as ultimate or total power, affect both human-divine and human-human relations; further, if divine power is imagined as Christian, then relations between Christians and religious others will be duly influenced. Thus, I aim to explore “violence, nonviolence, and the margin” through attention to the ways that open theologies and process thought, in the lineage of Alfred North Whitehead, can both disrupt hierarchies that materialize relations of margin-center but also, perhaps unintentionally, reify or reinscribe similar relations. With reference to feminist process theologians, as well as queer and affect theorist Sara Ahmed, I will contend that a reification and consolidation of uncreative, violent, and/or destructive forms of power might occur especially if Christian theological imaginings are at play.

For this research, we will bring into conversation: 1) a literature review of the challenges of social and economic violence for returning citizens; 2) some anecdotal data about the challenges of re-entry for formerly incarcerated people; 3) the experience of spiritual renewal while incarcerated within the tradition of Christianity; and 4) the perspectives of open and relational theology on the work of God within the flourishing or the floundering life of a returning citizen.

The goal of this conversation is to compare the effectiveness of classical views of God's love and justice versus the effectiveness of open relational views of God's love and justice when addressing the challenges of returning citizens who have deepened their consciousness about God and about themselves while incarcerated.  

More than six million lives have been lost to violence in the last thirty years (worst since WW II) in the African Great Lakes region. Open Theism can begin to provide a theodicy for the past and a framework for future hope.

If the God you worship is violent, then violence will seem to you to be an acceptable way to resolve conflicts. The gravitational pull of God’s love draws open theists towards Jesus-centrism. Jesus modeled and taught nonviolence. Love works for reconciliation. I’m going to show video that illustrates what reconciliation can look like in the DR Congo.

I’ve heard, “Congo has no prophet.” Open theism—with its emphasis on a future that has many possibilities—can see a future where violence is renounced, where there is labor toward reconciliation and economic justice, and mutual thriving becomes what people are striving for in the power of the Holy Spirit.

This paper explores the Hashem el Madani Collection (1953-1982) within the Arab Image Foundation, focusing on exhibitions curated by Akram Zaatari. Drawing from José Esteban Muñoz’s concept of disidentifications, the study examines visual knowledge performance in this epistemological field, exploring agency within photographic practices and photography as a medium. It critiques normative secular-liberal views through Saba Mahmood’s work on agency in the women’s mosque movement. Ulrike E. Auga’s notion of agency photography is discussed as a means to overcome colonial photographic canons. By integrating Muñoz’s, Mahmood’s, and Auga’s frameworks, the paper outlines new modalities of agency, emphasizing the transformative potential of piety in reshaping visual discourses on the 'Middle East'. This interdisciplinary approach offers insights into subject formation, human flourishing, and the politics of representation within both religious and secular-based historical and contemporary discourses on gender and sexuality in Lebanon.

Researchers collecting and classifying photographs of European cultural heritage sites threatened by war during the 19th and 20th centuries understood their work as keeping alive the memories of masterpieces in the path of destruction. Through this work selecting cultural heritage for preservation through photography, teams including the Warburg Institute, the US Monuments Fine Arts and Archives subcommission, and manuscript microfilming projects linked European cultural heritage to medieval Christians’ belongings and buildings. Using archival records from these major photographic preservation projects, I examine how photographic preservation projects facilitated the transformation of devotional objects and religious sites into collectable art.

In contemporary Thailand, lay Buddhists’ surveillance of monks on social media is ubiquitous. Especially sexual surveillance, in the forms of photographs of monks displaying feminine behavior and sexual desire for women, leads Thai Buddhist laity to decry the decline and destruction of their religion. Normative Buddhist monastic masculinity in contemporary Thailand would demonstrate an ability to tame desire for sex and expressions of femininity. Using scholarship on Buddhist masculinity, masculinity studies, and Foucault’s concept of docile bodies, I analyze contemporary surveillance of monastic sexual behavior through the lens of media and photographs. Data from Thai news sources, flashpoints of male heterosexuality and feminine behaviors of monks, and focus group interviews with Thai Buddhist laity, reveal that the distance of media and possibilities of surveillance through photographs narrate the current state of Thai Buddhism and how laity contextualize this recent disciplinary tendency. 

This presentation introduces the concept of "visual silence" as a framework for analyzing East-West landscape cinema, photography, and post-1968 cultural dynamics. It challenges Left-wing melancholia by reframing it as a representation of the loss of homelands, cultural belonging, and viable solidarities. Exploring Asian landscape art traditions tied to Confucian, Buddhist, and Daoist philosophies, the study delves into a contemplative "blank space" aesthetic. Focusing on Japan's fûkeiron ("landscape theory") movement, it examines how radical filmmakers and photographers, exemplified by the film A.K.A. Serial Killer, employed visual silence to investigate urban landscapes under state power. Contextualizing fûkeiron's dialogue with French art and thought, the presentation argues that visual silence is a transformative technique rooted in older religious traditions, challenging prevailing cultural norms. It concludes by showcasing contemporary photographers Li Lang and Jungjin Lee, illustrating visual silence's enduring capacity to evoke, challenge, and reimagine narratives of loss, remembrance, place, and transformation.

This paper argues that Kierkegaard, while famously politically conservative, and a notorious opponent of “women’s emancipation,” was actually progressive in his views on the inherent equality of men and women. More importantly, it argues that Kierkegaard's views on the nature of masculine and feminine gender stereotypes and the processes of socialization that resulted from these stereotypes, when sufficiently appreciated, can serve as a point of departure for the emancipation of both sexes from these artificial and limiting stereotypes, and can point us in the direction of genuine social progress. 

This paper seeks to elucidate the politico-theological significance of the anthropotheistic position taken by Ludwig Feuerbach in his magnum opus, The Essence of Christianity (1841). In doing so, it pursues a circuitous route that begins by considering Feuerbach’s call, in a letter he sent to Hegel in 1828, for the establishment of the Alleinherrschaft or “sole sovereignty” of reason in a “kingdom of the actuality of the Idea and of existent reason.”

As a means of clarifying Feuerbach’ underlying purpose in seeking to “place the so-called Positive Philosophy in a most fatal light by showing that the original of its idolatrous image of God [Götzenbild] is man, that flesh and blood belong to personality essentially,” the paper considers the personalistic arguments against popular sovereignty, and in defense of “the monarchical principle,” advanced by Friedrich Julius Stahl, one of Feuerbach’s principle ideological adversaries and a leading mid-century theorist of political conservatism.

Regarded by his contemporaries as one of the most prolific theological minds of his time, Robert Lewis Dabney (1820-1898) was an unrepentant defender of chattel slavery and white supremacy, and a leading theological contributor to Lost Cause revisionism after the Civil War. A Reformed systematic theologian and a slaveholder, Dabney fought for the Confederacy, serving as the chief of staff and biographer for Stonewall Jackson. This paper documents Dabney’s nineteenth-century career as a Reformed theologian in the public square and argues that political theology in the United States has not yet reckoned sufficiently with Dabney’s legacy. The problems that Dabney’s political theology embodied have instead been swept under the rug—or hidden in the attic—of political theology as an embarrassing secret. In a time when rising neo-Confederate movements are self-consciously and overtly returning to Dabney as an intellectual and theological source, there is renewed urgency to confront Dabney’s legacy.

Over the course of the last decade, Hong Kong has experienced a social and political transformation.  The city’s frayed ends have been pulled in every direction by a cacophony of competing global interests, unraveled by the strong arm of China’s central government, and set aflame by one of the world’s most restrictive COVID policies.  For many who have called Hong Kong home, these changes constitute a watershed crisis that have necessitated critical reflection and hard choices on the nature of the Hong Kong church in diaspora amidst a home that is disappearing. This study reports on a multi-phase theoogical action research project that is reimagining Hong Kong Christian identity and vocation in diaspora, a collaborative process of discerning lived theology, ecclesiology, and missiology among overseas Hong Kong scholars who are studying for advanced degrees in history, Christian ethics, systematic theology, and homiletics.  

Religious persecution has become a reality for religious minorities in India today, particularly Christians. Two major incidents of large-scale persecution acted as springboards to making this reality pervasive – persecution of Christians in Odisha (August 2008) and Mangalore (September 2008). This paper will focus on the latter and analyze two reports - Judicial Reports of the Somasekhara and Saldanha Commissions on the religious violence in Mangalore - as lenses to understand narratives of religious persecution and violence against religious minorities in Mangalore and in the broader theme of religious violence and World Christianity. This paper will analyze how Justice Somasekhara’s report strives to “other” Christianity as a "foreign-funded" and "foreign" religion. Secondly, it will survey the change in the geographical landscape of Hindutva's presence. Thirdly, it will analyze the two reports and their portrayal of vandalism of religious symbols. Fourthly, it will sieve through the terminologies employed by the two reports.

The fall of President Suharto from his long authoritarian regime in 1998 marks the beginning of the Reformation period that ushers in the “conservative turn” among Indonesian Muslims in politics, social, economic, and cultural realms. One of the most visible manifestations of it is the significant increase in church closing cases. Church closings refer to various phenomena, including various activities, from individual objections and demonstrations to physical attacks. This paper focuses on one case that has gained national and international attention in Bogor, West Java: The “Gereja Kristen Indonesia (Indonesian Christian Church) Yasmin” case. In April 2023, after more than a decade of struggle, the church was opened at a different location. The paper aims to analyze strategies employed by the congregation, ranging from public rituals as a form of resistance to cooperation with Muslim stakeholders and local government apparatus. The goal is to obtain a more nuanced picture of Christian-Muslim relations after the conservative turn in contemporary Indonesia. Far from passive and submissive, Indonesian Christians cultivate different modes of subsisting that allow them to negotiate their identity and roles in the larger society.

This paper explores how the Taiping Rebellion (1851-1864), a movement inspired by Protestantism, developed a demonology to dehumanize its targets of violence. Analyzing the Taiping documents, it examines three demon categories in Taiping theology: the Devil and his followers, humans deemed demons for violating Taiping rules, and the Manchu Qing government. Special attention is given to two key issues: perfect humanity and ethnicity within the Taiping theology. Regarding perfect humanity, the Taiping ideology made a dichotomous distinction between humans and demons, considering humans as children of God and inherently perfect. However, transgression against divine commands led to individuals being categorized as demons and subject to punishment. Ethnicity played a significant role in the demonization process, with the Taipings drawing a strict line between Han Chinese and the Manchus. Han Chinese deemed as demons were seen as potentially redeemable, while the Manchus were demonized from their very origins.

This article traces the history of the field of World Christianity, from the 1920s to the present. After examining two pivotal movements that shaped this discipline, the article argues that the initial Third World force subsequently lost its prominence. To restore its subversive power, it proposes possibilities for collaboration between World Christianity and Ethnic Studies, imagining new ways Ethnic Studies can invigorate the study of World Christianity. 

Afua Kuma's prayers and analysis presents a "woman of deep faith" in God with unmatched indigenous conception of the Bible, and creative translation of the interdisciplinary nature of World Christianity. Surprisingly, she is hardly classified as a theologian, rather, as an 'illiterate Ghanaian woman' and her works regarded as, ‘not academic, but deeply theological.’ Thus, the question: what is theology? who is a theologian? What makes her prayers non-academic in comparison to other theological primary sources? What is the role of indigenous epistemologies in understanding World Christianity? This paper explores the development of indigenous epistemologies in world Christianity as depicted in contemporary Christian songs, spoken words and prayers in African Christianity. It argues that Afua Kuma, as an embodiment of conceptual decolonization of African theological epistemology, has successfully used her indigenous intelligence to translate Christianity through tradition, art and religious imagination.