Midwest American Academy of Religion

APRIL 4-5, 2008
MIDWEST AMERICAN ACADEMY OF RELIGION ANNUAL MEETING

Conference Theme: RELIGION AND THE STATE

PROGRAM SCHEDULE

SESSION I: FRIDAY, APRIL 4, 4:00-6:00 pm

FRIDAY
4:00-6:00
Room 111
Special Topic Section, Panel 1
Theme: Pluralism, Religion, and the State

Thomas Pearson, Wabash Center, Presiding

Aaron Stoller, University of Pittsburgh
God’s Country: Themes in the American Narrative of the Christian Right,

Robert Virdis, McMaster University
Hannah Arendt and Eric Voegelin on Aristotle

Barbra Barnett, University of Chicago
When Discourse Theory Meets the First Amendment: Religious Arguments in the Public Square

Paul Fitzpatrick, Dickinson Wright
How the State Values Religion: When Freedoms Meet Freedoms

Kristy Nabhan-Warren, Augustana College, Respondent

FRIDAY
4:00-6:00
Room 270
Theology Section, Panel 1
Theme: Issues in Contemporary Theology

Jacqueline Bussie, Capital University, Presiding

Brock Bingaman, Loyola University, Chicago
Loving The Beautiful: The Orthodox Philokalia’s Promise For Contemporary Constructive Theology

Michael Sohn, University of Chicago
The Influence of William James' Theory of Value on the Historical Theology of Ernst Troeltsch

FRIDAY
4:00-6:00
Room 254
Arts Literature and Religion Section
Theme: Memory and Loss in the Post-Holocaust Art of Samuel Bak

Kristin Schwain, University of Missouri, Presiding

Gary A. Phillips, Wabash College
Danna Nolan Fewell, Drew University
Suffering Responsibility: Creation, Art, and the Genesis of Ethics

Andrea Pappas, Santa Clara University, Responding

FRIDAY
4:00-6:00
Room 259
Religion and American Culture Section, Panel 1
Theme: Expressive Culture

Richard Callahan, University of Missouri, Presiding

Linda Johnson, Michigan State University
Portraits as Evidence: Metaphysical Spirituality in Puritan Portraits

Shawn Young, Michigan State University
Gods are on the Stage: Fundamentalism’s Back Door

Kyra Glass von der Osten, Michigan State University
Celluloid Faith: A Case for the Study of Popular Culture and Religion

Richard J. Callahan, Jr., University of Missouri-Columbia, Responding

FRIDAY
4:00-6:00
Room 261
History of Religions Section, Panel 1
Theme: Creative Strategies, Creative Practices in a Changing World

Cybelle Shattuck, Kalamazoo College, Presiding

Jennifer Crye, Miami University Ohio
The Mari: Myth-Dreams and Monasteries

Meghan Faries, Missouri State University
The Divine Online: A Study of 'Reconfigured' Darshan and Hindu Religious Imagery on the Web

FRIDAY
4:00-6:00
Room 263
History of Christianity Section, Panel 1
Secular and Spiritual Authority

Kevin J. Wanner, Western Michigan University, Presiding

Jennifer Rubbelke, Western Michigan University
Usage of the Term νόμος in the Gospel of Mark and John as an Indication of Attitude toward Roman Authority

Kristen Colberg, University of Notre Dame
The Relationship between Notions of Ecclesial Authority and Developing Political Systems: Modern Catholic Responses to a Shifting Political Context

Terry Murray, Hampstead College of Fine Arts and Humanities
Myth-Busting the Christian Right

FRIDAY
4:00-6:00
E. Dinning
Room
Undergraduate, Panel 1
Theme: Religion, Ritual, and Culture

Jonathan Olson, Missouri State University, Presiding

Elizabeth Wilson, Kalamazoo College
Seeing the Sacred

Caitlin Kennel, Michigan State University
Euro-American Secularization of Navajo Sacred Space

Michael Gray, Loyola University
Political Disciples

Jason Wyman, Kalamazoo College
Speaking Wakan: Religion in Past, Protest, and Page

SESSION II: SATURDAY, APRIL 5, 8:30-10:30 am

SATURDAY 8:30-10:30
Room 111
Sacred Texts Section
Theme: Disruption, Coherence, and the State in the Public Use of Sacred Texts

David Blix, Wabash College, Presiding

Michael Mols, The University of Chicago
Athanasius and the Writings of Asceticism: The Textual Authority of ‘The Life of Antony’

Marsaura Shukla, University of Chicago
Reading and the World: Cosmological Coherence in Accounts of the Bible as Sacred Text

Ross Steinborn, Western Illinois University
Using Paul against Paul: Disrupting Jew/Greek and Queer/Straight Identities

SATURDAY 8:30-10:30
Room 270
Ethics and Philosophy of Religion Section, Panel 1
Theme: Religion and Bioethics

Scott Paeth, DePaul University, Presiding

Sandra Sullivan Dunbar, University of Chicago
Christian Love and Dependent Care: Feminist Political Theory as a Resource For Resolving the ‘Problem’ of ‘Special Relations’

Marie C. Dietrich, Ursuline College
The Ashley Treatment - Its Implications For Catholic Moral Theology

Landon McBrayer, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School
An Evaluation of Christian Arguments Against Human Reproductive Cloning

SATURDAY 8:30-10:30
Room 254
Special Topic Sessions, Panel 2
Theme: Religion and the State: Historical and Cultural Comparisons

Thomas Pearson, Wabash Center, Presiding

Thomas Henthorn, Michigan State University
Building the Moral Metropolis: The Case of the Houston Social Service Bureau, 1915-1935

Geoffrey Goble, Indiana University
Bloodstained Bodhisattva: Amoghavajra and Weaponized Buddhism Tang China

Macon Boczek, Kent State University
Response to: "The Pledge of Allegiance and the Meanings and Limits of Civil Religion”

Hong You, University of Chicago
Dancing with Shackles: Religious Revival and the State in Post-Mao China,

Mark Graham, Wooster College, Responding

SATURDAY 8:30-10:30
Room 259
Undergraduate Students Section, Panel 2
Theme: Religion, Politics, and Environment

Jonathan Olson, Missouri State University, Presiding

Arlene Ortiz-Leytte, University of Notre Dame
Religious Power, Political Power, and a New Civic Engagement: In the "Spiritual Canticle" of St. John of the Cross

Oscar Sinclair, St. Mary’s College of Maryland
Religion and Racial Separation in Pre-Apartheid South Africa

Nicholas Houpt, University of Notre Dame
The Role of Creation: Catholicism’s Problematic Response to the Ecological Crisis and an Eastern Orthodox Solution

Robert Lipovsky, Michigan State University
Dwight L. Moody and His Relation to the Urban City

SATURDAY 8:30-10:30
Room 261
History of Religions, Panel 2
Theme: (Re-)Constructing Identities

Selva J. Raj, Albion College, Presiding

Alan Epp Weaver, University of Chicago
“The Cross and the Crescent are the Signs on My Hands”: Mapping the Nation and the Performance of Palestinian Christian Identity

Michael Nichols, Northwestern University
Mistaken Mara: Untangling the Concept of "The Buddhist Satan"

Lavanya Vemsani, McMaster University
Religious Symbolism and National Identity: Novel as Ritual in Rabindranath Tagore¹s Gora

SATURDAY 8:30-10:30
Room 263
Religion and American Culture Section, Panel 2
Theme: America's Shifting Religious Landscape

Richard Callahan, University of Missouri, Presiding

Andrea Lynch, St. Louis University
The Catholic Irish Immigrant Experience in St. Louis 1800-1950

Christopher W. Chase, Michigan State University
Indigenizing and Assimilating: Hindus and Druids in Deloria's Landscape

Rebecca Koerselman, Michigan State University
Life Traces Religion, Religion Traces Culture

Rachel Lindsey, Princeton University
"This Barbarous Practice": Religion and Race in the Association of Southern Women for the Prevention of Lynching

Amy Derogatis, Michigan State University, Responding
SATURDAY 8:30-10:30
E. Dinning Room
Ethics and Philosophy of Religions Section, Panel 2
Theme: Religion, Politics, And Morality

Scott Paeth, DePaul University, Presiding

Lawrence Glass, Indiana University
On Anti-Zionism and Anti-Semitism

Sarah Schuurman, University of Chicago Divinity School
Proper Princes and the Place of Coercion

William D. Wood, University of Chicago
Our Fallen State: Blaise Pascal on the Theological Origins of Government Duplicity

Jeremiah Gibbs
Recovering Orthodoxy: The Rise of the Evangelical Left in Christological Terms

SESSION III: SATURDAY, APRIL 5, 10:45 am – 12:45 pm

SATURDAY
10:45-12:45
Room 111
Theology Section, Panel 2
Theme: Religion and the State: Theological Reflections

Caryn Riswold, Illinois College, Presiding

Dr. Michael Allen, Wheaton College
Karl Barth and King David: Dogmatic Exegesis and Theological Politics

John Thompson, University of Dayton
Christian Engagement of the Public Sphere: The Fish-Neuhaus Debate Revisited

Mr. Geoffrey Holsclaw, Marquette University
At a distance to the State: Radical Democracy and Religion

Jeremiah Gibbs, Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary
Recovering Orthodoxy: The Rise of the Evangelical Left in Christological Terms

SATURDAY
10:45-12:45
Room 270

History of Christianity Section, Panel 2
Issues of State, Resistance, and Slavery

Kevin J. Wanner, Western Michigan University, Presiding

Michael Bruening, University of Missouri-Rolla
Calvinism and the State: A Reassessment

Lynn B. E. Jencks, Xavier University
Everardus Bogardus' Ministry to Enslaved Africans in New Amsterdam, 1633-1647

Peter Gordon Slade, Ashland University
Social Order and Spiritual Holiness: The Southern Presbyterian doctrine of Church and State in Proslavery and Segregationist Arguments

David Gides, Christian Brothers University (Memphis)
Bonhoeffer's Resistance to the State and Luther's Two Kingdoms Doctrine

SATURDAY
10:45-12:45
Room 254
Women and Religion Section
Theme: Women Engaging Religious, National, and Gender Ambiguity: Three Case Studies

Dr. Kristy Nabhan-Warren, Augustana College, Presiding

Ms. Wynter Miller, University of Missouri
An Investigation of the Elite Status of Women in Thai Buddhism

Dr. Joy R. Bostic, Case Western Reserve University
Religion and National Identity in the Writings of Phillis Wheatley

Ms. Courtney Wilder and Elizabeth Musselman
The University of Chicago Divinity School, "Recovering Lucia: From Sicilian Martyr to
Contemporary Protestant Figure

Dr. Kristy Nabhan-Warren, Augustana College, Responding

SATURDAY
10:45-12:45
Room 259 Religion and American Culture Section, Panel 3
Theme: Religion and the State

Richard Callahan, University of Missouri, Presiding

Kristen Tobey, University of Chicago Divinity School
‘Blood of Jesus, blood of redemption?’: Religious Talk in the Trials of Plowshares Nuclear Disarmament Activists

Joshua Lawson, Temple University
"Interfaith in Action": The Four Chaplains and the Stamping of American Religious Identity

Michael Montgomery, Chicago Theological Seminary
American Civil Religion: Beyond Elite Discourse

Craig Burgdoff, Capital University
Secularism, Separation of Church and State and a New Religious Paradigm

Brian Wilson, Western Michigan University, Responding

SATURDAY
10:45-12:45
Room 261 Religion Ecology and Culture Section, Panel 1
Theme: Apocalypse Now? Religious Perspectives on Environmental Issues

Amanda Baugh, Northwestern University, Presiding

Gretel Van Wieren, Yale University
Ecological Restoration, Spirituality, and Religion

Caitlin Overland
Unraveling the Ribbon of Death: Rehabilitating U.S. Highway 93 from Evaro to Polson, Montana

Anette Ejsing, Augustana College
Balancing Environmental Fear: A Redemptive Eschatology between Silent Spring and the World Without Us

UnChu Kim,, Northern Seminary
Saeng-Myong Pedagogy: A Cross-Cultural Pedagogy for Overcoming Ecological Crisis

Amanda Baugh, Northwestern University, Responding

SATURDAY
10:45-12:45
Room 263 New Religious Movements Section

Nikki Bado-Fralick, Iowa State University, Presiding.

Raabe, Holly R. Iowa State University
Witches, Heathens, and Shamans: Gender Identity and Religious Experience

Berry, Damon, Ohio State University
’Racial ‘Holy War’: The Creativity Movement, The War On Terror, and the Manufacture of Meaning

Waite, Eric. Iowa State University
Tenrikyo: Amalgam of Kansai Religion

Fabian, Heather, Missouri Department of Higher Education
Christian Science and Anxiety in the Lives of Principia College Students

SESSION IV, Saturday, April 5, 1:00-1:30 pm

BUSINESS MEETING LUNCHEON
East Dinning Room
All conference attendees are invited

Martha L Finch
President of the Midwest AAR, Presiding

Box lunches will be provided for those who have requested them through pre-registration at the MAAR web site (please specify a vegetarian or turkey option): http://www.aarweb.org/About_AAR/Regions/Midwest/Website/
Please note: Access to restaurants outside the conference is limited, so those who have not requested a box lunch through pre-registration should plan accordingly.

PLENARY ADDRESS

1:45-2:45
Auditorium
Robert A. Orsi,
Professor of Religion and Grace Craddock Nagle Chair in Catholic Studies, Northwestern University

SESSION V: SATURDAY, APRIL 5, 3:00-5:00 pm

SATURDAY
3:00-5:00
Room 111 Theology Section, Panel 3
Theme: Religion, Violence, and the State

Jacqueline Bussie, Capital University, Presiding

Patrick Clark, University of Notre Dame
Toward a more coherent Catholic critique of capital punishment

Courtney Wilder, The University of Chicago Divinity School
The Hidden God in Tillich's Preaching: How World War I transformed the account of God in Tillich's sermons

Dustin Byrd, Olivet College
Blackwater Theology: The Theological Roots of America's Praetorian Guard

SATURDAY
3:00-5:00
Room 270 Special Topics Section, Panel 3
Theme: Religion and Violence

Thomas Pearson, Wabash Center, Presiding

Ross Aden, Rock Valley College
Why Religions Go Bad: Analyzing Theories of Religious Violence

Jacques Brouillette, Western Michigan University
A Deeper Meaning to Death - An Existential Account of Terror Management Theory and Its Impact on Religious Studies

Meagen Howe, John Carroll University
God on the Threshing Floor: The Parable of the Wheat and the Darnel

SATURDAY
3:00-5:00
Room 254 Undergraduate Students Section, Panel 3
Theme: Palaung Lives: Navigating Questions of Identity and Ethnicity

Jonathan Olson, Missouri State University, Presiding

Matthew Maizels, Kalamazoo College, Presenting

Kristin Bloomer, University of Chicago, Responding
Tasaw Lu, Northern Illinois University, Responding
Selva Raj, Albion College, Responding
Carol Anderson, Kalamazoo College, Responding

SATURDAY
3:00-5:00

Room 259 Special Topics Section, Panel 4
Theme: Religion and the State

Thomas Pearson, Wabash Center, Presiding

Jessica Carr, Indiana University
"On that day the Lord shall be One": Universalist Theology in 1950's American Reform Judaism

Andrew Sonneborn, McCormick Theological Seminary
One Church, One State: Divestment, the PCUSA, and Israel

Emily Clark, University of Missouri
What is a Real Hate Crime: Civil Rights Rhetoric, the Bible, and the Matthew Shepard Act

James Thomas, Loyola University
Henry B. Stanton and Lane Seminary: Religion, Slavery, and the Evangelical Roots of Secular Abolitionism

Daniel Sack, University of Chicago Divinity School, Responding

SATURDAY
3:00-5:00

Room 261 Religion Ecology and Culture Section, Panel 2
The Place of Nature in Religious thought and Experience

Hayley Glaholt, Northwestern University, Presiding

Gretel Van Wieren, Yale University
Ecomysticism and the Struggle for Social Justice: Connecting Nature, Mysticism, and Ethics

Dr. Forrest Clingerman, Ohio Northern University
The Trace of Nature: Memory, Place, and Nature in Philosophical Theology

Dr. Tobin Shearer, Northwestern University
Chickens, Crops, and Tractors’: Fresh Air Exchange Programs and the Making of a Mechanized Eden, 1950-1979

Hayley Glaholt, Northwestern University, Responding

SATURDAY
3:00-5:00

Room 263 Undergraduate Students Section, Panel 4
Religion, Self, and Society

Jonathan Olson, Missouri State University, Presiding

Laura Mueller, McKendree University
The Book of Job as Existential Literature: Value Creation and Authenticity

Sarah Haas, McKendree University
Connecting Points: The Interconnectivity of Full, Conscious, and Active Participation in Roman Catholic Worship Since Vatican II,

Katrina Brooks, Grinnell College
Authentically Buddhist? Conceptualizing Tibetan Buddhism in the West

SATURDAY
3:00-5:00

E. Dinning
Room Ethics and Philosophy of Religion Section, Panel 2
Theme: Philosophy and Religion

Scott Paeth, DePaul University, Presiding

Lane Severson, Wheaton College
Plundering Augustine: An Interaction with Charles Taylor's 'Sources of the Self

Michael Sohn, University of Chicago
Mortality and Morality: Different Senses of 'Death' in the Thought of Levinas and its Implications for the Limtis and Possibilities of the Human

Yuki Shimada, Princeton Theological Seminar and the University of Tokyo
Transcendence in Martin Buber's I-Thou

Dustin Byrd, Olivet College
Politics of Discourse Avoidance: Why the Secular West Won't Talk to the Religious East

SATURDAY
5:00 - 6:00
E. Dinning
Room RECEPTION

Please join us for
drinks and conversation! Organic wine and local microbrews will be served.