http://www.aarweb.org/Meetings/Annual_Meeting/Past_And_Future_Meetings/2001/abstracts.asp
2001 AAR Abstracts
A28
Panel: Academic Relations Task Force Special Topics Forum - The Study of Religion Counts: What We Know (and What We Don't) about the Shape of the Field
James B. Wiggins, Syracuse University, Presiding
From September 2000 to April 2001, department chairs and program heads in religion and theology at fully accredited colleges and universities across North America responded to the AAR's Census of Religion and Theology Programs supported by a grant from the Lilly Endowment. This special topics forum includes a report on what has been learned from the census about programs, faculty, and enrollments at the undergraduate level; a summary of the research design and data collection strategies deployed; reflections on what the data reveal about the state of the field; and a discussion of measures needed for filling lacunae in our knowledge. Questions from the floor will be especially invited. Panelists include Edward R. Gray, American Academy of Religion; Lance Selfa, National Opinion Research Center; Jonathan Z. Smith, University of Chicago; and Linell E. Cady, Arizona State University.
A29
Becoming Pilgrims: The Educational Pilgrimage As Active Learning Strategy in the Introductory World Religions Course
Susan E. Hill, University of Northern Iowa
This paper explores the use of the educational pilgrimage as an active learning strategy in the introductory world religions course. In designing this course, I chose the idea of pilgrimage as the thematic link between Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam. In an effort to respond to what I perceived to be a lack of student interest in this topic, I developed a class exercise that allowed us to become pilgrims for a day. In this paper, I explore what I see as both the successes and failures of becoming pilgrims. I suggest the value in moving from theory to practice in the classroom through active learning, as well as the difficulties of doing ritual in a public university setting. I also highlight the ways in which the classroom pilgrimage both exemplifies and contradicts some of Victor Turner's theoretical speculations about the nature and social function of pilgrimages.
A29
Experiential Learning in the World Religions Course
Calvin Mercer, East Carolina University
This presentation provides the rationale, structure, and student outcomes for an optional experiential learning project utilized in an introductory World Religions course. The context of the experiential learning project is a World Religions course, which also utilizes traditional learning methods of reading, writing, and taking written examinations. Some attention will be given to the objection that such a project trivializes the monastic tradition and leads to misunderstanding rather than accurate learning. The project consists of two weeks of lifestyle and daily practice, loosely based on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali and other monastic traditions. Sample guidelines and practice schedules will be provided for instructors who will consider adapting the project to their teaching situation. With large numbers of students the project can be quite labor intensive. A strategy of supervision is provided to make effective supervision of the project manageable. A summary of student outcomes from recent semesters will be provided.
A29
Experiential Religious Education in the Context of World Civilization General Education
Richard M. Carp, Northern Illinois University
Watauga College is a residential freshman college that provides an integrated interdisciplinary humanities and social science core. In the second semester Cultures East and West, working with humanities and social science materials, uses the comparative method to study culture and history. In a section that uses India as a touchstone for comparison with "the West," five experiential units, integrated with readings, writing assignments and class discussions, help students encounter religious traditions in depth (Indic meditation, Early Christian footwashing, salat, seder, and a contemporary India festival). Beforehand students read and discuss a world history textbook, a world religions textbook, and primary sources from the time and tradition under consideration. They also investigate the material culture of the religion through in-class slide presentations and website searches of their own. Student and faculty responses to these experiential opportunities indicate that they significantly facilitate students' ability to understand religion both comparatively and in context.
A29
Oz, the NBA, and First-Born Syndrome: Challenges and Successes in the First Year of Teaching
Caryn Donna Riswold, Valparaiso University
At various points during my first year of teaching theology at a private liberal arts college, I have likened teaching to the experiences of Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, John Stockton of the Utah Jazz, and a parent watching the joys and mistakes of her first attempts at parenting. Each of these images captures something essential to the experience of teaching theology, and allows us to think about the task of academic teaching as a reflective journey requiring brains, heart, and courage, a disciplined performance requiring more "off the court" time than game time, and a powerful position filled with authority and care. Through these three images, I will argue that teaching is a reflective journey in which we learn as much as we teach, a disciplined performance requiring skill and commitment, and a risky position involving excesses of joy and failure.
A29
Getting My Feet Wet: A First Hand Account of Teaching an Introductory Course in Religious Studies
Ann Herpel, Union Theological Seminary, New York City
Stephen Brookfield in Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher presents a model of four interconnecting lenses (autobiographical reflection, student experiences, colleagues' perceptions and literature) as the means to examine the assumptions informing teaching methods. In this paper I will utilize one lens -- a teaching journal that I have kept while teaching, for the first time, an introductory course in religious studies -- to analyze my pedagogy and engage audience participation as a collaborative exercise in exploring ways to structure and conduct introductory courses. As the primary source material for this paper, this journal records the textures and contours of this everyday experience as I work to become a "critically reflective" teacher while still being a student myself. My analysis and reflections are framed by broader questions about the goals of introductory courses and the ability of newly-minted teachers to meet those goals.
A30
Long-Distance Transmission of Buddhism from South Asia to the Silk Routes: New Evidence from Rock Drawings and Inscriptions in Northern Pakistan
Jason Neelis, Florida State University
Since the opening of the Karakorum Highway between the Northern Areas of Pakistan and Xinjiang province in western China, recent discoveries of Buddhist rock drawings and inscriptions written mostly in Indian and Iranian languages illuminate material contexts for long-distance transmission of Buddhism in a pivotal transit zone between South Asia and the Silk Routes during the first to eighth centuries CE. Capillary networks of trade and travel routes through upper Indus, Gilgit, and Hunza river valleys and over passes of the Karakorum, Hindu Kush and Himalaya mountains directly linked the northwestern borderlands of the Indian subcontinent with the southern branches of the Silk Routes in the Tarim Basin. In this transit zone where sufficient surplus resources were not initially available for supporting Buddhist institutions or building permanent monastic structures, travelers and local devotees drew Buddhist images on rocks and recorded their donations with graffiti inscriptions.
A30
The Civilization of Ancient Chorasmia and Buddhism
Vadim N. Yagodin, Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Uzbekkistan
This paper deals with recent Russian/Uzbek excavation in Akshahane-kala in ancient Chorasmia. The archeological findings of the area show sign of the penetration of Buddhism into that region in the first half of the first century C.E. A clay Buddha or Boddhisattva statuette found in the region shows the influence of the northwest Indian or Gandharan stylistic features. This figure was described by the Russian scholars as Avalokiteshvara, and modeled and copied from a larger figure of the Boddhisatva. This Akshahane-kala figurines show that ancient Chorasmia was a part of the western Central Asian Buddhist culture which spread along the river Amu Darya. Dating and stylistic analysis show marked similarities with the Buddhist objects found in Kara-tepe and other regions surrounding Akshahane-kala.
A30
Mahayana Textual Production on the Silk Route
Joseph Walser, Tufts University
This paper addresses an important aspect of the rise of Mahayana on the Silk road between the first and fifth centuries -- namely the way in which Mahayanists propagated their sutras. The strategies of propagation of sutras, in light of other archaeological evidence, reveal the complex social construction of Mahayana in the early centuries of the Common Era. Indeed, the environment along the Silk Route provides a unique opportunity to study the relationship between manuscript production, inscriptional evidence, and Mahayana literature. Along the Silk Route there are three variables that have a bearing on the reproduction of texts. These variables are: the sectarian constitution of the monasteries, the patronage of monasteries by the laity, and the textual strategies of the Mahayanists themselves.
A30
Death, Burials, and the Afterlife in Buddhist Central Asia
Mariko Namba Walter, Harvard University
This paper examines death related issues, such as different kinds of burial practices, in relation to belief in the afterlife, from the pre-historic period to the onset and spread of Buddhism in Central Asia. There are several common features to be pointed out regarding the Buddhist Central Asian ideas of death, burials, and the afterlife.a) The common thread of belief in the afterlife, which could allude to Buddhism or non-Buddhist beliefs such as indigenous popular beliefs in souls; b) The significance of relics/bones as a sign of the preservation of afterlife; c) The wish for the continuation of socio-political power and wealth after death; d) The repeated emphasis on religious dedication or devotion even taking precedence over the physical body, which is indicated by the numerous murals of self mutilation for the sake of Buddhism in Tun-huang and other caves.
A30
Special Traits of Uighur Buddhism
Peter Zieme, Berlin Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften
Buddhism, and especially Mahayana Buddhism, among the Uighurs in the Turfan oasis was strongly dependent of Chinese Buddhism as it was flourishing in the neighboring oasis of Dunhuang. The major scriptures were not only translated from Chinese, but the Uighurs either incorporated some special features or transformed forms and/or ideas according to their gusto. As a kind of example the Maitreya hymns known from different manuscripts in alliterating verses or in prose will be scrutinized. Special attention will be given to the role of Maitreya in the confession texts. As already demonstrated by Jan Nattier, the Uighurs even created a special Confession sutra for the use among the lay people. The paper is foreseen as a brick for the future edifice of our knowledge how the Old Uighurs adopted Buddhism for their own.
A31
The Emperor's New Clothes: Old "Ism's" in the New Marriage Movement
Gloria H. Albrecht, University of Detroit Mercy
The Marriage Movement bills itself as "a grass-roots movement to strengthen marriage." However, its original sponsors are associated with professional counseling and academic institutions. Nonetheless, they claim to represent initiatives at the state and local levels that share a common concern about the increasing disregard for monogamous, life-long, heterosexual, legal marriages, committed to children. This marriage crisis has resulted in the disintegration of civil society as evidenced by poverty, crime, poor educational achievement, drug addiction, single parent families, and out-of-wedlock births. Social policies and legal reforms should explicitly support marriage, as defined, make divorce more difficult, and intentionally not support other family forms. This paper will locate the Marriage Movement within a conservative and neo-liberal perspective united by its unwillingness to critically evaluate the impact of changing economic forces on society and its families. From unacknowledged, economically privileged positions, the Marriage Movement repeats old 'isms of race, class, and gender.
A31
Hospitality and Housing: An Intersection of Theology and Social Crisis
Joseph S. Pettit, University of Chicago
This paper applies and extends Christine Pohl's recovery of hospitality as a Christian tradition to the affordable housing crisis as it now confronts our nation and one major metropolitan area in particular. The paper draws heavily on Pohl's recent book "Making Room: Recovering Hospitality as a Christian Tradition" and on research into affordable housing. Pohl's understanding of hospitality is applied to three concepts that are central to understanding the causes of and possible solutions to the affordable housing crisis: property, neighbor, and community. The paper argues that the fundamental obstacle to meaningful responses to the problem of housing is the "will of the people." Therefore, an emphasis on changing public will is necessary for effective solutions to the housing crisis. Pohl's retrieval of hospitality as a Christian tradition, it is argued, enables exactly such an attitudinal change.
A31
Do Converts to Deeply Religious, Alternative Communities Promote or Destroy Social Capital?
Erin E. Dufault-Hunter, University of Southern California
This paper briefly examines the link between radical personal transformation and faith, reviewing research on converts conducted across a variety of faith traditions, from Pentecostal Protestant to Nation of Islam. While the efficacy of religious conversion might be uncontroversial, the interface of government policies and faith-based initiatives certainly is not. For good reasons, many are suspicious of such governmental intrusions in an increasingly pluralistic democratic society. Should our policy regarding such initiatives be driven by our wish that the marginalized of society receive aid "by any means necessary," or by our desire to keep government and religion separate? The paper closes with the uneasy reflections of one Mennonite's efforts to reconcile these seemingly irreconcilable desires.
A31
Vida Dutton Scudder on Character and the Cooperative Commonwealth
Elizabeth L. Hinson-Hasty, Union-PSCE
Vida Dutton Scudder (1861-1954), a social gospeler, Episcopal laywoman, English professor at Wellesley College, and committed socialist, was deeply concerned about how a society based on competition affected character. This paper investigates her assessment of the negative effects of capitalism on character and her vision for a society oriented toward justice rather than production. Each social class had an ethic based upon their privilege or lack of it. After examining both the "ethics of privilege" and the "ethics of want," Scudder concluded that both fell far short of inspiring a community oriented toward God's justice. She envisioned a society that would benefit from a partnership between Christianity and socialism. In the cooperative commonwealth, as she called it, justice would replace rule by self-interest.
A32
Clothing As Monastic Identity in Late Antiquity: Examples from Shenoute's White Monastery
Rebecca Krawiec, Canisius College, State University of New York, Buffalo
Clothing was a visible means of establishing an ascetic identity in late antiquity. Many examples reveal the important link, rhetorically and visually, between clothing and ascetic identity, a link that becomes stronger in the institutionalized setting of communal monasticism. The abbot of the White Monastery, Shenoute, used clothing socially to establish uniform membership in the community. Rhetorically, a garment of Shenoute's first contaminated by blood and pus during a long illness and then destroyed by moths serves as the connecting metaphor for three letters written to quell a period of unrest in the monastery. Clothing, therefore, does not just signify monastic identity but also the spiritual status of that self, either pure or polluted. Whereas hagiographies, such as Macrina's, which present "successful" monastics, suggest that monastic deeds became proper clothing, here Shenoute plays with that expectation: the monks' clothing will reveal, through its contamination, the sins they cannot hide.
A32
Habits and Orders: Clothing and Medieval Status Markers
Mary Meany, Siena College
In medieval Europe clothing functioned as a marker of status. The habit of the professed religious indicated where the wearer belonged in the social network. Authors of religious Rules were as aware as were the authors of sumptuary laws of the importance of clothing both for setting men and women religious apart from other members of society, and for indicating their relative positions among other professed religious. Beginning with an examination of the Rule of the Friars Minor and the "Augustinian Rule," this paper uses documentary, literary, and visual evidence about religious clothing to explore two questions about professed religious life in Italy and England in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The first question is, what does a study of religious clothing tell us about how medieval Christians understood "Religious Orders"? Examining questions about who wore what, when, where, and why, brings us to realize how ambiguous the concept of "order" was.
A32
"A Silly Poor Gospel": Quaker 'Plain Dress' in the Seventeenth-Century
Catherine Tinsley Tuell, Claremont Graduate University
Before she died in 1703, Margaret Fell Fox engaged in one last spiritual battle that concerned the imposition of "plain dress" upon the Quaker community. Denouncing it as a legalism that encroached on the community's Meetings, she framed the controversy over "plain dress" as a choice between spiritual life and spiritual death. I argue in this paper the conflict was one of differences in ideology between material pietists and spiritual pietists and was ultimately a struggle between those who emphasized material clothing versus spiritual clothing. I have used Pierre Bourdieu's principles of "field, habitus, and cultural capital" in my analysis to establish why the former prevailed over the latter. The study of "plain dress" provides a fresh approach by which we can examine the much larger issue of how Quaker piety was re-fashioned in the late-seventeenth century.
A32
"As In a Mirror": Reflections of 'Savage' and 'Civil' Bodies in Early New England
Martha L. Finch, Southwest Missouri State University
In 1674, Daniel Gookin, supervisor of Indian missions in the MassachusettsBay Colony, described the New England native people as "mirrors," reflecting images of "savage beastliness"-what colonists might have been, or might become, if they neglected their civilized breeding. Historians of missions have noted the crucial link between Christianization and civilization, but have not explored in detail the alteration of native body practices (e.g., cutting the hair, no longer greasing the body, wearing English clothing) as the primary tool of the civilizing process. The native body encoded multiple layers of meanings for Puritan colonists, reflecting both savagery and civilization, beastliness and humanness, immorality and godliness. This paper highlights human bodies as the initial and crucial site of cultural contact, exchange, and change by investigating the theological and philosophical impetus behind the EnglishPuritan drive to alter native bodies and the meanings given those alterations by missionaries and Indians.
A33
Panel: Author Meets Critics: Grant Wacker's Heaven Below: Early Pentecostals and American Culture
Albert G. Miller, Oberlin College, Presiding
Randall Balmer, Barnard College, Columbia University
Edith Blumhofer, Wheaton College
Rudy V. Busto, Stanford University
Ann Taves, Claremont School of Theology
Grant Wacker, Duke University, Responding
This session brings together a group of distinguished scholars of Holiness and Pentecostal traditions and of religion in early America to discuss Grant Wacker's new book on early Pentecostalism. The book examines a range of elements of early Pentecostal culture and is particularly concerned with the daily lives, experiences and voices of individual men and women.
A34
Autonomy and Heteronomy in Morality: Kant and Levinas
James DiCenso, University of Toronto
Kant draws mainly upon the Christian tradition, and Levinas upon the Jewish, yet each seeks to articulate a religious dimension focused on ethics. For Kant morality is synonymous with autonomy; yet, a dimension of heteronomy, a need for otherness, appears in Kant's ethical-religious vision. The indications of other regard in Kant are brought to fruition by Levinas' ethic of heteronomy (which also emphasizes responsible subjectivity). Heteronomy does not mean subservience to a fixed set of codes -- it is the human other, and the responsibility that emerges in the face-to-face relation, that humanizes me as an ethical subject. Here, Levinas offers a corrective to the potentially solipsistic dimensions of Kantian ethical autonomy. At the same time, since for Kant becoming ethical also entails an ethical commonwealth, the two thinkers are not simply in opposition. In this regard, issues concerning the other as individual other, and as social, will be discussed.
A34
From Ethics to Faith: Kant and Levinas on the Ineluctable Question
Tirdad Derakhshani, University of Pennsylvania
Richard J. Bernstein has written of a "Cartesian anxiety" -- the demand for foundation -- that pervades modern epistemology. Does not the same anxiety lead us to ask: does morality need faith? This paper will explore this anxiety by comparing the ethics of Kant and Lévinas. I point to the similarity of their positions - both insist on the primacy of ethics to religion and yet both derive a religious moment from ethics. I will argue that for both, ethics does need faith, but that they have radically different definitions of faith. I hold that while Kant's postulates shore up ethical action by making the demands of the moral law seem possible and thus rational to fulfill, Lévinas introduces the concepts of trace and illeity in his description of the ethical event in order to highlight the instability of that event-- they serve to underscore its lack of ground.
A34
Faith in Karma: The Justification of Moral Action in Sāntarakṣita and Kamalaṣīla
Sara McClintock, Carleton College
This paper examines the role of faith in the justification of moral actions (karman) in the philosophical thought of Sāntarakṣita and Kamalaṣīla, two eighth-century Buddhists working in the epistemological stream of Indian Buddhism. The fundamental ethical problem that these thinkers face is how a judicious person (prekṣāvant) can justify any particular moral act when the reputed positive results of that act are experienced only in future lives. While some Buddhists might argue for the necessity of finding an Ideal Observer to act as an authority, and others for the necessity of employing a special faith-based form of inference (āgamāsritānumāna) to resolve this problem, I argue that in the context of the justification of moral action, Sāntarakṣita and Kamalaṣīla embrace neither approach. Instead, they maintain the justification of moral acts to be grounded in a kind of reasoned confidence (abhisaṃpratyaya) that can, and should, be gained through individual, empirical observation alone.
A34
Faith, Hope, and Normativity in Sartre's (unpublished) Morale et Histoire
Matthew C. Ally, Temple University
The unpublished text of Jean-Paul Sartre's Morale et histoire presents what is arguably Sartre's clearest and most systematic phenomenological inquiry into the nature and significance of ethical norms and moral praxis, and lays out what is without question his most rigorous dialectical account of the historical efficacy of morality as such. In this paper, I argue that, though left largely unthematized in the text of Morale et histoire, faith and hope are integral elements of the existential logic of morality that Sartre so carefully elucidates, as they are of any properly dialectical-phenomenological account of morality -- Sartrean or otherwise. Drawing on Sartre's signature descriptions of concrete moral events, and with specific emphasis on the experiences of moral transgression and political resistance, I attempt to clarify the foundational [sic] and generative role of faith and hope in the lived constitution of moral conduct.
A35
An Ethnographer in Disguise: Comparing Self and Other in Mughal India
Aditya Behl, Princeton University
Are religious beliefs like languages? Can they be classified, translated, analyzed, placed in hierarchies, genealogies, and taxonomies - if so, what do these operations imply about the enterprise of comparing religions? An entry into these issues is afforded by an unjustly ignored text of Mughal India, the Parsi Dabistan-i Mazahib ("The School of Religious Faiths"), a seventeenth-century Persian account of all the religious sects contemporary to the author. A Zoroastrian from Patna, Mubad Shah frequently adopted a Shia Muslim identity in public. Members of his group often dressed up as men of other religious groups and infiltrated their ranks. They gathered information about these sects, all the while practicing an esoteric brand of Zoroastrianism themselves. Representations of others include translations of their most important texts into Persian, as well as detailed descriptions of their appearance and practices. The results of these religious masquerades are presented in the Dabistan.
A35
"Go Tell the Hindu and His Gods": Images of Hindus and Hinduism in Muslim Urdu Poetry
Christopher Lee, Iowa State University
It is often said that poetry is the most favored form of expression for Muslim speakers of the Urdu language in North India. In spite of its reputation as syrupy love poetry, Urdu poetry is an important method for Urdu-speaking Muslims in North India to attempt to construct, negotiate and critique meaningful understandings of the social and political circumstances in which they find themselves. Muslim poets often use poetry to express their relations to Hindus and Hinduism. Perhaps as is to be expected, poets do not speak in one voice: Hindus appear in poetry as the seductive beloved as well as the feared destroyer. This paper will explore some of the myriad images of Hindus and Hinduism in the Urdu poetry of Muslims from the Hindu pilgrimage city of Varanasi, India.
A35
The Dasam Granth in Sikh History
Robin Rinehart, Lafayette College
The Dasam Granth is an anthology attributed to the tenth and final human guru of Sikhism, Guru Gobind Singh. Since its compilation in the 18th century, its status and interpretation have varied dramatically. Some have placed it on near-equal footing with the Guru Granth Sahib, while others have rejected some or all of it as an authentic Sikh text because of its reference to what is deemed Hindu mythology. While the authorship and authenticity of the text remain in dispute, the Dasam Granth has remained important to many Sikhs. The problematic nature of certain portions of the text has led Sikh commentators to propose a variety of interpretive strategies. This presentation will focus on passages which have troubled commentators, particularly those which retell "Hindu" stories. What do these passages reveal about Sikh theology and practice throughout the tradition's history?
A35
"The Third Path": Eighteenth-Century Khalsa Sikh Discourses of Identity and Difference
Jeevan Singh Deol, University of Cambridge
This paper is concerned with eighteenth-century Khalsa Sikh discourses about Khalsa identity and the place of the Khalsa in the religious world of north India. These sustained articulations of Khalsa identity emphasized the distinctiveness of the Khalsa, defining a sacred and ritual universe that superseded both the Khalsa's own Nanakpanthi roots and Hinduism and Islam, here defined as textually based religions. This 'othering' of the two major constructs in the north Indian religious episteme created a discourse of soteriological supremacy and political power that predicates Khalsa identity on the destruction of Muslim religion and Muslim/Mughal political power. The argument of the paper thus interrogates current scholarly constructions of syncretic or fluid premodern north Indian religious identities.
A35
When Dauji and Jakheiya Speak, People Listen: Legitimizing Narratives of Deity Manifestations in Sixteenth-Century Braj Devotion
A. Whitney Sanford, Iowa State University
When Dauji (the local name of Balarama, a Naga) and Jakheiya (a yaksa) revealed themselves in Braj, they left little to the imagination about who should serve them and how it should be done. Their initial demands resulted in seva patterns and lineages that still exist today. Devotees repeat the narratives of these deities' emergence, and these stories which are still told today reveal the (continuing) negotiations over control of the sites. This paper investigates these stories to see what they have to tell us about the relationships and contests between these local traditions and a Vaishnava elite. This analysis also presents an opportunity to question the language we use to describe the groups themselves and their interactions.
A36
The Khuṭba and the Transmission of Culture in Medieval al-Andalus and the Maghreb
Linda G. Jones, University of California, Santa Barbara
Recently the Islamic sermon (khuṭba) has begun to receive some scholarly attention. Yet a serious enquiry into the khuṭba's role in the transmission of Muslim culture and communal identity remains to be undertaken. This paper aims to demonstrate the khuṭba's role in the construction and transmission of medieval Islamic cultural identities in al-Andalus and the Maghreb. I examine the sermons of Ibn Marzūq, Ibn `Abbād of Ronda, and Qadi `Iyāḍ, and several anonymous 14th- and 15th-century Andalusian sermonaries. A close reading of these sermons reveals that Muslims utilized the preaching event to shape their communal self-definition and to reproduce and maintain their cultures. Using cultural studies and ritual theories, this analysis deciphers the discrete components of the khuṭba to explore how myths are disseminated and unfold in social and historical contexts. The khuṭba thus provides a venue for examining the relationship between religion and culture, between mythic discourse and cultural identity.
A36
The Transformation of Medieval Qur'an Exegesis
Walid Saleh, Middlebury College
A study of the commentary of al-Tha'labī (d. 435 A. H.) known as al-Kashf reveals that it played a decisive role in the development of the genre of Quranic exegesis. A close reading of the work in comparison with what came before it and what was produced after it leaves no doubt that it was the main source for commentators in the medieval period. The innovations al-Tha'labī introduced and the solutions he offered to the problems facing the craft of Quranic exegesis will prove so successful that they were adopted without hesitation and resulted in a radical shift in the way commentators approached their work. I will discuss few verses as an example and show how al-Tha'labī managed to achieve his aims working inside a tradition that at first look was difficult to change.
A36
The Structure of Sacrality in the Arabic Literary Imagination: Djughrafiya and Faḍa'il As Prosaic Maps of Medieval Baghdad and Jerusalem
Margaret A. Leeming, University of California, Santa Barbara
What becomes clear in medieval Arabic literature is that the contest for centrality is one important element in the complex web that makes a 'sacred center.' A cursory examination of Faḍa'il and geographical literature, two medieval genres that constitute prosaic maps of medieval cities, leads to questions about how literature contributes to the building or production of sacrality and the ensuing contest over rival claims to centrality. An examination of a single city could inform several categories that emerge out of these genres; however determining what differentiates Jerusalem and Baghdad--two cities compared to paradise and called the naval of the world--could provide a more richly informed analysis. The discussion of these cities as either inherited or created space explores a category within the structure of these genres that sheds light on strategies used by medieval authors to portray a sacred city.
A36
The Origin and Development of the Chinese Muslim Madrasa in Ming-Qing Era
Yuan-Lin Tsai, Nanhua University
My research starts from the question how the Hui people can maintain their own Islamic belief and ethno-cultural consciousness, and have not been assimilated to the Han majority for many generations in China. I consider that a key factor is the Hui intellectual who developed an educational institution to cultivate the young generation of Hui to be aware of their own religious tradition. This research attempts to reconstruct the historical process of the development of the Chinese Muslim madrasa (jing-tang in Chinese) in order to illuminate the origin of the Islamic revival movement of the Hui intellectual in the Ming-Qing era and further clarify some historical questions regarding the cultural accommodation and identification of the Hui people in China.
A37
Re-Performing "Imitatio Christi"
Karen Trimble Alliaume, Lewis University
Feminist theologians critique both Jesus' maleness and his suffering as problematic in relation to women, arguing that traditional christologies contribute to the oppression of women. To the extent that feminist theology continues to assert that women must "resemble Christ" in order to be saved, they remain indebted, I argue, to a christological "economy of imitation" in which Jesus Christ is seen as the norm that individuals must resemble, and from which resemblance women are precluded. Dissolving the intransigence of this imitative economy by employing Judith Butler's deconstruction of the sexed body, I argue for a shift in christological discourse to a "performative" economy, in which both Jesus Christ and "women" are understood as performed in community.
A37
Jesus As Dust and Spirit: An Incarnational Theology
Karen Baker-Fletcher, Claremont School of Theology
This paper examines an incarnational understanding of Jesus as not only a human embodiment of God but as a dusty, earthy, embodiment of God if we turn to the account of Adam (earth-creature) being created out of the dust of the earth in the book of Genesis. What does this mean for us as Christians as we consider our relationship not only to God but to nature? Approaching this question from specifically American and African American religious and theological perspectives, as well as classical Christian sources, the paper contrasts tentative approaches to the presence of God in nature (Edwards, Emerson)with a more integrative, constructive perspective that draws on (Hurston, Dash, Whitehead, and credal christological formulations. This constructive project draws on these resources to develop one possible "womanist," "eco-theological" approach to constructive work in christology.
A37
Redeeming "No Memory": Crucifixion and Traumatic Absence
Serene Jones, Yale University
The paper proposes an aesthetic theology of "the cross" which brings the insights of feminist and trauma theory into conversation with classical understandings of the "salvific power" of the crucifixion. In particular, I am interested in exploring the theological significance of violence which not only cannot be spoken but which, because of this devastating power, escapes memory. I want to explore the question: how does God not only redeem history, but also redeem "no history"-the chasms of traumatic time. I contend that the cross need not be interpreted as valorizing violence and human suffering; to the contrary, the devastating force of traumatic violence is exposed and condemned on the cross. In the "time between" crucifixion and resurrection, we find theological resources for a feminist reconception of the relation between redemption and time.
A37
Something About Nothing: A Feminist Reading of Creation
Catherine E. Keller, Drew University
The classical doctrine of creatio ex nihilo takes shape amidst sexually charged postulations of divine omnipotence. Its discursive dominance asserts itself against a fluid, feminized and queered chaos (e.g., Irenaeus' " tears and sweat of Achamoth").Yet something else takes place in Augustine's Confessions. While presuming the ex nihilo, Augustine's "cry from the depths," rather than suppressing or demonizing the tehom of Gen 1.2, sublimates it/her as "upper waters," "mother most dear," God's "wife." In this exegetical perplexity, Augustine affirmed "multiple true interpretations." Opening that multiplicity into Bhaktin's "sea of heteroglossia, " I read tehom as trace of a primordial "différance" (Derrida) nonetheless at odds with poststructuralist proscriptions of "depth." Renegotiating the conflicting feminine imagery--from Wesley's "impregn'd abyss" to Barth's "monstrous sphere"-- bounding the doctrine of creation, I construct a feminist alternative, arguably more biblical than the ex nihilo.
A38
Panel: The Right to Family Planning, Contraception, and Abortion in World and Indigenous Religions
Andrea Smith, University of California, Santa Cruz, Presiding
Daniel C. Maguire, Marquette University
Sadiyya Shaikh, Temple University
Christine E. Gudorf, Florida International University
Arvind Sharma, McGill University
Laurie Zoloth, San Francisco State University
Mary C. Churchill, University of Colorado, Boulder
Family Planning--meaning contraception with abortion as a backup when necessary--should not be controversial. That many world religions should have strong pro-natalist strains is not surprising. These restrictive views have been well published, particularly by the Vatican. What is less well known is that there are pro-choice views in the world religions alongside the no-choice views. A group of scholars specializing in ten world religions have launched a project to show the solid, thoroughly orthodox pro-family-planning positions in the world's major and indigenous religions. Our scholars show that this view is grounded in the spiritual and moral insights of the world's religions in order to counter the oppressive and distorting positions of the religious right in all these religions. A panel of scholars will present our findings, focusing on Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Judaism, and American Indian religious traditions.
A39
Ellison's Blues: Tragicomic Transcendence in an Absurd and Hopeful World
Beth Eddy, Princeton University
This paper examines Ralph Ellison's reflections on the role of transcendence in spiritual life. I analyze Ellison's debts to and differences from understandings of transcendence he inherits from his theological, philosophical, and vernacular cultural roots. Ellison takes the blues to be a tragicomic means of spiritual transcendence of both sin and suffering. He explains both what he borrows and what he chooses to leave behind from more purely tragic and comic spiritualities, and why he takes what he takes and leaves what he leaves. His vision of the tragicomic blues bears family resemblances. Cornel West's predominantly tragic vision and Richard Rorty's more comic understanding of transcendence. Ellison makes critical appropriations from both tragic and comic genres, embracing a religious understanding of transcendence as a sacred human need while subjecting his own vision to various secular modes of criticism he also values.
A39
A Tragic-Liberation Model: Hurston's Perspective on Life and Systematic Evil
F. Douglas Powe, Emory University
This essay explores how Zora Neale Hurston's, "Their Eyes Were Watching God," moves African-American theology toward a tragic understanding of life. The nature of human existence means being vulnerable to our world. Too often in classical religious thought, human vulnerability becomes synonymous with sin. A doctrine of the fall intimates that because humans are fallen, evil can occur in their lives. The difference between humans are fallen and humans are vulnerable creates a different sensibility on perceiving human sin and suffering. I posit that, compellingly, Hurston's work explores human vulnerability from an African-American perspective, focusing on the relationship between God, the individual, the inter-human, and the community. Hurston pushes African-American theology toward a tragic understanding of life, while maintaining a strong emphasis on the importance of systemic evil. I contend that Hurston is unique as she provides a way to take seriously human vulnerability and the systemic nature of evil.
A39
James Baldwin: Interpreter of Tongues
Yolanda Pierce, University of Kentucky
James Baldwin's fiction, like Flannery O'Connor's writing, is "Christ haunted." Throughout his career as writer and political activist, Baldwin could not escape his Fire-Baptized Holiness Church tradition. Like this religious expression, bound by the verbal and written language of the Bible and its believers' oral testimony, Baldwin writes and speaks "in tongues"; that is, he utilizes a special, ancient and sacred language closed to outsiders and "unbelievers." Baldwin possesses a sacred spiritual and literary gift of interpreting tongues. He takes this religious language and gives his readers a glimpse into "the day of Pentecost." At great risk and personal cost, Baldwin interprets those tongues for those whom the language of Pentecost is unknown. This essay uses Baldwin's 1978 novel Just Above My Head, to explore how Baldwin, as author/homileticist, interprets a spiritual language for his readers -- one that has sustained and nourished people of African descent living in America.
A39
Baldwin and Lorde As Theological Resources for the Celebration of Darkness
Robin Hawley Gorsline, Brooklyn, NY
The writings and lives of James Baldwin and Audre Lorde are resources in the effort to undermine the valorization of lightness over darkness. I offer readings of Baldwin and Lorde as resources for spiritual healing and as correction against Bible-centric theologies. They may be considered meta-theologians because they transcend the boundaries of traditional white supremacist and heterosupremacist theological discourse, while maintaining a focus on liberative moral values and spiritual life. Three themes in their works draw our attention: their responses to the admonition to "never trust white people," their treatments of human difference, and their honesty about sexuality. Baldwin and Lorde show us that celebrating darkness offers hope for saving humanity from destructive hierarchies based on supremacies of race, sex and gender. Their celebration of sexuality and gender can widen the worldview of Black Theology, and their racial pride and candor offer a corrective to feminist and queer theologies.
A40
Receptivity, Donation, and the Imagination: Toward a Trinitarian Account of the Imago Dei
Philip D. Kenneson, Milligan College
This paper explores the theological fruitfulness of the concept of the imago Dei by bringing together two important, but largely discrete, emphases in recent Christian theology. One is the relatively recent recovery of the social character of the human person, a view rooted in Trinitarian accounts of donation and receptivity. The second emphasis concerns the vital and indispensable role imagination plays in human life. Whereas earlier understandings of imagination pitted it against reason, contemporary discussions argue for its constitutive character. Moreover, the best theological reflection to date on the imagination has tried to hold together both its receptive and constructive character. This suggests that the dynamic at the heart of human imagination may itself reflect something of the Trinitarian dynamic of donation and receptivity. Such a view of the imago Dei has the potential to illuminate (among other things) in what sense human beings are capable of perichoretic relations.
A40
The Alpha and the Omega and Everything in Between: An Ecumenical Treatment of the Imago Dei
Jennifer Bader, Catholic University of America
This paper explores the interpretations of the biblical concept of the imago Dei in the works of selected contemporary authors from the Roman Catholic and Orthodox traditions and highlights the strengths that each brings to a contemporary understanding of the imago Dei. In particular, this paper discusses what constitutes the imago Dei within humanity (Roman Catholic tradition); Christ as the imago Dei and humanity as the imago Christi (Orthodox tradition); and the imago Dei as a task for the moral life (both traditions). This paper explores the implications of these interpretations of the imago Dei for the fields of theological anthropology, moral theology, and Christology. In conclusion, this paper demonstrates that these interpretations of the imago Dei can be brought together into an understanding of the imago Dei that is more than the sum of its parts and theologically treats humanity more comprehensively than any one of the interpretations alone.
A40
Love's Reflection: Retrieving a Victorine Pneumatology of the Imago Dei
Maurice Lee, Yale University
A "pneumatological deficit" in the doctrine of the imago Dei is addressed by looking to Richard of St. Victor's proposal that the Spirit is distinguished within the Trinity by a particular form of love, amor debitus (owed or returned love), that it is precisely this love by which human persons are characterized, and therefore that in this sense it is the Spirit to whom human persons are conformed in "similitude." It will be argued that such a pneumatological retrieval of "returned" love as an aspect of the image of God in human beings (1) opens a way to make sense of the claim that the gift of the Spirit to us is the being of the Spirit in us, and (2) links the "perfect" love of the new creation to the "transformative" love of Christ's cross as its eschatological goal.
A40
Human Community As an Image of the Holy Trinity
Nonna Verna Harrison, Cambridge University
While many Eastern and Western theologians agree that human community is created to image the Trinity, an apparent impasse arises over Orthodox belief in the Father's role as source of divine being and activity. Some Westerners regard divine essence or a structure of relationality as ultimate source, to avoid making the Trinity a model for human patriarchal oppression. Easterners reaffirm the Father's "monarchy," so that the ultimate principle is a person, not something impersonal. My paper retrieves Greek patristic distinctions between the ways divine and human persons exist and act. Which aspects of human community image the divine, which do not? We need a balanced view affirming human freedom, equality and diversity along with unity and obedience, since all these characteristics image the divine. Moreover, the Father's humility, kenosis and self-offering toward the Son and Spirit and their like response provide an ethically challenging model for human leadership and community.
A41
Did Majority Religion Rule the Bench? A Study of the Warren Court's Treatment of Minority Religions
Sherryl L. Wright, Iliff School of Theology, University of Denver
When President Eisenhower nominated Earl Warren to become chief justice of the Supreme Court, he chose a noted champion of individual rights, and especially civil rights. Religious minorities had reason to hope for favorable treatment from the Warren Court. On the other hand, those who would curry government favor for the mainstream Protestantism they viewed as the nation's majority had reason to fear a renewed onslaught on establishment. The fears of the religious majority, as well as the hopes of religious minorities, would often be realized by Warren Court decisions. The pattern of majority religion losses and minority religion victories, however, was far from consistent.Persons representing minority religious viewpoints won four religious freedom cases before the Court. They also lost four. More indicative of the Court's attitude were the eight cases in which the Court limited government attempts at establishment and the three in which it upheld free exercise rights.
A41
The Federal Courts and Religious Minorities: Rethinking the Mormon Polygamy Cases
Clark Lombardi, Columbia University
According to many scholars, American courts in the nineteenth century generally did not recognize constitutional rights of free exercise, and allowed majorities to impose their moral norms through legislation. The Supreme Court's decisions in the Mormon polygamy cases in the 1880s are said to epitomize this attitude. This paper takes a fresh look at nineteenth-century cases generally and at the Mormon cases in particular. It shows that American judges up to the 1880s disagreed as to whether a believer could violate generally applicable laws to practice her religion, and argues that even the Supreme Court was initially ambivalent about religious exemptions from such laws. Only in later Mormon polygamy cases during a situation of perceived crisis did the Court categorically reject the Mormon claim to free exercise exemptions. The relationship between religious minorities and governments in the nineteenth century is thus considerably more nuanced than is generally recognized.
A41
New Religions and the Problem of "Legitimacy": How Seeking and Requiring Legal/Political Acceptance Undermines Religious Freedom in America
Barbara A. McGraw, Saint Mary's College of California
Moving away from a perceived "secularization" trend in the United States in previous decades, many since the 1980's have been promoting the acceptance of religious voices in public life. However, as there is more "accommodation" of religion in the "public square," the question arises as to the extent to which those in new religious movements may participate. Sensing the potential exclusionary threat of this question, many in new religious movements seek to establish themselves as being "legitimate." This paper will argue, however, that by seeking "legitimacy" those in such new religious movements are adopting a misinterpretation of the Religion Clauses of the First Amendment that undermines the original intention of the American founders. Consequently, they unwittingly give credence to arguments that some groups are not "legitimate" enough to be accorded the right to full and equal participation.
A42
Dostoevsky's Apocalyptic Poetics and Monastic Spirituality: Elder Zosima on Restorative Justice
P. Travis Kroeker, McMaster University
Both as literary genre and religious vision, Dostoevsky's poetics may be described as apocalyptic. In "The Brothers Karamazov", Ivan's Grand Inquisitor proposes a global state as the solution to the problem of human justice a parody of the heavenly city imaged in the book of Revelation. This parodied truth is not displayed in a brilliant rejoinder to Ivan, but rather in the contrasting settings of Russian justice depicted in the novel: the modern courtroom in which Dmitri Karamazov is tried (with its rules of forensic evidence, appeals to family values, and procedural rituals in the administration of retributive justice) versus the traditional monastic cell in which elder Zosima mediates a family dispute (with its icons, cycle of prayer, and appeal to conscience rooted in the biblical narrative and particularly its vision of restorative justice). Paying close attention to these settings can tell us much about Dostoevsky's religious vision of justice.
A42
Freedom and the Cosmos in the Novels of Fyodore Dostoevsky
Wendy Wiseman, University of California, Santa Barbara
Fyodore Dostoevsky's four major novels, Crime and Punishment, The Idiot, The Demons, and Brothers Karamozov, powerfully unite a modern subjectivity based on radical freedom with a vision of cosmic redemption that cannot be understood outside the context of a distinctively Russian Orthodoxy. In this paper, I trace the intimate relation between the agonistic freedom of his heroes and the mythic symbolization of "the earth" as Sophia, Mother of God, and Holy Russia. In so doing, I follow the lead of Dostoevsky's Russian interpreters who take seriously the cosmic dimension of his art, namely Vladimir Soloviev, Vyacheslav Ivanov, and Nikolai Berdiaev. I will argue that this coupling of existential freedom with an archaic myth of "Mother Earth" provides the crux of Dostoevsky's artistic and religious vision, and points to a profound "kinship" with that other cosmic thinker, Friedrich Nietzche.
A42
The Quest for Fyodore Dostoevsky's Christ
Joe Barnhart, University of North Texas
Acquainted with nineteenth-century European versions of the historical Jesus, Dostoevsky had intended to rewrite a book on Christ but kept postponing it. He could not have written it because his study of the Gospels and his experiment in writing about Myshkin rendered it impossible. The Idiot is about a beautiful person (Christ being the only truly beautiful ideal). Dostoevsky's notes refer to Myshkin as "Prince Christ." Although his attempts to make his Prince Christ's temptations real, Myshkin fails to become completely embodied. On a tangent to life's circle, he lacks the necessary flesh permitting him to occupy a specific place (Bakhtin). The famous letter in which Dostoevsky says he would choose Christ over truth is not a Kierkegaardian leap of faith but must be seen as a manifestation of his Orthodox faith and his own personal vision of the meaning of Christ.
A43
Jōkei and the 'Place' of Devotion in Medieval Japanese Buddhism
James L. Ford, Wake Forest University
Jōkei (1155-1213) was a prominent Hossō monk of the early Kamakura period. Perhaps best known as an adversary to Hōnen's senju nembutsu teaching as well as a precept "revivalist," he is also noted for his eclectic life of religious devotion that featured many different Buddhist figures and practices. In this paper, I will discuss the importance of "place" in comprehending Jōkei's religious worldview and the apparent shifts in his devotional focus over time. Moreover, I will argue that the fundamental role of "place" in Jōkei's religiosity is a shared feature of both pre-modern and modern Japanese religion. Finally, in an effort to connect this research to the broader field of religious studies, I will appropriate J.Z. Smith's enduring study of "sacred space," more specifically his "locative" and "utopian" taxonomies, to contrast the understanding of "space" in the teachings and practices of Jōkei and Hōnen.
A43
Geography, Footsteps, Legends, and Symbols: The Construction of an Emotional Landscape in the Shikoku Pilgrimage
Ian Reader, Lancaster University
The 88-temple Shikoku pilgrimage passes through the island's four prefectures, encompassing and encircling its geographical features, from its coast and mountainous interior, to its main population centres. Symbolically the route takes the pilgrim on a journey redolent with images of enlightenment and death, and in the footsteps of the holy figure Kōbō Daishi. Numerous legends, pilgrims' experiences and miracle tales further emphasize this image of Shikoku as a sacred realm. This paper discusses how the Shikoku pilgrimage has been "made"--through such legends, symbolic structures, and geographical features--into an emotional landscape full of sacred imagery. Based also on contemporary sources (e.g. contemporary publications, pilgrims' testimonies and developments) it shows that this conceptualisation of an emotional and sacred landscape is not just an inherited and static one, but something that is in a continuing process of development and manufacture.
A43
The Historical Development of Premodern Japanese Ghosts
Susan Blakeley Klein, University of California, Irvine
This paper will present a brief overview of how ghosts have developed in Japan from the ninth to nineteenth centuries. Ghosts are deeply problematic figures, embodying (or disembodying) on both the public and private stage the failure of political, social, and religious structures. In Japan the conceptual understanding of ghosts--their visual representation, their powers, how they can be pacified--has changed considerably over time, as new cultural anxieties and political problematics have arisen to replace old ones. With this in mind, the framing questions for the paper will be: what are the main social and symbolic functions of ghosts in each period? How does the changing representation of the demonic embody contemporaneous attitudes toward gender roles? How do attitudes toward religion of the historical period in question affect the representation of the ghost? And finally, what effect does the development of new artistic genres have on this representation?
A43
Hanako, the Toilet Ghost
Elizabeth Kenney, Kansai Gaidai University
Hanako is the most well-known and individualized of the many ghosts currently haunting Japanese schools. These ghosts have generated a genre of children's literature known as gakkō no kaidan (school ghost stories). In tracing Hanako's religious genealogy, we should remember the toilet god, associated with childbirth, who was widely worshipped until modern times. From the realm of popular religion and folklore, the Edo-period toilet monster called ganbarinyūdō (an old man) might be a precursor of Hanako. The modern Hanako might be a reflection of school anxieties, fear of death, or girls' anxieties about menstruation. In some versions Hanako has been transformed from a malevolent, vengeful spirit into a benevolent protective spirit. Children can call on her for help when beset by other ghosts or monsters. This transformation mirrors a familiar pattern in Japanese religions: that dangerous spirits, especially of the dead, need to be pacified.
A44
The More Profound the Anxiety, the More Profound the Culture
Stacey Ake, Philadelphia Center for Religion and Science
Using Kierkegaard's observation in The Concept of Anxiety that "anxiety is freedom's actuality as the possibility of possibility" (KW VIII 42), I will create three more parallel categories: (1) fear--freedom's actuality as the possibility of actuality, (2) resignation--freedom's actuality as the actuality of actuality, and (3)faith--freedom's actuality as the actuality of possibility. Employing these four categories, I will explore an individual's and a nation's (or a culture's) response to alterity. For, says Kierkegaard, "the more profound the anxiety, the more profound the culture" (KW VIII 42). My argument is that an individual's or a culture's view of their freedom determines the context in, by, and through which the other(s) will be perceived. I will also observe this freedom as it passes "through the imperfect forms of history" (KW VIII 42-43) via the history of race relations in the United States.
A44
Love and Difference: The Christian Ideal in Kierkegaard's Works of Love
Vanessa P. Rumble, Boston College
I offer a reading of Works of Love which focuses on certain continuities in structure between that text and earlier "aesthetic" works. Both aesthetic and veronymous writings render problematic the transition from "human" to "Christian" consciousness. For this reason, Kierkegaard's work lends itself to the same sort of deconstructive reading to which Derrida subjected Rousseau's writings in Of Grammatology, namely, a reading which draws attention to the degree to which the ideal is presentable only as textual. The dichotomy between a fallen self-enclosed consciousness (the accessible "human") and its unthinkable "other," between the positions designated by Climacus as the "Socratic" and the "Christian," is repeated throughout Kierkegaard's authorship. The reader is faced with the question of whether Kierkegaard intends to indicate the undecidability of this distinction and whether, in so doing, he approximates the conception of religiosity favored by Derrida.
A44
Kierkegaard, Derrida, and the Context of Context(s)
Avron Kulak, York University
How can Kierkegaard and Derrida inform our thinking about the historical construction of self and other? In recognizing that "there can be no contextual definition of a human being," Derrida indicates that neither self nor other can break with the context of (having a) context. Derrida develops context as involving a duplicity of historical origins: the biblical call for justice and the Platonic "khora" that is "the condition for a universal politics." Yet, when Kierkegaard develops "the similarity" between biblical and Greek thought as consisting "essentially in their dissimilarity," he shows that the condition for the historical coming into existence of self and other is inseparable from the biblical dialectic of love. In my paper I shall examine the biblical dialectic of love--seeing the other as self and the self as other--as precisely the redoubling in light of which we construct self and other by deconstructing their binary oppositions.
A44
Willing to Become Oneself Which Is Not One: Kierkegaard and Irigaray
Helene Tallon Russell, Allegheny College
Contemporary feminist theorist Luce Irigaray and Kierkegaard both argue that the profoundly significant process of becoming a subject is inhibited by the tendency of society and discourse to universalize itself. This essay compares and contrasts Kierkegaard's critical analysis of the context of the individual's process toward becoming a self with Irigaray's focus on overcoming the cultural and discursive barriers to becoming a feminine subject. Kierkegaard believes that becoming a religious subject is an arduous process that is inhibited by society's and philosophy's value of universal norms. Becoming a Christian entails distinguishing oneself from the universal. Similarly, Irigaray argues that the universal structure of phallocentric discourse inhibits women in the process of becoming feminine subjects. She suggests that women identify with the characteristics of the "other" in their struggle toward becoming genuine subjects.
A45
The Adapted Soul: Evolutionary Psychology and the Study of Religion
Michael T. Bradley, Jr., Decatur, GA
Evolutionary psychology examines evolved psychological mechanisms resulting from adaptations of the mind to a Pleistocene hunter-gatherer existence. Rejecting a mind analogous to a content-free, general-purpose learning mechanism, evolutionary psychologists argue for a mind constituted by a number of specialized cognitive processes, containing important information about the world at birth. While most theorizing about evolutionary psychology has focused on biological bases for facial recognition, language acquisition, mate selection, cheater detection, reciprocal altruism, and a number of other phenomena, less attention has been paid to possible connections between evolutionary psychology and religion. This neglect, however, has begun to be remedied as scholars have started to devote attention to cognitive processes emerging in evolutionary time and facilitating religious belief. The human mind, they claim, evolved to believe in the gods. In this paper, I survey this recent work and report on the burgeoning connections between evolutionary psychology and the study of religion.
A45
A Stretch of the Imagination: Memory, Image, and the Healing Brain
David A. Hogue, Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary
Neuroscientific discoveries are increasingly supporting the constructed nature of human experience and therefore raising both the threat and the promise of the plasticity of such experience. Drawing upon the work of biogenetic structuralism and current research in memory and imagery, this paper explores the implications for both religious practice and psychotherapy. Both memory and perception are subject to change in order to meet the organism's needs at any given moment. Such a state of affairs not only supports a postmodern worldview, but also has powerful implications for the practices of religious communities in general, and of psychotherapy in particular. While they can undermine a sense of certainty regarding memory and perceptual "reality", they also offer explanations in support of some cultural and religious practices (including psychotherapy), while critiquing others.
A45
Male Violence, Sin, and Evolutionary Biology
Gregory Love, Princeton Theological Seminary
Reinhold Niebuhr argues that sin is "inevitable but not necessary." Niebuhr follows Augustine's classic view of sin as rooted in pride and egotism. At some level, sin is willed by the individual. In contrast, theologians like Brock and Nelson, working off Alice Miller's clinical psychology, argue that the self's movement into self-destructive or narcissistic/violent behavior is rooted in self-protective habits developed early to protect the self from emotional damage. In "The Dark Side of Man," anthropologist Michael Ghiglieri challenges both the theological and psychological views of sin's origins. His studies of primate violence suggest that violent egotism is at our core. This paper will argue that, despite appearances, both Miller's and Ghiglieri's theories have a place for what Niebuhr called "sin as freely willed" by the self. I will demonstrate my theory's fruitfulness through its coherence with historian Christopher Browning's study of male violence during WWII in "Ordinary Men."
A46
Panel: World Religions and Ecology: The Harvard Book Series and Beyond
Mary Evelyn Tucker, Bucknell University, Presiding
David L. Haberman, Indiana University, Bloomington
Christopher Chapple, Loyola Marymount University
Kenneth L. Kraft, Lehigh University
Norman J. Girardot, Lehigh University
Hava Tirosh-Samuelson, Arizona State University
Rosemary R. Ruether, Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary
John A. Grim, Bucknell University
Bron R. Taylor, University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh, Responding
A milestone in the development of the field of religion and ecology was a series of ten conferences held from 1996 to 1998 at the Harvard University Center for the Study of World Religions, covering Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, Hinduism, Indigenous traditions, Islam, Jainism, Judaism, Shinto, and Daoism. These gatherings generated a series of ground-breaking books that decisively advance the field of religion and ecology as an academic discipline. This panel will continue the process of identifying ecologically pertinent resources within world religions. Prospectively, the participants will reflect on next steps, including the evolution of the Forum on Religion and Ecology.
A47
"The Lord for the Body": Sickness, Health and Divine Healing in Nineteenth-Century Protestantism
Heather D. Curtis, Harvard University
Beginning in the 1840s, accounts of miraculous healing began to circulate throughout Europe and the United States. This paper will trace the emergence of the divine healing movement among evangelical Protestants through the testimonies of "faith cures" published in popular periodicals and pamphlets. These narratives offer a window into the experiences of nineteenth-century people who considered themselves to be ill, and reveal the variety of ways in which they thought about the relationship between the physical and the spiritual. Paying particular attention to the rhetoric of passivity that characterized these descriptions, this paper will assess the gendered nature and implications of these interpretations of sickness, health and healing.
A47
Buddhism, Hospice, and the American Way of Dying
Kathleen Garces-Foley, University of California, Santa Barbara
Buddhism has become a prominent voice within the "good death" movement and within hospice, in particular. Euro-American Buddhist leaders have been remarkably successful in promoting a "Buddhist approach to death" to an American public eager for concrete, spiritual guidance and pragmatic techniques for dealing with death. The influence of Buddhism has been fostered through a mutually beneficial relationship with the American hospice movement. Because hospice within the pluralistic context of American culture needed a nonsectarian language in which to approach the spiritual dimension of death, it welcomed borrowing from Buddhism. The major sources of Buddhist influence include books, hospices, and spiritual care training programs. Through these identifiably Buddhist sources, Buddhist terms and practices have unconsciously become part of the discourse and culture of the hospice movements, mixing easily with the Christian and Jewish beliefs of hospice professionals and patients.
A47
End of Life Issues Personally and Spiritually Explored (ELIPSE)- Lessons from a Latino Community
Margaret R. McLean, Santa Clara University
In response to the observation of health care professionals and social service agencies that Latino communities in the San Jose area are on the periphery of health care decision making, the ELIPSE project was begun. The objective was to explore the personal and spiritual experiences and concerns of some Latinos in the community regarding end of life care. We conducted four bilingual focus groups for guided discussion of health beliefs, practices and values in the Latino community. This paper presents the results of the ELIPSE study with particular attention to faith-based perceptions and desires concerning the ending of life.
A48
Ritual As Writing: Reflecting on Yoeme Indian Religious Action
David A. Shorter, University of California, Santa Cruz
By developing non-notational theories of writing, scholars such as James Clifford and Jacques Derrida provide a new lens through which we can recognize non-Western forms of identity demarcation. As an example of such recognitions, I draw on long-standing fieldwork with the Yoeme Indians of Northwest Mexico to demonstrate how religious rituals might be understood as writing acts, where writing delineates differences between the "self" and "others." This paper focuses on three Yoeme ceremonial performances: the "Feeding the Departing Souls" ceremony, ritual processions during Lent, and territorial patrols by the Coyote Society to highlight the ways in which many Yoeme have been historicizing their community, embodying their aboriginal status, and mapping their tribal territory. This research acknowledges that, like the Yoeme communities, other Native peoples may have long been active in religiously "writing" their auto-ethnographies.
A48
Maya Rituals: "To Connect to the Center in Which We Trust"
Jean Molesky-Poz, Graduate Theological Union
In the past fifteen years in Guatemala, Maya are publicly reclaiming ceremonial practice which has been concealed for 500 years. Here I illuminate the aesthetics of contemporary Maya ritual space, rendering the design of the altar as landscape, as map, and as center. This quatrefoil and calendric image-space, constructed of natural aromatic materials, is an understanding built up over layers of time, in distinct migrations, resettlements, transformed in historic processes, yet remembered in collective historic and mythic narratives. This ephemeral image-map of visual semiology opens up the space the West has endeavored to close down. Before the sacred fire, Maya Ajq'ijab' (daykeepers) name and remember the days of the Chol Qij (sacred calendar), and "connect to the center in which they trust." In practicing the territory of the map, Ajq'ijab' access ancestral ways of knowing.
A48
No Time Outs: Charting a Ritual History of the Cherokee Ball Game
Michael Zogry, Duke University
I offer brief summations of the findings of three researchers in order to chart a ritual history of anetsa, the Cherokee ball game: James Mooney, Raymond Fogelson, and myself. Mooney was active at the turn of the twentieth century and Fogelson in the late 50s and early 60s. My data is based on fieldwork begun in 1993 and ongoing. I conclude that anetsa is a device that supports a variety of cultural meanings (social, religious, economic, and political) and transports them through historical time. As a test case for a broadly understood group of "Native American ritual activities," this examination of the Cherokee ball game points out the need for further clarification of categories when dealing with cultural entities not born of the cultures that invented such categories.
A49
Techno-Science and the Mystical
Thomas A. Carlson, University of California, Santa Barbara
While some of the best among thinkers in the early twentieth century can understand the rationality of modern science and technology to be one in which the human subject, by means of a calculative and instrumental thinking, would exclude from an objectified world any meaningful sense of the mystical, more recent thinkers, such as Jacques Derrida, Michel Serres, and Mark C. Taylor, have been able to re-interpret our late- or post-modern networks of "techno-science" in terms of a quasi-mystical logic that unsettles the modern metaphysics of the subject and its will to mastery. This paper argues that the mystical logic one might see operative in today's techno-scientific networks is tied intimately to the process of human self-creation taking place in and through those networks.
A49
The New Question Concerning Technology: From Heidegger to Baudrillard
Lissa McCullough, Hanover College
Heidegger's docetic interpretation of technology abstracts the technological quest from it biophysical ground: that is, the contingency of Dasein as it exists under the continual pressures of bodily vulnerability. Here Husserl and Merleau-Ponty, as body thinkers, crucially supplement Heidegger. There is need to view the impulse to technological development within the long evolutionary history in which any biological species negotiates biophysical accommodation from and to its Lebenswelt. Technological innovation manipulates things and ideas methodically to elicit accommodation or commoditas (from com-modus, measure) in relation to the world, achieving what Heidegger denotes as "orderability" or "standing by" (Bestand). This power to wrest accommodation has radically ambiguous implications, including dehumanizing implications. If the power to exploit vulnerability breeds inhumanity, so does the power to eliminate vulnerability.
A51
Beyond Synergism: Luther's Alternative Compatibilism
Jason A. Mahn, Emory University
The purpose of this paper is to recognize the way Luther reconfigures the nature of free will and divine grace in relation to his inherited Augustinian tradition. Luther attacks the standpoint that Erasmus assumes in arguing for the freedom of the will, a standpoint that supposes logical and ethical consistency and which arbitrates between the benefits and drawbacks of different depictions of freedom. Understanding the debate as principally between Erasmus' mediating and Luther's confessional standpoints offers a unique understanding of Lutheran anthropology, but seems to diminish the role of Lutheran ethics. I argue that acknowledging that the debate is about standpoints actually allows one to recognize a new kind of compatibilism between freedom and grace, vital for reconstructing Lutheran ethics. It is possible to couple the grace that prohibits salvific freedom with a freedom determined in
relation to responsibility.
A51
What's Wrong With Pelagianism? Augustine and Jerome on the Dangers of Pelagius and His Followers
Michael R. Rackett, Duke University
What's wrong with Pelagianism? Simply put, the answer depends upon whom you ask. Fifth-century critics such as Jerome and Augustine gave rather different responses to the question of what constituted the most dangerous aspect of the teaching of Pelagius and his followers. Juxtaposing these different critiques, and comparing them with Pelagian primary sources, illumines the extent to which Pelagianism as an enduring theological heresy is largely an Augustinian construct. In light of Augustine's role in setting the boundaries of the debate, perhaps it would be more accurate to speak of the "Augustinian" controversies (and semi- or demi-Augustinian controversies) through history than of the "Pelagian" controversies.
A51
The Role of God's "Inscrutable Judgments" in Augustine's Doctrine of Predestination
Paul Rigby, University of Ottawa
A review of the last hundred years of scholarship reveals that most scholars believe that Augustine's teaching on predestination entails double predestination. In response some scholars fall back on Augustine's own appeal to mystery. Others regard Augustine's appeal to mystery negatively. They believe that Augustine compromised his habitual intellectual rigor and surreptitiously manipulated the meaning of the concept of justice. I will show that Augustine appeals to God's inscrutable judgments not to salvage God's justice but to reduce human wisdom to silence before the Deus Absconditus. God's gracious mercy can no longer be understood as an arbitrary exception set within the economy of justice but as an inscrutable wisdom that teaches us to accept what we do not understand. Learned ignorance is the theme revealing Jesus the wisdom of God: the predestined servant who "must" suffer and who reveals in his absolute freedom for goodness the infinite goodness of God.
A51
Economies of Exchange: Pelagianism and Reciprocity in Calvin's Theology
Jared Witt, Yale University
This paper brings Derrida's recent theorizing about "gifts" into conversation with the theology of John Calvin in order to look at Calvin's "pelagian" rhetoric in a new way. A recent book by historian Natalie Davis reveals a set of concerns and questions about gifts shared by these two conceptual worlds (The Gift in Sixteenth Century France, published 2000). I will argue that recent reflection on gifts raises a number of questions that were at the heart of Calvin's theology of grace. For Calvin, the economy of God's relating to humanity called "grace" is distorted when described in terms of reciprocal obligations. Calvin's worries about Catholic conceptions of merit and sacrifice reveal that for Calvin the circuit of gift giving runs from God the Giver through the faithful and out into the world in an ethic of gratitude and praise.
A52
Panel: Employment Information Services Advisory Committee - "If I Knew Then What I Know Now": Lessons from the First Year on the Job
Richard A. Rosengarten, University of Chicago, Presiding
Former users of the EIS Center reflect on and offer advice about the first year on the job during this special topics forum. Panelists will speak to their wisdom and missteps as they contended with developing new courses, teaching new students, completing a dissertation, balancing career and family life, and learning the local cultures of their new department, institution, and locality. Panelists include Faith Kirkham Hawkins, Gustavus Adolphus College; Michael J. Brown, Emory University; and Thomas Pearson, Muhlenberg College.
A53
Panel: Committee on the Status of Racial and Ethnic Minorities - Identity, Scholarship, and Teaching: Studying Religion Cross-Culturally and Ethnically
Karen Baker-Fletcher, Claremont School of Theology, Presiding
José I. Cabezón, Iliff School of Theology
Laura E. Donaldson, Cornell University
Chris Jocks, Dartmouth College
Lawrence Mamiya, Vassar College
Amina Wadud, Virginia Commonwealth University
Diane L. Eck, Responding
As students of religion, we often have to teach courses broadly, cutting across religious traditions and cultures that are not our own. The purpose of this panel is to examine the issues, problems, and strategies involved in studying and teaching religion across racial, ethnic, and cultural boundaries. For example, what are the problems and issues of a non-black person studying and teaching African American religion or a non-Muslim doing the same for Islam? Similarly, what issues does a Muslim professor encounter on a largely Christian campus? In recent years, we have also heard about some Native American groups refusing access to non-Native scholars. What are the moral responsibilities of scholars of religion? What strategies have been employed in teaching and scholarship to deal sensitively with racial, ethnic, and cultural boundaries?
A54
Consummation or Consumption?: Bakhtin and the Ethics of Intertextuality
Crystal Downing, Messiah College
Though Mikhail Bakhtin inspired Julia Kristeva's word "Intertextuality," intertextual studies often operate in defiance of Bakhtin's moral philosophy, which valorized "unfinalizability" over finalized readings. After outlining the relationship between Bakhtin's ethical and aesthetic philosophies, I will use the love affair between two of Bakhtin's contemporaries, Christian novelist / playwright / essayist Dorothy L. Sayers and Jewish poet / novelist / journalist John Cournos, to exemplify the problematics of intertextuality, suggesting that, to preserve a Bakhtinian ethic, appropriations / quotations of the textual "other" must create an "architectonics of answerability" which consummates rather than consumes the other.
A54
Confession and Dialogical Selfhood in Bakhtin
Paul J. Contino, Valparaiso University
In an intellectual milieu in which assertions about the "constructedness of the self" are commonplace, Mikhail Bakhtin's claims about the "deepest I," discovered in confessional dialogue with another, may sound quaint. But Bakhtin's notion of the dialogical self poses a vital alternative both to the instability and determinism implicit in understandings of the self as "constructed," and to Enlightenment models of sovereign subjectivity. Moreover, Bakhtin's notion of self can be understood as having a religious grounding. For Bakhtin, integral selfhood is forged especially through confessional dialogue, in which one is called by a Divine summons to reject the vaporous self produced by "alibis for Being," to apply one's "signature" to one's deeds, and to respond to others with loving attentiveness (Toward a Philosophy of the Act ). Bakhtin's thought illuminates confessional encounters in numerous literary works, and this paper will focus on the examples of Ivan and Alyosha Karamazov.
A54
M.M. Bakhtin's Perspectival Realism
Susan M. Felch, Calvin College
Bakhtin's sense that the world is constituted by God's call and human response models a notion of utterance that replaces Saussure's inadequate abstract account of language as the relationship of signifier and signified. Because utterance is both contextualized and unique, it gives rise to a perspectivism that contrasts with modernist universalism. But such perspectivism is counterpoised by Bakhtin's statement that the world is not only "something-to-be-achieved" but "something given," a contrast with postmodern thought. Christ, in the incarnation, embodies both call and response and elicits "the unity of the actual and answerably act-performing consciousness" that Bakhtin terms "faithfulness." Bakhtin's own stance may be described as perspectival realism, giving full weight to the implications embedded in each of those terms. Such perspectival realism, neither rigidly logocentric nor logophobic, gestures toward a refreshed ethical/aesthetic language that, among other virtues, provides a way to analyze literature as a complex human response.
A54
Intercultural, Intercreatural: Bakhtin and the Uniqueness of 'Literary Seeing'
Graham Pechey, University of Hertforshire
The argument of this paper is (1) that the Bakhtin who forsakes the elaboration of a first philosophy for author-or genre-based literary studies does so for reasons which are not wholly Aesopian; (2) that Bakhtin's reading of the European literary canon as an undogmatic Christian so re-articulates Scripture upon literature as to bring out the inherently transcultural dimension of both; (3) that literature with its richly incarnated interpenetration of the intimate and the ultimate as an axiological and epistemological weight which is quite specific and which is out of the reach of all other modes of knowledge whatever. Besides averting the loss of Bakhtin to an 'aesthetic activity' thinned to abstraction in the discourse of philosophy, the advantage of this approach is that it brings on to common ground within the anglophone academic community both the traditionalist defenders of the canon and those critics of its alleged Eurocentricity who champion the 'postcolonial'.
A55
Flowers from the Sky: Auspicious Portents in Two Jishū Hagiographies
J. Todd Brown, University of Arizona
This paper examines the rhetorical functions of accounts of auspicious portents in the illustrated hagiographic works produced by two early, competing factions of the Jishū: the biography of the Jishū's founder, Ippen, known as the Ippen hijiri e; and the biography of Ippen and his self-appointed successor, Shinkyō, known as the Yugyō shōnin engi e. Focusing particularly on two motifs - manifestations of purple clouds and of flowers raining down from above - I compare the works' accounts of these phenomena with one another and with other texts in which similar motifs appear, and seek to determine the meanings that a medieval Japanese audience would have ascribed to these conventional auspicious signs in several specific contexts. Additionally, I identify ways in which differences between the two works' respective approaches to these occurrences reflect differences in the circumstances under which the Hijiri e and the Engi e were written.
A55
The Jishū Appropriation of Icons: The Case of the Burned-Cheek Amida
James H. Foard, Arizona State University
The temples of the Jishū are replete with icons appropriated from other temples. Through a careful examination of one particular case of this phenomenon, the "Burned-Cheek Amida" of the Kosokuji in Kamakura, this paper will show the significance of this appropriation for the growth of the Jishū in the Kamakura period. In particular, it will explore two issues: the transformation of the Jishū into an iconic group, and the social significance of the particular icons that were appropriated. As the Jishū became established, its practice halls (dōjō) also became temples (tera), which by definition have icons. The use of icons, therefore, is one measure of the domestication of wayfaring (yugyō). Furthermore, the case of the Kosokuji suggests that the Jishū appropriated particular icons which served that domestication as devices for claiming jurisdiction both over rebirth in Amida's Pure Land and over wayfaring itself.
A55
The Yugyō Shōnin, Izumi Shikibu, and the Rededication of the Seiganji in 1580
S. A. Thornton, Arizona State University
In 1580, the Kyoto Seiganji, which had been burned down in 1574 as a result of warfare, was rebuilt. No record of this has survived except in the travel diary of the thirty-second patriarch of the Jishū. He not only made a substantial donation, but figured prominently in the ceremony affixing the temple plaque. The inscription was said to have been changed to "Namauamidabutsu" as a result of the encounter between the so-called founder of the Jishū, Ippen (1259-1289), and the ghost of the famed Heian poetess Izumi Shikibu, made famous in the nō play Seiganji. The travel diary reveals that the Jishū was uncomfortable with this "tradition." This paper will discuss the legitimation of the legend by the Jishū as a result of the close relationship between these two important centers of nenbutsu practice, both of which belonged to the same Seizan school lineage of Pure Land Buddhism.
A55
Concerns Both Sacred and Mundane: The Jishū Nuns of Mantokuji
Diana E. Wright, Western Washington University
While much is known about the daily lives of Buddhist monks in premodern Japan, relatively little is known about those of nuns, particularly those of the Jishū sect. The degree to which these women (and by extension, female clerics in general) interacted with the secular world around them has been underestimated and under-appreciated. My paper addresses this lacuna by analyzing records concerning life within one particular Jishū convent: Mantokuji. Mantokuji, which operated as both an ancestral temple of the Tokugawa and as one of Edo Japan's "divorce temples" (enkiridera), was neither 'purely' religious nor 'purely' secular. Similarly, Mantokuji's nuns played a vital multi-dimensional role in the society around them. Intimately connected to the world outside their confines, Mantokuji's nuns of necessity dealt with concerns both sacred and mundane.
A56
Christian Martyrs and the Heavenly Temple: The Reinterpretation of Civic Sacrifice in the Ancient Mediterranean World
Robin Darling Young, Catholic University of America
Following certain interpretation of the death of Jesus, earliest Christianity connected the public, sacrificial deaths of its martyrs with ascent to heaven and with the celestial liturgy continually taking place in the heavenly temple. Like all ancient religions, it thereby linked the human city with the realm of the divine. At the same time, its teachers has reinterpreted the animal sacrifices of the Jerusalem Temple and substituted the Eucharist in their stead. Drawing on scriptural themes and images, martyrs' ritualized deaths and the growing understand of the Eucharistic ritual mutually reinforced each other, especially when linked by explicit, philosophical theories developed by the second- and third-century teachers Clement of Alexandria and Origen. This paper examines the way in which their thought provided an explanation for the public and political character of Christian sacrifice, allowing it eventually to replace the public sacrifices of antiquity with newly reinterpreted Christian rites.
A56
Elements of Sacrifice: A Polytheistic Approach
Kathryn Teague McClymond, Georgia State University
This paper presents a polythetic characterization of sacrifice, challenging characterizations that focus on "killing" as the definitive element of sacrifice. I will begin by examining animal sacrifices in brahmanical Hinduism and biblical and rabbinic Judaism. Then I will demonstrate that these sacrifices involve multiple procedures, not just the killing of the animal. We will see that no single procedure defines sacrifice; rather, various combinations of these procedures-sacrificial clusters-generate the ritual phenomenon that scholars identify as sacrifice. Such an understanding challenges theories of sacrifice that highlight the killing of the animal as a dramatic, climactic, and definitive activity. In conclusion I will argue that the comparative study of sacrifice challenges dominant understands of sacrifice that developed in Religious Studies when it was dominated by the study of Christianity.
A56
Liturgics of Confucian Sacrifice
Thomas Wilson, Hamilton College
This paper examines sacrifice to the spirit of Confucius in imperial China by (1) situating the formation of the liturgy of sacrifice in the context of disputes concerning placement of Confucius in the ancient pantheon of gods and spirits described in the ritual canons; (2) examining these canonical sources to elucidate the meaning of various parts of the liturgy; and (3) comparing Confucian sacrifice with Vedic and Hebrew rites to interrogate the Chinese sources and presuppositions that historians bring to the study of sacrifice. The papers shows that Confucian sacrifice defined the literati's relationship with gods and spirits characterized by the primacy of exchange rather than expiation or inner spiritual transformation. The paper seeks to complicate current theories of sacrifice through a study of Confucian ritual, which does not fit neatly into paradigms based on the analysis of Vedic and Hebrew sacrifice.
A56
Metaphors of Sacrifice: Language and Ideology in the Interpretation of Buddhist 'Sacrifice'
Charles D. Orzech, University of North Carolina, Greensboro
Buddhism is often portrayed as a non-violent and anti-sacrificial religions, but despite this characterization, it is easy to find "sacrifice" throughout the tradition, from the narratives of the Jatakas to the ubiquitous practice of home ("immolation") in tantric Buddhism; from the practice of "self-immolation" to elaborate offerings for wandering "ghosts." In this paper I use metaphor theory to track the ideological contours of sacrificial discourse in two Buddhist cases that challenge the utility of the category sacrifice. Attending to the intersection of colonial translation and interpretation, and indigenous discourse, I discuss 1. The emergence of the Buddhist-Shui-lu ("land and water") rite in early modern China and its later interpretation by colonial ethnographers as "Plenary Masses" for the dead, and 2. Buddhist self-immolation in early medieval China and in twentieth century Vietnam and its interpretation in the press and in scholarship.
A57
The Spiritual Optics of the Mirror in Bonaventure's Itinerarium mentis in Deum: Constructing a Subjectivity of Desire
Jay Hammond, Quincy University
The Itinerarium presents a theological interpretation of Francis's vision of the Seraph and reception of the stigmata. Central to this interpretation is the twofold mirror (ut per speculum et ut in speculo). This doubling results in six levels of illumination in which metaphysics and epistemology interconnect, forming a hierarchy connecting the reader to the transcendent. However, this is not simply an intellectual ascent, for the intellect must be guided by desire. Thus, the text constructs a subjectivity of desire by presenting six "spiritual exercises" which the reader mentally "walks." The purpose is to achieve increased desire. This becomes evident in the last chapter where the ascent ends in apophatic darkness; the intellect is subsumed by desire and the mind experiences a mors mystica.
A57
Stealing Golden Vessels: Johannes Kepler on Wordly Knowledge and Christian Truth
Russell C. Kleckley, Newberry College
In his attempt to reconcile knowledge of the world with sacred truth, Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) also took on directly the epistemological status of non-Christian learning. In the Harmonices Mundi of 1618, Kepler used an analogy to Exodus 12:35-36 to describe his work as "...stealing the golden vessels of the Egyptians, in order to build of them a temple for my God." For Kepler, this meant that Christians have better insight into the purpose of knowledge though not necessarily a better understanding of its content. While others argued for the superiority of the Bible as a source of knowledge and truth for both the world and God, Kepler's approach allowed him to hold together the legitimacy of non-Christian sources for knowledge of the world without abandoning his faith in the God of the Bible.
A57
Renewing the Mind: Changing Models of Scholarly Piety in Early Modern Catholicism
Constance Furey, University of Chicago
In the sixteenth century, educated people throughout Europe were notably preoccupied with what Steven Greenblatt has called the process of "self-formation." The picture is still underdeveloped, however, when it comes to explaining how contemporaries understood this process in general, and its implications for their Christianity, in particular. This paper explores the distinctiveness of this early modern identity formation through the lens of a particular group of highly educated Catholic reformers. The paper argues that people from this stratum of society formulated questions about subjectivity as questions about scholarship and knowledge. Thus, their quest to construct models of pious life for themselves as Christians focused on decisions about what to study and how to know God.
A57
From the Prison to the Penitentiary: The Understanding of Solitude As Penitence
Muriel Schmid, Princeton University
Inspired by the historical example of Eastern State Penitentiary, built by the Quakers in 1829 in Philadelphia, this paper will explore solitude in the Christian tradition as a form of penitence. The controversy around the use of solitary confinement in the penal system was born at the turn of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Whereas the Quakers in Philadelphia thought, based on their Christian convictions, that solitude could rehabilitate criminals, their opponents strongly criticized their philosophy. This specific case illustrates a broader debate: does solitude represent an opportunity for an encounter with God's presence and revelation or, on the contrary, does it lead any individual to hallucinations and madness?
A57
To Dwell Together in Unity: The National Baptist Convention and the Racialization of Christian Identity, 1895-1915
Quinton Hosford Dixie, Indiana University, Bloomington
By following the development of the National Baptist Convention from its inception to its first major schism in 1915, this paper explores the justification of race as an important element of denominational identity. I contend the rationalization of racial unity as an institutional rule historically has resulted in denominational fragmentation rather than unity. As a result, the National Baptist Convention's history of schism is best understood as a by-product of this ongoing conflict over congregational autonomy and racial unity as denominational ideals.
A57
Religious Inmates? Total Institutions and American Sisters in the 1960s
Amy Koehlinger, Yale University
In 1961 sociologist Erving Goffman published Asylums, an account of identity within "total institutions" that enjoyed wide readership among American Catholic women religious. Though some sisters resisted Goffman's characterization of religious life as hegemonic and even pathological in nature, many sisters recognized in Asylums a compelling account of the effect that the rules of enclosure and obedience had upon American sisters in the 20th century. And many sisters accepted Goffman's characterization of themselves as "inmates," strategically claiming inmate identities in order to justify drastic revisions to the meaning of religious vows and to the basic rules that governed religious life. This paper explores the ironic nature of sisters' relationships to Goffman's Asylums in the 1960s and 1970s, arguing that such claims to inmate identities became possible for sisters through historical processes that directly contradicted characterizations of religious life as a "total institution."
A58
The Reciprocal Homeland: Multi-Directional Constructions of Culture, Religion, and Healing among Natives and Non-Natives of California's South Coast
Julianne Cordero, University of California, Santa Barbara
As the modern Chumash of California's South Coast continue the construction of contemporary ethnic identity, their developments in plant medicine and healing are not generally shared with non-Chumash community members. Specialized indigenous knowledge about local medicinal plants and healing practices is considered by many to be the autochthonous property of the Chumash. However, central to these religious healing practices is the belief that sustained human health is not possible without sustainable, reciprocal relationships with human and non-human communities. In the modern South Coast landscape, this indigenous ethic is a primary shared element for a powerful, philosophical interdigitation between, on the one hand, non-Native healers, denominational religious leaders, educators, and environmentalists who now live and work in the Chumash homeland. On the other hand is the continued construction of both urban and rural Chumash identity as they protect and further develop their intellectual heritage.
A58
Contesting Primitive Religion: Progressives and Traditionalists in the 1920s Pueblo Dance Controversy
Tisa Wenger, Princeton University
In the early 1920s, Pueblo Indians were threatened with the forced cessation of their ceremonial dances, fueling tribal and national conflicts over Native American religions. I suggest that the conflicts in the various Pueblos are best understood not as "traditionalist" versus "progressive" but as differences over the best ways to advance tribal life and preserve Pueblo lands. Pueblo sources suggest that rather than accepting dueling reformers' views of Pueblo religion as either savage debauchery or timeless sacred communion, Pueblos on all sides of the controversy challenged colonialist discourses about primitive religion by calling into question the category of the primitive. Generalizations about primitive religion met the discursive and political needs of non-Indian reformers. So-called progressive and traditionalist Pueblo Indians all supported the religious tradition, or combination of traditions, that seemed most useful to them in advancing the fortunes of the Pueblo tribes in a cultural climate hostile to Indian traditions.
A58
Life from the Water Mother: Archeological and Mythological Evidence for a Taino Creator Goddess
Maria Poviones-Bishop, Florida International University
Long before the Catholic Virgin Mary and a host of African female spirits arrived on the shores of the Caribbean, the most populous indigenous group in the area, the Taino, practiced a religion that afforded a central role for the divine "Mother of the Waters." This paper poses the theory that this goddess, known as Atabey and various other names, is the central female creative figure of Taino cosmology. The evidence for this argument is found in a careful re-examination of Taino myths as recorded by Pané in the late 15th century. By using archeological evidence, comparative linguistics, and the mythologies of related South American peoples, it is possible to fill in the gaps in Pané's work to correct for the patriarchal, Christian biases of Pané and fellow European observers.
A58
"Our Ancestors Paddle with Us": A Response to the Authenticity Question in Contemporary Ritual Construction within Native American Religious Practice
Dennis Kelley, University of California, Santa Barbara
The academic study of contemporary American Indian religions has largely been a search for ethnographic authenticity, sifting through supposed hybridity in search of a purity associated with pre-contact cultures. While at the same time, historical Native traditions are seen as philosophically deficient in their pure state, and contemporary practices as merely placing romanticized pasts onto contemporary western constructs. This paper places its study of contemporary American Indian religiosity within the poststructural discourse, taking Derrida's antiphilosophical critique of western empiricism to heart, and employs the theoretical tools of J.Z. Smith, Ron Grimes, and Anthony Giddens, among others. Centering on the religious meaning connected to maritime cultural revival among the Chumash of California and the Makah of Washington, I will attempt to unpack the issues surrounding what Smith calls the ritualization of these maritime practices and interrogate the connection between the study of religion generally and that found in contemporary Indian Country.
A59
The "Digital Persona" and Human Agency: Considerations from Law and Religious Ethics
Deirdre King Hainsworth, Princeton Theological Seminary
This paper will examine the concept and implications of the "digital persona," the virtual picture of an individual's identity and patterns of conduct derived from stored personal data. These collations of personal information function as personas, rather than merely as records, in that they serve as the way in which we are known and assessed in a variety of institutional contexts. The treatment of these digital personas under U.S. law will be assessed, with particular attention to the implications of the legal dichotomy between personal information and decision- making and the ethical issues raised by the use of digital personas. The paper will conclude with a discussion of proposals offered by legal scholars Patricia Mell and Margaret Jane Radin, as well as the author's own proposal for relating digital personas to the preservation of personal agency, drawn from Christian concepts of imago Dei and resources in U.S. Constitutional law.
A59
The Cyber Sutra: The Psychology of Connection and Isolation in the Digital Era
Michael C. Mitchell, Boston University
This work will explore possible ramifications of the Internet age on our conception and experience of self. According to modern psychoanalytic object relations theorists, we are thoroughly relational creatures. We come to be in a web of relationships and we continue to mature and to sustain our sense of self within relationships. The pervasiveness and the basic character and structure of the Internet age imposes several experiential biases upon us. The cyber over-emphasizes the cognitive and visual forms of sensory input while simultaneously discounting other forms of input and bracketing the more creative, intuitive, contextual, and synthesizing aspects of the self. Modern psychoanalytic thought will be employed to explore how our basic relational nature can be distorted and restricted with an imbalanced dependence on this mode of engagement and therefore influencing our ability to function as relational, religious beings.
A59
The Productive Power of Ambiguity: When the Body Becomes a Virtual Practice
Ann M. Burlein, Meredith College
This paper considers how information technologies are de-territorializing bodies by putting into conversation: 1) Gilles Deleuze's attempt to think beyond essentialist understandings of identity through his notion of becoming with 2) psychologist Susan Oyama's attempt to think beyond essentialist understandings of nature and evolution through her notion of developmental systems. To my mind the most important resource in the contemporary de-territorialization of bodies (and thus of sexual and gender identities, which in this context become virtual practices) is the non-linear and multiple understandings of causality and power that are emerging in their work. Putting Oyama and Deleuze into conversation opens up a new sense of virtuality--one which hinges on non-linear tracings of causality and power-and thus harbors potential for feminist de- territorializations of the body.
A60
Vesting Authority: How Initiations with Khidr and Uways Impact the Authority of the Murshid
Hugh Talat Halman, University of Arkansas
Although some popular and scholarly sources represent the immortal mentor Khidr as a supplanter of the need for relationships with living mortal murshids, the evidence from hagiographies and tafsīrs presents a different picture. Examples from the works of Ibn 'Arabi and Jelaladdin Rumi, the tafsīrs of al-Qushayri, Ruzbihan, and al-Qashani will be presented to demonstrate how the figure of Khidr informs murshid-murīd relationships. Examples from Kharaqani (d. 425/1034) 'Attar (d. 627/1229) and Jami (d.898/1492) will disclose a distinctively exclusivist model for Uwaysi initiations. In spite of popular conflations of Khidrian and Uwaysi initiations, a number of significant differences between the two initiatory patterns lead to a different impact on ordinary murshid-murīd relationships. Recognizing the fundamental differences between these two initiations will contribute to a clearer understanding of the complementary and supportive role that Khidr provides as a model for murshid-murīd relationships in hagiographic and exegetical traditions.
A60
Master Without a Master? Aḥmad Zarrūq and Spiritual Authority in Early-Modern North Africa
Scott A. Kugle, Swarthmore College
Scholars assume that the "spiritual authority" of Sufi masters in institutional Sufism takes a singular form. They assume that this authority was absolute, binding a disciple to a single master in a single devotional community (tariqa), and that this was the primary way of training disciples in selflessness. This presentation questions this idealized picture and focuses on variations in the nature of master-disciple relationships. Aḥmad Zarrūq, from 15th century Morocco, provides an illustration. He is widely regarded as a major saint of the Shadhiliyya lineage across North Africa. His troubled relationship to spiritual masters defied the idealized descriptions of spiritual authority. Moreover, as he began to assert his own role as a saint and master, he taught a type of "reform-oriented" Sufism that seriously questioned the role, and even the absolute necessity, of the spiritual master.
A60
A Reassessment of Fritz Meier's Definition of the Teaching Relationship in Early Sufism
Laury Silvers-Alario, State University of New York, Stony Brook
This paper is a critique of Fritz Meier's definition of the teaching relationship in early Sufism in his influential article, "Hurāsān und das Ende der klassichen Ṣūfik", and a redefinition of the teaching relationship in early Sufism using the earliest extant Sufi biographical works, treatises, and manuals (Sulamī, Abū Nu'aym, Sarrāj, Kalābadhī, Hujwīrī, Qushayrī, et.al.) with reference to scholarship on the early ulamā in the other Islamic sciences (Bulliet, Ephrat, Hodgson, Makdisi, Zaman, et.al.). I argue that the teaching relationship in early Sufism mirrored the model of traditional study circles common at the time. In contrast to Meier's assertion, there was personal spiritual direction between shaykhs and their companions during early Sufism. A more accurate defining mark between early and institutionalized Sufism would be instead the great mobility of students in the early period and the relative lack of mobility of students in the later period.
A60
Cloaked in Spiritual Authority: Sufis, Non-Sufis, and the Investiture of the Khirqa
Frederick S. Colby, Duke University
This paper explores discourses on the investiture of special cloaks (khirqa/khiraq) during the formative period of institutional Sufism. It focuses on the different approaches that two systemitizers, 'Alī Hujwirī (d. 1071) and Abu Hafs 'Umar Suhrawarī (d. 1234), take to the issue of non-Sufis wearing such cloaks. Hujwiri stresses the problem of pseudo- Sufis who wear patched cloaks for their own worldly gain. Suhrawardī emphasizes the different types of cloaks, one of which can be given to any who ask for it. Trimingham interprets this later more open attitude as a degeneration of the khirqa investiture, but his critique misses the point. Cornell argues that sainthood is always a matter of discourse, and by applying this insight to the investiture of the khirqa this paper shows that the authority one assumes by wearing a khirqa depends on the degree to which one's khirqa appeals to such a discourse of sainthood
A60
Like a Corpse in the Hands of a Washerman: The Adab of Master-Disciple Relations Among the Chishti-Sabiri Sufis of Pakistan
Robert Rozehnal, Duke University
Drawing on post-colonial discourse theory and a year of ethnographic research in Pakistan, this paper focuses on the internal dynamics and standards of etiquette (adab) that inform master-disciple (pir-murid) relations within the Chishti-Sabiri Sufi order. Sufi practice centers on ritualized techniques of mental and bodily discipline, grounded on a comprehensive epistemology and theory of subjectivity. For the Sufi adept, the dynamic and intensely personal relationship with a spiritual mentor demands a careful balancing act between submission to hierarchical authority and an enduring imperative for individual action and moral responsibility. In this complex process, disciples provide their spiritual compatriots with a vital support system-sharing experiences, clarifying doubts and ambiguities, and participating in collective ritual activities. By examining the stories Chishti-Sabiri murids tell themselves and each other about the methods, meanings and experiences of the spiritual journey (suluk), this analysis offers insights into post-modern and post-colonial identity in today's Pakistan.
A61
A Witness for/from Life: Writing Feminist Theology As an Act of Resisting Violence
Rita Nakashima Brock, Harvard University and Rebecca Parker, Starr King School for Ministry
This session addresses advocacy and scholarship through two interrelated papers. The first discusses writing theology for a general audience as advocacy to resist violence. The second presents feminist theological critiques of the atonement as reinforcing victimization and proposes a life-giving alternative. Respondents will reply to the papers in the light of their own scholarly and advocacy work in communities resisting violence and abuse: a scholar and rabbi who has linked survivors of the holocaust with survivors of sexual abuse, a sociologist who combines work with Asian American women in community organizations with research on them, an African American ethicist who works on the history of violence against African American women, and an Anglo-American feminist expert on sexual and domestic violence who combines activism with scholarship.
A62
Chinese Evangelical Women As 'New Creations': Ethnic Identity and the Old and New in the Ethnic Church
Erika A. Muse, State University of New York, Albany
A key issue in religious studies in the United States among ethnic groups is the connection between ethnic identity and religious practices. Gender and generation play crucial roles in the investigation of this process of identity construction. Immigrant Chinese evangelical women define themselves as "new creations", empowering themselves within the patriarchal constraints of Chinese culture and conservative evangelicalism. While being denied access to public discourse within conservative churches, women engage in the education of future generations of Christian Chinese. This is accomplished within the arena of intimate discourse within the church, such as fellowships, women's ministries and Bible studies. This paper explores the impact immigrant Chinese women as "new creations" have had on the construction of Christian Chinese ethnic identity based on the reproduction of traditional values and their emergence as ethnic Christians in American society.
A62
Asian Pacific American Protestant Women: Histories and Profiles
Nami Kim, Harvard University
This paper will examine the history of Asian Pacific American (APA) women's immigration to North America, their entry into Protestant Christianity, and the various ways their Christian identities have affected their commitments to evangelism and social transformation. Ranging from lay people, community activists, campus ministers, and academicians to clergy in local churches and ecclesial administration, Asian Pacific American Protestant women represent a broad span of life experiences within North American life, though their contributions have been largely invisible and undocumented. This paper will provide profiles of a number of such women both historically and currently, samples of APA Protestant women's multiple roles and contributions to their churches, communities, and to the larger society.
A62
Crouching Tigers, Hidden Dragons: Women As Ministers at Asian American Protestant Congregations
Russell Jeung, University of California, Berkeley
This study investigates the commonalities and differences of six Asian American female pastors of San Francisco Bay Area congregations. Through in-depth interviews and comparison with interviews conducted with male ministers, this paper demonstrates the similar struggles that women pastors face in dealing with patriarchal congregations and conservative church members. However, more liberal interpretations of Scriptures and other female role models provide new opportunities for these ministers.
A63
The Advance of a Theological Ontology: The Continuing Contribution of Bonhoeffer for Continental Philosophy of Religion
Jeffrey W. Robbins, St. Bonaventure University
Dietrich Bonhoeffer is distinguished among twentieth century theologians not simply by his life's testimony of courage, but also by the uniqueness of his theological project--specifically, by his attempt at articulating a theological ontology; or more precisely, in Robert Scharlemann's words, "the question of whether there is such a thing as a theological ontology." By raising the question of the possibility of a theological ontology, Bonhoeffer simultaneously affirms the radical nature of both philosophy and theology as it had been expressed by Martin Heidegger and Karl Barth respectively, and more significantly, redefines the conditions of philosophical and theological possibility. In this way, Bonhoeffer advances philosophical theology beyond the presumed philosophical and theological divide, by showing the necessary involvement and intermingling of thought and faith.
A63
'Fellowship in Destiny': Christological Aesthetics and the 'Dialectics of Otherness'
Connie Lasher, Boston College, St. Joseph's College of Maine
The recent publication of John de Gruchy's Christianity, Art, and Transformation: Theological Aesthetics in the Struggle for Justice resumes and carries forward the question of aesthetics in its important exposition of Bonhoeffer's theological development. This paper explores the resonances and convergences of Bohoeffer's emerging aesthetic perspective with the spiritual theology of Hans Urs von Balthasar, especially in the latter's pre-Vatican II writings. Specifically, the paper will consider the important theme, highlighted by de Gruchy's text of the unresolved fragmentariness of life, the polyphonies of worldly existence, in relation to the abiding christological question which was of such profound import to Bonhoeffer during his imprisonment. As such, the paper seeks to exemplify the importance of what Pope John Paul II continues to uphold as spiritual ecumenism.
A64
"But Then Society Shall Make All Sorts of Laws...": Legislative and Cultural Regulation of Religion in Central and Eastern Europe
Eileen V. Barker, London School of Economics
When the Berlin Wall fell in 1989 there was a euphoric expectation of religious freedom for all. During the past decade, however, it has become evident that alternative or minority religions are being increasingly regulated and controlled and, in some instances banned or 'liquidated'. The paper examines various processes by which this is taking place at both the legislative and the cultural levels in Central and Eastern Europe, and considers some of the ways that the West is playing a role in both encouraging and discouraging the celebration of religious liberties.
A64
Religion and Building of Civil Society in Post-Communist Russia
Olga Kazmina, Moscow State University
The religious situation has greatly changed in Russia in the post-Soviet period. Now religion is restoring its positions in society lost during the Soviet period. Though the process was more difficult and contradictory than expected in the early 1990s, Russia made considerable progress on its way to religious freedom. During the 1990s there were crucial changes in such spheres as the principles of church-state relations, religious legislation, and the role of religion in social, political, cultural life of the country. There are expectations among the people that the Church and religion can play a significant role in overcoming the social crisis. Such activity of religious organizations as charity and social services are greatly supported and approved by public opinion and can contribute to building civil society. Religious organizations also try to promote amelioration of inter-religious and inter-ethnic relations. Religious Renaissance in contemporary Russia would be reconciled with freedom, pluralism and tolerance.
A64
Confronting the Byzantine Legacy: Orthodoxy and Modern Democracy
Aristotle Papanikolaou, Fordham University
The purpose of this paper is to determine whether Eastern Christian Orthodoxy and modern democracy are incompatible. Recent images within the press seem to support this impression; recent writings by Orthodox theologians express a more ambivalent view. The source of this ambivalence is, in part, Orthodoxy's Byzantine past. The Orthodox Church was unprepared to face issues of democracy and multiculturalism, because its own theologies of state and culture were formed within a context that supported a Christian theocracy. The question is whether there are resources within its theological tradition that would allow it to give unequivocal support to democratic principles of church-state separation and multiculturalism. In conversation with two leading Orthodox ethicists, Stanley Harakas and Vigen Guroian, I wish to show that in the end, despite its Byzantine past, Orthodox ecclesiology leads to unequivocal support of communitarian forms of democracy as the preferred option over other forms of political community.
A64
The Church and the Nuremberg Trials
Katharina Von Kellenbach, St. Mary's College of Maryland
This paper examines the legal and theological arguments presented in the secret "Memorandum by the Evangelical Church in Germany on the Question of War Crimes Trials before American Military Courts" submitted in 1949. Despite former Confessing Church members' political conflicts with the Nazi elite, the Allied legal prosecution created a widespread nationalistic solidarity. The churches also took the side of the perpetrators because of the Christian predisposition towards forgiveness. Church documents reflect Christian discourses of forgiveness are marred by (1) notions of collective guilt, that conceal individual criminal responsibilities, (2) anti-Jewish models of God as ever-forgiving and merciful rather than "wrathful" and just, and (3) a fixation on and identification with the sinner that neglects the victims. The German churches' attitude towards the prosecution of NS perpetrators in Nuremberg is indicative of problems in the movement towards International War Crimes Tribunals and the political situations in South Africa (TRC), Chile, Rwanda, Guatemala
A65
Tracking Religion: Critical Studies, Cultural Studies, and the Study of Religion
Kathleen M. Sands, University of Massachusetts, Boston
This paper bears on the construction of both Religion/religions and the academic study of religion. It begins with the definitional problem: to find both and "inside" and an "outside" for the term "religion." It argues that neither sine qua non approach to defining religion nor the "family resemblance" approach can resolve this problem, and that this disables both sui generis and "naturalistic" approaches to religious studies. The study of religion is reconceived along two lines. First, as a dimension of cultural studies, the study of religion works with the continuities between what is "marked" as religious and the rest of culture. Second, since the construct "religion" does have pervasive "effects of truth," it must be studied critically. Critical studies in religion must examine the construction of religion in relation to its "unmarked" twin "secularity," which together have played a profound role in Western modernity and its current crises.
A65
Constructing the Mind-Brain: Cognition, Conversation, and Conversion in the Scientific Study of Religion
Karen de Vries, University of California, Santa Cruz
This paper outlines and examines a number of issues relevant to social constructions of knowledge and the inevitable questions of power (ab)use, which cannot be extracted fro, from the pursuit of knowledge by focusing on cognitive schema approaches to religious ideas. The first section outlines cognitive theories of religious ideas and examines the scientific and philosophical assumptions used to construct the mind-brain as variously material, semiotic, and/or natural. The second section develops a Foucauldian-informed conversation about the intersection of knowledge and power by generally addressing questions and concerns about taxonomic endeavors and by specifically outlining limitations and possibilities for prototype (Lakoff), ideal type (Weber) and family resemblance (Wittgenstein) in the academic study of religion. The section also engages Marx, Durkheim and Berger's concept of externalization, fetishism and alienation. The paper concludes by using Jonathan Z. Smith's morphological modus operandi to begin developing a nuanced theory of conversion.
A65
Marxism and Constructionism
Roland Boer, Monash University
What is readily forgotten in the wholesale embrace of "constructionism" - the assumption that reality in all its many dimensions is constructed by the social context in which human beings live, work and think - and the related espousal of anti-essentialism is not only the background in medieval philosophy but also the Marxist heritage. My interest is in the latter. The current assumptions of constructionism have been well rehearsed in the Marxist tradition, except that current positions have lost the dialectical subtlety of those that followed Marx's work. In this paper I trace the Marxist heritage of constructionism, and then I pick up two moments in that tradition that indicate how constructionism and essentialism may be regarded as more closely related than may appear: the debate between Adorno and Benjamin on aesthetics, Marxism and religion; and Marx's reflections on the notion of species essence.
A65
Social Constructionism vs. What?
Steven Engler, Mount Royal College
This paper argues that social constructionism is most useful to religious studies when it stands sharply opposed to a competing theoretical viewpoint. This generally implies studying religious phenomena from the perspective of a discipline in which constructionism stands sharply opposed to realism, essentialism, or naturalism (e.g. social psychology). As a corollary, the paper will suggest that this prominence of interdisciplinary work reflects the peculiar status of religious studies: social constructionism is generally opposed to realism, but realist views of religion tend to belong to the separate discipline of theology. For this reason, social constructionism often serves a strategic purpose in the self-definition of the discipline: i.e., contextualization of the sacred is a key factor distinguishing religious studies and theology. As a result, 'the social construction of religion' is often more taken for granted than argued by scholars in the field.
A66
Oedipus Wrecks: Psychodynamic Psychology, Pastoral Theology, and Ex-Gay Ministries
John Blevins, Emory University
Ex-gay ministries operate with implicit psychological and explicit theological assumptions about the human being and human nature. American Protestant pastoral theology has had little success in articulating an alternative perspective because it shares many of these same assumptions, with little critical reflection on the problems inherent in such assumptions. By using the critical social theory of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari (especially as articulated in "Anti-Oedipus") and exploring the theological implications of such a theory, this presentation proposes a method for: 1) thoroughly problematizing these imbedded assumptions within both ex-gay and most Protestant pastoral theologies, and 2) beginning the process of developing a response which is able to articulate a sustained critique of the implicit assumptions within ex-gay theologies from within pastoral theology itself.
A66
Semantic Intercourse: The Interpenetration of 'Religion' and 'Gay'
Ronald E. Long, Hunter College
In an atmosphere grown weary of the pretensions of essentialist discourse about religion in general, and the concrete religions in particular, I argue for the importance of the moral interpretation of religion. In the modern world religions are important as traditions of basic evaluation. It is helpful for scholarship, theology, and the public domain to think of religions, as Frederick Ferre once put it, as one's most basic way of valuing. When identifying oneself as 'gay' is seen as a way of specifying the range of persons one can be intimate with in a world which values intimacy as a primary good of human life, the religious status of gay identity becomes clear. And this way of thinking has ramifications for the status of gays within religious circles and especially within the public domain in which freedom from and of religion is guaranteed.
A66
The Necessary Evil
James E. Miller, Madison, WI
Modern church polemics against same-sex relationships show a poor grasp of church history, leaving unsaid important points in the current debate. These conservatives often use the term "revisionist" to attack those who affirm glbt minorities, citing almost two millennia of church tradition against homoeroticism. However, the Protestant conservatives conveniently ignore the fact that the Protestant Reformation already rejected most of the philosophical underpinnings of the patristic and medieval philosophy of sexuality, including their rationale for rejection of same-sex relationships. Although the 16th century reformers would have been scandalized by same-sex couples in the church, their sexual philosophy is much closer to the pro-gay writers of our day than it is to patristic and medieval writers. However, the reformers' sexual philosophy also lies behind the change ministries which seek to change sexual orientation from homosexual to heterosexual. This paper will explore these contrasting philosophies in the current debate.
A66
Queering Death: The Reconnection of Desire and Immortality in the Funeral Liturgies of Gay Christian Men in the UK with AIDS
David Sollis, King Alfred's College
This paper sets out to test the theory of the gay Evangelical British theologian Michael Vasey that AIDS would lead to a reconnection between desire and immortality among gay men, reversing the naturalisation of death in modern British culture. Utilising a practical theology methodology, three types of evidence will be analysed: funeral liturgies for British gay Christian men who died with AIDS in the last fifteen years; interviews with men living with the virus; interviews with people who in a variety of capacities have been involved in the designing of funeral liturgies for gay men with AIDS. The paper will conclude that on the basis of the evidence, Vasey's theory is largely proven, and not only do these liturgies represent a reversal of the dominant construction of death in Britain, they also represent a reversal of theological reflection upon HIV/AIDS.
A67
Panel: Defamation/Anti/Defamation: Hindus in Dialogue with the Western Academy
John S. Hawley, Barnard College, Columbia University, Presiding
Swami Tyagananda, Vedanta Society
Varadaraja V. Raman, Rochester Institute of Technology
E. F. Bryant, Rutgers University
Vasudha Narayanan, University of Florida
Rajiv Malhotra, Infinity Foundation
Ann Grodzins Gold, Syracuse University
Laurie Louise Patton, Emory University
Kala Acharya, Somaiya Vidya Vihar
In the course of the last five years, the form, content, history, and authority of Western academic scholarship about Hinduism have been vigorously questioned by practicing Hindus. Recently the institutional reality of the AAR itself has become a target of criticism. This panel is an attempt to gather various strands of that debate, including the voices of some of the major participants to date. As our title suggests, we will feature a sense of defamation, experienced in very different ways by different members of the panel. In addition to providing perspectives on this history of tension, hurt, and attack, several of our panelists will draw attention to moments of concord and cooperation. Some will suggest ways to move beyond current impasses.
A68
Panel: Korean Transformation of Buddhism or Buddhist Transformation of Korea?
Young Chan Ro, George Mason University, Presiding
Robert E. Buswell, University of California, Los Angeles
Robert M. Gimello, Harvard University
John R. McRae, Indiana University, Bloomington
Charles Muller, Toyo Gakuen University
Cuong Tu Nguyen, George Mason University
The discussion will range over a number of related topics, including, the transformation of Korean religious thought, doctrine, ritual, and praxis, and the cultural and social transformation of Korea by Buddhism. In the process, participants may touch upon such subjects as Korean women and Buddhism, Korean art and Buddhism, Korean architecture and Buddhism, Korean shamanism and Buddhism, and Korean nationalism and Buddhism. The panel will also discuss other issues related to the Korean transformation of Buddhism, from antiquity to the modern era.
A69
Abhinavagupta's Erotic Mysticism: Experiencing Reality in/as Orgasmic Sexual Union
Kerry Skora, Hiram College
My paper is a study of the erotic aspects of the mystical worldview of the Hindu Tantric Abhinavagupta (c. 975-1025 c.e.). I concentrate on the experience of recollecting one's identity as Ultimate Reality, i.e., the god Shiva in sexual union with the goddess Shakti, achieved precisely in the Tantric ritual of sexual union. I retrieve the meanings of the primary term Abhinavagupta employs to refer to this recollection, i.e., "reflexive experience," by interpreting it in relation to Tantric discourse, practice, and experience. I argue that although Abhinavagupta abstractly understood reflexive experience to be the "consciousness of consciousness," he also used the term to refer to the embodied experience of recollection of one's identity to the god Shiva erotically intertwining with the goddess Shakti. Thus, reflexive experience is most fully understood with reference to this experience that was achieved precisely in the Tantric ritual of orgasmic sexual union.
A69
Love and Eros in Midrash Song of Songs Rabba
Yudit K. Greenberg, Rollins College
Based on Rabbinic theological premises that both the written and the oral Torah were communicated at Sinai, the Rabbis establish a new context for the renewal of Israel's intimacy with God. This is the world of the yeshivah where scholars pore over the holy texts in passionate dialogue and debate with each other. Here, we can point to a phenomenon that can be called Textual Eros or Scholarly desire. The Rabbinic sages' Eros is at times made rather explicit in certain hermeneutic moves within the texts they generate. By analyzing Rabbinic interpretations to several verses in the Song, I show how the Rabbis appropriated the original desire of the female as a depiction of their own desire for penetrating the deeper meaning of the text through their intimate intellectual interaction with other scholars. In this type of scholarly expression, we find a confluence of intellectual, spiritual and sexual desire.
A69
The Virgin Sophia and the Spiritual Bridegroom: Eros and Androgyny in the Mysticism of Georg Conrad Beissel
Elizabeth Pullen, Drew University
This paper explores the mysticism of Georg Conrad Beissel, a religious leader in colonial Pennsylvania, and focuses upon his theological views on divine androgyny and the use of eros as a vehicle leading to unitive mystical experience. In Beissel's cosmological doctrine and understanding of creation, God and Adam were originally androgynous beings, composed of both male and female natures. Because of Adam's "masculine" impulses of wrath and lust, his female portion separated and now Sophia, the "divine-femalety" lives apart from God. Salvation occurs when there is a reintegration of female and male natures which has only occurred once, when Jesus Christ was crucified. I will argue that because of Beissel's views on divine androgyny and spiritual passion, an unusual religious culture emerged which led to the creation of two religious orders, the Zion Brotherhood and the Roses of Sharon, and a unique experiment in Protestant monasticism on the American frontier.
A69
Passionate Love as Selfless Devotion in the Caitanyaite Bhakti Tradition
Graham M. Schweig, Christopher Newport University
The Rasalila, India's classical love story from the Bhagavata Purana, is significant for two traditions of Vaishnavism arising in the late 16th century. The Vallabha and Caitanya schools differ in their understandings of the passionate love of the cowherd maidens for their beloved Krishna. Whereas the former considers the Gopis' love to be worldly, the latter regards it as pure love of God. Worldly passion, indicated by the Sanskrit word "kama," is distinguished from divine love, referred to as "prema." Krishnadasa, in his famed Caitanya Caritamrita, has contrasted these terms, demonstrating how each term borrows the other to describe something about itself, in particular its deeper aspects of loving exchange. I will argue that for the Caitanya school, the passionate love of the Gopis for Krishna is pure, assisted by a divine force "yogamaya," which makes arrangements for both human and deity to express their love within the divine relationship.
A70
The Problem of Contemporary Gnosticism: Encounters with a Suspect Term
Dell deChant, University of South Florida
Many scholars have classified various aspects of contemporary culture as "Gnostic." This paper traces the historical trajectory of "contemporary Gnosticism" in scholarship and addresses problems related to the classification of contemporary groups as Gnostic. Given the broad popularity of the term, it is hardly surprising that Gnosticism has been used frequently in studies of NRMs, which may not have any actual affinities with the ancient religion. What seems of fundamental importance, yet glaringly absent in recent studies that deploy the term, is a serious engagement with the religious expression of ancient Gnosticism. To help rectify this problem, ancient Gnostic mythologies are used to specify characteristics that can reasonably be cited as Gnostic, thus moving to stabilize the term and better gauge its appropriateness as a descriptive category. Using these characteristics, three NRMs (Christian Science, New Thought, and Course in Miracles) are analyzed in terms of their affinities with the ancient religion.
A70
The Problem of Contemporary Gnosticism: Encounters with a Suspect Term
Dawn Hutchinson, University of South Florida
Many scholars have classified various aspects of contemporary culture as "Gnostic." This paper traces the historical trajectory of "contemporary Gnosticism" in scholarship and addresses problems related to the classification of contemporary groups as Gnostic. Given the broad popularity of the term, it is hardly surprising that Gnosticism has been used frequently in studies of NRMs, which may not have any actual affinities with the ancient religion. What seems of fundamental importance, yet glaringly absent in recent studies that deploy the term, is a serious engagement with the religious expression of ancient Gnosticism. To help rectify this problem, ancient Gnostic mythologies are used to specify characteristics that can reasonably be cited as Gnostic, thus moving to stabilize the term and better gauge its appropriateness as a descriptive category. Using these characteristics, three NRMs (Christian Science, New Thought, and Course in Miracles) are analyzed in terms of their affinities with the ancient religion.
A70
Christian Science and Buddhism: Healing Modalities for the New Millennium?
Margo Smith, University of South Florida
Religion and medicine are often perceived to be at odds with one another. This paper will argue that Christian Science and Buddhism are not necessarily at odds with medicine but rather with the methods employed by contemporary medical healing modalities. In fact, through a comparison of Buddhist and Christian Science healing methodologies, the observations are that distinct correlations exist between the healing of the body and healing of the mind. Both Buddhism and Christian Science maintain that humans possess the capacity to cure themselves of disease. The root of all illness is traced to the mind and incorrect perceptions of reality. In this way, the two faiths concur that the mind is the source of misery in the body, and as such, must be treated first. Thus, these systems seek to alleviate human suffering through enlightenment, curative modalities and heterodox ideals.
A70
Problems of Leadership in Chiropractic History: A Study of the Palmer Family
Holly Folk, Indiana University, Bloomington
Chiropractic, today the most patronized form of alternative medicine, has had ties to alternative spirituality since its "discovery" by Daniel David (D.D.) Palmer in 1895. D.D. Palmer and his son Joshua Bartlett (B.J.), an equally influential figure in the development of this healing system, were both aficionados of a variety of American metaphysical ideas, and drew on them to develop a set of concepts that rationalized chiropractic's physical techniques. Yet the Palmers' extreme autodidacticism not only gave the practice a grassroots, populist profile, it also caused numerous crises regarding authority, epistemology, and the transmission of ideas. The strong personalities of father and son, as well as their undisguised capacity for showmanship, alienated many of their contemporaries and caused their influence upon the movement to be downplayed in many later histories, despite the fact that the popular philosophies imported into chiropractic by the Palmers remain attractive to a large percentage of chiropractors.
A70
Was Mary Baker Eddy an Apocalyptic Eschatologist or an Ethical Eschatologist?
John K. Simmons, Western Illinois University
This paper is designed to open a discussion on a series of provocative questions relating to the Christian Science movement, New Thought groups, and NRMs in general. Do charismatic leaders of NRMs inevitably exhibit an eschatological dilemma or inner-conflict? Are they, at the same time, apocalyptic eschatologists and ethical eschatologists? Moreover, does this inner-conflict create institutional turmoil as followers attempt to interpret the wishes of the leader, posthumously, and create enduring religious organizations drawn from either an apocalyptic or ethical end-time scenario? Will an examination of Mary Baker Eddy's own eschatological turmoil reveal differences in metaphysical tone and nuance between Christian Science and other New Thought groups? The presentation will allow time for what should be a spirited discussion on the eschatological dilemma as it presents itself in Christian Science, New Thought, and other NRMs.
A71
"Reading Neoplatonism As Platonism": An examination of the Relationship between Platonism and Neoplatonism along Methodological Lines
Michael R. Cox, University of California, Santa Barbara
Absent from the recent discussions concerning the relationship between Plato and Plotinus-which reflects a larger discussion concerning the relationship between Platonism and Neoplatonism-is an exploration of the relationship between their respective methodologies and practices. Using the analysis of Plotinus' methodology from Sara Rappe's Reading Neoplatonism: Non-discursive Thinking in the texts of Plotinus, Proclus, and Damascius, this essay will attempt to explore this relationship through an examination of the role of epistrophe and theoria in the "ethical" section of Plotinus' Enneads(I.1-I.6) and the Republic, Phaedrus, and Phaedo of Plato. It will examine the ways in which, for each philosopher, 'epistrophe' a spiritually transformative act, which can be brought about through the development of the individual's contemplative faculties. Further, it will discuss the possible relationship between these methodologies and the Hindu concept of s dhana, with a view to expanding the range of Hellenic/Hellenistic contemplative practices.
A71
Ralph Cudworth's Platonism and the Continuity of Platonic Thought
Holger Zaborowski, Oxford University
In my paper I would like to contribute to a revaluation of 17th century Cambridge Platonism by positioning this movement within the wider context of Platonic philosophy. I shall argue that many modern readings of Cambridge Platonism fail properly to assess the philosophical significance of the school because they read it by way of misleading presumptions. An assessment of the importance of Cambridge Platonism primarily needs to investigate the continuity of Platonic thought. I shall focus upon Ralph Cudworth's philosophy, particularly upon his reading of Plato's Euthyphro, in the Treatise Concerning Eternal and Immutable Morality. I intend to address the following questions. First, how does an estimation of Cudworth's reading of the Euthyphro facilitate a reconsideration of Cambridge Platonism as essentially more than just a "second rate" philosophy"? Second, how does Cudworth's reading of the Euthyphro relate to previous Platonic moral philosophy and to modern moral philosophy?
A71
Plotinus' Interpretation of Plato's Middle Dialogues
Kevin Corrigan, Emory University
Neoplatonic interpretations of Plato are problematic. Yet is a sense there was no "Plato" independent of a tradition of interpretation before the 19th century. Modern techniques of textual redaction have allegedly succeeded in establishing a "Plato" independent of past interpretations. Yet, in a Post-Modern universe there is neither any foundational Plato any longer or a solid tradition. The Middle Dialogues, Phaedo, Symposium, Republic and Phaedrus are for the contemporary world the most difficult to interpret. The problem is enormous just for Plato. But what about Plotinus? He doesn't interpret so much as cite frequently-and often entirely out of context. Moreover, his interpretations, such as we can make them out to be, are problematic. I argue that 'on the basis of (putative)essential features' Plotinus deeply understood the nature of the dialogue form in Plato more profoundly than most contemporaries.
A71
Plotinus and the Myth of the Fall: An Example of Plotinus' Powers of Philosophical Synthesis
J. Noel Hubler, Lebanon Valley College
Plotinus was no "fuzzy" thinker. He was a thinker with tremendous powers of analysis and synthesis. His system reached farther and solved more questions fully and precisely than his predecessors would have imagined possible. But because of the subtlety of his writing and the prejudices of some of his interpreters, some of his solutions have not been appreciated. As an example, I cite his solution to the thorny problem that confronted Plato of explaining the incarnation of the soul. As is well known, Plato gave two answers, both in mythic form. The Phaedrus cited human culpability as the cause of incarnation, the Timaeus divine order. Plotinus managed to solve the problem and show that both divine ordering and human culpability were causes. And he managed to give his explanation in a systematic, philosophical way rather than merely in mythic illustrations.
A72
Feeling the Other: Implications of a Neuroscience of Emotion for Religious Discourse
Michael L. Spezio, University of Oregon
Human discourse about concepts of the divine helps form, transmit and transgress established religious beliefs. These concepts range from theories of divine minds to ideas of divine justice and its relation to moral codes. Concept theory emerging from cognitive science and applied cultural anthropology of religious beliefs rarely addresses the role of emotions and emotional processing in the cultural formation and transmission of religious concepts. Recent work in cognitive and systems neuroscience provides strong evidence that the body's emotional processing centers are needed in order a) to associate emotional concepts with facial expressions and vocalizations and b) to develop an understanding of moral and ethical concepts relating to justice. This paper reviews this evidence and applies it to argue that concepts of divine persons and divine justice depend upon feeling the other.
A72
Pondero Ergo Sum: The Body as the Ground of Religion, Science and Self
Judith Kovach, Boston University
The human body is both religious subject and scientific object, the manifest locus of both religious gnosis and secular cognition. Kovach argues that embodiment provides the basis for a rich cross-fertilization between cognitive science and comparative religion, but cognitive studies must return to their empiricist scientific roots by re-embodying subjectivity, thus spanning the natural bridge between the two fields. Examining the ritual centrality and cognitive content of the body, Kovach suggests a materialist but non-reductionist construct of the self as a substantial cognitive embodiment that embraces not just perception and cognition, mind and spirit, but the forceful physicality of the moving body. She argues that proprioception of the body's moving mass constitutes a mode of knowing that resonates strongly with the experience of self, not only across religious traditions but within the physical sciences.
A72
Neuroscience and the Social Self
Nathaniel Barrett, Cambridge, MA
This paper explores the ways in which recent developments in neuroscience may serve to rejuvenate social and cultural models of personhood and inform our understanding of the various ways in which the self is oriented toward the divine or transcendent. The paper describes how the observations of C. S. Peirce and Walker Percy are borne out by the recent neurobiological theories of consciousness and language presented in the work of Terrence Deacon, Gerald Edelman, and others. Comparisons are made between current research and past theories of Lev Vygotsky, G. H. Mead, and Jerome Bruner, as well as the ideas of Martin Buber, Paul Tillich, and Gordon Kaufman. It is suggested that the time is ripe for the conception of new, holistic theories of philosophical anthropology, which can serve as the basis for the comparison and renewal of traditional models of the divine.
A73
Truth and Reconciliation-Hope for the Nations or Only as Much as is Possible?
Iain S. Maclean, James Madison University
The latter half of the 20th-century has witnessed the rise of national truth and/ or reconciliation commissions. The failure of earlier amnesty decrees to assist national reconstruction impelled numerous Latin American nations to create truth commissions. These (in Argentine, Brazil [non-governmental], Chile, El Salvador, and Guatemala) view truth and reconciliation as essential ethical and political requirements for societies that have undergone civil strife. Without truth and reconciliation, a continuing "spiral of violence" is feared. A comparative analysis of commission reports indicates that while they focused on political reconstruction and national unity, they use religious, indeed theological and ethical language. While seeking as much "justice as possible," the danger of "partial truth" and "cheap reconciliation" remains, one addressed by political critics as well as by numerous Church hierarchies and liberation theologians. Such commissions offer public space for apology and forgiveness that has provided a way beyond the spiral of violence.
A73
The Mesa de Diálogo and the Fate of the Disappeared in Chile 1999-2000: National Forgiveness Without Political Truth?
Mario I. Aguilar, University of St. Andrews
This paper describes the steps taken in order to deal with human rights abuses in Chile during the Pinochet regime, i.e. the establishment and reports of the Comisión de Verdad y Reconciliación (1991), the further inquiry by the Ley Continuación (1996), and finally the establishment of the Mesa del Diálogo in 1999. Those initiatives tried to create the right atmosphere for militaries and civilians, opponents and supporters of Pinochet to progress in finding not only national reconciliation but also the actual location of those who were forced to disappear. By analysing the final report submitted in January 2001, its outcomes, and the suggestion of reconciliation without truth proposed by the militaries, the government and the Catholic Church, this paper examines ideas of truth and reconciliation, memory and forgiveness in contemporary Chile.
A73
Truth and Reconciliation between Chile and South Africa
Michael Battle, Duke University
Archbishop Desmond tutu has become South Africa's primary, public confessor who articulates why forgiveness is better than retributive justice. The thesis of this paper is that Tutu's role in South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation commission is unique and cannot be displayed in other Truth Commissions such as in Chile.
A73
Memory, Reconciliation, and Redemption: The Truth Commissions in El Salvador and Guatemala
David Tombs, University of Surrey
The 1993 report of the Salvadoran Truth Commission, the 1998 report of the Guatemalan Archdiocesan Recovery of Historical Memory project (REMHI), and the 1999 report of the UN Commission of Historical Clarification (CEH) for Guatemala stand as major landmarks in Latin American human rights work. The paper examines the legacy of violence in both countries and assesses the positive contributions-as well as the significant limitations-of 'truth-telling' and 'memory-clarification' in facing the past and building the future in Central America. It also asks what constructive role Christian notions of 'forgiveness' or 'redemption' might have in the struggle for a true reconciliation built on justice and peace.
A73
Pan-Mayan Religious Resurgence and Reconciliation in Guatemala: Indigenous Cultural Memory and Recovery After the Truth Commissions
Brett Greider, University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire
This paper explores the religious identities and symbol systems of ceremonial activities, and of religiously motivated activism in the self-determination of Mayan communities and their envisioning of a sustainable future. Recovering Memory for Mayan peoples involves responding to two "Truth Commissions" documenting comprehensive investigations into the human rights violations committed over the course of 34 years of civil war claiming over 200,000 lives. The Guatemalan Historical Clarification Commission, a national entity administered by the United Nations, has produced a report as has the Catholic Archbishops' Human Rights Office. The Pan-Mayan movement in Guatemala is a complex and dynamic revitalization of pre-Colombian and Colonial Mayan cultural identities that has courageously faced the results of these commissions with eloquent religious, cultural and religious activism in the post-colonial struggle for self-determination.
A74
The Invisible Body of God in Hollow Man
Melissa Conroy, Syracuse University
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of the disappearing God in Paul Verhoeven's latest film Hollow Man through the use of the central ideas of Jacques Lacan and post-Lacanian film theorists. By specifically focusing on Hollow Man this paper endeavors to re-read the position of the gaze of the camera eye/I through the Lacanian myth of the mirror stage. Verhoeven's deconstructive use of the camera as the disappearing self calls into question the (male) ego that is situated in the male gaze of the spectator and simultaneously forces the viewer to assume this position of subject. In Hollow Man the empty position of subject is mirrored by the empty position of God. The argument will proceed by drawing on the biblical analogy of Cain and Abel to parallel and illuminate the disappearance of Caine's body by the "God" Verhoeven.
A74
Representing Saintliness: Lars von Trier's Dancer in the Dark
Alyda Faber, McGill University
Lars von Trier's film Dancer in the Dark (2000) completes his Goldenheart trilogy, following Breaking the Waves and The Idiots. All three films represent the miracles, saintliness, and martyrdom of a central woman character within a context of scientific rationalism and skepticism. With a focus on Dancer in the Dark, I argue that narratives about saints are particularly liable to reinforce patriarchal gender politics of female powerlessness, as does von Trier's idealized and masochistic representation of femininity. Yet, as Edith Wyschogrod has persuasively argued in her book, Saints and Postmodernism, saint's lives present flesh and blood exemplars of love and compassion within a fraught context of contemporary cynicism and moral confusion. I examine the similarities and differences between von Trier's and Wyschogrod's understanding of sainthood with particular attention to how Wyschogrod avoids saintly masochism.
A74
The Mythical Vision of a Disillusioned Marxist?: Hayao Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke in Dialogue with the "Dialectic of Enlightenment"
Hyo-Dong Lee, Vanderbilt University
This paper examines Miyazaki Hayao's epic animated film Princess Mononoke in the light of the Western Marxist thinker Theodore Adorno, with the intent to situate the film's central ecological motif of humanity's unresolvable conflict with nature within the context of the director's earlier espousal of Marxism and subsequent disillusionment with it. The paper argues that 1) Princess Mononoke is a testament to the emergence, in place of his shattered Marxist utopian vision, of the non-anthropocentric category of "Life," which is indifferent to any idea of human fulfillment and which blurs the distinction between the dualistic (and human) categories of good and evil, purity and corruption, and ultimately, human civilization and nature; 2) this signals a significant reformulation of the Romantic trait in his earlier Marxism which treated nature as a source of human good.
A74
Girls, Gods, and Monsters: Healing from the Margins in the Anime of Hayao Miyazaki
Lori C. Patton, Vanderbilt University
Since 1984, Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki has been presenting movie audiences with beautifully drawn stories of young female heroes whose strength lies in their willingness to be different and their ability to cross the gaps between worlds. Princess Mononoke (1997) is the latest chapter in Miyazaki's saga of courageous young girls, monsters who may turn out to be gods, and the power of "marginal" characters to heal the splitting in personalities or their worlds. This paper examines the redemptive and healing themes in Miyazaki's major works (Nausicaa of the Valley of the Winds, The Castle in the Sky, My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service, and Princess Mononoke), using film clips, Object Relations Theory, Anthropological studies of shamanism and rites of passage, and the many analyses of Miyazaki and anime available in print and on the Internet.
A74
The Camera As Sacrament: An Incarnational Film Theory in American Beauty
James K. A. Smith, Loyola Marymount University
The theoretical argument of this paper draws on Jean-Luc Marion's phenomenology of the icon in order to develop an "incarnational" account of images as a mode of revelation rather than deceptive dissimulation. This will provide the foundation for an incarnational theory of film. The major task of the paper, however, is to see the development of such a film theory within a film, discerned in Ricky's 'films' within the film American Beauty. Ricky's ongoing documentation of "beauty in the world" is in fact a quest for transcendence-a horizon opened by the lens of his camera. Thus the camera endues the filmed object with an iconic function or a sacramental value, revealing transcendence-and "grace." The camera both functions as a sacrament and bestows sacramentality: it is both a means of grace and the instrument by which "the world" is endued with grace as sacramentum mundi.
A76
Panel: Contemporary Constructive Theology and the Theological Heritage of Schleiermacher
Julia A. Lamm, Georgetown University, Presiding
The panelists were invited to participate in this session primarily because of the important contribution each has made to the field of constructive Christian theology and secondarily because of the impact, whether positive or negative, Schleiermacher's thought has had on their own. So, for instance, R. Niebuhr's Schleiermacher on Christ and Religion (1964) helped to inaugurate a fundamental shift in American scholarship on Schleiermacher; M. Suchocki, in The Fall to Violence (1994), has noted her debt to Schleiermacher's understanding of sin; R. Haight, in Jesus the Symbol of God (1999), has argued that the move toward a postmodern christology requires challenging the parameters of modern christology set by Schleiermacher and Barth; F. Fiorenza, whose Beyond Hermeneutics will appear shortly, has acknowledged the influence Schleiermacher's method (which he terms "a critical reflective equilibrium") has had on his own construction of a Catholic fundamental theology.
A90
Ethnography, Contextual Theology, and Postcolonial Teaching Practices
Larry Golemon, Graduate Theological Union
This paper explores teaching strategies that equip students for reading local cultural practices alongside of faith traditions in the doing of contextual theology. Specifically, the course utilizes methods of ethnographic study--from interviews and participant observation--to engage students in local cultures as they inform and shape local theologies. The setting is the post-colonial society of the Philippines, where missionary and colonial legacies continue to foster resistance to the integration of local, traditional culture into the church's life and theology. While the course revolves around the models and methods of doing contextual theology (e.g. Schreiter and Bevans), it immerses students in three practicums of ethnographic study which engage local culture in relation to Christian faith. The first unit explores the use of a modified faith development interview, the second the participant observation of a local cultural event, and the third a congregational study of informal and formal power relations and cultures.
A90
Teaching Epistemic Diversity through Sacred Sound
Marilyn Gottschall, Whittier College
This paper is grounded in the belief that the Religious Studies classroom provides a rich environment within which to facilitate openness to and appreciation for the ways in which others view the world. The paper chronicles my journey into "teaching and difference," by tracing the epistemic process that accompanied the development of "Sound and the Religious Experience," a course quite outside of my area of expertise. It also demonstrates the pedagogies and methodologies I continue to develop to mediate the encounter with the religious "other." The paper (and the course) relies heavily on the way in which an appreciation of sound difference embodies and elucidates religious and cultural worldviews. As well, it discusses the ways in which sound as text provides an alternative epistemic vehicle for approaching religious traditions.
A90
What Our Students Have to Teach Us: Pedagogical Reflections on Teaching an Introductory Course on the History of Christianity
David Mellott, Emory University
In this presentation I wish to explore what happens when course participants begin to identify their location and feel safe enough to respond from that location to the reading assignments and class discussions. Whether we are experienced teachers or beginners, our students have much to teach US. I'll invite those attending to participate in reading a portion of Dorotheos of Gaza's discourse on judging our neighbor. With this activity, participants in the session will be invited to experience the challenges and insights that can arise when a multiplicity of perspectives are brought to a text. When we encourage the participants in our courses to locate themselves and to speak from those places, we not only hear them into speech, but also invite them to be our teachers. In this presentation I intend to reflect on some of the ways in which my students have taught me.
A90
Buddhism and Western Pop Culture in the Classroom: Exposing Orientalism
Eve L. Mullen, Universitat Hamburg
From both a scholarly and a popular cultural perspective, simplifications, romanticizations or demonizations of Buddhist or Asian cultures in general damage both those peoples studied and those in the classroom studying. Orientalism is a dangerous presence in popular culture and therefore for students. The use of popular media in the classroom is an ideal method of showing orientalism at work and cultivating in students, skills of recognition and analysis. In particular, recent films and advertisements using Buddhist imagery offer opportunities to deconstruct false depictions of Buddhist cultures. The proposed paper and presentation will briefly define orientalism and its dangerous presence in popular culture, will illustrate how popular media items can be employed in the college Buddhism classroom in order to show examples of orientalist perspectives and will establish the effectiveness of this method through reports of personal teaching experience and successes.
A90
Stacking The Deck to Teach Methodological Parallels in Science and Religion
Andrew L. Pratt, Southeast Missouri State University and Allen Gathman, Southeast Missouri State University
In our science and religion course, students come in with stereotypical views of science as objective and religion as subjective. To break down these stereotypes, we simulate the process of scientific inquiry using a stacked deck of cards. Groups of students are assigned schools of thought in hypothesis-testing: justificationism, falsificationism, conventionalism, Lakatos' method of scientific research programs, and Kuhn's sociological approach. Each group proposes a hypothesis about the order of the deck of cards (the "natural law"), predicts the next card to be turned up, and then evaluates in hypothesis based on its philosophical school. Issues such as the tentative nature of scientific ideas, the degree to which data are theory-laden, and the underdetermination of theory by data are explored. Students also explore the parallels between the scientific relationship between hypothesis and data and the relationship in religion between beliefs and personal experience. The audience will participate in a demonstration.
A91
Corn Mother Does the Pentecostal Conga: Joy Harjo's Forbidden Bible
Sheila Hassell Hughes, Dayton University
For mixed-blood poet Joy Harjo, the Bible offers a marginal site from which to expose the porous borders of Christianity and prompt its transformation. Like many contemporary Native theologians, Harjo asserts that the same Spirit inspires both oral and written, tribal and biblical, religious expression. And for Harjo, this Spirit is most often understood as feminine. Relying on a Protestant understanding of the Spirits work in personal inspiration and on a tribal understanding of the relationship among word, matter, and spirit, Harjo appeals to Christian doctrine even as she challenges traditional models of patriarchal authority. This paper applies Harjo's understanding of the radical potential of the unspoken Bible the forbidden parts and other paradoxes of meaning to a reading of her prose poem Song of Solomon, in which Corn Mother appears as Holy Ghost, both to expose the erasure of women and Indians within the Church and to redeem it.
A91
Cosmic Cowboy Christ: The Cinematic Christology of Poet/Singer Judee Sill
David H. Perkins, Vanderbilt University
Poet/singer, Judee Sill, died in 1979 at age 34, a willing victim of the pop-star syndrome will all its excesses of freedom. Her two Asylum Records albums, released in 1971 and 1973, combine cinema-derived images of the heroic loner-cowboy with a Kazantzakis inspired understanding of the historical Jesus. The result is a pop-christology that is distinctly a product of the American culture of the period. This paper explores the unique combining of symbols in Sill's poetry, where Jesus and the Western Movie hero are cross-pollinated in the service of a soteriology that reveals the mind and spiritual concerns of a peculiar voice in the underground youth culture of the post-Hippie period.
A91
How the West Was Embodied: Expansionist Devotion and Marian Adventure Narratives
Christy Cousino, Indiana University, Bloomington
Upstart Catholic authors have recently begun writing action-adventure novels speculating about the "Coming Tribulations." One of the most popular is Bud Macfarlane, Jr. In his works, the other side of the ideology of mysticism is the ideology of adventure, an ideology that fueled the meaning of the "true" West. In both ideologies, the imperative of authoritarian rule demands violence upon the body, a violence which enacts the power of the law of the expansionist nation. The ideal male body represents the modern expansionist state and its capitalistic, militaristic, and technological projects. Devotionalism helps maintain the ideal male physiology: the devout man can punch, kick, or shoot his way to salvation. When the reserves of this body run dry, he depends upon the discipline of the female body, which Macfarlane explicitly connects to food.
A91
Constructing the 'True West'
Lynn Ross-Bryant, University of Colorado, Boulder
The West has always served as a symbol for Americans of America itself: a free land of unlimited possibility. Since the l9th century, with the closing of the "frontier," National Parks have focused this symbolic power. The way "nature" is constructed is clearly rooted in and contributes to the world view and ethos of American culture. I will look at the constructions of nature that appear in the art work and writings of early visitors to Yosemite and Yellowstone, including Thomas Moran, William Jackson, and Albert Bierstadt and compare them to later presentations of John Muir and Anselm Adams, as well as contemporary artists. My question will be whether there have been fundamental changes in the construction of the West as American nature, indicating changes in the "true west" as a fundamental building block of American identity.
A91
'Mother Wants You': Frontiers of Desire in Shane
James H. Thrall, Duke University
Produced at a point of transition for the American Western and the country, George Stevens' 1953 film Shane marked a certain culmination of the Western's epic hero narrative. The classic mythic/religious elements were all there-the mysterious stranger arriving out of an undisclosed past to protect the downtrodden against forces of evil, and then, his work complete, disappearing again. But while the mythic elements of Shane's support of farmers against ranchers are offered as timeless, they were actually set in the context of developing post-war moral and economic values. If sacred space is contested space, the film situates America's sacred core in the space of national expansion, at the point of asserting productive dominance. The film's depiction of illicit sexual desire also challenges the expected limitations of the Western genre, yet still contains that challenge within an ideological "cult of domestication" the country needed or at least wanted to hear.
A91
The Lure of the Western Landscape in Evangelical Romance Novels
Lynn S. Neal, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
This paper explores the ways evangelical romance novels portray the West and suggests that these evangelical romances appeal to readers because they invoke a narrative of the past that places evangelicalism and its pioneers at the heart of American history. In the novels, the small population and the vast expanse of the West provided heroes and heroines with a wide open space that could house their dreams and hone their honor. Despite difficulties--drought, desperadoes, and mountains--these evangelical pioneers persevere. These stories appeal to the evangelical romance readers that I have interviewed. They interpret the novels as historically accurate, enjoy learning through romance, and I suggest their reading pleasure also comes (in part) from learning or imagining that people like themselves--evangelicals--comprised an important part of the history of the United States.
A92
The Paradox of Precepts in Chinese Pure Land Buddhism
Charles B. Jones, Catholic University of America
Western scholarship, in reliance upon the work of Japanese scholars, has tended to see Chinese Pure Land as a precursor of Japan's Pure Land tradition, which stresses human depravity, and has tended to ignore developments after the period during which the tradition migrated into Japan. Some exceptions exist, such as Heng-ch'ing's study of Yongming Yanshou (904-975), and Chun-fang Yu‚s study of Yunqi Zhuhong (1535-1615). This paper will explore ways in which these and later thinkers and "patriarchs," such as Wang Rixiu (?-1173), Yuan Hongdao (1568-1610), Jixing Chewu (1741-1810), and Yinguang (1861-1940) related the power of religious practice, specifically the keeping of moral vows and application of merit, to Amitabha-buddha's power in bringing the devotee to the Pure Land. It will principally make use of primary source materials, supplemented with secondary scholarship where appropriate, to show how a tradition could be critical of the limitations of precepts without repudiating their necessity for progress.
A92
Gifts, Merit, and Reciprocity in Indian Buddhism
Reiko Ohnuma, Dartmouth College
Critical theory in recent years has focused with increasing intensity on the themes of gift-giving, reciprocity, and exchange. This paper seeks to contextualize some of the Indian Buddhist material on dana against the background of current critical theory. It focuses, in particular, on the concept of "merit" as a category that mediates between several different opposing conceptions of the gift. I argue that an unbridgeable chasm seems to loom between the impossible ideal of the "pure" gift, on the one hand, and the ordinary, reciprocal gift classed with barter, sale, or purchase, on the other. In between these two gifts, however, Indian Buddhist discourse places a mediating category: the gift that results in merit. The concept of merit thus "solves" the problematic of the gift. Pure, disinterested generosity and the self-interested expectation of reward are brought together through the inherent uncertainty and intangibility of the nebulous reward called "merit."
A92
The Possibilities of Merit in Thirteenth-Century Chinese Buddhist Monastic Arenas
Michael Walsh, Vassar College
This paper focuses on how Buddhist monasteries in thirteenth-century China successfully exchanged merit for land and thereby ensured their long-term survival. I suggest that certain connections were made, both doctrinally and ideologically, between traditional concepts of land as a commodity and land as a means to salvation through donation and the awarding of merit. How was exchange understood at Buddhist monasteries? Specifically, how might a lay donor have understood the doctrine of the transfer of merit? I argue lay donors required a more practical and materially meaningful explanation as to why they should donate land to a Buddhist institution. Soteriological explanations as to how merit was transferred to a land donor seem inadequate as an explanation to how the notion of 'merit' worked in premodern China. Perceived material gain was required to sustain the notion of Buddhist merit in the Chinese social context.
A92
Merit Making and Merit Transfer in Chinese Buddhism
Yu Xue, University of Iowa
This paper deals with Buddhist doctrine and the practice of merit making and merit transference in Chinese Buddhism by investigating several different Buddhist texts. To start with, I will try to deal with the issue of merit debated among Buddhists, such as Hui-neng (638-713) and Hui-ri (680-748). It is then followed by the survey and discussion of sutras, such as the Sutra on Merit-field Spoken by the Buddha (T.16.683), in which merit making is extensively explained and exhorted in term of alms giving. The third part of the paper will be a further elaboration based on examining relevant doctrines in two Buddhist texts, Dachen yi zhang (Exposing the Meaning of Mahayana. T.44.1851) composed by Hui-yuan (523-592), and Wan shan tong gui ji (Ten Thousand Goodness Returning to One. T.48.2017) by Yan-shou (904-975).
A93
Unmasking the Book of Esther: Toward the Freedom of Prostituted Slaves
Bonna Devora Haberman, Brandeis University
The global trafficking of women and children into prostitution embeds patriarchal and class structures through unconscionable violation. One of the most humanly degraded and pervasive conjunctions of money with power, global trafficking has only begun to be addressed by scholars. Through interpretation of the Book of Esther according to an innovative method, textual activism, this paper analyzes deep textual presuppositions that enable sex trafficking. Esther, having been taken from a harem of women, selected and primed for sex with the king, advocates a solution to looming violence that respects the integrity of the body by deconstructing the text. Yet the bloody denouement seems to be an irrevocable outcome of the immutability of the King's fallible decree. The result of this analysis is an interfusion of religious text and social activism with the goal of contributing toward the deconstruction of the tacit global consensus that enables the violations of trafficking.
A93
Christic Imagination: Classical Warrants for an Ethic of Resistance and Ingenuity
Darby Kathleen Ray, Millsaps College
The classical Christian motif of the deception of the devil offers insight into an ethical stance occasionally embodied by individuals and communities whose access to social and political power is severely limited. In such contexts, the embrace of this ethic of ingenuity can be interpreted as a posture of resistance that is continuous with the way in which God was understood by some early Christian theologians to have confronted the powers of evil. Thus, in certain contexts this ethical stance can be interpreted as "christic imagination" -- the creative, essentially subversive confrontation of evil manifest in God's incarnation in Jesus. Such a view highlights the moral integrity and (theo-) logic of these behaviors, rendering intelligible what was heretofore inexplicable; placing such behaviors within an identifiable moral tradition; identifying a precedent from deep within Christian tradition for valuing non-normative ethical stances; and offering new terrain for interreligious dialogue and comparative theology.
A93
Sacrifice and Suffering: Beyond Justice, Human Rights, and Capitalism
Daniel M. Bell, Jr., Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary
This paper argues for a recovery of the redemptive significance of "sacrifice" as the form of Christian resistance to global capitalism. The argument unfolds by way of a comparison of sacrifice, as presented by Anselm, with one of the most compelling contemporary theological accounts of justice and human rights - that of Latin American Liberationists. First, I show how the liberationists' vision is implicated in the capitalist order. Then I recover Anselm from commonplace misreadings in order to illuminate the promise of sacrifice for liberating us from capitalism. I argue that Anselm's account of sacrifice displays the advent of the aneconomic order of divine charity - an order that is aneconomic precisely in its refusal of the economic logic of debt, competition, and dominion. And it is only the recovery of life in this aneconomic mode of donation and gift that can deliver us from capitalism.
A93
Following the Suffering Saint: Revisiting the Exhortations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Dorothy Day
Andrew Flescher, California State University, Chico
Can we trust the testimony of "saintly" figures who assert - adamantly - that they do not go beyond the call of duty? This paper inquires into the "normativity" of saintly exhortations to "follow them" through close examination of two cases, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Dorothy Day, both of whom are compelling not only because of their uncompromising sense of other-regard, but also because of the conviction with which they instruct others to join them and if need, welcome whatever form of suffering such altruism might entail. It argues that we may reasonably continue to regard saints -- presumably more virtuous and morally insightful than we are -- as credible moral authorities if we interpret their exhortations as above, not against, ordinary morality. Such exhortations can be regarded as "exemplary" in the sense that they are intended to motivate us from afar, as future ideals that impinge on us in the present.
A94
Manly Starvation: Fasting, Fitness, and Masculinity During the Progressive Era
R. Marie Griffith, Princeton University
Studies of sport and fitness have noted the role of religiously justified fitness regimens in the cultivation of maleness during the Progressive Era, through such groups as the Young Men's Christian Association, among others. Also significant, yet understudied, were the dietary disciplines such as fasting that aided masculinity's production and ongoing reproduction. This paper explores the resurgence of food abstinence during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries among white men who aspired to rise above their working class status and distinguish themselves as robust exemplars of the race who could save the U.S. from the perils of overcivilization. Where fasting had once signaled, in the Christian tradition, a means of repentance and humiliation, it was reborn in bourgeois Protestant culture as an instrument for physical rejuvenation, weight loss, and virility that was considered an essential tool in the building of brawn.
A94
"St. Anthony's Crushes St. Joseph's": Catholic Saints in Action
Kathryn A. Johnson, Barnard College
Dan Marino, a recently retired NFL quarterback, started his career playing for the parish elementary school near his house. Marino remembers going "to Mass in full dress uniform before we went to the field to play." First Mass, then the gridiron, making football pads appropriate Church garb for boys, who played with the blessings (and encouragement) of the Church. The lessons of the playing field taught a particular kind of religious commitment, one in which muscles, self-control, and the will to win figured heavily in turning callow boys into good Catholic men and patriotic American citizens. The athletic ability and muscular form of a Catholic high school football star were external symbols of internal discipline and devotion to Church and country and both football coaches and parish priests saw sports as a way to train young Catholic men to be the spiritual and civic leaders of the next generation.
A94
Chaste Virility: Controlling the Bodies of Evangelical Boys
Heather Hendershot, Queens College
This paper examines evangelical teen chastity culture, focusing on media such as music, magazines, and videos that teach boys to avoid sex while maintaining a masculine, heterosexual identity. Evangelical adults have promoted teen chastity by commodifying it and by valorizing heterosexual subjectivity over heterosexual activity. Pro-abstinence t-shirts, jewelry, advice books, music, and videos make chastity seem attractive, even "cool." These products target teenage boys in particular, since males are understood as inherently more interested in sex than females. Chastity videos focus on the regrets of incontinent boys, while also constructing heterosexuality as the only viable subject position. Abstinent heterosexuality is thus made "macho" by defining itself against homosexuality; chaste boys who are not gay are portrayed as virile by default. Ultimately, pro-chastity adults are walking on a tightrope.
A95
Mapping French and Spanish Colonial Missions in North America
John Corrigan, Arizona State University
This project is based upon missions data collected for the period approximately 1570-1820 and is approximately ninety-five percent complete in its coverage of missions activity during those years, north of the current Mexican border. Data include the name of the mission, sponsoring empire, religious order, dates founded/closed, population, name of Native American tribe, epidemiological data, institutional data, biographical data on missionaries, location(s) of the mission, and other data. Married to a GIS program, the database can be queried in a great many ways, with results of queries displayed as coded maps. When the project goes online, users will be able to search for patterns in the historical development of Spanish and French missions in North America, create maps for classroom use, and integrate the live site into the teaching of religion in North America.
A95
The North American Religion Atlas
Kevin Mickey, Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis
This is a presentation of the electronic and interactive North American Religion Atlas (NARA). The atlas contains GIS-enabled U.S. decennial censuses from 1790 to the present, including an assortment of attributes such as gender, income, and so forth. The presentation will demonstrate the project prototype, and discuss issues and solutions involved in its construction, including: the creation of historically accurate boundary files (maps); development of digital datasets coded to the smallest available geography; establishment of protocols and devices that permit appropriate interpolation of data across variable census units and across time; integration of visual and textual data and appropriate analytical tools; and construction of interpretive and curricular schemes. The project embraces a full-range of pedagogical and research elements designed to demonstrate the usefulness of the data for innovative teaching, new interpretations, and the like.
A95
Mapping the Salem Witch Trials
Benjamin C. Ray, University of Virginia
The Salem Witch Trials Research Archive http://etext.virginia.edu/salem/witchcraft is a digital collection of hundreds of court documents and other primary source materials relating to the infamous Salem witch trials in the Province of Massachusetts Bay of 1692-93. One of the primary goals of the Research Archive is to represent the day-to-day chronology of witchcraft trials and the spread of accusations across the geographic space of Massachusetts Bay, from household to household, through a dozen villages and towns. Driving this chronological and geographic representation of the witchcraft trials is a relational database that can be queried to answer questions about the people involved in the episode, their names, ages, gender, family, relationships, social and political position in the Bay Province, and to retrieve the actual court documents and the large number of literary works and images created by American writers and artists interpreting this famous event through the last two centuries.
A96
Panel: The Anthropic Cosmological Principle: Life and the Cosmos
Thomas P. Kasulis, Ohio State University, Presiding
Holmes Rolston, III, Colorado State University
Gerald James Larson, Indiana University, Bloomington
Edith Wyschogrod, Rice University
Sherrilyn Roush, Rice University
Nancey Murphy, Fuller Theological Seminary
Some theoretical physicists have been exploring the notion that the cognitive capacities of carbon-based life (the human species) presuppose certain physical and cosmological quantities within space-time, both macrocosmic and microcosmic, uniquely characteristic of our kind of universe. Especially on extremely small quantum levels, the presence of an observer actually helps to formulate the very nature of physical becoming. Had the quantities varied even slightly, carbon-based life, able to observe the universe and, as it were, assist the universe in becoming, would not have been possible. This is known in theoretical physics as the Anthropic Principle. A "weak anthropic principle" holds human life as a reasonable possibility in our kind of universe, and a "strong anthropic principle" boldly asserts carbon-based observers to be necessary for the very existence of the universe.
A97
Ingenuity or More of the Same? Gender Roles and Rhetoric in African American Congregations
Daphne C. Wiggins, Duke University
The study of black women's work in congregations has been largely in the hands of historians, theologians and ethicists. The recent work of Cheryl Towsend Gilkes, If It Weren't For the Women (2000), which presents conceptual and theoretical direction for lifting women's activity to the fore of the church and community life, is a welcome corrective. Even as women continue to make inroads into clergy positions, many African American denominations are slow to confer ordination, and the division of church work continues along traditional gendered lines. This paper is an investigation of African Americans "doing gender" in religious institutions. Theoretically, I synthesize aspects of organizational theory with conceptual insights regarding women's leadership found in Gilkes' work. Methodologically, I use the strategies of a participant observer.
A97
No Room for Neutrality: A Womanist Analysis of Ethics in Sociology
Katie Geneva Cannon, Union-PSCE
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the ethical commitments implicit in the sociological approaches of Oliver C. Cox, Foundations of Capitalism (1959) and Cheryl Townsend Gilkes, If It Wasn't for the Women . . .: Black Women's Experience and Womanist Culture in Church and Community (2000). In spite of differences in age, gender, social location, etc., their primary orientations have a lot in common. As sociologists working in the African Diaspora, both Cox and Gilkes 1) burrow through thick descriptions of cultural phenomena; 2) uncover the inside core of social dynamics; 3) expose distorted forms of representation of blackness in the dominant culture; and 4) generate primary data for theoretical advances, which ultimately produce opportunities for African American people to transform real-life situations. Understanding that there is no value-free space, Cox and Gilkes, as sociologists, use the new knowledge of their scientific findings for the betterment of Black people's well-being.
A98
Undeconstructing the Mother of Fuzzy Centers: The Limits of Postmodernism in Understanding Indic Traditions
Yvette Claire Rosser, University of Texas, Austin
This paper is an attempt to deconstruct some of the commonly held contemporary analyses of India. With this effort, hopefully some of the excesses, clichés and unsatisfactoriness of critical theory discourses applied to India, will themselves be problematized. Post-modern theories were solidly corrective early on, metamorphosing the field, but in this reading, the meta-theoretical methodologies have gone full circle and are now perpetuating the very hegemonic, assumptive perspectives that they were initially attempting to deconstruct. By pointing out the inadequacy of a commonly argued construct--that there was no "Hindu identity" in pre-Islamic/pre-British India and therefore no geographical or "national" concept of a Hindu identity--I hope to present an example of these scholarly excesses. In so doing, and with all due respect, perhaps I can partially take apart a few of the shared assumptions that theoretical constructs have, with dexterous intellectual aplomb, taken India apart during the last few decades.
A98
Finding a Middle Ground: Religion, Culture, and Context
Stuart R. Sarbacker, Loyola University, Chicago
The orientalism critique has dramatically changed the way scholars of Indian religion conceive of their object and purpose of study. One of the positive consequences has been a greater concern for context in both textual and anthropological studies. However, due to a tendency to "totalize," this discourse threatens to become its antithesis-an elitist language that is out of touch with the concerns of society at large. My aim in this paper is to help establish a "middle ground" between critical theory and the humanistic study of religion. In this context, I will discuss my work with an Indian Professor who has sought to integrate these dimensions together as a scholar and as a Hindu. I will also discuss the relevance of this approach with respect to the recent work of two popular Hindu and Buddhist teachers, B.K.S. Iyengar and the Dalai Lama.
A98
Tantra, American Style: Neo-Orientalism, Globalism, and the Western Appropriation of Tantra
Hugh B. Urban, Ohio State University
Tantra has now entered fully into Western scholarship and American popular culture as a whole, becoming a major commercial enterprise, spawning lines of books, videos and spiritual-sensual merchandise. This paper will critically examine the contemporary American appropriation of Tantra, by looking at three key transformations that have occurred during Tantra's complex journey to the West: first, the sexualization and scandalization of Tantra that took place in the Victorian era, with figures like Pierre Bernard, founder of the first Tantrik Order in America; second, the commodification and commercialization of Tantra that occurred in the 1970's and 80s with neo-Tantric gurus like Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh; and finally, the digitalization and globalization of Tantra as it enters the world of the Internet, where we now surf websites like Tantra.com and discover "ecstasy on line."
A98
Embracing Orientalism and Exposing the Goddess: Devipuram and the De-Esotericization of the Erotic East
Roxanne Poormon Gupta, Albright College
Sri Amritananda Natha (Prahlad Sastry) is a Guru in the South Indian Sri Vidya tantric lineage, the founder of Devipuram, "Village of Goddesses" located near Vishakapatnam, Andhra Pradesh and site of India's only temple built in the form of a Sri Yantra complete with 64 lifesize naked Goddesses. In this paper I will discuss the history and significance of Amritananda Natha's ongoing adaptation of the Sri Vidya tradition within a contemporary Indian and global context-a discussion involving such diverse elements as Brahmanical esotericism, quantum physics, the Hindu diaspora, new age sexual therapeutics, and women's empowerment. In presenting this interesting case of cross and counter-cultural hybridization in a contemporary Hindu Sakta community, I seek to raise questions regarding the usefulness of a orientalist critique as a category in apprehending and describing the complexity of religion in India today.
A99
Women, Gender, and Islamic Law: Teaching about Classical Doctrine, Court Practice, and Contemporary Legal Reform
Kecia Ali, Duke University
A course focused on Islamic law -- both theoretical and applied -- can provide an organized way to approach women's experience and gender in Islam and Muslim societies. In recent years there has been significant new research on the historical and contemporary application of Islamic law, particularly in the realm of the family, and, to a lesser extent, research on jurisprudence that touches on questions of gendered rights and roles. Based on this literature, I will indicate what I believe to be fruitful topics and themes for a classroom exploration of gender and law. My areas of focus will be three: 1) the formation of law and classical doctrine; 2) court practice and women's access to legal recourse; and 3) contemporary debates over legal codes and family law reform. I will provide a thematic bibliography and list of resources, as well as referring to specific works where appropriate.
A99
Dress and Diversity: Muslim Women's Dress Choice in an Immigrant Context
Hollie Kopp, Colorado State University
Muslim women in Fort Collins, Colorado, have a distinctive style of dress based upon a religious ideology of modesty. In the local Muslim community, women are encouraged to dress modestly and to cover in order to uphold a communal standard. This form of dress not only conforms to religious strictures but expresses a shared communal identity, crucial to a minority population. Minority status becomes even more pronounced when the community is not based on a shared ethnicity but rather a religious one. Religious identity thus takes on multi-dimensional importance as it expresses not only a religious affiliation but a communal one as well. My symbolic-behavioral approach to this research allowed me to observe and record not only how women feel about their visual presentation but also how they actually present themselves on a day to day basis in an immigrant context.
A99
Perceptions of Muslim Women: Stereotypes, Myths, and the Imagination
Mehnaz Afridi, National University
Muslim women have had very little voice in the media over the past 30 years although Muslim women have been the most exploited, whether we take the cases of Afghanistan, Bosnia, Pakistan, Palestine, Algeria, and parts of Lebanon. I will show that images of Islam have impacted our perceptions of Muslim women far more severely in terms of religion and culture. Stereotypes are part of every society that relies on visual information for a truth or understanding of "other" cultures. However, there is an urgent need to look at these images seriously to decipher what the propaganda machines of media are really about. Unfortunately, we have misconstrued the image of Islam by depicting it as a religion of oppression, terrorism, and violence. I will show multiple images of women and Islam from all over the world, the woman behind the veil, women and culture, women and war, women and secularity.
A99
Recent Debates over Child Custody in the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Struggle for Women's Rights
Lynda Clarke, Concordia University
Child custody (hadanah, ghaymumiyat) is one of several areas of the law to be contested in the last decade in the Iranian theocracy between shari'ah traditionalists and social conservatives on the one hand, and reformers, including reforming clergy, on the other. What seems to be primarily at stake not only for conservatives but also for reformists, however, is not women's or children's rights per se. These concerns are, at best, secondary. Rather, as is so often the case with "women's issues," the debate is entirely about something else - in this case, theocracy, the fixity or flexibility of the sharī'ah, male prerogative, and the extension of state power over a legal system that had always been, until the advent of "Islamic states," essentially private.
A100
Aural Histories of the Holocaust: Jewish Identity in Contemporary Classical Music
Daniel Katz, Judiska Församlingen
Techniques for establishing Jewish identity in music can be as basic as setting a Hebrew text or borrowing motives from klezmer music or biblical cantillation. A liturgical excerpt can be expanded into a lengthy concert work or a scriptural story into an opera. At its most complex, the music is abstract and programmatic. An extreme example is the unaccompanied viola piece Shekhinah by the Canadian composer Brian Cherney, which masterfully synthesizes classical music with components of Jewish mysticism and Yiddish culture. Using minimalist compositional techniques, Steve Reich maximizes the aural impact of the Shoa through a powerful collage of musical, textual, and extra-musical images. In both cases the symbolism of the constituent layers deepens as they interact against the backdrop of the Holocaust. Finally we will look at a Soviet symphony and the paradoxical question of Jewish identity in the work of a non-Jewish composer.
A100
Judaism and the Rise of the New Aesthetic
Leah Hochman, University of Florida
This paper examines the rise of the aesthetic in the first and second waves of the (western) Haskalah. Building off the argument that the aesthetics presents both a theological challenge to and a political subversion of traditional forms of religious hierarchy and policy making, I suggest that-beginning with Mendelssohn but proceeding from him-there is an explicit agenda to import philosophical ideas antithetical to "traditional" forms of Jewish thought and practice (e.g., acknowledgement and use of the Beautiful as a specific category) and reinvent them as if they were inherently "Jewish." What results is not just a "beautification" or "refinement" of Judaism but a subversion of traditional religious categories. Thus the new aesthetics is used as both a tool of modernizing Judaism and of reifying an "improved" kind of authority within Judaism, which rests primarily on individual judgment.
A100
Towards a Poetics of the Holy in Judaism
Aubrey L. Glazer, University of Toronto
Interpreting the holy within the study of religion remains problematized since the Kantian phenomenal-noumenal dichotomy. Building on the a priori concept as datum for possible experience, Otto revises the numinous as a surplus of meaning that eludes the concept, while evoking an ineffable category beyond and before ethics. Lévinas' disinterested devotion of the à-Dieu, rather than being revealed, is diverted from the holy by way of the God who loves the stranger. Ethical responsibility is now troped as a love without eros. This primordial, non-erotic love correlates alterity and temporality. Derrida then reveals that Lévinas' real interest "... is not ethics, not ethics alone, but the holy, the holiness of the holy." However, Heidegger elucidates the holy as the bestowing source of words within language. Through Celan's cycle, Zeitgehöft (1976), perhaps there is a middle ground for a poetics of the holy.
A100
Reading for Gender in (Jewish) Philosophy
Susan E. Shapiro, Columbia University
I will read select texts of Emmanuel Levinas for gender by problematizing the relationship between rhetoric, idolatry, philosophy and the prophetic in his work. In particular, I will demonstrate how Levinas' appropriation of Plato on rhetoric and appearance reproduces the gender hierarchies and marginalization of women, despite Levinas' claims to place the body and the feminine at the center of philosophical and Jewish thought. The intersection of the negative feminine figuration of both rhetoric and idolatry in his texts disciplines the body and marginalizes the feminine, thereby undermining his attempt to makes ethics, not ontology, first philosophy. If, as Levinas suggests, ethics must be primary, then rhetoric must be imagined and figured otherwise. Only when the constitutive and not merely pejorative role of rhetoric in (Jewish) philosophy is acknowledged may the hierarchical gendered character of philosophy be imagined otherwise and a genuine place for women as philosophical subjects be made possible.
A101
Panel: Theologies of Tradition
Paul F. Lakeland, Fairfield University, Presiding
Roger D. Haight, Western Theological Seminary
Kathryn Tanner, University of Chicago
Orlando O. Espin, University of San Diego
A critical review of two recent theological works on Tradition, Senses of Tradition (Oxford, 2000) by John Thiel, and Inventing Catholic Tradition (Orbis, 2000) by Terrence Tilley. The panelists will address the two works, and the authors will respond.
A102
Panel: The Challenge of Marcella Althaus-Reid's Indecent Theology
Jane Caputi, Florida Atlantic University, Presiding
Lisa Isherwood, College of St. Mark and St. John
Robert E. Goss, Webster University
Emilie M. Townes, Union Theological Seminary, New York City
Kathleen M. Sands, University of Massachusetts, Boston
Kwok Pui Lan, Episcopal Divinity School
With the provocative argument that all theology is sexual, Marcella Althaus-Reid challenges theologians to come out from their sexual and theological closets. A landmark in queer theology, postcolonial theology, and Latin American feminist theology, Althaus-Reid's Indecent Theology transgresses rigid boundaries. This multicultural, multiracial, and multisexual panel discussion will assess the challenges of her book. Althaus-Reid critiques feminist theology for underdeveloping and marginalizing sexual theology. Likewise, from her Argentinian perspective, she questions how liberation theology, despite shifting the theological subject to 'the poor', continues to share the masculinist and heterosexist assumptions of the dominant theology. The panel will use Indecent Theology as a springboard to discuss the status of sexual theology within theological studies; commonalities and differences among gay, lesbian, and queer theologies; and Jesus and Mary as sexual symbols. The panel will also situate the book's arguments in a North American context. The author will be present to respond.
A104
"Suffering Impassibly": Christ's Passion and Divine Impassibility in Cyril of Alexandria
J. Warren Smith, Yale University
This paper will discuss the meaning of Cyril of Alexandria's assertion in his letter to Pulcheria and Eudocia that Christ "suffered human things impassibly (pathoi apathos) in his own flesh" and its significance in the contemporary debate about Divine impassibility. Because Cyril took seriously the economic union of the impassible divine nature and the passible human nature in the person of Jesus, he recognized that the paradox of Christ's suffering necessitated a reconsideration of the character of suffering and how Christ's divine nature might enable him to suffer without compromising the perfection of his divinity. Thus he begins to draw a distinction between impassibility and immutability. Moreover, in the context of certain Stoic conceptions of apatheia Cyril's idea of suffering impassibly would have been intelligible to his readers.
A104
Theopatheia: Nestorius' Main Charge against Cyril of Alexandria
Pavel L. Gavrilyuk, Southern Methodist University
Was Cyril of Alexandria a theopaschite? In order to attempt to resolve this controversial issue, this paper will look at Cyril's christology with Nestorius' eyes. The charge of theopatheia appears from the very beginning in Nestorius' correspondence with Cyril and retains its central place in Nestorius' work, "Bazaar of Heraclides." For Nestorius, Cyril's position was inadequate for the following three reasons: 1) it led to the confusion of two natures; 2) it entailed the subordination of the passible divinity of the Son to the impassible divinity of the Father; 3) it made the assumption of humanity in the incarnation superflous. Cyril responded that neither divinity suffered alone apart from humanity (in which case the assumption of humanity would be indeed superfluous), nor humanity suffered alone apart from and in sharp contrast to the impassible divinity (in which case the reality of divine involvement in the incarnation would be put at risk).
A104
Cyril of Alexandria on the Curse of Eve
Nonna Verna Harrison, Cambridge University
Cyril's theological interests focus on soteriology, the Trinity and Christology. In this context, his anthropology is balanced and ontologically grounded. He believes Eve is created to be Adam's helper in procreation. After the Fall, her curse is the sorrow of bringing forth children who will die; Adam's curse is that he is dust and will return to dust. The curse for both is death. Death's impact on the procreative process affects all humankind, not only women. Eve's curse is overcome as Christ brings God's incarnate presence and life into contact with women and the procreative process at his birth, the wedding in Cana, and his resurrection. The Savior redeems and sanctifies women as well as men by enabling them to participate in the divine through the incarnation, by divine adoption and union with God. Details of Cyril's theology and exegesis differ from those of other Greek Fathers in interesting ways.
A105
Seeing the Gods: Idols, Images, and Representations of the Divine
Froma Zeitlin, Princeton University
This paper will initiate a two-session discussion of the discourse of idolatry in Late Antiquity by addressing the history of the word itself and the development of Greek concerns about representations of the gods, particularly when it comes to statuary, and in the light of the more general context of the visual culture of later antiquity. Respondents Jan Bremmer, David Frankfurter, and Annabel Wharton will explore the paper's implications for the religion and culture of Late Antiquity.
A106
Panel: Panel Review of the Significance of Vine Deloria, Jr.'s Work for the Study of Native American Religious Issues
Michelene Pesantubbee, University of Colorado, Boulder, Presiding
Sammy Toineeta, National Council of Churches
Jace Weaver, Yale University
Ines M. Talamantez, University of California, Santa Barbara
Julian Kunnie, University of Arizona
Richard Grounds, University of Tulsa
This panel, with a response by Vine Deloria, Jr., will explore the significance of Vine Deloria, Jr.'s work for the study of both Native religious traditions in particular and the study of religious traditions in general. Panelists will explore Deloria's contributions to analysis of the relationship between religion and law and policy, categorizations of religious phenomenon, religion and political activitism, and the defense of Native sovereignty. The author will be present to respond.
A107
A Tale of Two Plotini: Hegel's Reading and Use of Plotinus
J. Noel Hubler, Lebanon Valley College
Hegel's interpretation of Plotinus is puzzling, at best. At times he seems to understand him and offer important insights, but at other times he appears to misrepresent him. Because for Hegel, there were two Plotini: the philosopher who reached the "highest region" of self thinking thought and the dreamy mystic, lost in an ecstatic trance. Hegel saw two Plotini because he failed to see the necessary connection that Plotinus established between the Intellect and the One. Because the connection escaped him, Plotinus' ascent to the One remained for Hegel as an irrational leap of fancy. Hegel had good reason to overlook the completion of the Intellect in a super-intellective state. In his historical program, Hegel was intent on showing the development of self-thinking thought from Aristotle to Plotinus. So in the end, the sublation to spirit takes what is necessary for the dialectic and leaves what is not.
A107
Kierkegaard, Socrates, and the Maieutic Art
Craig Q. Hinkson, Liberty University
It is axiomatic for Socrates, as Kierkegaard presents him, that all persons have self-knowledge as their task, but that all are equally remote from such. Only by renouncing reason's claims to knowledge and embracing ignorance may they encounter the divinity, who alone reveals the truth that lies in concealment. Because no individual can confer self-knowledge upon himself, let alone upon another, the ethico-religious teacher is but a midwife at the deity's disposal, a vanishing occasion by which the deity creates the condition for revelation. By locating existential truth outside the sphere of recollection, Kierkegaard's Socrates is profoundly Christian in conception.
A107
The Winged Chariot: Imagination and the Vision of God
R. D. Hedley, Cambridge University
The paper will explore an image of the "imagination" as a "living chariot" in Coleridge's thought. The history of this symbol is both Platonic and Biblical. Plato presents the soul in the Phaedrus 246 as a charioteer with two horses. This Platonic myth functions as a symbol of the ascent of the soul to the Divine, and in the work of Philo of Alexandria and Origen is linked with the vision of Ezekiel. The great seventeenth-century Christian Platonist Ralph Cudworth discusses this topos in some detail in his The True Intellectual System of 1678, and I wish to explore this source of Coleridge's enigmatic use of the ancient Alexandrian mystical motif in Aids to Reflection, The Lay Sermons and the Biographia Literaria. Coleridge at his most modern and imaginative nevertheless reflects his ancient and traditional sources.
A107
The Rhetorical Function of the Category of Stoicism in Troeltsch's Soziallehren
Lori Pearson, Harvard University
In this paper, I analyze the rhetorical function of the category of Stoicism in Ernst Troeltsch's history of Christian social thought, The Social Teachings of the Christian Churches and Groups. I show how Troeltsch's appeals to (and descriptions of) Stoicism serve important functions in Troeltsch's larger historical narrative, and in Troeltsch's constructive vision for Christianity that is present "in between the lines" in the Social Teachings. I argue that Troeltsch uses the category of Stoicism as a tool in his effort to negotiate the relation between Christianity and modernity.
A108
On Beyond Stigma: Genetic Research, Ethnic Groups, and Communal Narratives
Dena S. Davis, Cleveland-Marshall College of Law
Ethnic, religious, and national groups can have stakes in the direction of genetic research that transcend immediate issues of access to health care and employment. One such interest involves the communal narrative or creation story of the group. Genetic research may have the potential to threaten or to strengthen the group's narrative about its creation, its history, and its current identity. Three instances of this potential involve the Lemba of S. Africa (who claim to be Jewish), Native Americans in the U.S., and research on the relationship between Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemmings.
A108
Genetics and African-American Women: Choice for Hope or Despair
Hilda R. Davis, Vanderbilt University
The ability to make choices about a child at the gene stage brings with it both vice and virtue. The pendulum can swing towards eugenics as a boon in its potential for eradicating certain diseases, but it can also be mindful of Nazi experiments that exterminated millions of Jewish and other "unsuitable" people for the pursuit of a pure race. In the United States, this pursuit of purity and excellence through genetic screening raises issues about the embedded racism in health care. This paper will explore the moral questions raised by this rapidly growing and often suspicious technology of genetic screening. In particular, I will focus on how these advances may have cause for despair for poor, minority women while at the same time bringing hope for more affluent and educated women. What is the common good? How does religion create a space for dialogue between competing claims?
A108
The Bounds of Privilege: Health Care Practice Norms and the Problem of Privacy
Deirdre King Hainsworth, Princeton Theological Seminary
While relationships within health care settings have long been structured by ethical norms and professional codes that shape the treatment of patients and privacy, the force of these ethical norms has been threatened as other actors seek access to patients and information. In recent Health and Human Services regulations, insurers and marketers attempted to redefine their work as "routine health care activities," thus recognized and given access to information as part of the medical team. What implications might this have for the scope and force of existing professional canons and norms in health care? I will examine the various professional ethical norms and canons that shape privacy in healthcare settings, and their understandings of accountability and responsibility. I then will explore the use and potential of the concept of "sacredness" as a basis for a more integrated and comprehensive understanding of patient privacy.
A108
"We Have Found the Book of Life": The Sacred Text of DNA, Ethics, and NIH Education Films
Laurie Zoloth, San Francisco State University
When the Human Genome was "presented" in the winter of 2001, the National Institutes of Health immediately made copies of their educational films widely available to the public. First unveiled at the American Association for the Advancement of Science's annual meeting, one film was intended to be the definitive popular account of the project, in which the secrets of the genetic human self was finally revealed. It is a remarkable visual narrative, touching on the deepest themes of kinship, identity, and faith. This paper will deconstruct this compelling visual text, and as such the audience will be shown clips of both this film and of previously released films. In reflecting on how this film performs science and displays our social concerns in the most public of fashion, this paper will reflect on the messages of faith, value, and power that underlie the shaping of the narrative of medical genetic science.
A109
Panel: Dismantling the Rites of Passage Paradigm
Madeline Duntley, College of Wooster, Presiding
Ritual theory has long privileged the tripartite "Rites of Passage" model of Separation-Transition-Incorporation developed from van Gennep and Turner. Challenging this paradigm is Ronald L. Grimes, who argues in his book, Deeply into the Bone: Re-inventing Rites of Passage, that the tripartite model is inappropriate for modern rites of passage because it was designed to interpret pre-modern male initiation rites. "Initiation" has become the interpretive ideal for all rites of passage, failing as a framework for other life transition rites and inadequately explaining cross-cultural and cross-gender initiatory rites and experiences. Panelists Stephen Prothero and Nikki Bado-Fralick respond to Grimes' argument and to recent efforts in ritual theory to dismantle the paradigm. Prothero approaches this analysis using his research on U.S. cremation death rites, Purified by Fire: A History of Cremation in America, and Bado-Fralick critiques the paradigm using her work on Wiccan Initiation.
A110
Panel: Ethics and Recognition: Hegel, Levinas and the Problem of Symmetry, A Discussion with Robert Gibbs ("Why Ethics?") and Robert R. Williams ("Ethics of Recognition")
Walter Lowe, Emory University, Presiding
Robert Gibbs, University of Toronto
Robert R. Williams, University of Illinois, Chicago
Panel discussion of two recent books, Robert R. Williams, Hegel's Ethics of Recognition (University of California Press, 1997) and Robert Gibbs, Why Ethics? Signs of Responsibility (Princeton University Press, 2000). Williams's exposition makes a vigorous case for the contemporaneity of Hegel's ethics of mutual recognition while Gibbs's exploration of ethics in a Jewish context is strongly influenced by Levinas's radical insistence upon the asymmetrical character of ethical encounter. The authors will be present; there will be extensive opportunity for discussion. All are welcome, prior knowledge of the books is not assumed.
A111
And the Deaf Shall Hear: Religious Responses to Cochlear Implantation
Rebecca M. Raphael, Southwest Texas State University
This paper examines issues of disability and difference, nature and technology, and God and self as they appear in the controversy about the cochlear implant (CI). I examine two competing views of the CI. The deaf community presents deafness as a natural difference, as one way of being a complete self. In this context, the CI can be a technological assault upon the self and nature. The medical community, and many late-deafened adults, tends to see hearing loss as a disability that requires a cure, and in this context, the CI appears as a miracle of technology. I analyze the religious language used from both perspectives and argue that the God-talk tends to support the preferred identity, whether the identity is deaf or hearing. Technology, in the form of the CI, then becomes either divine or demonic, depending on its impact on the individual's sense of complete selfhood.
A111
Christ in the Coat Closet: Disability and Spirituality in Reynolds Price
Virginia Bemis, Ashland University
Body, incarnation and otherness become problematic topics for the disabled, especially because disability is often seen as a representation of sin or of a general lack of perfection. A new type of liberation theology, that of disability, is now emerging, paralleling the disability rights movement in the social sphere. In this context, writers explore how one may embody a perfect God in a body that does not function perfectly, how a theology of suffering may obtain, and whether the disabled are the designated suffering saints of the modern world. Through an examination of the work of Reynolds Price, correlated with recent theological works by Nancy Eiesland and Don Saliers, this paper will explore the connection between religion and the disabled body, where the emerging new spirituality of disability meets "the social-symbolic life of people with disabilities" with a fuller vision of justice, worship and the divine nature.
A111
The Withered Hand of God: Theology and the Experience of Disability
Deborah Creamer, Iliff School of Theology, University of Denver
The experience of disability brings up essential issues about epistemology of the body and about the nature of God. In this paper, I will present Sallie McFague's notion of the world as the Body of God as a way to explore issues of embodiment. By putting McFague's work in conversation with the experience of disability, I hope first to clarify, critique, and expand upon McFague's model. She explores the implications of her model in terms of the planetary ecological crisis; I will do the same in terms of the experience of disability. Secondly, I hope to show how the perspective of disability can serve as a foundation for theological construction, and to begin to explore some of the questions, issues, and constructions relevant to such a task. Through a critique of McFague's model in relation to the experience of disability, the beginnings of a theology of disability will be articulated.
A112
African/American "Root Work" As a Strategy for Psychological Health and Wholeness
Will Coleman, Columbia Theological Seminary
This paper will explore how persons and groups of African descent have utilized various strategies to achieve psychological health wholeness. It will focus upon spiritual worldviews, resources, and techniques from a West African "sacred cosmos," exemplified in Dahomean Vodun and Yoruban Ifa. Offshoots from this taproot will be traced through religions within the African American diaspora such as Haitian Vodun, Brazilian Macumba, Cuban Lucumi, and African American Protestantism. Special attention will be given to phenomenological hermeneutics with respect to continuity and discontinuity between West African roots and African American offshoots, and the latters' encounter with Eurocentric expressions of Christianity. This paper will also examine the impact of slavery upon the understanding and experience of sacred cosmos. It will explore the import of "root work" for persons of African descent who are poised to recover those dimensions of "ancestral memory" as a powerful resource for psychospiritual healing and ongoing health.
A112
Send for Mrs. Mix and Be Cured: The Life and Healing Ministry of Sarah Mix, 1832-1884
Rosemary D. Gooden, DePaul University
Sarah Ann Freeman Mix (1832-1884), a free black woman who lived in Torrington, Connecticut, a leader in the late-nineteenth-century divine healing movement in America, was the first known African American healing evangelist and the first known woman to make faith healing a full-time ministry. She was also a highly respected teacher, preacher, and writer. My paper highlights the life and pioneering role of Sarah Mix in the nineteenth-century divine healing movement. Additionally, my paper shows continuities in belief and practices about faith and healing among African Americans from slavery to the present. I demonstrate how Sarah Mix and her healing ministry are part of an historical continuum of African American female healing practitioners and black women's healing work. Also, I explore the continuation of prayer and the laying on of hands for healing today among African American women with contemporary examples.
A112
"Jesus is My Doctor": Healing and Religion in African American Women's Live
Stephanie Y. Mitchem, University of Detroit Mercy
Examining the connections between religiosity, spirituality, and healing in African American women's lives, uncovers a rich terrain. The explorations often underline the continued existence of black popular religion, and, by extension, infers that there are core "ordinary theologies" embedded within African American communities. These ordinary theologies have culturally derived and historic roots, which contextually ground contemporary practices. African American women's beliefs about religious healing additionally call attention to social constructions of gender in black communities. Part of a larger study on African American women, religion, and healing, this presentation will explore these topics and integrate some data from a small group of African American women at two Christian communities in the metropolitan Detroit area. Examining the dynamics of belief in religious healing serves as a conduit to better understand African American women's religious experiences and the processes of faith in life.
A112
Invisible Hospitals: Botanicas in Los Angeles
Donald J. Cosentino, UCLA/Folklore
Associated with Afro-Cuban faiths or other Latin American religious and therapeutic traditions (e.g., folk Catholicism, Curanderismo, Espiritismo), botanicas have become a familiar component of the religious landscapes of Latino communities in the United States. Why the apparent burgeoning of botanicas in recent years? What medical and counseling services do botanicas provide to their clientele? Our ethnographic study of botanicas in Southern California has provided valuable information regarding the histories, religious affiliations, and clientele demographics of individual sites. Likewise, our understanding of the way that some proprietors expand their spiritual repertoire as a means of addressing the broader religious and healthcare marketplace of Southern California has increased significantly. Additionally, the complex nature of the relationship (often antagonistic and complementary at the same time) that exists between mainstream biomedical institutions and botanicas has become much clearer. This presentation will explore these different dimensions of the world of the botanicas.
A112
Invisible Hospitals: Botanicas in Los Angeles
Patrick A. Polk, Uiv of CA
Associated with Afro-Cuban faiths or other Latin American religious and therapeutic traditions (e.g., folk Catholicism, Curanderismo, Espiritismo), botanicas have become a familiar component of the religious landscapes of Latino communities in the United States. Why the apparent burgeoning of botanicas in recent years? What medical and counseling services do botanicas provide to their clientele? Our ethnographic study of botanicas in Southern California has provided valuable information regarding the histories, religious affiliations, and clientele demographics of individual sites. Likewise, our understanding of the way that some proprietors expand their spiritual repertoire as a means of addressing the broader religious and healthcare marketplace of Southern California has increased significantly. Additionally, the complex nature of the relationship (often antagonistic and complementary at the same time) that exists between mainstream biomedical institutions and botanicas has become much clearer. This presentation will explore these different dimensions of the world of the botanicas.
A112
Invisible Hospitals: Botanicas in Los Angeles
Michael Owen Jones, University of California, Los Angeles
Associated with Afro-Cuban faiths or other Latin American religious and therapeutic traditions (e.g., folk Catholicism, Curanderismo, Espiritismo), botanicas have become a familiar component of the religious landscapes of Latino communities in the United States. Why the apparent burgeoning of botanicas in recent years? What medical and counseling services do botanicas provide to their clientele? Our ethnographic study of botanicas in Southern California has provided valuable information regarding the histories, religious affiliations, and clientele demographics of individual sites. Likewise, our understanding of the way that some proprietors expand their spiritual repertoire as a means of addressing the broader religious and healthcare marketplace of Southern California has increased significantly. Additionally, the complex nature of the relationship (often antagonistic and complementary at the same time) that exists between mainstream biomedical institutions and botanicas has become much clearer. This presentation will explore these different dimensions of the world of the botanicas.
A114
Service Learning and Religious Studies: An Awkward Fit
Carol Harris-Shapiro, Temple University
Service learning engages students deeply in the world outside the university and ties that experience to the classroom, enriching academic studies. Two models have dominated service-learning courses--students volunteering in any kind of charitable capacity, and students identifying and actively changing conditions that exacerbate poverty and despair. Neither model is a perfect fit when applied to religious studies. Because one doesn't "do" religion in religious studies, students have no specific method emerging from religious studies to effect change. Moreover, the pressing needs of the community will most likely not fall under the category of "religious studies." Even moving from "change" to "charity," if students are required to actively help a religious organization whose values they oppose, church-state issues arise. My paper will evaluate a Spring 2001 service-learning course, "Religion in America," addressing these issues specifically as well as other successes and challenges in the course as a whole.
A114
Teaching and Learning for Life: Service Learning, Vocation, and Social Justice
Christopher Johnson, Gustavus Adolphus College
"Faith takes practice," says the quirky, unlikely hero of John Irving's novel A Prayer for Owen Meany. In fact, Owen could just as well have said that Life takes practice. In addition to its many other widely recognized benefits (improved learning, community impact, retention, etc.) service-learning can be a powerful means for students, teachers, and community partners to "practice-Life." Service-learning in religious studies courses can energize the vocation of teaching, enrich the vocation of learning, and enhance a shared vocation -a full Life- of civic engagement that seeks justice especially for those who are marginalized and disenfranchised. I will draw upon recent scholarship on service-learning, and constructively engage classic and contemporary treatments of the concepts of vocation and justice, narrative and virtue ethics, and Irving's novel. Finally, I will present examples of and resources for integrating service-learning into religious studies courses.
A114
"Seeing - Judging - Acting": The Bible As a Text for Critical Reflection in Community Based Learning
David T. Stewart, Southwestern University
Community-based (or "Service") Learning offers more than a volunteer opportunity, an internship experience, or a community connection to the classroom. Students act as "participant-observers," not just volunteers. They critically reflect on their experience through collateral reading. This reflection becomes embodied in their writing, discussion, and renewed action. A course, Wealth and Poverty in the Biblical Tradition, makes use of the Hebrew Bible, Mishnah, and Talmud as carriers of traditions treating poor (and homeless) people. These traditions provide texts for reflection and action using the Latin American, vernacular hermeneutic, "Seeing-Judging-Acting," described by M. Garcia-Gutierrez. Following a sketch of how the course was organized and taught, participants in the session will work through an exercise making use of this hermeneutic. Excerpts from student work will illustrate how past actors have actually negotiated this "game."
A114
Building A Ladder of Social Engagement: Service Learning, Student Development and the Transformation of Institutional Practice
Charles R. Strain, DePaul University
This paper addresses efforts at DePaul University to overcome the shortcomings of single-shot service learning classes by constructing "ladders of social engagement" for students. By "ladders," we mean developmental, experientially-rooted opportunities that encourage students to take greater and greater responsibility for the world they live in. I will describe a calibrated repertoire of such opportunities for our students to integrate theory and practice in providing service that builds the capacity of a community organization to sustain its commitment to social transformation. I will draw on my own experiences with service learning pedagogy in classes that focus on liberation theology and socially-engaged Buddhism. I will examine the planning process for a program that will involve students beyond a single course experience.
A114
Real-Life Monopoly, Pedagogy, and Social Justice
Kenneth B. Homan, St. Louis University
This paper develops "Real-Life Monopoly" as a pedagogical tool that is effective for developing critical thinking about issues of identity and difference; socio-economic context; and space, power, and authority. In The Good Society, Bellah says persons learn Monopoly at an early age as an introduction to laissez-faire free market capitalism. Monopoly is a community of equal persons, who have equal access to goods, services, and risks, bound together by prospects for a better life. The vision of Monopoly is the normative vision of many college undergraduates. To raise the consciousness of my students, I developed "Real-Life Monopoly", which surfaces the unexamined premises of a normatively progressivist American community, where all are equal, and all have an equal opportunity. The students critically reflect upon themselves, their identities, the communities to which they belong and have access to, issues of power, and the meaning of their lives.
A115
Panel: Comparison in the History of Religions: Reflections and Critiques
Jeffrey D. Carter, Castle Rock Institute, Presiding
Pia Altieri, Gettysburg College
Darlene M. Juschka, University of Regina
Luther H. Martin, University of Vermont
Hugh B. Urban, Ohio State University
Joanne Punzo Waghorne, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Jeppe S. Jensen, University of Aarhus
Jonathan Z. Smith, University of Chicago, Responding
The individuals named above propose to conduct a panel discussion dedicated to the current status of the comparative enterprise in the History of Religions and the possible future of that enterprise given recent reflections on the subject. To focus the discussion, the panel will take as its starting point the positions expressed in A Magic Still Dwells: Comparative Religion in the Postmodern Age (Patton and Ray, eds.). This book arose from two AAR panels in 1995 and 1996. Now with this common text available, the panel hopes to begin a new level of commentary and analysis of comparison, one that takes this existing work, critiques it, and builds upon it. Noting that the work of Jonathan Z. Smith constitutes a theme of sorts throughout the book, the panel will also provide an opportunity to assess Professor Smith's contribution to the comparative study of religions.
A116
Panel: Crossing a Continental Divide: Accounting for Religion in the American West
Kathleen Flake, Vanderbilt University, Presiding
Patricia Limerick, University of Colorado, Boulder
Jan Shipps, Indiana University-Purdue University, Indianapolis
Laurie Maffly-Kipp, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Ferenc Morton Szasz, University of New Mexico
Mutually reinforcing dilemmas plague the historiography of the American West and the study of American religion. While histories of the West tend to ignore the role of religion in establishing both the physical and metaphysical definition of the region, historians of American religion are inclined to ignore the West. Their narratives begin with and, ideologically, never quite leave Plymouth and Jamestown, typically venturing only as far as the frontiers of the Ohio and the Tennessee Valleys to explore "new" movements and evangelical enthusiasms before returning to the East's modernizing cities. Consequently, the theologies and rituals which motivated and gave meaning to, inter alia, planting mission communities in Alta California and digging irrigation systems in bone-dry deserts remain neglected in explanations of the American West specifically and American religion more generally. Panelists will address this dual dilemma from the vantage points of their particular disciplines and their own work.
A117
"For Christ and for Liberty": Homeschooling for Virtue
Rebecca Allahyari, School of American Research
My multi-sited ethnographic project explores civic ideals among diverse homeschooled kids and their families by following connections in the circulation of curriculums and education philosophies, child rearing beliefs, and political identities in homeschooling practices of families, local homeschooling organizations, and umbrella organizations for homeschoolers. While homeschooling might seem on first glance as the phenomenon of "bowling alone" (Putnam 1995), many conservative Christian homeschoolers, although perhaps "schooling alone," structure their homeschooling to gain the social capital they deem essential to transform the world around them. Central to this endeavor for many is the Home School Legal Defense Association and its Patrick Henry College devoted to a Biblically-based, apprenticeship model of political education. I will also explore the civic world of conservative Christians of color who have chosen other paths to homeschooling but with goals of service to others.
A117
White Lynchers and Blackfaced Minstrels: Racial Domination and Obsession in the Formation of White Identity
Jennifer Harvey, Union Theological Seminary, New York City
This paper will explore the site at which the production of (white) selves and (Black) 'others' took place through the terrifying historical phenomena of lynching and blackface minstrelsy, specifically in the 1920s. Lynching was a public spectacle, constituted by a sadistic obsession with and murderous consumption of black bodies. White blackface minstrelsy, the first popular culture, also involved the making of a spectacle. Via the appropriation and distortion of black culture it too evidenced a white obsession with and consumption of blackness. Lynching and minstrelsy, through 1) fixating and obsessing upon an imagined Other and 2) destroying the bodies and commodifying the lives and culture of African Americans, created whiteness. This paper will explore troubling moral questions concerning what was being absorbed into the nature of the (white) self/selves that was/were thus
produced.
A117
Expanding Public Policy Discourse: The Role of Civil Society in Transforming Economic Globalization
Rebecca Todd Peters, Elon University
This paper begins with the following assumptions: that there are a variety of morally and ideologically distinct theories of globalization; that neoclassical economic theory is fundamentally inadequate as a basis for just economic relations and that theories of globalization rooted in alternative economic models offer a more solid ethical foundation than those rooted in capitalism. >From these assumptions this paper will build an argument that the concrete experience of civil society in grassroots locations around the world offers a locus for mobilizing social capital into powerful forms of resistance against the hegemonic forms of globalization that are threatening the survival of the poor as well as the well-being of our planet. More specifically the role of civil society in two locations--the Philippines and Mexico--will be utilized as windows into two distinct ways in which people's movements are becoming an oppositional force to prevailing forms of globalization.
A117
The Indigenized Migrations of "Time/Space Compression": The Garifuna of Honduras and the Bronx
Paul C. Johnson, University of Missouri, Columbia
Based on multi-site ethnographic work, I examine how a transnational indigenous group, the Garifuna, use ritual to "make place" within the expanded space of ever-increasing labor migrations. Returning emigrés, armed with a nostalgia for "place" and the foreign currency to fund costly ritual performances, spur a "traditional" ritual revival. This existential reembedding in the local occurs through ritual, but not as expected. Far from temporarily resolving social differences, rituals highlight and reify social fissures between migrants and those who remain on the land, between men and women, and between new Protestants and "traditionals." Despite the local ritual production of conflict, the Garifuna religious system is fortified and reproduced (though changed), since these fissures, now circulated in the public discourse of gossip, serve as explanations for misfortune. Returning Garifuna find "place" in and through conflict and its discursive circulation in gossip, not in its resolution in communitas.
A118
Tales of Metamorphosis in the Mahabharata: Masculine Identity in Crisis
Arti Dhand, University of Toronto
This paper will focus on two narratives in the Mahabharata: Arjuna's masquerade as Brhannada, the dance teacher, during the Pandavas' thirteenth year of exile; and the ambiguous sexuality of Sikhandin/Sikhandini, the reincarnated Amba, born to avenge herself against Bhisma. Through a study of the commonalities between these narratives, the paper will argue that the narrative device of disguise is meant to both cloak and evoke anxieties about human sexuality. In particular, the two episodes betray concerns about masculinity. The paper will discuss the construction of gender identity in the Mahabharata. It will also raise some larger questions. What is the relation between biological sex and svabhava, one's "nature"? And if one's nature is the determinant of one's actions, what are the ramifications of a confused gender identity for one's ethics?
A118
Guises, Turmeric, and Recognition in the Gangamma Tradition of Tirupati
Joyce Burkhalter Flueckiger, Emory University
In the intense summer of the south Indian plains, the goddess Gangamma expands and becomes ubiquitously present in Tirupati during her annual festival. Her presence is most dramatically marked through her guises (vesam), taken by men who are transformed into women and, in one family of weavers, even the goddess herself. However, guising also appears on other levels. Women apply turmeric on their faces on this and other ritual occasions throughout the year, and Gangamma's stone face, too, is covered with turmeric. Turmeric is said to reveal her features, so that she can be "seen," hence "known." The juxtaposition of gendered guising, masking, and turmeric in the Gangamma tradition suggests ways in which guising is a process of recognition: recognition of this Gangamma-permeated reality as ultimately female, recognition of males as female, and recognition of women as (sharing in the nature of) the goddess.
A118
Yantras and Women's Rituals: Art As a Locus of Transformed Powers
Vijaya Nagarajan, University of San Francisco
This paper is an exploration of this aspect of the kolam through the device of the yantra. The yantra is considered to be the hidden meaning of the kolam; the esoteric, the magical, and the powerful energy of the divine are transformed into the subdued powers of the kolam. How are kolams and yantras similar and how are they dissimilar? Why do women not refer to the kolams as yantras and men often do? Why is there a gendered difference in the articulation of hidden powers? This paper will also attempt to understand the structural differences between yantras and kolams. The link between these two genres of ritual designs, I believe, are the navagrahas, the nine planets. There are yantras and kolams which refer to the navagrahas as forces to be reckoned with. They are drawn to the surface of community life through the activation of the yantras.
A118
Wild and Innocent Faces: Ascetic Masquerade in the Samnyasa Upanishads
Lise F. Vail, Montclair State University
The Samnyasa Upanisads detail both the proper lifestyles for formerly Brahmin samnyasi renouncers. They also unveil remarkable assumptions about the value of utilizing disguises in spiritual practice. When the renouncer leaves ordinary social life and resorts to a simple life in the forest, he is told at various times to present himself to others as an animal, lunatic, goblin, child, fool, or corpse. Olivelle claims that these ascetic "faces" define the renouncer negatively and essentially as a deconstructed Brahmin and culturally deceased being. However, the texts indicate clearly that these stances are not only geared toward discarding the old lifestyle and identity, but also prominently aimed at facilitating the higher identity-discovery process. Hiding, posing, strange displays--this paper explores the logic of these various masquerades, and their importance in helping to culturally construct both proper renouncer-householder relations, and the ongoing secret metamorphosis: becoming the Absolute once again.
A118
Divine Masquerades: Kṛsṇa's Ambivalent Epiphany to Uttaṅka in the Mahābhārata
Tamar C. Reich, Tel-Aviv University
After the war Kṛsṇa met a brahmin ascetic, Uttaṅka, in the desert. Uttaṅka blamed Kṛsṇa for the slaughter, called him "false," and was about to curse him, but Kṛsṇa explained his divine nature and Uttaṅka praised him instead. Kṛsṇa, pleased, granted Uttaṅka a full epiphany and also a boon: should he need water, he could think of him and have it. When Uttaṅka felt thirsty and remembered Kṛsṇa, an impure hunter appeared and offered Uttaṅka his urine. Uttaṅka declined indignantly and censured Kṛsṇa. Instantly, Kṛsṇa appeared and explained that the hunter was Indra. He had asked Indra to give Uttaṅka amṛta, but Indra only agreed to present it as hunter's urine. He granted Uttaṅka that whenever he should feel thirsty and think of him, a rain-cloud should appear. Kṛsṇa "shows himself" twice: once directly and truly and once indirectly and disguised. Why?
A119
Isolating the Meditative Element in Lurianic Prayer
Pinchas Giller, University of Judaism
The Lurianic system of meditative, contemplative prayer is a "mind only" school, in which the practice consists of the contemplation of a certain task or meaning not manifest in the words of prayer being recited. Isaac Luria maintained that the sections of the prayer service are really stages in an ascent through the mystical infrastructure. The role of prayer is manifestly to bring about a theurgic "fixing" of the Divine structure. At every juncture of the prayer service, Divine names were contemplated, vocalized in ways specific to that moment. One may know the basic trategy of the mystical intentions, yet scholars remain epistemologically blocked from understanding the nature of the experience. In observing subterranean circles of kabbalists in Jerusalem and Safed who employ these practices, it is clear that this is the indigenous living mediation tradition of the Kabbalah.
A119
A Scribal Aesthetic: Visual Elements in Jewish Amulets and Related Genres
Michael D. Swartz, Ohio State University
Despite the paucity of manuscript evidence for Jewish visual arts in antiquity, there is one genre of text where visual elements play an important role. Amulets and magical bowls from late antiquity and the early Middle Ages often include drawings depicting angels and demons, mysterious characters, innovative graphic displays of text and numbers, and other iconographic and schematic elements. In this Jewish magic shares much in common with other ancient Mediterranean magical traditions, especially the Greek and Coptic magical papyri. Yet aside from a few recent considerations of this phenomenon and despite the bourgeoning of the study of Jewish magic, this aspect of Jewish magic not been explored in depth. This paper will examine these elements and the diverse aesthetic notions they represent.
A119
Translating Into Tradition: Reflections on the Recent Hebrew Writings of Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi
Shaul Magid, Jewish Theological Seminary
In this essay I explore what I call R. Zalman's act of translation in reverse, translating his English writings and ideas into classical Hebrew. I argue that the purpose of this act of translation is not merely to make his ideas accessible to a particular audience but to re-contextualize Jewish Renewal, making it an example of a classical yet modern form of pietistic literature. While this act of translation may be unprecedented, he does find Hasidic precedent for his enlightened Hasidism in the 20th century Hasidic master Rabbi Kolonymous Kalman Shapira of Piasczeno. By translation back into tradition as opposed to translation out of tradition, Rabbi Zalman reverses the normal trajectory of Jewish literature and creates the possibility of new pathways of tradition and change.
A120
Leg-Lifts, Calories, and Other Spiritual Matters: Third Wave Feminism and an American Religion of the Body
Michelle M. Lelwica, Saint Mary's College of California
This paper explores what has become a central third wave feminist issue-namely body image-from the perspective of a feminist scholar of religion. First I analyze the quasi-religious function of female thinness as a prevailing cultural ideal which implicitly sanctions various forms of social domination. Then I examine how the salvation myth surrounding this ideal becomes embedded in the minds and bodies of women with eating disorders. This analysis questions the religious-secular dualism that prevents us from seeing both the religious resonances of women's struggles with their bodies, and the unmet spiritual needs to which these problems point. My paper concludes by asking what alternative images, myths, and rituals third wave feminist scholars of religion recommend for addressing the spiritual needs of young women.
A120
The Mercurial Texture of Beauty: Women Living with Disfigurement
Terri Munroe, Pacifica Graduate Institute
This presentation will focus on the integration of spirituality and disfigurement in women. The mercurial texture of feeling beautiful in conversion with a woman's concept of the divine creates a most curious pattern of reverence towards one's Self. The violation which occurs during unexpected disfigurement compared with the choice of disfigurement for beauty hold an underlying thread of cultural beauty as quality and as a content of reality. Discussion will center on "past body" and "present body" images coinciding with "past divine" and "present divine" images. A video presentation is combined with a reading of sacred text passages, interweaving research, and interviews with disfigured women.
A120
Searching for the Sacred in Illness: Feminist Theology and the Embodiment of God
Deborah Creamer, Iliff School of Theology, University of Denver
Feminist theology argues that there are no generic or disembodied theologies and that specific characteristics (gender, race, orientation, among others) matter when we do theology. However, for the most part, the focus has been on "healthy" bodies. In this paper, I will argue that reflection on and by a "sick" body is an important, previously overlooked perspective. This paper will not focus on questions of suffering, but on more basic ontological (is the body with the lump part of the body of God?) and epistemological (does the lump affect how one can know God?) questions. The goal of the paper is to explore possible resources for answering these questions within feminist theology and to challenge the field to add this voice to the chorus of diverse perspectives within feminist theology today.
A120
After Rape: Pastoral Counseling and Theological Reconstructions of Women's Agency
Kristen Leslie, Yale University
This paper is presented as a dialogue between the fields of theology and pastoral counseling concerning the effect of rape and the importance of reestablishing subjective agency in the process of recovery. In our presentation, we follow the process of healing from rape, volleying sections on practical terms of counseling and theological and theoretical work supporting each stage. Leslie will present her work on pastoral counseling with rape survivors, emphasizing the importance of meaning-making and recovery of subjective perspective and agency for enabling the healing process. Trelstad will respond concomitantly with each stage of recovery, to engage process and feminist models of thought which provide a theoretical basis for acknowledging and encouraging female agency. In the process, each disciplinary approach is corrected and strengthened in its ability to respond to women's lives.
A120
After Rape: Pastoral Counseling and Theological Reconstructions of Women's Agency
Marit Trelstad, Pacific Lutheran University
This paper is presented as a dialogue between the fields of theology and pastoral counseling concerning the effect of rape and the importance of reestablishing subjective agency in the process of recovery. In our presentation, we follow the process of healing from rape, volleying sections on practical terms of counseling and theological and theoretical work supporting each stage. Leslie will present her work on pastoral counseling with rape survivors, emphasizing the importance of meaning-making and recovery of subjective perspective and agency for enabling the healing process. Trelstad will respond concomitantly with each stage of recovery, to engage process and feminist models of thought which provide a theoretical basis for acknowledging and encouraging female agency. In the process, each disciplinary approach is corrected and strengthened in its ability to respond to women's lives.
A121
Millennial Islam in Western Kenya: Indigenous Movement or Colonial Chimera?
Cynthia Hoehler-Fatton, University of Virginia
In 1926 a Muslim movement in western Kenya proclaimed that the Last Days were at hand, and that God's deliverer would appear "to exterminate all infidels." Historians speculate that reports of millennialism were out of keeping with the "quiescent" character of Islam in the district. I maintain, however, that the so-called Mohammedan movement was consistent with broader religious developments, including the emergence of independent churches and nativist cults. Critiquing standard models of "Islamization," I argue that the movement should be seen as part of a more diffuse, but persistent undercurrent of indigenous prophetic discourse that transcended ethnic and creedal boundaries. This discourse was shaped by three broad-based modus operandi for religious change: 1) the widespread belief in migratory spiritual forces; 2) the "preaching safari" and dispersal of healing water (dawa), and 3) the establishment of autonomous religious homes or compounds.
A121
The Baha'i Faith in West Africa
Anthony A. Lee, Cypress College
The paper will discuss how the Baha'i teachings were received in English-speaking West Africa, and especially in Cameroons, as a response to the crisis of modernity within mission churches (and especially the Basil Mission).
A121
The Musama Disco Christo Church and the Indigenization of Christianity in Ghana
Kofi A. Opoku, Lafayette College
The new religious movements founded by Africans represent, on the one hand, a departure from traditional religion and culture and yet, at the same time, they represent a continuation of tradition which gives them their internal dynamism and public appeal. In the Musama Disco Christo (Army of the Cross of Christ) Church, Akan traditions are creatively blended with Christianity and "conversion" has resulted in the grounding of an indigenous church on the foundations of the very reality from which missionary endeavors sought to wean converts, and the message of Christianity has been interpreted in ways that make it palatable and digestible within the context of African life.
A121
The Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God
Emmanuel K. Twesigye, Ohio Wesleyan University
This paper examines and analyzes the highest recorded numbers of a Christian doomsday cult related mass murders and suicides ever recorded in history. These events took place in Uganda between September 1999 and March 17, 2000. On the night of March 17, 2000 the Movement's leaders locked up more than 534 of their most devoted followers in the Church in Kanungu town, south western Uganda. They sang hymns and chanted prayers for the end of the world to arrive immediately. They expected to be transported to heaven assisted by the power of the Holy Virgin Mary and the Holy Spirit. They believed that the church building was to serve them as God's new global Noah's Ark of salvation, outside of which there was no divine salvation. The Movement leaders had preached that the world and its leaders, including the clerical leadership, such as bishops and priests had become greedy, materialistic and corrupt.
A122
Eldership in Trinidad's Yoruba/Orisha and Spiritual Baptist Traditions
Tracey Hucks, Haverford College
The Yoruba/Orisha and the Spiritual/Shouter Baptists are two historically significant African-derived traditions of Trinidad and Tobago. This paper will focus on the ways in which religious elders and elder identity are negotiated within both traditions. Reflecting on the role of elders becomes an important lens for exploring how both traditions address issues of authority, orthodoxy, ritual practice, and religious continuity.
A122
Eldership in Trinidad's Yoruba/Orisha and Spiritual Baptist Traditions
Dianne Stewart, Emory University
The Yoruba/Orisha and the Spiritual/Shouter Baptists are two historically significant African-derived traditions of Trinidad and Tobago. This paper will focus on the ways in which religious elders and elder identity are negotiated within both traditions. Reflecting on the role of elders becomes an important lens for exploring how both traditions address issues of authority, orthodoxy, ritual practice, and religious continuity.
A122
Dynamics of Hoping in Aging Second Generation Japanese Americans
Peter Yuichi Clark, Emory University
Efforts to understand and enhance human aging typically have considered aging in relation to ethnicity or spirituality, but not the interaction of all three variables with one another, yielding an incomplete view of elders' religious development. This paper approaches the intersection of aging, ethnicity, and spirituality by selecting a particular American ethnic group (Japanese Americans) and discerning how the dynamic psychological and religious value of hope shapes and animates the aging processes of its older members. The primary data for this paper derive from a series of semi-structured ethnographic interviews with seventy Nisei men and women in focus groups conducted by the author in San Francisco and Chicago during 1997 and 1998. Drawing upon that data and employing an epistemological paradigm of mutually critical correlation with a comparative analysis of Christian theologies and Pure Land Buddhist thought, this paper will intentionally bridge issues of ethnicity, religious faith, and human aging.
A122
Elders Making Tradition: Elders, Authority, and Ojibwe Culture in Motion
Michael D. McNally, Harvard University
Over eight years of coming to know Ojibwe communities in Minnesota, I submit we can learn much from how they try to honor the dictum, "respect our elders." Ojibwes in the modern world do not always deliver on this to their satisfaction, but the ideal has come to anchor a distinctive religious identity and discourse and to leverage cultural criticism of a wider American norms that largely demean aging and elders' ways of knowing. While ethnographers have routinely remarked on the importance of eldership among indigenous peoples, few have explored its contextual meanings in any depth. The example of these elders has challenged me in this paper to explore more fully the traditions and practices that stand behind the Ojibwe dictum and to see how this ideal has fared, changed, and developed over the rapid changes of the past two hundred years.
A123
Balanced Destiny: An African Christian Eschatology
Michael Battle, Duke University
In African Christian spirituality there is a search for balanced destiny between the individual and community that continues beyond death. This balanced destiny is practiced in an eschatological understanding of how ancestors continually relate to those living on earth. As those who have died continue to relate to those living on earth, African Christian spirituality balances the living and the dead through the destiny of both to be the communion of saints. This African eschatology describes how individual and communal destiny are bound together.
A123
Songs of Zion: Eschaton and Blues in African-American Faith
Telford Work, Duke University
African-American faith has been accused of being "Manichaean." This presentation follows the history of African-American eschatological expectation to argue instead that black Christian eschatology offers a redemptive, orthodox and biblical frame for laments and imprecations, including the blues. The Manichaean tradition claimed fundamental discontinuity between Jesus' arrival and the prior creating and saving work of God. By contrast, the black Church experienced Israel's call, enslavement, liberation, wandering, conquest, apostasy, exile, return, and apocalyptic future as its own. Slaves read God as black, America as Egypt, and exodus as their eschatological destiny. Against this backdrop, Christian practice of the blues tradition looks imprecatory rather than Manichaean. It is a protest lodged before the very God whom the black Church both remembers and awaits as its judge and deliverer. The blues finds its proper place in the greater protological-Christological-eschatological frame of black American Christian spirituality.
A123
Beyond Racial Exclusivism in Primitivist American Eschatologies
Kurt Anders Richardson, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary
This paper is a search for antidotes against the racial exclusivism in primitivist American eschatologies. It explores the thesis that the narratives of colonial religious history become theological sources and serve eschatological function because they serve a protological function already. The paper reflects theologically upon the way in which colonial church history can function as a sacred history and source of eschatological vision for white American churches and their notions of future revival. The history of religious awakening in early America is for many Protestants their Heilsgeschichte. This is a peculiarly American vision of vera ecclesiae and whether intended or unintended, functions to exclude many equally American Christian traditions, particularly of the Black Churches. A suggestive outline of theological antidotes is offered toward the development of multi-ethnic Christian theology.
A124
Panel: The Dao of The Tao of the West: A Critical Appraisal of J. J. Clarke's The Tao of the West, Western Transformations of Taoist Thought
Norman J. Girardot, Lehigh University, Presiding
Russell Kirkland, University of Georgia
Elijah Siegler, University of California, Santa Barbara
Jonathan Herman, Georgia State University
James Miller, Queen's University, Kingston
Louis Komjathy, Boston University
Julia M. Hardy, Muhlenberg College
Jeffrey Dippmann, Central Washington University
J. J. Clarke has become one of the leading intellectual historians of the interaction between Western and Asian traditions. His earlier work on Jung and Eastern Thought and Oriental Enlightenment: The Encounter Between Asian and Western Thought provocatively laid out many of the broad preconceptions and misconceptions associated with this Orientalist legacy. In his most recent work, The Tao of the West, Clarke specifically addresses the West's encounter with and appropriation of the Daoist tradition, perhaps the most romantically charged yet still least understood of the major religious traditions. This panel will critically appraise this new work and will conclude with a response by J. J. Clarke.
A125
Ressourcement: Theological Aesthetics As Ecological Identity
Connie Lasher, Boston College, St. Joseph's College of Maine
Recent decades have witnessed a profound convergence of perspectives -- and too faciley -- deemed antagonistic. The Second Vatican Council ushered in a profound expression and expansion of Roman Catholic Theology. In addition, the publication of Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring" marked the contemporary rebirth of public environmentalism. This paper will explore the thematic convergence of Carson's vision and that of Catholic theologians of recent decades. Specifically, it will attend to the call, by John Paul II, to an ecological conversion which finds its impulse in an aesthetic attitude that is born of wonder in the presence of being. The writings of Hans Urs von Balthasar, Rowan Williams, Thomas Merton, and others in the ressourcement trajectory of Vatican II, suggest dimensions of what this conversion might entail, specifically with regard to its implications for theological anthropology.
A125
Divine Immanence: Nicholas of Cusa's Mystical Theology and the Retrieval of a "New" Model of God
Nancy Joyce Hudson, Yale University
In a time of ecological crisis, the search for a more holistic and spiritual view of the natural world has intensified. At the same time, criticism of the role of the Christian tradition in the current crisis has escalated. While some scholars would scour the Bible for undeveloped images of God as mother, lover, or friend, others grope toward the pantheism of deep ecology. However, undiscovered within he theology of Nicholas of Cusa, a medieval mystical philosopher, lies a model of God that provides a "new" way of thinking about the human relationship to the world. Based on the notion of the world as theophany, this view emphasizes divine immanence and constitutes a model for an ecologically conscious spirituality.
A125
The World Soul: The Spirituality of the School of Chartres and our Ecological Crisis Peter Ellard, Slena College
Peter Ellard, Siena College
We are killing the life systems of our planet because we are unable to recognize, on any substantial level, that the world within which we live is sacred and that our destruction of it is destruction of the sacred. It is an assault on God. We can not change our relationship with the planet until we change our understanding of God and God's relationship to the planet. The rich spirituality of the School of Chartres sits as a largely untapped source and guide for our exploration of these issues. This paper will focus on the Chartrian idea of the World Soul. We shall investigate how it can help to serve as a way of encountering God, thinking about the earth and humanity that can have wide ranging effects on the way we act at home on the planet.
A125
Tasting the Goodness of the World: Jonathan Edwards, the "sensus suavitatis," and the Splendor of God
Belden C. Lane, Saint Louis University
An important spiritual resource to recover from the Christian tradition in addressing the current ecological crisis is a new way of "seeing" the intrinsic worth of the created world. Jonathan Edwards reflected on the sensory world by starting, not with nature itself, but with the richly sensuous character of God. For him, all spiritual reality was inherently sensual, known not abstractly by the intellect, but immediately through the full range of sensory modes to which regenerate human beings are open. The Christian's knowledge of God is so multi-dimensional, hyperaesthetic, and somatosensory, that perceiving God expands one's capacity for perceiving all other sense experience. Knowing God in a supersensible way, the entire world becomes richer and more mulitfaceted. Savoring nature's beauty as a lingering taste of God's own exquisite splendor thus provides a foundation for responsible ecological action in preserving the world as a theatre of God's glory.
A126
Panel: Power and Method
M. Gail Hamner, Syracuse University, Presiding
Anne C. Klein, Rice University
Elizabeth Beall, Drew University
Clare Fischer, Graduate Theological Union
Mary McClintock Fulkerson, Duke University
This panel brings together scholars working in diverse religious traditions and disciplines to examine the power dynamics at play in the generation of theological theory and religious reflection.
A127
Mutual Correctives: Attack and Reconciliation in the Late Søren Kierkegaard and Karl Barth
Brian C. Barlow, Brenau University
SK and Karl Barth in similar yet different ways conducted programs of attack and reconciliation in their mutual attempts to be faithful to God and the true church as theologians. If SK emphasized the polemical role of attack in his authorship, then Barth dwelt on the reconciling love of the Triune God in Christ. But, SK's attack did not leave out the important place of God's reconciling and unchanging grace nor did Barth renounce the offense of God's judgment. They both employ dialectics of attack and reconciliation and in doing so in their respective ways serve as the corrective of the other. They cannot be synthesized or mediated by some third dimension of experience or reason without subverting the integrity of each. The dialectic of attack and reconciliation is only mediated in Jesus Christ to which Christian theology seeks to witness without surrendering either offense or grace.
A127
Kierkegaard and the Subversion of Christendom
Donald W. Dayton and Christian T. Collins Winn, Drew University
This paper will argue that the thesis that Kierkegaard should be viewed through the categories of Radical Protestantism is very productive for interpreting his last major work The Moment. An earlier version of this material was published under the title Attack Upon Christendom. This earlier title drew more attention to many of the themes found in Radical Protestantism. Among such themes that The Moment shares with Radical Protestantism would be Kierkegaard's positioning of "True Christianity" over against "Cultural Christianity" or "Christendom"; his appeal to "New Testament Christianity" over against "Lutheranism"; his appeal to "radical discipleship" over against "bourgeois Christian existence and family structures"; his attack on the generally assumed forms of Church life. This paper will draw out these parallels to show the proximity of Kierkegaard's position vis-a-vis Radical Protestant Traditions. The implications of this study will also lead to a reassessment of Kierkegaard's dialectical relationship to Luther.
A127
The Faiths of Others and the Works of Love: Toward a Kierkegaardian Religious Pluralism
Wanda Warren Berry, Colgate University
Today's intensified awareness of religious diversity together with the current increase in religiously motivated violence urge us to develop theological frameworks that more clearly implement the religious pluralism argued for by such thinkers as Diana Eck. Arguing against the usual assumption that "Religiousness B," with its emphasis on the Christian revelation, identifies Kierkegaard with either religious inclusivism or exclusivism, this paper will maintain that Kierkegaard's analysis of the construction of the self and other in such works as Either/Or, The Sickness unto Death, and Works of Love is compatible with Eck's theology of religious pluralism as well as Marc Gopin's pluralistic religious diplomacy. Kierkegaard's compatibility with religious pluralism--as shown in his self-consciousness about historical particularity, emphasis on equality with the other, rejection of relativism, as well as his advocacy of commitment to an Ultimacy transcending any human tradition--can clarify and strengthen a theology of religious pluralism.
A128
Panel: Reformed and Roman Catholic Responses to Dominus Iesus
R. Ward Holder, St. Anselm College, Presiding
Michael A. Fahey, Marquette University
Anna Case-Winters, McCormick Theological Seminary
S. Mark Heim, Andover Newton Theological School
James F. Thomas, Princeton Theological Seminary
The recent Vatican document, Dominus Iesus, has excited comment from representatives of several Christian theological traditions. Though part of the tumult has been about the nature of the Church, the document has been about more than simply the relationship between the Church of Rome and the various Protestant denominations. The statement speaks of the particularity and uniqueness of Jesus Christ, both for Christians in their understanding of salvation, and in their relationships to other faiths. The four panelists will engage the text of Dominus Iesus on issues such as ecclesiology, different models of salvation, and Christian work in the third world.
A129
Panel: Television As Religion and Religion As Television
Jolyon Mitchell, Edinburgh University, Presiding
There is much about television that can be (and has been) described as 'religious.' Television narratives frequently invoke explicit and implicit religious themes. The capacities of a media so embedded in daily life to invoke religious symbols and meanings should not be surprising. This panel shall investigate various areas of television as religious. Stewart Hoover explores what comes to be seen, understood, and used as 'religion' in the context of daily life with television and how this occurs. Linda Mercadante discusses how The Sopranos romanticizes ethnicity to almost sacral proportions of immigrant groups in America. Rubina Ramji explores the relationship between religion and violence amongst religious groups portrayed in the television show Oz. Sarah Schwarz explores apocalyptic drama in handling the problem of evil and the use of Antichrist imagery in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. James Thrall focuses on Roswell and the series' treatment of hybridity and religion.
A131
In Anticipation of Our Self: Toward a Contemporary Wesleyan Understanding of the Self
D. Lyle Dabney, Marquette University
This paper explores a contemporary Wesleyan understanding of the self. It consists of three parts. The first describes the contemporary dilemma of the self in the wake of the discrediting of the epistemology that was the foundation of the modern concept. The second part argues that resources can be found in the theology of John Wesley; not in his anthropology per se but rather in the implications of his way of theologizing. For Wesley's theological trajectory was concerned with defining the self not in terms of essential being or a capacity for knowing but in terms of relationship in the entirety of the lived life of the individual. The third part of the paper then develops an outline of what a Wesleyan account of the self would look like today.
A131
Wesleyan Ethics in a Post-Modern Era
Jeff Rickman, Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary
As scholars such as Edith Wyschogrod have illustrated, a postmodern context demands a revisioning of ethics. In searching for new means by which to address these challenges, John Wesley's theological ethics provide ways in which to engage postmodern thinkers in complementary and critical ways. This paper examines how Wesley offers support to the postmodern criticism of modern ethics, and presents possible solutions to their shortcomings. The paper will first outline the new evaluations of ethical interactions between the Self and the Other posited by authors such as Wyschogrod, Levinas, and Certeau. It will then examine ways in which Wesley's particular emphasis on meeting the needs of the Other seems to support these scholars' critique of modern, Enlightenment-based ethics. The final section will conclude with ways in which Wesley moves beyond the ontology of violence that undergirds most postmodern thinkers.
A131
"We" Are the Church: A Wesleyan View of the Liturgical Construction of the Self
Dean G. Blevins, Trevecca Nazarene University
An investigation into a Wesleyan approach to understanding human personality from a liturgical perspective. The study posits an approach different from current modern and postmodern understandings of the self currently grounded in social science theory. The paper challenges the traditional social construction of the self and posits a theological/liturgical construction of human personality grounded in the life of the faith community. This view resonates with John Wesley's own liturgical sensibilities while attending to new voices from the emerging Radical Orthodoxy movement. The new interpretation, the liturgically constructed self, evidences personhood as it links communal/personal themes of doxology, oblation and epiclesis.
A133
Kuiji's Invention of a Dharmapāla Lineage
Dan Lusthaus, University of Missouri, Columbia
Xuanzang (600-664), the famous Chinese Buddhist pilgrim who, after 16 years in India and Central Asia, returned to China with over 600 Indian texts, became the most prominent Buddhist of his generation throughout East Asia. When he died, two of his students -- Kuiji and Won'chuk -- competed for the right of succession. Subsequent generations have considered Kuiji the victor (and first patriarch of the Chinese Yogācāra school). Part of Kuiji's strategy involved elevating one of Xuanzang's texts, Cheng weishilun, above the rest, while claiming the exclusive right to interpret it. To legitimize his Xuanzang "lineage," he constructed a transmission story by which a commentary by Dharmapāla is conveyed to Xuanzang under unusual circumstances, and then to himself. Thus Kuiji could claim he was the recipient of the Orthodox Teachings of Nālandā University, at that time the center of Buddhist learning in the world.
A133
Weonhyo's Problem with the Two Hindrances
Charles Muller, Toyo Gakuen University
The treatise Ijangeui ("Doctrine of the Two Hindrances") by the Korean monk Weonhyo (617-686) offers by far the most extensive examination of the two hindrances to liberation (as taught in Yogācāra kleśa-āvaraṇa, jñeya-āvaraṇa) to be found in the entire Buddhist literary corpus. In the Ijangeui, Weonhyo analyzes just about every Mahāyāna canonical work available to him that treated the hindrances. The Ijangeui contains within it discussions of a wide range of issues seminal to the reception of Yogācāra in East Asia, such as the varying interpretations of the locus of affliction within the levels of consciousness and the notion of original purity. This paper suggests that Weohnyo's curiosity was stimulated by the vague, and perhaps even contradictory treatment given to the hindrances in his favorite text, the Awakening of Faith. The paper offers a close reading of the problematic passages involved, and shows how Weonhyo deals with them.
A133
A Huayan Reception of Self-Cognition
Zhihua Yao, Boston University
In this paper I explore a Huayan reception of self-cognition (svasaṃvitti) by examining the writings of some eminent Huayan monks such as Zhiyan, Fazang, Zongmi and Zixuan. I will show that yexiang or karmalakṣaṇa is a Huayan sense of self-cognition. This concept is important in the Laṇkāvatāra Sutra and the Da cheng qi xing lun. In the Huayan school, Zhiyan uses this concept when exploring his doctrine of mind; Fazang and Zixuan identify it with the concept of svasaṃvitti in the Yogācāra school; Zongmi, on the other hand, puts this concept in the very core of his cosmogonic system. The difference between the Huayan sense of karmalakṣaṇa and svasaṃvitti in the Yogācāra school is mainly due to the fact that they function differently in their own systems. One is a cosmogonic scheme, the other an epistemological structure.
A133
The Revival of Yogācāra Studies in Seventeenth-Century China and the Use of Buddhist Syllogism in Anti-Christian Polemic
Jiang Wu, Harvard University
This paper focuses on the revival of Yogācāra studies in seventeenth century China and on the interest in Hetu-vidya among monk-scholars. It traces the revival to the publication of the Eight Essential Texts of the Yogācāra School (Xiangzong bayao) in the late sixteenth century, which provided the basic textual framework for the revived study. Among these texts, Buddhist scholars were extremely interested in the Buddhist logical tradition represented by Śankarasvāmin's Nyāyapraveśa (Yinming ru zhengli lun). The most extraordinary was the application of Buddhist syllogism to real debates. Feiyin Tongrong (1593-1661), in his anti-Christian work Yuandao pixieshuo aiming at Matteo Ricci's The True Meaning of the Lord of Heaven, employed the three-membered syllogism as a powerful tool against the Jesuits. This paper adds a new dimension to our understanding of Yogācāra especially Hetu-vidya, in East Asia.
A134
Playing at Buddhism: Double Sixes on the Road to Paradise
Elizabeth G. Harrison, University of Arizona
The popularization of Buddhism that occurred during the Tokugawa period took many forms, varying by purpose, audience, cultural, sociopolitical, economic, and religious context. One such form was the generic, parcheesi-like children's board game known as sugoroku, which was adapted into a Pure Land Buddhist form entitled Shimpan Sugoroku Gokuraku Dochu Zue (Double Sixes on the Road to Paradise). Seminar participants will consider its ramifications as they play this game on a reproduction of a late Tokugawa era woodblock print game board. As we play, we will together consider questions of audience, form (the uses of images to teach; the uses of sugoroku games; how the game format structures an understanding of Buddhist teachings), and content (what, exactly, is being taught; how the game's Buddhism related to more formal, institutional Buddhism as well as to issues of doctrine, practice, and morality of the times).
A134
Playing at Buddhism: Double Sixes on the Road to Paradise
Dennis E. Lishka, University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh
The popularization of Buddhism that occurred during the Tokugawa period took many forms, varying by purpose, audience, cultural, sociopolitical, economic, and religious context. One such form was the generic, parcheesi-like children's board game known as sugoroku, which was adapted into a Pure Land Buddhist form entitled Shimpan Sugoroku Gokuraku Dochu Zue (Double Sixes on the Road to Paradise). Seminar participants will consider its ramifications as they play this game on a reproduction of a late Tokugawa era woodblock print game board. As we play, we will together consider questions of audience, form (the uses of images to teach; the uses of sugoroku games; how the game format structures an understanding of Buddhist teachings), and content (what, exactly, is being taught; how the game's Buddhism related to more formal, institutional Buddhism as well as to issues of doctrine, practice, and morality of the times).
A135
"She Walks in Poorer Garb": Fashioning Christian Identity in Tertullian's On the Apparel of Women
Anne Merideth, University of Rochester
Tertullian's treatise On the Apparel of Women is a lively pointed attack on contemporary Roman fashions. Tertullian encouraged Christian women to eschew elaborate forms of clothing, jewelry, hairstyle, and cosmetics. In this paper, I situate Tertullian's discourse of dress within the context of his general critique of Roman society. Reading his treatise On the Apparel of Women in tandem with his other works, I argue that, for Tertullian, rejection of elaborate forms of dress symbolized a rejection of Roman culture and society. Additionally, drawing on recent work in the anthropology of dress, I argue that the plain dress encouraged by Tertullian functioned not only as critical markers of Christian identity within Roman society, but also publicly represented Christian ideals of poverty, chastity, and modesty. As a minority sect within Roman society, Christian insistence on distinctive modes of dress also served as a form of resistance to Roman domination.
A135
Marking the Black Body in Elijah Muhammad's Nation of Islam
Edward E. Curtis, Trinity University
This paper breaks new methodological ground in the study of African-American Islam by emphasizing the material aspects of religious and racial identity formation within the Nation of Islam. The paper argues that the reformation of the black body was a central theme in the religious activity of the movement. Relying on a diverse array of sources, including political cartoons, I will analyze the importance of clothes, coiffure, and diet in the NOI. In so doing, I will emphasize the important role played by Islam in differentiating the religious culture of the NOI from that of other African-American religious organizations. Specifically, it will be shown that members of the movement created a religious protest movement that opposed the ideological orientations of the dominant culture while perpetuating some its most conservative material practices.
A135
Binding Heaven and Earth: The Sacred Thread in the Hindu Upanayana Ritual and the Jewish Tallit
June McDaniel, College of Charleston
In the Hindu initiatory ritual known as the upanayana, the boy learns prayers and mantras, and takes on the wearing of a sacred thread, which is understood to bind sakti, or spiritual power, within it. In Jewish tradition, a tallit or prayer shawl is worn, whose threads represent God's commandments and the presence of God in history. We shall examine how sacred power and sacred memory, worn physically, unite earthly and divine worlds.
A135
Above the Death Pits, Beneath the Flag: Israeli Youth Voyages' (Re)claiming of Holocaust Poland
Jackie Feldman, Bar Ilan University, Jordan Valley Academic College
Over the last fifteen years, youth trips to Holocaust sites in Poland have become a central Israeli national practice. These voyages are structured and performed in order to embed paradigms within students that root the State of Israel in the sanctity of the Shoah. Israel is presented as the sole heir tothe Jewish past in Poland and the only redemptive alternative to the Shoah. In group ceremonies, the Israeli flag physically unites the students arounda single symbol, while marking out impermeable boundaries of the group. The display of national symbols claims Auschwitz as a Jewish cemetery and foundation point for the State of Israel, while contesting the Polish understanding of the site as "Golgotha of the Polish nation". This prominentsymbolic display often provokes anti-Semitic slurs voiced by Polish onlookers, which confirm students' image of Poland as a dangerous place. In a period of rapidly increasing global and local forces, the Israeli Ministry of Education has sought to revive the devotion to the nation through a ritual that will unite students in a sense of common destiny as "a people that dwells alone". But the voyage's reliance on multi-sensory "experiences" and "original" landscapes betray its post-modern, and essentially fragile nature.
A136
Luce Irigaray and Orientalism
Morny Joy, University of Calgary
This paper will be an examination of Luce Irigaray's idiosyncratic appropriation of "Far-Eastern traditions" and an evaluation of how her work could be considered as part of the Orientalist mode, as it is described by J. J. Clarke (1997). In one of her most recent works, Entre Orient et Occident (1999) - as yet not translated into English - Irigaray develops more fully the growing interest she has demonstrated in what she terms Far-Eastern or Oriental traditions. More specifically, she develops her theory regarding the divine couple that she presented within a rereading of Hegel (1996), to include the Tantric relationship of gods and goddesses within the Hindu tradition. In her development of this theme, Irigaray appears to be combining a reading of the theory of yoga with the tantric tradition of sexual expression (mediated by the work of Eliade).
A136
Fashion from the East: The Emergence of French Orientalism
Michel Gardaz, University of Ottawa
The book of J.J. Clarke, Oriental Enlightenment: The Encounter Between Asian and Western Thought, London and New York, Routledge, 1997, showed that the South and East Asian religions have exercised a strong fascination over the Western minds. In a similar vein, the goal of my paper is to give an overview of the fascination of the 'East' during the period of what one may call the golden age of French orientalism. In particular, I want to describe the academic institutions such as the Collège de France, École des langues orientales vivantes, Société Asiatique, École Française d'Extrême-Orient, and the musée Guimet, that have contributed to shape the perception of South and East Asian religions in nineteenth and early twentieth century France.
A136
Dialexis: Or I Was Colored into the Landscape
Gregory Price Grieve, University of Chicago
This paper proposes "dialexis" as a interpretive approach to the study of religion. Dialexis is a dialogue not just in content (logoi) but in style (lexis). Unlike dialectics which works by confrontation, opposition and assimilation, dialexis functions as a mutagenic, using other ways of creating the world as a method of simultaneously disrupting received academic discourse and of generating alternative modes of scholarly dissemination. I construct dialexis around Maurice Merleau-Ponty's question: "how can we understand someone without sacrificing him to our logic"? Dialexis shows that the way out of the conundrum of interpretation is not a reworking of "theory" ("our" discourse), but rather a shift in the way that data ("their" discourse) is used. In religious studies, the other tends to serve the academic's imagination.
A136
The Ambivalence of Demarcation: Institution and Interpretation in the Study of Religion
C. Neal Keye, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
This paper will address the ambivalence of instituting "religion" as an autonomous and hermeneutic object of inquiry in the history of religions. Attending closely to the increasingly contested legacy of the "Chicago School," the paper will analyze this legacy in relation to what Samuel Weber calls "the ambivalence of demarcation" in the instituting processes of the humanities. Beginning with Weber's suggestion that the border delimiting a given discipline depends on an outside, one that must be foreclosed for the discipline itself to emerge, I will argue that the demarcation of "religion" in the institution is ambivalent because, in order to set it apart from that which it is not, historians must deny any dependency on what their interpretive practices ritually exclude, generating indebtedness and guilt.
A141
Eating the Heart of the Brahmin: Representations of Alterity and the Formation of Identity in Tantric Buddhist Discourse
David Gray, Princeton University
The relationships between Buddhism and competing religious traditions are often complex, characterized by mutual appropriation. This paper will investigate the formation of a Tantric Buddhist identity via the production of a non-Buddhist "other" in legendary materials describing the origination of Tantric Buddhist traditions. Making use of evidence from Indian, Chinese and Tibetan texts, it will explore the genre of "conversion myths". These myths attempt to root the process of appropriation in the distant past, and seek to legitimate it by asserting a Buddhism which transcends and dominates the source tradition. That is, Buddhist identity, which was, potentially at least, threatened by the breaching of religious boundaries, is preserved via the fabrication of a religious 'other'. Rather than reflecting actual social conditions, such legends are the record of a reflexive process wherein Buddhist identity is strengthened through the manufacture of the "other" which serves as its counterpoint.
A141
Alterity and Non-duality in the Oxherding Pictures of Chan/Zen
John C. Maraldo, University of North Florida
The denial of alterity or irreducible otherness is thought to underlie forms of discourse that are hegemonic and do not allow others to speak for themselves. Chan and Zen texts and practices that advocate selflessness seem to allow an open recognition of the other; but insofar as the same texts and practices advocate non-duality of self and other, they also seem to undermine any ultimate difference. This paper interrogates the Oxherding Pictures, a popular model commonly used to depict Chan and Zen meditative practice, to see if it suggests an alternative to the current celebration of alterity as irreducible difference, or rather a relapse to the denial of the other's voice. I examine Yanagida Seizan's historical account and Ueda Shizuteru's philosophical interpretation of the Pictures and form a contrast with their contemporary usage to identify the distinctness of Chan/Zen practice.
A141
Contingent Conjunctures in the Postcolonial Study of Buddhism, Alterity, and Difference
Ananda Abeysekara, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
This paper offers a new perspective on theorizing the altering formations of the relation between Buddhist identity and difference, that is, the emergence and submergence of altering discourses of what can and cannot count as "Buddhism" in minute contingent conjunctures. The "early" Foucauldian notions of power/discourse-generally understood in terms of "domination"--have been central to a rich genre of postcolonial and postmodern literature on the study of the colonial constructions of religion and difference. While I cultivate a suspicion of the theoretical validity of their arguments, I do not suggest that we abandon Foucault. Rather, by employing the "final" Foucauldian notions of power, understood in "productive," authorizing terms, I argue that if we are to produce a new, sound conceptualization of shifting constructions of Buddhist identity, alterity, and difference, we should locate how the questions of what can and cannot count as Buddhism are framed and debated in contingent conjunctures.
A141
American Buddhists? The Religious Identities of Theravada Buddhist Practitioners in the United States
Wendy Cadge, Princeton University
Since its introduction to the United States in the late 1960s, Theravada Buddhism has grown significantly through immigration from Theravada Buddhist countries and conversion of native born Americans. This paper describes how "immigrant" Theravada Buddhists from Thailand and American born "converts" to Theravada Buddhism understand and articulate their religious identities. How do these people identify religiously and what does this mean in terms of their specific religious beliefs and practices? Do both groups of people consider themselves "American Buddhists?" This discussion will build on Thomas Tweed's recent discussion of Buddhist adherents and sympathizers, and on sociological theories about religious identity and conversion. This paper is based on one year of participant observation in a Thai temple and a vipassana meditation center and on interviews with 35 "immigrant" Buddhists and 35 "convert" Buddhists.
A141
Fighting with History: The Ideological Battle between the Tibetan Exile Government and the Peoples' Republic of China
C. John Powers, Australian National University
Although China won the battle for control of Tibet through the use of military force in the 1960s, skirmishes are still being fought between the government of the Peoples' Republic of China and the Tibetan government-in-exile headquartered in India. History is a central weapon in the ongoing battle in the court of public opinion, a battle that highlights the sharply contrasting perspectives on history of the opposing sides. The Tibetans present themselves as homogeneous Buddhist nation dedicated to non-violence, respect for the environment, and commitment to religious practice, while the official ideology of China presents the country as a harmonious conglomeration of different peoples that have co-existed since ancient times, united in this century by a commitment to Marxist dialectical materialism. This presentation will examine the ideological presuppositions of the two sides, focusing primarily on how they reflect their respective self-understandings and notions of identity.
A142
Transforming Globalization through Local Accountability: How Community Supported Agriculture Reveals an Alternative Ethical Paradigm
Rebecca Todd Peters, Elon University
This paper will examine a globalization resistance theory which I have labeled "globalization as glocalization." This particular theory takes as its goal reconnecting globalization processes to people and the earth. It is rooted in an earthist ideology which is marked by an approach to globalization that focuses its primary attention on the interdependence and sacredness of life (human and other). An examination of one form of small scale farming know as Community Supported Agriculture will illustrate one concrete example of how a bio-regional model of agricultural production is rooted in a different ethical framework than a capitalist model of production. Specifically this paper will explore how a vision of the good life rooted in the values of mutuality, justice and sustainability can serve as an alternative to the good life implicit in other theories of globalization.
A142
Deep Economy: A Fruitful Concept in Theological Social Ethics
Hans D. Van Hoogstraten, University of Nijunegen
Concentrating on the interrelatedness of ecology, economy, and morality, 'deep economy' proposes some vital basic motives for strategies to change global capitalism. Parallel to nature-oriented deep ecology, deep economy analyses the conditions of prosperous economies. Both deep ecology and deep economy presuppose 'naturally' grown and thus fixed connections and patterns of behavior. Related to this claim, the paper questions historical core decisions concerning the interpretation of morality and nature. Many people are unaware of the catastrophic aspects of the economy's operating character. Parallel to deep psychology, the deep economy approach suggests a necessary therapy. Deep economic investigations could bring repressed economic elements to the surface of societal consciousness, including the initial refusal to face these aspects - as in psychoanalysis. Deep ecology, deep psychology, and deep economy. Once their interaction would be accepted, these concepts offer surprising possibilities for religious and ethical strategies.
A142
Can Religious and Ethical Strategies Transform Global Capitalism Without First Being Transformed by the Voices of the Poor, Especially in the Third World?
Shelini Harris, Emory University
This paper argues that the structures that keep global capitalism in place, allowing it to spread to the ends of the globe through what seems like a consensual process, are supported and upheld by ideologies and notions of rationality and ethics that only serve to reinforce the advantage and privilege of the dominant powers, to the detriment of the poor majority of the world. Religious and ethical strategies must challenge the very goals and assumptions of the notion of progress and the good life that, due to the seeming rational scientific objectivity of these ideals of global evolution and the inevitability of economic and political globalization, are sanctified not only by global capitalists, but by most mainstream ethicists and religious groups.
A142
Liberation Theology, Historical Projects and Global Capitalism: From Critique to Construction
Ivan Petrella, Harvard University
This paper tackles liberation theology's present inability to devise a viable strategy toward the transformation of global capitalism. The first part of the paper assesses liberation theology's three main responses in the 1990s (as of yet unrecognized in the North American academy) to the rise of global capitalism - "reasserting core ideas," "reformulating basic categories," and "critiquing idolatry." I argue that all three positions suffer from the inability to devise alternatives to capitalism stemming from the abandonment of a concept once central to liberation theology - the notion of a "historical project." The second part develops a new position - based on a reconceptualization of the concept of capitalism - that places the development of a new historical project at the forefront. In this way, key ethical and religious concepts such as the preferential option for the poor and liberation recover concrete content and fulfill their critical and constructive potential.
A143
Saints, Monks, and Children
Blake Leyerle, University of Notre Dame
Despite the ubiquity of children in any society, scholarship on early Christianity has largely ignored their presence. Indeed, the thoroughness with which children, as a recognizable social group, have been ignored invites comparison with other groups historically marginalized in academic study, such as women and slaves. As a modest step towards redressing such scholarly inattention, this paper assesses the information on children found in early monastic and hagiographic writings. Two methodological perspectives, borrowed from recent sociological work on childhood, inform the paper: social construction and the social structural approach. This combination of models advances our understanding of children in early monastic and hagiographic writings not only as a category of discourse, but also as a political group.
A143
On the Uses of Bad Children: Education, Misbehavior, and Christianization in the Later Roman Empire
Catherine M. Chin, Duke University
Augustine, at Confessions 1.9, famously claims that he prayed not to be beaten during his early education; Jerome, in his apology Against Rufinus, describes how as a child he had to be "dragged" to the classroom of his punitive schoolmaster. References to the beating of students are frequent in Roman, especially Latin, literature: in this paper, I will examine the usefulness of the trope of child punishment to Christianizing writers of late antiquity, who use it to contest the authority of the traditional educational curriculum, and, more broadly, to produce a distinction between supposedly "pagan" and supposedly "Christian" systems of knowledge. Specifically, I will argue that the visibility of children in Christianizing texts, as opposed to their invisibility in such school-texts as Donatus' Ars Minor, allows Christian writers to delimit the systems of power/knowledge that they wish to contest, and thus to create the possibility of parallel, "Christian" systems.
A143
The Catechetical Homilies of Cyril of Jerusalem: Baptismal Instruction Crafted in the Era of Trinitarian Controversy
Dayna Kalleres, Brown University
Cyril of Jerusalem's Catechetical homilies evidence baptismal training which consisted of the memorization of the Creed, an explanation of the scriptures, and an introduction to the Lord's prayer. However, the Jerusalem catechumens were not learning devotional practices sanguine to all Christian congregations. Similar to his ecclesial peers, Cyril attempted to contribute to the solidification of the Creed - as he defined it - and in so doing, defeat what he identified as the devil's legion: heretical Christians. In an era bedeviled by Trinitarian debates, Cyril's tool of combat was the Jerusalem Catechumenate in which he trained initiates in his rendition of Trinitarian doctrine. In this paper, I will situate Cyril's homilies in the socio-political context of the fourth century Arian controversy. Next, I will consider Cyril's pedagogy in which he marshaled spiritual warfare cosmology and the ritual speech practices of magical incantation in order to guarantee Trinitarian exactitude and fealty.
A143
Prayer in the Dark (Ages): Imagining the Night Hours in Early Christianity
Ayse Tuzlak, Syracuse University
The nature of the relationship that Christian monks had with the stars in the Middle Ages is not easily classifiable as "astronomy." The purpose of this paper will be to consider more satisfactory ways of understanding medieval Christian conceptions of time. The developing liturgy required monks and priests to perform rituals in the middle of the night, so it is through prayer and ritual that one can best understand these Christians' relationships with celestial phenomena. This paper will apply the term "associative astrology" to these relationships. I am deliberately expanding the use of the word "astrology" so that it refers, not only to predicting the future, but also to the association of certain human actions with certain positions of the stars. I seek a conceptual bridge between "science" and "myth": something which is dependent on the observation of natural phenomena, but which draws its meaning from ritual and from theology.
A143
From North African Refrigerium to Masses for the Dead
Todd E. Johnson, Loyola University, Chicago
This paper will trace the history of Christian North Africa's practice of funeral meals and food offered to the dead (refrigerium), through Augustine's pastoral response to this practice, to the formation of Augustine's theology of the Eucharist as a meal offered on behalf of the dead. These popular funeral meals were considered part of folk religion and exempt from direct ecclesial control. In actuality, these meals were more party than piety, and were problematic for Augustine. Augustine wrote in a letter to Bishop Valerius that the Church of North Africa needs to take the lead in suppressing riotous funeral meals because these practices were unique to North African Christianity. Augustine's solution was the limited or pious appropriation of this practice, not its elimination. His theological defense of this practice evolves through his lifetime and results in his understanding of the Eucharist as an offering affecting the state of the dead.
A144
The Bridge of Faith: Ethics in Isma'ili Spirituality
Tazim Kassam, Syracuse University
Isma`ilis in North America represent a unique community of diverse historical and linguistic traditions. Comprised of families who come from India, Pakistan, Kenya, Uganda, Syria, Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan, they bring together a varied literary, cultural and devotional heritage. This paper will examine the impact of these traditions on emerging Ismaili expressions of faith, ethics and spirituality in North America. In particular, it will examine how through a systematic process of research, reflection and publication under the guidance of their spiritual leader, the Aga Khan, the Ismailis are selectively reappropriating and reshaping their traditions. The paper will focus on the concepts of personal search, spiritual practice and intellectual faith and argue that the unifying feature in Ismaili traditions is that ethical precepts and action form the mystical bridge between đin and dunya.
A144
Sufi Orders on the World Wide Web: Interconnected or Isolationist?
Alan Godlas, University of Georgia
Many Sufi orders that have branches in North America have web sites. Based on both the content of those sites and the degree of their linkage to other sites, I argue that there is a relative lack of interconnectedness among these orders. I posit some reasons for this, discussing in particular its relationship to four different sources of identity: Islamic, Sufi, individual Sufi order, and individual Sufi shaykh. Ultimately, I argue that --with some notable exceptions -- a correlation can be made between the degree of importance in a particular order of identifying with one's shaykh and the degree of disconnectedness from other orders. Although rooted in earlier work on Sufi orders in North American done by Hermansen and Webb and touching on Bunt's Virtually Islamic, my paper is based largely on data from Sufi orders linked on Alan Godlas' website, "Sufism, Sufis, and Sufi Orders."
A144
Literary Productions of American Sufi Movements
Marcia Hermansen, Loyola University, Chicago
My remarks will focus on the literary productions of American Sufi Movements, with attention to determining the major genres represented and why these are selected. I am interested in Sufi "convert" literature, for example, how participants negotiate continuities with the past while speaking in a new cultural and historical idiom. The investigation is informed by theoretical perspectives on biography, convert narratives, and the difficulties of expressing mystical experience within the limitations of quotidian language. It will consider a growing body of work on the role of media in modern/post-modern articulations of normative Islam, and on the formation of Muslim identities in the North American context. Highlighted issues would include: A. Sufi vs. non-Sufi American Muslim convert literature; B. Representation of self and experience within shari`a oriented and "new Age" Sufi movements (for example, literature on dream interpretation); C. The role of translations and academic literature on Sufism within American Sufi movements.
A144
Apocalyptic Themes in New World Islamic Mysticism
David Damrel, Arizona State University
Anticipation of the recent millennium prompted apocalyptic excitement in a number of religious traditions world-wide, including the Haqqani-Naqshbandi Islamic mystical brotherhood. This Sufi order is one of the most visible and successful orders in North America. The success of this media-savvy spiritual movement in a non-Muslim milieu stems in part from the order's tradition of individual guidance and an original, persistent message of impending (now-deferred) apocalypse. The order's mystical interpretation of these end-times, grounded in Sunni eschatology, remains an important part of its teachings. My remarks broadly explore Haqqani-Naqshbandi millenarian ideas with attention to (1) the order's proselytization activity, and (2) the perceived role of the mystical leaders of the order in this apocalyptic scenario. The research is based on the order's extensive publications/web-based materials and on interviews with Haqqani-Naqshbandi leaders active in North America and employs theoretical perspectives pertaining to convert narratives and apocalyptic rhetoric.
A145
Panel: Gender, Deconstruction, and the Divine: Feminist Approaches to Philosophy of Religion
Amy M. Hollywood, Dartmouth College, Presiding
In 1998 the first book advertising itself as "a feminist philosophy of religion" appeared, followed the next year by two more works devoted to the same project. Drawing on analytic philosophy of religion, Continental philosophy, and feminist theory, the three books are collectively engaged in redrawing the boundaries of what has traditionally been taken as philosophy of religion. This session features a critical introduction to and discussion of these path-breaking works. Charles Taliaferro will review Pamela Sue Anderson's "A Feminist Philosophy of Religion: The Rationality and Myths of Religious Belief" (Blackwell 1998), Sarah Coakely will assess Grace M. Jantzen's "Becoming Divine: Towards a Feminist Philosophy of Religion" (Indiana 1999), and Victor Anderson will comment on Ellen T. Armour's "Deconstruction, Feminist Theology, and the Problem of Difference: Subverting the Race/Gender Divide" (Chicago 1999). After a response from the three authors, there will be conversation among the panelists and with the audience.
A146
Political Legitimacy, the ReichsKonkordat, and Its Tragic Consequences
Richard L. Rubenstein, University of Bridgeport
Pope Pius XII has been strongly criticized for signing the Reichskonkordat of 1933 as Papal Secretary of State. Such criticism holds Pacelli responsible for understanding National Socialism in 1933 as it turned out after 1938. When the concordat was signed, Hitler was widely recognized as the legitimate head of the German government. His regime's anti-Semitism did not disqualify its claim to legitimacy. On the contrary, anti- Semitism met with widespread approval in external political circles that mistakenly equated Judaism with Bolshevism. The right of a sovereign state to discriminate against sectors of its citizenry was not then in dispute. Moreover, many German Jews assumed that Hitler in office would move toward moderation. As a result, Jewish leadership tended to downplay the regime's anti-Semitism. Nevertheless, the signing of the Reichskondordat had tragic consequences not only for the Jews of Europe but for other groups targeted for elimination in one way or another.
A146
Protestantism and the Third Reich: The Case of Nazi Theologian Emanuel Hirsch
Constance L. Benson, City University of New York
Challenging the conventional wisdom that the Nazis were hostile to Christianity, this paper investigates the alignment between the Deutsche Christen [German Christians] and the Third Reich, by focusing on Deutsche Christen exponent Emanuel Hirsch (1888-1972). While dean of the theological faculty at Goettingen University during the Third Reich, Hirsch was also a member of the Nazi Party and S.S. reserves. Refusing to "denazify," he formally retired in 1945. Actually, his career continued, culminating in the Festschrift awarded to Hirsch in 1963. Also under consideration is the basis upon which Hirsch rose to prominence. Following political theorist Quentin Skinner, who investigates how an ideology functions within its own time and place, this study concludes that Hirsch rose to enduring "greatness," precisely to the extent that he legitimated Hitler's Germany for the Protestant community, aligned Christian teaching with the Nazi agenda, and continues to legitimize reactionary social forces in today's Germany.
A146
Concordat Thinking in the U.S. Church and Its Effect on Employment Policies
Eloise Rosenblatt, Lincoln Law School of Sacramento
Even though the Vatican never concluded a Concordat with the U.S., it is reasonable to assume that the U.S. Church absorbed a culture of church-state relations echoing pre-WWII European Concordats. A "constructive concordat" might explain ecclesial practices which separate the church's institutional life from the political sphere, and an infrastructure governed by canon law, but claiming exemption from civil law. The First Amendment protects religious freedom, but church employment policies can sever citizen's civil rights from the duties and obligations of a believer. Recently, courts in California upheld the civil rights of clergy as though they were laity, as in Bollard v. California Province of the Society of Jesus, and Conley v. Roman Catholic Archbishop of San Francisco. Where are the boundaries between church and state to be drawn if the church imagines one in light of concordat thinking, and the courts enforce another in light of the U.S. Constitution?
A147
Derrida, Undecidability, and Religious Reflection
Eric Boynton, Rice University
When considering the question of Jacques Derrida's contribution to religious reflection and the emancipatory character of religion or theology, it must be recognized that Derrida embraces a "decidedly" philosophical stance in his approach to religion. It is the task of Derrida's philosophical approach to render from determinate religious content the pure, universal structure of religion as the very idea of justice. Yet Derrida is also aware he cannot finally decide whether the determinate "religions of the book" are specific examples dependant on the originary condition of his general structure of religion, or whether determinate religious content is the enabling condition for his unveiling of that formal structure. This essay attempts to harness this inability to finally decide between the founding and founded, or between philosophy and religion, in a discussion of a novel directive for religious reflection and theological expressions of emancipation.
A147
(Trans)figurations: Derrida, Performativity, and Emancipatory Openness to the Other
Richard T. Quinn, Vanderbilt University
This paper seeks to argue for ways in which close attention to two recent texts of Derrida, Monolingualism of the Other or The Prosthesis of Origin and "Faith and Knowledge: the Two Sources of 'Religion' at the Limits of Reason Alone", could make a meaningful contribution to emancipatory theologies. Derrida's ongoing critique of language's desire for the whole will be followed to ascertain the ways in which certain emancipatory stances could be interrogated to explore their often unacknowledged commitment to strategies which frustrate the stated goal. The paper will then move to consider the positive contribution of Derrida's most recent discussions of colonialism, language, subjectivity, faith and testimony in these two works to suggest a radical emancipatory stance in the recognition of the performativity of promise and the heuristic potential for theological discourse.
A147
Pure Derrida? Deconstruction and the Possibility of Emancipatory Critique
James K. A. Smith, Loyola Marymount University
Of late, Jacques Derrida has sounded a lot like Gutiérrez, articulating an ethics of obligation with a distinctly prophetic-even messianic-heritage. So contrary to many early judgments, Derrida wants to offer a framework for the 'critique of institutions' in the spirit of emancipation. Thus he is comfortable describing deconstruction as an emancipatory project, carrying on "a spirit of Marxism which I will never be ready to renounce.a certain emancipatory and messianic affirmation, a certain experience of the promise that one can try to liberate from any dogmatics and even from any metaphysico-religious determination" (Specters, p. 89). From this, should it not be clear that Derrida can contribute to an "emancipatory" theology? The goal of this paper is to problematize that conclusion, offering a critical analysis of the way in which Derrida's metaphysics of "purity" leads to a certain disabling telos, with the haunting trajectory of simply maintaining the status quo.
A147
Derrida's Gift to Ecotheology
Mark Manolopoulos, Monash University
Thinkers like Jacques Derrida and Kevin Hart have alerted us to the impossibility of overcoming metaphysics. Nevertheless, what we can do is be vigilant towards what is severely metaphysical in thinking God and thinking God's relation to creation. These excesses may be expressed in terms of essentialism, foundationalism, neoplatonism, etc. There are two ways in which this vigilance is thought out in ecotheology today. One source of inspiration is expressed as "ecological/constructive postmodernism" (Charlene Spretnak, 1991, 1997). The other is the possibility of a Derridean ecotheology. The thinking of God's relation to creation is informed by Derrida's controversial but rigorous analysis of gift/ing. Gift/ing's aporetic conditions of freedom and identification are explored. Robyn Horner's challenging work in this area (Rethinking God as a gift, 2001) is developed ecotheologically. Derrida's gift to ecotheology is his thinking of gift/ing. This thinking provides promising ways in which ecotheology remains thoughtful, remains vigilant.
A148
C. Eric Lincoln and the Prophetic Voice of the Black Church
Mary R. Sawyer, Iowa State University
C. Eric Lincoln's life and work were concerned preeminently with the "American dilemma"-with the pervasive contradiction between America's creed and white America's code of conduct. Within that framework, much of his writing was devoted to explicating the prophetic character of black Protestantism in the United States. This paper examines Lincoln's understanding of the historic role of the Black Church as a moral critic of America's racial shortcomings from the post-bellum era through the 1980s.
A148
The American Dilemma Revisited: The Legacy of C. Eric Lincoln
J. Deotis Roberts, Duke University
C. Eric Lincoln was a gifted and dedicated religious scholar and church person. I have selected the title of "American Dilemma" as an umbrella concept to get into Lincoln's life and thought because "racism" is a reality that presents a "dilemma" in our society. My paper will focus on three dimensions of Lincoln's life. First, his analysis and interpretation of American racism, informed by his existential experience of racism, and sociological and historical analyses. Second, while situated within the theological circle of Christian thought and experience, he expanded the discourse about racism beyond the religious context of the Christian church through his scholarship on Black Muslims. Finally, I will examine the literary gifts for communication which Lincoln brought to his important study of racism. These works reveal his continuing passion for social justice and reconciliation in view of his concern about the dilemma of race.
A148
Looking Blackward: C. Eric Lincoln, Black Nationalism, Black Identity, and Black Religiosity
Ralph Watkins, Augusta State University
C. Eric Lincoln's ground breaking work The Black Muslims in America (1961) set the stage for the discussion of modern black nationalism in relationship to black religiosity and black identity for the next thirty years. Lincoln's definition of black nationalism claims that it is more than an idea but rather it is a way of life that informs every fabric of life for those who subscribe to its tenets. This paper brings analyzes how Lincoln's definition of black nationalism was actualized in the black community as a medium for the quest of black identity and nation building. Lincoln's text is discussed within a larger scholarly discourse including the subsequent work of Albert Cleage, Black Christian Nationalism and works on the black power movement.
A149
Revisioning the Guru: From Vedic Poet-Seer to Bhakti Poet-Saint
Suzanne Stillman, University of California, Santa Barbara
Within bhakti (devotional) movements that flourished in the Tamil-speaking regions of South India during the sixth to ninth centuries, a new form of guru emerges: the poet-saint, known for exemplary devotion to the deity in songs of adoration. Through the poetry and discourses of the guru, as well as narratives about the guru's life, the devotional community conceptualized the guru's authority as both traditional and innovative. This paper examines the ways in which bhakti constructions of the guru as poet-saint appropriate and reconfigure traditional Vedic notions of enlightened ṛṣis (seers) as paradigmatic teachers whose cognitions of reality were expressed in the form of recited hymns. In the shift from the Vedic poet-seer to the bhakti poet-saint, the spiritual authority of the guru is recast through the lens of devotion to a personal deity. The paper concludes with comparative reflections concerning the role of the teacher in bhakti and Ḥasidic traditions.
A149
Grace of God in the Flesh: The Guru in the Caitanyite Vaiṣṇava Tradition
Graham M. Schweig, Christopher Newport University
The paper examines certain themes concerning human and divine dimensions of the guru in Vaiṣṇava bhakti traditions that present comparative resonances with the Tzaddik in Ḥasidic traditions: the various types of guru; ontological and existential functions of the guru; the changing roles of caste and gender for the guru; divine origins and the power of succession and lineage in the guru-parampara; the authority and special powers of the guru; the guru as God's grace and the grace of the guru; and the guru as divine incarnation. The paper argues that from the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries within the Caitanyaite Vaiṣṇava tradition, the identity of the guru gradually evolves into a transparent embodiment of the divinity. The argument is substantiated with reference to the works of major Vaiṣṇava theologians of the Caitanya school-Jīva, Krishnadās, and Visvanātha-as well as to certain key passages of sacred texts from the wider Hindu context.
A149
Theorizing the Tzaddik in Ḥasidic Traditions:Reflections from Rabbi Naḥman of Braslav
Alon Goshen-Gottstein, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Rabbi Naḥman of Braslav is at once an heir to the riches of Kabbalah and a profoundly original thinker, whose reflections are based on powerful personal experience. There is perhaps no other figure in the history of Jewish thought who has elevated to such a high degree the theory of the Tzaddik in the understanding of the workings of the spiritual life. Even within the Ḥasidic worldview, R. Naḥman's understanding of the Tzaddik is unique. In R. Naḥman's view the Tzaddik possesses the energy of the Shekhinah, the divine presence, as a vital spiritual force. It is this understanding of the special power that vitalizes the spiritual life of the Tzaddik that distinguishes R. Naḥman's perspective from other understandings of the Tzaddik. While focusing primarily on the Braslav sources, the paper will also consider significant parallels in Hindu understandings of the guru and the energy with which he works.
A149
The Tzaddik: A Comparative Approach to Innovation and Genius
Gabriel Levy, University of California, Santa Barbara
A special type of leader emerged within the Ḥasidic tradition in the eighteenth- and nineteenth-centuries. The Tzaddik was both a mystic bound to God and a man among the people, mediating between an intense individualism and a collective spirit. This paper argues that the phenomenon of the Tzaddik fits into a broader cross-cultural theory about genius. The first part lays out the social, historical, and structural contexts for the emergence of the concept of the Tzaddik in the Ḥasidic tradition, examining the Tzaddik as part of a larger holistic system. The second part explores philosophical understandings of leadership, change, innovation, and genius from within the Ḥasidic tradition. The third part attempts to formulate a new theory of genius, change, and innovation to be applied cross-culturally, thus providing a theoretical framework through which we can compare the Ḥasidic Tzaddik to the Hindu guru as part of a larger human system.
A150
Panel: To Be of Use: The Role of Religious Scholars in Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Activism
Elizabeth A. Say, California State University, Northridge,
Presiding
Ghazala Anwar, University of Cantebury
Mari E. Castellanos, Coral Gables Congregational Church, FL
Emily Erwin Culpepper, University of Redlands
Carter Heyward, Episcopal Divinity School
Mary E. Hunt, Women's Alliance for Theology, Ethics, and Ritual
Janet R. Jakobsen, Barnard College, Responding
The rise of anti-gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender legislation and the upsurge in negative moves against glbt people on the part of religious organizations come at a time of unprecedented scholarship on same-sex love in the U.S. and abroad. However, much of the organizing is done as if the myriad books, articles and journals did not exist. How can scholars in religion use our considerable resources and talents in the service of the movement? How can the movement inform our scholarship? This panel of lesbian feminist activists will explore these issues and suggest strategies. Of special concern will be work done beyond the confines of mainstream religious groups. Equally important will be ways to deal with religiously fueled homohatred on campuses where students need concrete tools for responding to homophobic claims. Another strategic concern is how to respond to the understandable antipathy of some gay/lesbian/bisexual and transgender activists toward religion.
A151
Pollution and Danger in Cross-Cultural Perspective
John C. Raines, Temple University
In her important book Purity and Danger, Mary Douglass examines the washing rituals found everywhere in world religions. She concludes that "where there is dirt there is order." Naming difference creates boundaries, and what has borders is ordered. What Douglass did not examine is that these washing rituals are almost everywhere male rituals from which women are more or less rigorously excluded. Why? what are we men trying to wash off? In these same scriptures women's bodies are often inscribed as dangerous, especially to men engaged in worship. The trope used to inscribe this danger is "pollution." Why pollution? Our fear of death is what we males are trying to wash off, separating dying life from life that never dies. Documentation to that effect will be presented from a wide variety of world religions. But also attention will be given to resistance to and liberation from such practices.
A151
Contraception and Control in Cross-Cultural Perspective
Daniel C. Maguire, Marquette University
Most of the world's religions were spawned at a time when depopulation, not overpopulation was the issue. Understandably there is a strong pro-natalist thrust in these religions. However, as shown in my book "Sacred Choices: The Right to Contraception and Abortion in Ten World Religions" (Fortress, June 2001), those religions also saw that the very fertility that is a blessing can also be a curse and the control of fertility came to be seen as a necessary virtue.
A151
Islam and the Construction of Male Desire
Farid Esack, Auburn Theological Seminary, New York
This paper examines the Qur'anic portrayal of masculinity and male desire. This is done by reflecting on the nature of the text ('gendered' vs. 'gender neutral') and its a) 'Author' b) its primary audience and c) it's context. The content of the text is explored to examine how male desire is constructed with reference to the qur'anic view of humankind, the nature of gender relations, and eschatology. The idea that the Qur'an accords pre-eminence to male desire (as distinct from, or at the expense of, female-desire) and that this desire is reflected in the creation myth's assumption of the secondary nature of women, is examined. Finally, the impact of the pre-eminence of male desire is explored in relation to notions of a sacralised male authority and to marital hierarchy.
A151
Christianity and the Construction of Male Desire
Marvin M. Ellison, Bangor Theological Seminary
The current "gay marriage" controversy is due both to the ongoing cultural divide about the morality of same-sex love and sexual desire and to the revered and conflicted cultural status that clings to the (heterosexual) institution of marriage itself. Same-sex marriage opponents fear that including gay and lesbian couples will alter marriage beyond recognition because gay love and sex are different from and inferior to heterosexual love and sex. Proponents of same-sex marriage seek access to civil (and religious) marriage to affirm the humanity of gay people and publicly honor and protect the integrity of same-sex love. However, making gayness acceptable requires "de-sexualizing" homosexuality and focusing on gay love as morally equivalent to heterosexual love. I argue for an alternative perspective that incorporates the wisdom of both the "difference" and "parity" paradigms.
A152
Semio-Erotics: Augustine and Post-Metaphysical Theology
Anthony D. Baker, University of Virginia
In the past decade, Augustine has been the subject of numerous books and essays from within the field of postmodern Continental philosophy of religion, arguing against the former trend that saw him as the champion of a "metaphysics of presence," and claiming him instead as a father of postmodernity. Underlining themes of absence, mystery, and flux, these commentaries offer an Augustine who boldly meets the challenges of a truly post-metaphysical theology. This essay argues that Augustine is ill-wed with such postmodern commentators. His theology is irreducibly resistant to post-theological (or even post-metaphysical) criteria, and a reading of him through such filters can only, in the end, be an impoverished reading. In considering the separate but inter-related loci of semiotics, intentionality, and the metaphysics of the gift, it is demonstrated that Augustine out-critiques the Heideggerian tradition itself, and renders a theology of participation and transcendence that exceeds the latter's limitations.
A152
Augustine's "Doctrine" of Jews as Witness in History and Scholarship
Paula Fredriksen, Boston University
Orthodoxy's claim to Jewish scripture made the meaning both of biblical history and continuing Jewish presence a theological problem for the Church. The idea of the Jew as testes veritatis represents one response to this problem. In this paper, after a review of Origen and Eusebius, I shall focus on Augustine's c. Faustum, de civitate Dei, and adversus Iudaeos to unpack the broader scope of his ideas of the Jews as witness. Alone of all the non-Catholic populations in antiquity, the Jews, Augustine insisted, had a divine right of religious difference; and it was precisely in their maintenance of this religious difference that this population filled its role as a "witness" to the Church. In conclusion I will comment on the ways that Augustine's argument was interpreted, first, within pseudonymous anti-Jewish works that grew in the wake of his own writings; and, second, by modern scholars Marcel Simon, Bernhard Blumenkranz.
A152
Schleiermacher the Augustinian?
Jeffrey Hensley, Virginia Theological Seminary
Since publication of John Hick's influential Evil and the God of Love (1966; rev. ed., 1977), it has been commonplace to identify Schleiermacher as an "Irenaean" theologian critical of Augustinian views of sin and the nature of humanity's Fall. Schleiermacher, it is purported, radically breaks with Augustine's biological metaphors of sin as a contagion or genetic inheritance and advocates an Irenaean, developmental understanding of sin and humanity's Fall as divinely oriented toward the completion of creation. This paper seeks to nuance this account of Schleiermacher's relation to Augustine by closely examining the ways in which Schleiermacher reads Augustine in his seminal theological work The Christian Faith. Specifically, the paper argues that while Schleiermacher is indeed critical of Augustine's account of sin and humanity's Fall, he is nevertheless self-consciously offering an internal critique that seeks to transpose (and thereby perpetuate) the Augustinian tradition into an idiom more viable in the modern world.
A152
Jonathan Edwards on the Natural and Supernatural Virtues
Stephen A. Wilson, Stanford University
The interpretation of Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) continues to be subject to a distressing scholarly disjunction. Historians and theologians have tended to focus on the "Augustinianism" of either Edwards's Puritan heritage or his "evangelical" resistance to "liberal" Protestantism. Ethicists have tended to focus on the "Pelagian" supposition that "true virtue" is accessible by human effort autonomous from God. Letting either of the above half-truths stand deprives the observers of Augustinianism of what is perhaps its preeminent eighteenth-century example. The standard "Augustinian" reading withholds from historians and theologians a unique instantiation of the transition from Renaissance to Reformation religious thought to the Enlightenment. The standard "Pelagian" reading disconnects ethicists from that portion of the virtue tradition which emphasizes the dependence of human flourishing on extra-agential causes. This paper seeks to capture something of Edwards's distinctive synthesis by sketching out his intricate interweaving of the natural and supernatural virtues.
A153
The Undeveloped Empiricism of Early Pentecostal Theology in Dialogue with D.C. Macintosh and Donald L. Gelpi
Douglas Jacobsen, Messiah College
Pentecostalism has rarely been identified with the empirical tradition of American theology. In fact, Pentecostalism has frequently been portrayed as a form of naive fideism mixed with fundamentalist dogmatism. This paper contests that perception, describing early Pentecostalism as a form of popular religious empiricism. Early Pentecostals were creative thinkers willing to discard or rethink a host of historically orthodox Christian ideas in light of their own empirical analyses of faith and life. This orientation did not flourish for long (largely being discarded by the 1930s), but recently Pentecostals have begun the task of reclaiming their own voice and rediscovering their own empirical-informed sense of theology. This paper will show that the popular empiricism of early Pentecostalism was compatible with the academically-informed empiricism of theologians like D. C. MacIntosh, and will then raise the question of how early Pentecostal empiricism might be constructively reclaimed for today.
A153
Religious Belief Without Rational or Esperiential Foundations: James and Heidegger Compared and Appropriated
James Kraft, Graduate Theological Union
In this paper I shall try to convince you of the following proposition: religious belief without rational or experiential foundations can be appealing. The paper will propose a type of religious belief based roughly on what William James in "The Will to Believe" calls "voluntarily adopted faith" where the practical value of a religious belief is a central consideration. Though neither William James nor Martin Heidegger would accept our proposal outright, both are sympathetic to some of its aspects. The selective comparison and appropriation of their thought will help clarify and temper our proposal so that the conditions under which our proposal can be appealing will become evident. Using specific examples it is concluded that as the link between a desired value (such as human rights or a healthy environment) and the acceptance of religious belief becomes stronger, so too does the appeal of our proposal.
A154
Land As Lover: Mormon Eco-Eroticism and Planetary Polyamory in the Work of Terry Tempest Williams
Sarah M. Taylor, Northwestern University
This paper will explore William's mystical vision of 'body as landscape' and `landscape as lover' while identifying the inherent conflicts and struggles Williams faces between what she identifies as the 'gifts and the burdens' of her Mormon upbringing. How indeed is William's desert mysticism simultaneously a heretical challenge to Mormon culture and yet, ironically, very much a product of it? How des she reconcile the 'truth' of her immediate experiences with nature and her disagreements and critiques of her religious background with her radical decision to 'stay in place' and honor the roots of her heritage?
A154
A Sense of Place and the Place of the Wild: Terry Tempest Williams and the Erotics of Place
Mark S. Cladis, Vassar College
Terry Tempest William's "erotics of place" entails two radical acts: "staying home" and embracing Pan, the god of "wild nature." The erotics of place tensely speaks the language of the familiar and the unknown, the tame and the wild. Cultivating a sense of place is necessary to experience the love and risk that Williams associates with the erotics of place. Yet the erotics of place requires that, in the midst of the familiar, we remain open to Pan--to the wild, the unfamiliar, and the spontaneous. Ultimately, Williams would agree with Aldo Leopold that "too much safety yields only danger in the long run." I explore "the erotics of place" in four sections: the importance of a sense of place; the unsettling role of Pan, the wild; the seductive power of the pan-sexual landscape; and the erotics of place as displacing our need to exercise radical control.
A154
Refuge or Refugee: Teaching Terry Tempest William's Refuge as a Case Study in Social, Cultural, and Ecological Location in Theology and Ethics
Ann M. Pederson, Augustana College
In Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place, Terry Tempest Williams maps the intersections of her family's social, cultural-religious, and ecological locations and dislocations with the history of the land they inhabit. The result is a profound meditation on living and dying, natural and unnatural changes to landscapes and the lives they contain, and spiritual and political resistance and renewal in the face of processes of social and ecological destruction. The authors use Williams' Refuge in courses on theology, ethics, and health care to aid students in deepening their own awareness of the intersection of social, cultural and ecological factors in where and how we are located in society and on the land, and what difference this makes in how we reflect theologically and develop our sense of ethics.
A154
Refuge of Refugee: Teaching Terry Tempest Williams' Refuge As a Case Study in Social, Cultural, and Theological Location
Daniel T. Spencer, Drake University
In Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place, Terry Tempest Williams maps the intersections of her family's social, cultural-religious, and ecological locations and dislocations with the history of the land they inhabit. The result is a profound meditation on living and dying, natural and unnatural changes to landscapes and the lives they contain, and spiritual and political resistance and renewal in the face of processes of social and ecological destruction. The authors use Williams' Refuge in courses on theology, ethics, and health care to aid students in deepening their own awareness of the intersection of social, cultural and ecological factors in where and how we are located in society and on the land, and what difference this makes in how we reflect theologically and develop our sense of ethics.
A154
The Rape of the Lake: A Study of the Spiritual and Environmental History of Lake Pergusa, Sicily
Marquerite Rigoglioso, California Institute of Integral Studies
This paper will discuss the remarkable history of Lake Pergusa, a unique body of water located at the center of Sicily that was identified as the mythological spot where Persephone was abducted into the underworld. It will bring to light the role of this lake in the Greek religion of Demeter/Persephone and in earlier local cults. Exploring the lake's unusual natural characteristics, the paper will discuss why Pergusa was looked upon in the archaic era as a sacred locale. In particular, it will demonstrate the lake's association with the feminine and female deities from the earliest times. Further, the study will explore the cultural and environmental history of Lake Pergusa, identifying its current devastation at the hands of the Mafia as a living metaphor for the rape of Persephone/ the Feminine/ Nature. Finally, the paper will chronicle the author's own environmental work to help save and restore the lake.
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An Ecoreligious Perspective in a Secularized Nordic Context
Maria Jansdotter, Karlstad University
In spite of Swedish secularity, ecoreligious perspectives are strong. Practical eco-consciousness is high in Sweden, and national legislation and consumer demand seem to correspond with ethical values including biocentric or ecocentric perspectives on humans and nature. However, there is reason to believe that ethical systems of value need some kind of guarantor. An awareness of the spiritual dimension in life may function as an ethical guarantor. Ecologically concerned theologians have often chosen to develop religious concept that emphasize God as immanent spirit. Swedish research show that such concepts of God are frequently encountered among Swedes, and that these people are overrepresented among those articulating concern about environmental issues. This may be evidence to the eco-theological thesis that a concept of God as immanent spirit is a better guarantee for maintaining biocentric or ecocentric values than is a traditional concept of a personal God.
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Gender and Poverty in Drought-stricken Rajasthan: Seeking the Dying Wisdom
Mary Grey, Sarum College, University of Wales
The village people of rural Rajasthan, India, are experiencing severe drought - perhaps the worst in their history. The NGO Wells for India (of which I am co-founder), works in partnership with Gandhian groups in three different regions of the Rajasthan desert. Since water is bound up closely with the lives of women, the issue of gender empowerment of women and the related issues of social change are at the heart of our work. Women searching for a well with a trickle of water haunt the landscape of Rajasthan. The Government of Rajasthan admits that the position of its women "is an international issue". Hunger is their everyday existential reality. The proposal looks first at the issue of violence against women in Rajasthan in the context of the tension expressed by Martha Nussbaum, between whether one takes sexual violence or economic dependency as the primary category of oppression.
A155
Preaching Women: Indigenous Wisdom within Theology
Sylvia Marcos, Claremont Graduate University
This presentation explores present day struggles of "teologia India" in the southern state of Chiapas, Mexico. How does this new theological configuration impact 'zapatista' women who are also devout Catholics and often involved in the pastoral work of the diocese of San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas? The presentation will deal with the ambiguous and tension-ridden interactions between Catholic pastoral work and the indigenous Mayan myths and rituals, as well as with the predicaments faced by cathecists in the region who are committed to an evangelical option for the poor, while trying to incorporate a whole world of symbols and meanings that are inscribed in the Mayan beliefs and liturgies. How are these indigenous Mayan symbolic systems interacting and/or fusing with the Catholic symbols? How is this new configuration implementing a specific space for women's participation?
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Dreaming and Dressing the Virgin: The Power of Clothes in the Andean Catholic Imagination
Lisa Swanson Madera, Emory University
In the Dominican basilica of Banos, Ecuador, a museum houses an extensive collection of gifts to the miraculous Virgen del Rosario de Agua Santa de Banos. In the room called La Sala de La Virgen, large glass cases enclose gorgeous hand made gowns and fancy shoes that devotees have brought to the Virgin. The gowns combine rich fabrics, intricate embroidery and exuberant quantities of sequins, gold ribbon and beaded pearls. The Virgin's extraordinary wardrobe emerges directly out of her miraculous intervention in devotee's lives, for this Virgin appears in dreams to women and details the kinds of dresses she wants made for her. Known for her demanding taste, the Virgin specifies colors, fabrics and designs. This paper traces the historical meaning of ceremonial clothing in the pre-Colombian Andes and shows how the contemporary devotional practices of dressing the Virgin maintains ancient ritual customs indigenous to this region.
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Religious Reform in El Barrio: The Virgin of the Americas and Community Identity in South Phoenix
Kristy Nabhan-Warren, Berea College
This paper analyzes the Latino/a Catholic evangelizing organization Mary's Ministries. This group, founded in South Phoenix, Arizona in 1995, has its origins in Estela Ruiz's visionary encounters with the Virgin of the Americas. The messages that she claims to have received from this Virgin between 1988 and 1998 serve as the foundation for Mary's Ministries' religious and social reform efforts that began in a barrio, and have since been implemented throughout the Americas. I will trace how this Marian phenomenon moved from the personal to the familial, then social, context, and how it is currently attempting to provide alternative and syncretic religious identities for Latinos/as. Through the language and dynamics of its faith courses and in the material culture of its urban shrine, Mary's Ministries offers a Catholic, evangelical, Marian community created by and for Latino/as.
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La Morenita on Skis: The Karelian Mary and Her Latin American Sisters
Elina Vuola, University of Helsinki
The possibilities of a feminist liberation Mariology needs to be based on the historical Mary, on the one hand, and on the historical, everyday experiences of her by ordinary people, especially women, in different parts of the world. I will look at how and why women in different cultural settings, and in different times, approach Mary in their everyday experiences of being women in patriarchal societies and religious traditions. I argue that there is a living tradition of devotion to a Mary with a very human face who comes close to people (again, especially women) on their most intimate and real experiences. My examples, as incompatible as they may appear, are temporally and geographically distant from each other: the Virgin Mary of Finnish-Russian Orthodox Karelia of the 19th century folk poetry and the contemporary Latin American popular Madonnas.
A157
Schleiermacher, Shaftesbury, and the German Enlightenment
Ernest Boyer, Harvard University
Dilthey's claim that Shaftesbury should be placed alongside Spinoza as one of the great influences on Schleiermacher's thought is puzzling, first, because Dilthey himself offers no concrete evidence in its support and, second, because what little Schleiermacher has say about Shaftesbury is almost dismissive. On the other hand, Shaftesbury's Characteristics anticipate the Reden in all its major themes. The solution seems to lie both in Shaftesbury's position as a major figure in 18th century Germany and in how Schleiermacher was introduced to him first probably by Johann Eberhard, his teacher at the University of Halle and a follower of Shaftesbury, then, later, through Johann Spalding, a disciple and early translator of Shaftesbury, who became something of a role model for Schleiermacher in the years immediately preceding the Reden.
A157
Schleiermacher and Zinzendorf on Individuality, Community, and Religious Experience
Martin Leiner, Neuchatel, Switzerland
On April 30th 1802, in his famous letter to Georg Reimer, Schleiermacher declared "once again to have become a Herrnhuter, but of a higher order". In the same letter Schleiermacher talks about the mystical predisposition that has been awakened in him during his time in Gnadenfrei in spring 1783. This mystical predisposition "was confirmed even through all the storms of skepticism". The community of Herrnhut was deeply molded by Nikolaus Graf Zinzendorf (1700-1760), the organiser of the Moravian groups. This first great christocentric theologian (K.Barth) of the Western Church originally developed ideas more commonly attributed to thinkers like Herder, Goethe or Schleiermacher concerning individuality, community, religious experience, pedagogy, organic development, etc. The first part of my presentation compares elements of Zinzendorf's thinking to those of Schleiermacher. Zinzendorf's thinking concerning individual organic development, stressing experience and feeling rather than the pure rationalism emphasized by the enlightenment, strongly influenced Schleiermacher.
A157
The Defense of Revealed Christianity through an Appeal to Experience in Hume, Lessing, and Schleiermacher
Peter De Mey, Catholic University of Leuven
Although Schleiermacher may in his fifth discourse have given the coup de grâce to the dream of natural religion, other eighteenth-century philosophers have rediscovered the importance of positive religious traditions before him. In this paper I deal with two predecessors of Schleiermacher, Hume and Lessing, who have attempted in some of their works to overcome both the deistic belief in the sufficiency of natural religion and the unsatisfactory defence of Christianity in contemporary anti-deist apologetics. Their appeal to the experience of the believer as criterion for truth, makes them allies of Schleiermacher. With regard to Hume, I will especially comment upon the fideistic passages in Of Miracles and in part XII of his Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion. With regard to Lessing, attention will be paid to the concept of "internal truth" (innere Wahrheit) which he introduced in the critical annotations he made to the publication of the fragments of Reimarus.
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Schleiermacher and Kant on the Role of Experience in Ethics
Kelly Leigh Brotzman, University of Chicago
By way of a comparison with Kant, who stands as the paradigmatic "non-experientialist" in ethics, this paper asserts that Schleiermacher's ethics can rightfully be said to bear the same "experiential" stamp which so characteristically marks his dogmatics. Specifically, experience is shown to play a determinative role in Schleiermacher's philosophical and theological ethics at three levels: motivational, normative-deliberative, and axiological-intentional. Focused attention is given to the concept of the summum bonum, which for Kant remains unattainable and conceptually impossible within the confines of experiential awareness and therefore requires the postulates of God and immortality to secure it as the necessary object of the good will. For Schleiermacher, however, the concepts of God and the highest good are ultimately linked as the supreme object of creaturely thought and desire and the cosmic telos of all being. This end is both a possible and an actual object of experience for all persons.
A158
Mormons, Violence, and Democracy in Nineteenth Century America
Patrick Q. Mason, University of Notre Dame
In both scholarly studies and popular notions of early anti-Mormon violence, the term "religious persecution" has often been employed. However, this category is problematic, as it implies that the violence either focused on or was directly caused by a response to Mormon theology. Religious belief was at the root of Mormon practices that induced violence, but not at the root of anti-Mormon violence itself. Or in other words, anti-Mormon violence was not so much "religious persecution" as it was persecution of a perceived "other" who lived under a very different, much more holistic and integrated definition of "religion." This paper will use early Mormonism as a case study in exploring how communities ostensibly dedicated to natural rights and freedom of religion legitimated organized collective violence against a religious group, and how that same religious group justified its violent response through a simultaneous appeal to republicanism and religion.
A158
Rapists and Arsonists, Witches and Infanticides: Social and Theological Constructions of Criminality in Colonial New England
Scott D. Seay, Vanderbilt University
This study utilizes the insights of both neo-Marxist radical criminology and Chicago School positivist criminology to investigate the social and theological construction of criminality in colonial New England. Specifically, the study draws upon statistical realities, theological assumptions and literary representations of criminal identity and criminal behavior to suggest that the colonial New England justice system criminalized at least two discrete social groups: young African-American men and poor single women. Social and theological images of these marginalized groups, along with the public execution of disproportionate numbers of African-American and women criminals functioned in this context as an instrument of social control. The study intends also to raise larger questions regarding the interdependence of religion, cultural authority and criminal justice in America.
A158
Jesus Used the Lash: Ministers and the KKK's 'Moral'Vigilantism, 1920-1930
Glenn Michael Zuber, Indiana University, Bloomington
Using a famous 1921 KKK whipping of an alleged abortion doctor in Texas as a point of departure, this paper argues that Protestant ideas and ministers significantly shaped the Klu Klux Klan's militant crusade for community morality. The revived KKK of the 1920s was a religious nationalistic movement of men, women and children that used eloquent ministers, violence, and war-tinged Protestant symbols to defend a "threatened" Anglo-Saxon nation. The revived Klan's agenda for restructuring Protestantism, education and public morality was far more comprehensive than the agenda of the original Klu Klux Klan of the 1860s, a men's vigilante group organized to attack freed blacks in the South. Claiming to enforce both statutory and divine law, KKK chapters gained a measure of legitimacy for their violence by borrowing ideas and practices from local and wartime vigilante traditions, as well as Protestant social ethics (Muscular Christianity, for example).
A159
Panel: Asian Religions and Globalization: Responses to Western/Christian Perspectives
Michiko Yusa, Western Washington University, Presiding
Max L. Stackhouse, Princeton Theological Seminary
Hak Joon Lee, Princeton Theological Seminary
Young Chan Ro, George Mason University
Craig A. Burgdoff, Syracuse University
Steven Heine, Florida International University
Robert C. Neville, Boston University, Responding
The panel will focus on the significance and implications involved in the process of globalization in contemporary East Asia, and examine some of the theses presented in the three volume-series, God and Globalization (Trinity Press International, 2000 & 2001), edited by Max L. Stackhouse. Stackhouse will raise key issues concerning the role of the Judeo-Christian tradition in the globalization process, as well as concerning the possibility of other religious traditions providing moral and spiritual guidance to the emerging and highly pluralistic global civil society. The Falun Gong phenomenon in China and Confucian Family and Global Capitalism will present concrete challenges and further data to the theoretical issues at hand. Other panelists will examine, respond, and reflect on the basic assumptions, the issues, and the implications involved in this panel presentation.
A160
The Heavenly Secrets of Genesis according to Pico della Mirandola and Emanuel Swedenborg: A Comparative Analysis
Jane Williams-Hogan, Bryn Athyn College of the New Church
Scholars have often linked Emanuel Swedenborg's (1688-1772) religious writings to the "western esoteric tradition." Professor Inge Jonsson of Stockholm, for example, in his book Visionary Scientist (West Chester:PA: Swedenborg Foundation Publishers, 1999) suggests that no study of Swedenborg as an exegete has ever been made, thus making it difficult to determine what influences his theological environment might have had. Swedenborg himself contributes to this problem because references in his religious writings are primarily to his other religious works or to the Old and New Testaments. This question might more readily be addressed if it were possible to compare one of Swedenborg's exegetical works to an author who has interpreted the same text. The Heptaplus (1489; NY: Philosophical Library, Inc., 1977) by Pico della Mirandola (1463-1494) meets this criterion. The Heptaplus is an interpretation of the first twenty-seven verses of Genesis.
A160
Daniel Andreev and His Place in Western Esotericism: Some Implications for Clarifying the Relationship between Esotericism and the Apocalyptic Genre
Rouslan Elistratov, Claremont Graduate University
The primary goal is to introduce the North American academic community to Daniel Andreev, a largely unknown but remarkable figure in the 20th century Russian esotericism. The second goal is to propose an approach to his system that involves an interdisciplinary application of the categories developed in the areas of esoteric and apocalyptic studies by Antoine Faivre and John Collins respectively. I will show that while embodying four distinctive characteristics of esotericism delineated by Faivre, Andreev's worldview stands out from most currents traditionally studied under the rubric of esotericism by virtue of highly pronounced apocalyptic elements in its cosmology and eschatology. In consequence, I will conclude that Andreev's work exemplifies a coherent fusion of the two forms of thought, thereby suggesting that esotericism and the apocalyptic genre, as defined by Faivre and Collins, can be positively related.
A160
Esotericism and Tradition according to René Guénon (1886-1951): The Function of the Writer
Jean-Pierre Laurant, Centre National de la Recherche
To whom and why did Guénon write? The answers to this question are located in his books and articles, his correspondence, and in the reactions of his readers. Guénon affirmed on several occasions that writing was an intellectual function-a mission-but many of his readers and friends, both between the period 1930-1950 as well as today, considered him to be a spiritual master, or in the words of Coomaraswamy, a guru. Although it may seem permissible to draw a distinction between spiritual and intellectual life in the field of religion (see for example the Mexican nun Sor Juana Ines de La Cruz) on the one hand and in the field of esotericism on the other hand, it still remains that such a distinction raises interesting issues in the case of Guénon's thought and writings.
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Current Research and Educational Efforts in the Worldwide Community of Alice Bailey Students
M. Temple Richmond, Union Institute
Twentieth century metaphysical leader Alice A. Bailey is known for the twenty-four books of spiritual philosophy published under her name, eighteen of which she claimed to have written under the direction of a Tibetan Lama by the name of Djwhal Khul. As a student of H.P. Blavatsky's Theosophy and as a representative of the Western Esoteric Tradition in her own right (see Richmond, 1999, The Central Doctrines of the Alice Bailey Writings and their Roots in the Theosophy of H. P. Blavatsky, with Response to Faivre's Six Criteria for the Definition of Western Esotericism), Bailey has emerged as a figure of note and influence upon the New Age Movement. Since Bailey's death (1949), the philosophy articulated in her books has been embraced by a worldwide community of readers. This community has in turn spawned research and commentary upon her work, both by organizations and individuals.
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Panel: Fight Club
Amir Hussain, California State University, Northridge, Presiding
Nicholas Kirschman, Chaminade College Preparatory School
Sandie Gravett, Appalachian State University
Jason Patrick, Baylor University
Directed by David Fincher, and screenplay by Jim Uhls (based on the novel by Chuck Palahniuk), Fight Club is a complex and sometimes disturbing film about the depths of the human psyche. Often scathing and humorous, it makes us reconsider the consumerist value system in contemporary society in search of something more mysterious, ambiguous and non-material. Sick of his anonymous life, dead end, corporate career and disgusted with the empty consumer culture that his generation has been doomed to inherit, Edward Norton (the unnamed Narrator of the film) is desperate to find something meaningful. His life changes when he meets Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) who is everything our narrator is not: Durden is a man with a vision. After an evening of bonding brawling with each other, they create Fight Club, an underground organization where young men and not-so-young men meet their spiritual needs by beating each other to a pulp. Tyler Durden, the club's founder, quickly becomes a cult hero of epic proportions, a new messiah for a dead generation. This film is replete with imagery and metaphor that is fertile soil for extracting religious meaning. There have been as many interpretations of what the essential message of this film is as there have been viewers. Punctuated with biting humor and irony, this film offers for many a heavy critique of corporate America while at the same time questioning the evil inherent in the status quo.
A175
Panel: Status of Women in the Profession - Faith Based on What? Feminist Scholars of Religion Speak Out about Public Policy and the Bush II Administration
Janet R. Jakobsen, Barnard College, Presiding
Religion has been much in the news in 2001, mainly because of PresidentBush's proposal to establish an office for faith-based social service provision.This session will expand the public debate by raising a number of related issues that have been identified and analyzed by feminist scholars of religion who focus on the intersections among issues, but rarely touched upon in the press. Public debates have rarely included discussion of the implicit way the word "religion" in U.S. law and policy refers to enlightenment Protestantism or the way in which the rhetoric of "faith-based initiatives" identifies morality with (the Christian) religion, and only with certain (conservative) understandings of religious morality and charity. As a result, the rhetoric around "faith-based initiatives" can undermine public discussion about issues of social justice, social responsibility and the role of government in the creation of the common good, while ignoring the public voices of religious persons and groups that are not those commonly identified with conservativemorality. For example, questions of religious freedom have been central to discussions of faith-based initiatives, but have rarely moved beyond the now requisite recitation of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Such discussions almost never include the fundamental question of religious freedom for Native Americans where religious freedom is tied to issues such as land rights and the environment. These and other issues, such as environmental racism, will be discussed by panelists Rita Nakashima Brock, Harvard University; Mary Churchill, University of Colorado, Boulder; Joan Martin, Episcopal Divinity School; Mary Hunt, Women's Alliance for Theology, Ethics and Ritual; Judith Plaskow, Manhattan College.
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Panel: Religion in Schools Task Force - Religion in the Schools Day
Edward R. Gray, American Academy of Religion, Presiding
The Religion in the Schools Task Force sponsors this program bringing a corps of religious studies scholars to Denver area public schools throughout the day (Monday, November 19, 2001.) These visits, arranged in cooperation with Denver area teachers, highlight areas of "natural inclusion" of the study of religion into existing high school curricula. Members of the visiting corps will meet at this time for orientation. Guests interested in this project and other AAR initiatives in promoting teaching about religion in the schools are welcome at this session; visitors may observe certain projects. For more information about this session, or to volunteer to take part, please email Edward R. Gray, Director of the Academic Relations Program in the AAR Executive Offices at egray@aarweb.org.
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Transforming Connections: Service Learning As a Practice of Solidarity in the Feminist/Womanist Ethics Course
Deanna A. Thompson, Hamline University
In this presentation I will explore the "creative tension" that exists when integrating service learning into the religious studies classroom. I will describe how I have found in the work of Ada Maria Isasi-Diaz' distinction between charity and solidarity a model for clarifying the intended relationship between the students in my course and the organizations they serve. As the National Service Act of 1993 makes clear, service learning should revolve around "thoughtfully organized service experiences that meet actual community needs..." Placing service learning in a Christian ethical context, I understand it as engaging in the practice of what Isasi-Diaz calls solidarity, an approach to meeting actual community needs that is grounded in the common responsibilities and interests of both the women who are served and the students who are serving.
A177
Theological Reflections As an Integrative Skill in Teaching Social Justice
Patrick F. Gibbons, Ursuline College
A specific skill that has proved successful in helping students integrate their experience in a social justice project with their study of Christian social ethics is the skill of theological reflection. A helpful definition of theological reflection is provided by Patricia O'Connell Killen and John deBeer in their text, The Art of Theological Reflection: "Theological reflection is the discipline of exploring individual and corporate experience in conversation with the wisdom of a religious heritage. The conversation is a genuine dialogue that seeks to hear from our own beliefs, actions, and perspectives, as well as those of the tradition. It respects the integrity of both."
A177
Teaching Catholic Social Teaching
Gary L. Chamberlain, Seattle University
In this paper I examine theory and practice involved in Catholic Social Teaching at the university. The paper explores the results of work on a project sponsored by the University of Notre Dame around social justice themes in Catholic Social Teachings. I discuss the programs from the 13 schools involved in the project and explore my project at Seattle University involving some 100 meetings with faculty, staff, administrators, on their understanding of justice themes in Catholic Social Teachings, interest in learning more, desire for engagement with the low income neighborhood surrounding the university, interest in community-based learning (service-learning), and concern to incorporate these teachings into curricula and decisions about resources and policies. My project involves resources which fit faculty interests and a summer seminar on justice themes in Catholic Social Teaching. The project will be helpful for those interested in incorporating justice programs and themes beyond current interests in service learning.
A177
Students Teaching Students Environmental Justice
Stephanie Kaza, University of Vermont
Student taught courses have received mixed reviews in the academy. They succeed where there are strong expectations of excellence, high student reputation, and well-established supervision. At the University of Vermont, student taught courses in environmental justice have been offered since 1994. Motivated by issues of environmental injustice, students developed the course to fill a gap in existing course offerings. Effective teaching techniques included: fishbowl discussions, paired interviews, anti-racism workshop exercises, advocacy projects, and journaling. Content focused on theory and methods, case studies, and strategies for grassroots organizing. In their theses, student teachers commented on three challenges: balancing the tension between holding authority and power relations in the group; grading student papers, and developing experiential exercises that would engage the whole group. Student teachers actively sought out students of color to participate in the class, with varying degrees of success.
A178
'No Strings Attached': Puppeteering, Seduction, and the Representation of 'Subjectivity'
Gitte Butin, University of Virginia
But what do I seduce, when I seduce? Is a detached pulling of the strings identical with a subject creating the self of another or is it the puppeteering/seduction that creates the other and the self? Reflecting on seduction and representation in Baudrillard and Deleuze, I develop the concept of seduction as repetition; through this prism and the portal of Being John Malkovich my re-reading of presumably marginal texts in Kafka (The Silence of the Sirens) and Kierkegaard (Diary of the Seducer and Repetition) offers a fresh approach to both authorships, with both writers adding to and challenging this concept. All these texts destabilize the border in and of mimesis; thus seduction illustrates an alternative representational mode where the self and the other are mutually repeating themselves, thereby opening up a space for a non-originary subjectivity.
A178
Choking on Words: Lessons on Direct and Indirect Communication from Kierkegaard and "Being John Malkovich"
Jonathan J. Malesic, University of Virginia
"Being John Malkovich" portrays characters who continually and violently put words into others' mouths. If this film is apt in its depiction of "information age" culture, then we stand in a situation similar to the cultural milieu Kierkegaard disparaged in his writings. Similar to Kierkegaard's portrayal of Christendom, characterized as having its mouth so stuffed that it could not close its mouth, much less chew or swallow, we often find ourselves stuffed with words, our own and others'. Kierkegaard's remedy characteristic of the Climacus writings, Philosophical Fragments and Concluding Unscientific Postscript, was "indirect communication" communicating by taking away the undigestible excess. Indeed, this indirect communication may be the only Christian theological response to a culture that is overly full of itself. The paradigm is the communicatio idiomatum to Jesus Christ, which is at the same time, God's self-humiliation. In this act, God communicates by hiding himself in a human being.
A178
Otherwise than "Being John Malkovich": Incarnating the Name of God
William W. Young III, Loyola College in Maryland
Being John Malkovich associates puppetry with the manipulative enjoyment of the bodies of others. As a manipulation of bodies-doll or humans-the film raises questions about responsible conceptions of embodiment in the thought of Emmanuel Levinas and Jacques Derrida, whose emphasis on singularity often leads to an apparent lack of concern for particular modes of linguistic and corporeal embodiment. The film raises particularly acute questions for Levinas, who associates responsibility with passivity, hospitality, and obsession. The paper argues for a distinction between embodiment as incarnation and as inhabitation, with incarnation as the mode of embodiment that allows for responsibility through its exposure of its own embodiment to the other. By contrast with the inhabitation of others that effaces responsibility, such incarnational embodiment is described in Derrida's work on terms of hospitality and prayer, even if such embodiment can never be represented as such.
A178
Beyond Using John Malkovich: Embodiment, Identity and Ethics
Terry Baker, Warner Pacific College
Why is business at J.M. Inc. so good? Why are so many people interested in Being John Malkovich? Why the restlessness regarding self-identity? Perhaps the instrumental Weltanschauung of modernity has steadily contracted our sense of purpose to that of consuming and so, also, abetted the commodification of everything, including our bodies. This paper explores and extends Jacob Meskin's reading of Emmanuel Levinas on the relationship between embodiment and identity. It argues for a shift in understanding identity as relational-ethical by attending to the presence of the other in our unique embodiment.
A179
Towards a Typology of Theravadin Predictions
Karen Derris, Harvard University
Predictions are ubiquitous in Theravadin texts. Biographies and historical chronicles are full of predictions foretelling buddhahood or enlightenment, the acts of kings and great lay patrons, and the spread of relics and teachings. This paper focuses on two types of predictions: the predictions of a bodhisatta's buddhahood and the predictions about Buddhist kings. By analyzing the distinct ways in which these predictions are made and revealed, this paper proposes a typology of Theravadin predictions. While it is important to distinguish between different types of predictions and the dynamics they set in motion, this paper also attempts to establish a common foundation for the different types of predictions; they rest upon a shared conception of relationships between actors extending through time and space.
A179
Prophecy in Action: Shambhala and the Mongols
Johan Elverskog, Southern Methodist University
This paper investigates how the myth of Shambhala and its prophecy of the end of the Dharma, in particular its vision of Islam and other threats, was pivotal in shaping Mongol visions of a trans-ethnic Buddhist Qing under siege. Also how this conceptualization helped shape Mongol support for the Qing in suppressing the millenarian Christian Taiping kingdom of Hong Xiuquan in the south, local Chinese Muslim rebels in the north, and partake in the anti-West and anti-modern Boxer rebellion.
A179
The Monk Tanwuchan: Mentor of Men and Victim of Kings
Roseanne Freese, Arlington, VA
Many assume that Buddhism came peacefully to China, yet for many monks and nuns, the ultimate trial was fought on the political plane where life was not guaranteed. The ideals of Mahayana Buddhism tested China's native political ideologies and traditional institutions of family, clan and state. This paper explores the life of the Indian Monk Tanwuchan, who arrived in China in roughly 400 CE, near the time that Hui Yuan published his Discourse on Why Monks Do Not Revere Kings and witnessed the suppression of the Sangha. Emperors sought out Tanwuchan not for his teaching but for his powers of prophecy and exorcism, but in the end held him hostage and put him to death. This paper will explore the clash of personalities, doctrines and values that challenged China's old order and inspired new institutions, including monastic orders and political dissidence through immolation.
A179
From the Province to the Capital: The Role of State Support in the Spread of the Hongzhou School of Chan Buddhism
Mario Poceski, University of Florida
This paper focuses on the early spread of the Hongzhou School, the dominant Chan tradition during the middle part of the Tang dynasty (618-907). In contrast to the established view of the Hongzhou School as a local Southern religious movement that rejected reliance on imperial patronage, the paper argues that by the early ninth century the Hongzhou School emerged as a truly "national" tradition that was a part of mainstream Chinese Buddhism, with strongholds throughout the southern and northern provinces, as well as the two Tang capitals. To a large extent that success was based on its ability to secure support from both the central government and the local provincial elites. Especially important were the monks who taught in the two Tang capitals, who disseminated the teachings of the Hongzhou School to a wider cosmopolitan audience, and secured official imperial recognition and support for their religious tradition.
A180
Women's Prayer Groups: Ritual Forms of Submission and Subversion
Norma Baumel Joseph, Concordia University
When Jewish women began forming prayer groups in the seventies they considered themselves well within Jewish legal parameters. Many were Orthodox Jews who asked for rabbinic advice and were dismayed by swift and strong disapproval. The overwhelming majority of Orthodox Jews perceived this nascent movement as a rebellion, a threat to "tradition." Submission to the law and its rabbinic interpreters is an Orthodox standard that the women continue to be committed to. Yet the rabbis found their acts subversive. In exploring the debate, the facts are as misrepresented as the motives of both sides. Each group misunderstands and misrepresents. Scrutinizing these legalities, mis-readings and misrepresentations is at the heart of this research. The uses of ritual, tradition and law in these disparate arguments exposes elements of religious boundaries, self identities and gender distinctions in the modern period.
A180
Cooking Up Equality: Pongala at Attukal Temple, Kerala, South India
Dianne E. Jenett, New College of California
Attukal Pongala is a women's ritual in which over a million women cook pongala, rice porridge, as an offering to the Kerala goddess Bhagavati. Pongala is offered exclusively by Dalit women as a part of community rituals in sacred groves (kavus). Some kavus are developing into large temples, such as Attukal, that are incorporating the goddesses, iconography, and practices from many caste traditions into new ritual forms. Interviews with Hindu, Moslem, and Christian women who participate in Pongala reveal the equality of people and religions, the necessity of sharing resources, the inherent power of women who demand justice, the emotional support offered by women's community, and the recognition of immanent divinity in each girl and woman.
A180
Enchanted Feminism: Women As Initiators and Crafters of Human Growth
Jone Salomonsen, University of Oslo
Starhawk and the reclaiming Witchcraft tradition have added significantly to the reworking of gendered notions of personal and spiritual growth. In this regard, the initiation-to-Witch ritual has been afforded the greatest of options due to the therapeutic challenges given to the candidate and the amount of rebirthing magic they claim is being performed. Initiation is said to be "a willful act of surrender to goddess and an experience of perfect love and perfect trust". But how do submissive acts create prefect love and spiritual growth instead of a hierarchy between adepts and initiators? By drawing on psychoanalytic theory, this paper will discuss why some Witches deem initiation as incompatible with democratic, feminist politics while others believe that this demanding ritual process gives access to desirable magical "room" that cannot be known otherwise.
A180
Medicine and Magic: Conversations between an Anishnaable Medicine Woman and a Cornish Village Witch
Theresa Smith, Indiana University of Pennsylvania
Through analysis of a dialogue between Ontario Native Marilyn Johnson and Cassandra Latham of Cornwall, I describe the role of the (female) religious/ritual specialist in Anishnaabe medicine practice and traditional Cornish witchcraft. I do not argue that Anishnaabe medicine and traditional Cornish witchcraft are manifestations of an identical shamanic pattern. Rather, Anishnaabe medicine women and traditional Cornish village witches may have served and may continue to serve similar functions within their communicates. Both were/are concerned with healing, locating lost objects and spirits, removing curses, knowing and employing plant remedies, experiencing dream and vision and leading communal rituals. Finally, both consultants serve as carriers of a matrilineal heritage that challenges the hierarchy and practices of the medical establishment, as well as the patriarchal patterns of institutionalized religious leadership, in the West.
A182
Christian Imperialism: The Case of Indian Christianity
Elizabeth Cameron Galbraith, Coe College
The study of Christianity in the American Academy is still predominantly devoted to European (Western European even) Christianity. Indian Christianity, which many are surprised to discover is much older than European Christianity and one of the most diverse churches in the Christian communion, has been particularly neglected in studies of the history of Christianity, not to mention virtually ignored as a case study for intra-Christian imperialism. This paper, which is based upon field research in Kerala, India, has two main foci: I) an examination of intra-Christian imperialism in India in the sixteenth century and beyond, and II) a portrayal of the distinct nature of Indian Christianity and its potential as a basis for cross-cultural intra-religious dialogue.
A182
Penetration of the Interior: Victorian Missions to Chinca and the Necessity of Violence
Eric Reinders, Emory University
Victorian missionary rhetoric construed China as place of decay and stagnation, not only its buildings, but the whole culture and especially religion. This stagnation, it was felt, could not be reformed so easily, and there were often remarks about the need to give China some blow or slap, to force open its doors to let in some "fresh air." Images of violent penetration pervade the rhetoric of evangelism in China. This violent penetration was gendered as the taming of a haughty female. The ethos of missionaries was particularly influenced by Christian Manliness, which associated masculine physical strength with spiritual strength. Particularly when describing religious and civil rituals, missionaries helped construct China as a fragile object, as "superficial," outer, a sham display, hollow, empty. The construction of China as fragile predisposed acceptance of Western imperial aggression, looting, iconoclasm, and the spoliation of China's religious art.
A182
The Kingdom of God and the Japanese Empire: Preached Messages of Korean Christians under Japanese Colonialism, 1905-1945
Sung Deuk Oak, Boston University
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the preached messages of the representative Korean Christians (about 15 pastors and lay leaders) under the four decades Japanese colonialism. Its main thesis is that they made politically and theologically proper responses to Japanese colonial militarism, Western missionary hegemony, and socialism. It will also examine Korean Christian leaders' failures to respond to these challenges. "Identity" and "hegemony" will be the main concepts for the analysis. It will probe the multidimensional meanings of those messages in relation to the critics made by other groups-Japanese Christian leaders, Japanese political leaders, American missionaries, and Korean socialists. The research will use newly found handwritten sermons, missionary correspondence, government reports, and court records.
A182
To Win Their Hearts And Minds: Evangelical, Humanitarian, and Military Missions during the Vietnam War
Thomas Pearson, Muhlenberg College
Recent historical and anthropological studies have analyzed the role of missionaries in establishing and developing colonial societies. This paper focuses on one significant theater in America's neo-colonialist, global, cold war presence - the broad network of evangelical, humanitarian, and military missions to the Vietnamese highlands during the Vietnam War. Military strategists believed that communist insurgencies preyed on the social and economic difficulties of "the transition to modernity." They hoped that an ambitious humanitarian relief and development program would win the people's allegiance to the modern, democratic, social-service state that was to be created in Saigon. This paper traces the often disavowed material relations that tied the evangelical and humanitarian efforts to the military's conduct of the war. It analyzes the "rhetoric of conversion" that humanitarian missions shared with their evangelical cohorts, and that linked them both to the miltiary's project to "win the hearts and minds" of the people.
A183
Panel: Religion and the Construction of Gendered Identities in America
R. Marie Griffith, Princeton University, Presiding
Debra Campbell, Colby College
Jualynne E. Dodson, University of Colorado, Boulder
David G. Hackett, University of Florida
Beryl Satter, Rutgers University
Within the field of American Christianity, as in the study of religion more broadly, interpretive models that pivot on questions of gender have flourished in recent decades. Earlier evaluations of religion as being either "empowering" or "oppressive" have laid the groundwork for newer and more nuanced paradigms to emerge, paradigms that take seriously religion's role in the social formation of maleness and femaleness, masculinity and femininity, from a variety of fresh angles. This panel features authors who are part of this seachange in the way scholars of religion think about gender and identity and includes experts on Catholicism, Protestantism, New Thought, and African American traditions in the Atlantic Diaspora. Panelists will reflect methodologically upon advances in this vital area of research and suggest new directions for the study of religion and gender identity.
A184
The Art of Living: Pierre Hadot's Rejection of Plotinian Mysticism
Donald Blakeley, California State University, Fresno
Part I examines Hadot's conception of philosophy as a way of life and the reasons for his initial hope in and eventual rejection of Plotinus' philosophy. Hadot came to find unacceptable Plotinus' quest for the "mystical" and "transcendent" and to accept the experience of the spiritual in the concrete--as was emphasized, he says, by the Epicureans and Stoics. I examine Hadot's characterization of this "worldly" mysticism. Part II explores the possibility that Hadot's critical assessment does not adequately appreciate the "descent" vector integral to Plotinus' conception of the One. If Plotinus cannot abandon the implications of the bi-directional dynamic of the One and the One as being nowhere and everywhere, then his mysticism will have a complex phenomenology, one part of which would find its efficacy in everyday affairs. The paper concludes with an appraisal of this possibility.
A184
The Skeptic's Practical Criterion and Pragmatism
Matthew C. Bagger, Columbia University
Pragmatic conceptions of belief undermine the classical skeptic's claim to suspend judgment while acting in accord with a practical criterion. The skeptic's tranquility derives from a resolution of doubt, rather than a perpetuation of doubt.
A184
Ritual, World View, and Metaphysics
Kevin Schilbrack, Wesleyan College
Clifford Geertz famously defines religion as a system of symbols that functions to unite a certain way of life or ethos with a certain world view or metaphysics. Moreover, of the different features in any religion, Geertz says that it is ritual that makes evident how the recommended way of life is connected to the way things are. Yet most studies of religious practices give very little attention to metaphysics. This paper aims to defend the idea of a metaphysical interpretation of ritual knowledge in order to make a contribution to the study of religious practices from a discipline which is often blind to questions of practice, namely, philosophy of religion.
A184
Passionate Belief: William James, Emotion, and Religious Experience
Jeremy R. Carrette, University of Stirling
Following recent re-examinations of James' theory of emotion from social and psychological research, which reject a reductive somatic reading, this paper attempts a new examination of James' The Varieties of Religious Experience (1901-2). The paper, first, examines the residue theory of emotion in the Varieties. It then documents a series of tensions with his model of emotion developed between 1884 and 1897 and that displayed in the Varieties. It, thirdly, demonstrates that if, as James argues, religious emotions are formed by their context, the object of concern and a "common storehouse of emotions," then failure to account for the social structures of such emotions undermines his thesis not only of religious experience but also that of emotion. In conclusion, the paper shows that contemporary theories about the relationship between belief and emotion open a space for a new approach to religious sentiments.
A184
A Live Option: On "Experience" in Grace Jantzen's Feminist Philosophy of Religion
Thomas Arnold, Harvard University
This paper looks at Grace Jantzen's recent work Becoming Divine, in particular her discussion of "natality" and "flourishing" as symbolic touchstones for a feminist philosophy of religion. After explicating Jantzen's criticism of and counter-proposal to the "necrophilic" symbolism she finds driving the obsession with truth-claims and rational justification in much of contemporary philosophy of religion, the paper explores whether Jantzen's own treatment of "experience" (whether "religious experience" or "women's experience"), makes adequate room for "natal," "flourishing" experience, along with all of its epistemological implications. While the paper takes Jantzen's lead in advocating a more careful treatment of "experience" in religious epistemology (especially in using mystical writing), it argues that feminist standpoint epistemology should have a stronger voice in Jantzen's own project.
A185
Panel: "Travelling Home": Wilfred Cantwell Smith and the Study of Religion
Tazim Kassam, Syracuse University, Presiding
Frederick M. Denny, University of Colorado, Boulder
William A. Graham, Harvard University
Amir Hussain, California State University, Northridge
Diana L. Eck, Harvard University
Tamara Sonn, College of William and Mary
2001 marks the first anniversary of the death of Wilfred Cantwell Smith and the fiftieth anniversary of his founding of the Institute of Islamic Studies at McGill University. This panel seeks to pay tribute to the life and work of Professor Smith and to discuss something of his impact on the academic study of religion. The panelists were all profoundly influenced by Professor Smith in his roles of mentor, colleague, teacher and friend. Each panelist will discuss the impact of Professor Smith, both for her or his own work and for the broader study of religion.
A186
Rituals of Grace: Religious Reflection on Authentic Liberating Family Dynamics
David James Livingston, Mercyhurst College
The paper will examine the phenomena of grace and ritual within the family. Derrida's interpretation of gift will be used to further understand grace. The distinction between ritual and magic will the lens through which authentic family rituals will be proposed. The paper will conclude with an examination of the patriarchal history of family relationships that must be unmasked and removed if an authentic religious family praxis is to be lived. It will be the thesis of this paper that the patriarchal legacies of family relationships can be overcome through a re-articulation of the centrality of ritual and grace to the well being of the families.
A186
The Child As Savior and Victim: Religious Traditions and Contemporary Reality
Kristin Herzog, Durham, NC
Jesus' radical statements about children have been largely ignored by Systematic Theology and Christian Ethics. Only recently have several scholars focused on "the child" in theology. Jesus' attitude toward children has sometimes been considered unique in the history of religions. I would like to probe that idea by comparing Jesus' words to images of the child as savior in other religions and then ask how Christian and non-Christian understandings can impact today's global situation of children as victims of hunger, abuse, AIDS, prostitution, and wars. Various religions envisioned like Jesus that childhood is not a stage to be overcome, but a state to aspire to, and that only a "childlike spirit" can save us. I will show slides by artists of various ages and cultures representing concepts of the child as savior and/ or victim and a childlike affirmation of life that is needed to save today's children.
A186
Children As Innocents or Devils: Getting Beyond Theology's Reproduction of Cultural Ambivalence Toward Children With a Critical-Practical Theology of Childhood
Joyce Ann Mercer, Union Theological Seminary in Philip
This paper explores the reproduction of cultural ambivalence toward children in contemporary Christian religious reflections, with the goal of moving toward a constructive practical theology of childhood. I use the critical theory of sociologist Pierre Bourdieu on the reproduction of culture to critique the current religious reflection on childhood in the US with its bifurcation into opposing "voices," one lodged in the academy and the other in popular culture. I then suggest that multiple resources exist within the experiences of children themselves, and within Christian tradition, for a constructive and critical practical theology of childhood.
A186
The Challenge of Cloning for Our Theology of Childhood and the Family
James C. Peterson, Wingate University
Since Dolly in 1997, it has been technically possible to clone human beings. Despite widespread reservations there are labs which have proceeded to refine the involved techniques. It will not be a surprise if such a human birth has been publicly announced by the time of the 2001 annual meeting. What theological conceptions of childhood and the family would be affirmed or challenged in human cloning? This paper addresses three sets: 1) Since cloning is likely to be pursued as an alternative to the common practices of adoption or using donor gametes for infertility, how important is genetic overlap between parents and children? 2) Does the active intervention and conscious choosing of traits involved in cloning encourage seeing a new born as a product rather than a fellow person one welcomes? 3) Would raising one's clone be caring for one's sibling/twin or one's child?
A187
Bonhoeffer's Use of the Sermon on the Mount in the Pluralistic Context of the Conspiracy
Glen Stassen, Fuller Theological Seminary
Bonhoeffer's renunciation hermeneutic in interpreting the Sermon on the Mount created a rift between Bonhoeffer's Cost of Discipleship and his Ethics. It implied an ethic that would not support the assertiveness and strong initiatives necessary in the face of the force of fascism. But without the scriptural concreteness of Discipleship, his Ethics lacked concreteness. This rift between Jesus' Sermon and constructive ethics runs through the history of Christian ethics. The trend toward a hermeneutic of transforming initiatives, rather than a renunciation hermeneutic, can help bridge the gap between Discipleship and Ethics. It can provide more concrete guidance for Ethics and at the same time provide norms for a public ethic in a pluralistic context based on the Lordship of Christ, as the Barmen Confession demands.
A187
Bonhoeffer's 1933 Christology Lectures: Past Impact and Present Relevance
Renate Wind, University of Applied Sciences in Nuernberg
Bonhoeffer's 1933 Christology lectures have been received by scholars in Germany and the U.S. in dramatically different ways. In Germany a distinction has been maintained between the academic and the political Bonhoeffer. An examination of the Christology lectures within the entire corpus of his writings reveals the consistency of his thought. The christological center undergirds his political commitments. In the U.S. the publication of Christ the Center(1966) served as a correction to the image of the radical Bonhoeffer that developed through the interpretations of Hamiliton and Robinson. Bonhoeffer came to be seen as a death of God theologian. This translation shifted emphasis away from an exaggerated focus on "religioness Christianity" to the christological center of his thought. These lectures continue to inform the struggle for authentic faith and practice today.
A187
Bonhoeffer's 1933 Christology Lectures: Past Impact and Present Relevance
Craig L. Nessan, Wartburg Theological Seminary
Bonhoeffer's 1933 Christology lectures have been received by scholars in Germany and the U.S. in dramatically different ways. In Germany a distinction has been maintained between the academic and the political Bonhoeffer. An examination of the Christology lectures within the entire corpus of his writings reveals the consistency of his thought. The christological center undergirds his political commitments. In the U.S. the publication of Christ the Center(1966) served as a correction to the image of the radical Bonhoeffer that developed through the interpretations of Hamiliton and Robinson. Bonhoeffer came to be seen as a death of God theologian. This translation shifted emphasis away from an exaggerated focus on "religioness Christianity" to the christological center of his thought. These lectures continue to inform the struggle for authentic faith and practice today.
A188
Outside Looking In: Exilic and Diasporic Representations of the Homeland
Ellen Posman, University of California, Santa Barbara
Many scholars have sought to define the difference between diasporic and exilic communities, and a variety of definitions have been posed for each of these terms. However, very little has been written on diasporic and exilic consciousness. This paper explores the literary understandings of the homeland during periods of exile and diaspora in Jewish history to further comprehend the nature of these two types of consciousness. The paper begins with an analysis of literature from the rabbinic and medieval periods as paradigmatic examples of exilic identity. The paper then explores second temple period, haskalah, and post-1948 understandings of Eretz Yisrael to gain an entry into the diasporic mindset at its most prevalent periods. Finally, some comparative analyses are made with Tibetan Buddhism, as a clear example of an exile, and with Hinduism, as a clear example of a diaspora.
A188
The Land of Israel: A Palace in Space
Bonna Devora Haberman, Brandeis University
In his famous essay of 1951, "The Sabbath," A. . Heschel expounded a profound idea of Jewish religious experience as quintessentially temporal, in contrast with spatial. This view epitomizes an old Western philosophical tradition that time is the supreme a priori internal independent condition of existence. Heschel's view belongs to a diaspora perspective, a pre-Israeli statehood consciousness of the enduring condition of exile. This paper critiques Heschel's view of a "Palace in Time," and its corollary: "the unattainability of Israel," positing instead "Israel: a palace in space." The fulfillment of the continuous longing for Israel is an ongoing and subtle process of consummating the divine covenant, leading toward redemption. "Israel: a palace in space" takes account of Jewish longing for what Israel had once grown to symbolize together with the reality of a nation-state that exists in both space and time.
A188
She Stands Before Us to Bear Witness: The Arangetram and the Bat Mitzvah in the Diaspora
Susan L. Schwartz, Muhlenberg College
In some respects the Hindu ritual of the Arangetram has come to resemble the Jewish Bat Mitzvah. Both are anomalous within their own religious traditions, particularly as they highlight female achievement in the formal and public religious context. Both mark a passage into adult status, acknowledge the achievement of expertise as a result of rigorous preparation, and attract interest within their respective diaspora communities as social occasions and religious ceremonies. Each highlights an aspect of factors essential for religious status: in Hinduism, an embodied performance of sacred dance that represents a sacred text; in Judaism, a performance of sacred text that represents the embodiment of the community. This study may tell us something about religious adaptation, publicly performed ritual for females, the sociological and economic contingencies that affect religious ritual, and strategies for maintaining ethnocultural identity in Hindu and Jewish diaspora communities. This presentation will include video footage.
A190
A Prolegomena to "Comparative Theology"
Parimal G. Patil, Emory University
One of the more important developments in the recent study of Hinduism has been the interest that some contemporary Christian theologians have taken in Hindu traditions of theology. What is most remarkable about this interest is their conviction that the academic discipline of theology must seriously consider the work of non-Christian theologians since, in so doing, theology itself will be enriched. The English theologian Keith Ward and the American theologian Francis X. Clooney are two important Christian theologians who both advocate and practice what may be called "comparative (or interreligious) theology." These two theologians have not only allowed Hindu traditions of theology to influence their own theological work but have also considered these traditions with great sensitivity and respect. Explicit in the work of both Ward and Clooney is also an invitation to Hindu intellectuals to actively participate the larger project of comparative theology.
A190
A Reassessment of the Distinction between Brahman As Nirguna and Saguna in Advaita
Anantanand Rambachan, St. Olaf College
Contemporary commentators on the Advaita tradition commonly distinguish between two levels or orders of brahman and suggest a hierarchy between these two. The higher brahman is presented as nirguna brahman, the absolute non-dual reality, transcending time, space, causation and relations. The lower brahman is saguna brahman. Saguna brahman is lower because it is conditioned and related to the world. This paper argues for an understanding of the terminology of nirguna and saguna which is different from the hierarchical viewpoint. There are no distinctions in the nature of brahman before or after creation and the language of nirguna and saguna are complementary and necessary, rather than exclusive. These terms point to the mystery of brahman as both immanent and transcendent, as involved in the world-process and yet free from its limits and defects. One does not have to bifurcate brahman to preserve its non-duality and transcendence.
A190
Porous Boundaries and Asymmetries: Doing Constructive Theology in ISKCON
Kenneth Valpey, Oxford University and Tamal Krishna Goswami, Cambridge University
ISKCON's (International Society for Krishna Consciousness) initial efforts within the counterculture and its reverse missionary endeavors in India and the Hindu diaspora are well documented, as is the strain of its premodern appeal against postmodernist assumptions. To date, however, the large body of social scientific research that has exposed tense flash points has stopped short of in-depth theological analysis and problem solving. This paper seeks to fill the lacuna by offering a reinvigorated Gaudiya Vaisnava theology for ISKCON. Employing a traditional hermeneutic that organizes theological inquiry into three broad divisions-sambandha [relationship], abhidheya [process], and prayojana [motive]-likely locations for textual reinterpretation are chosen and potential theological reconstructions suggested. The result is an open-ended, gender equal, less culturally specific, and less hierarchical theological model that attempts to engage diverse theological communities and serve as a comparative frame for other Hinduisms while still retaining its Vaisnava bhakti outlook.
A190
Eros, Ethics, and Enlightenment: Towards a Reconstructive Approach to Ultimate and Penultimate Goals in Hindu Theology
Rita D. Sherma, Claremont Graduate University
This paper suggests that while dharma as a vehicle of ethical conduct maybe immutable, the content of the vehicle must be subject to change and that such change should be predicated on the knowledge gleaned from enlightened experience. The paper further contends that if the content of dharma can be shaped by the realizations of the enlightened state, attitudes towards kama can also be informed by the revelations of enlightenment. The interpretation of the perceptions of liberation is subject to the particular theological framework being applied. In this case, a Sakta tantric approach is used. This approach posits that the rich diversity and deep complexity of the phenomenal world reflects the desire of the Divine to integrate the infinite variety of forms and experiences that define the reality of the physical world.
A191
The Mystical and the Mundane: The Strange Case of Confucian Mysticism
Jonathan Herman, Georgia State University
The terms Confucianism and mysticism seldom appear together in the same scholarly discourse, largely because of the widespread assumption that the former is a secular philosophy of social ethics, while the latter addresses matters that are iconoclastic, otherworldly, or esoteric. This paper launches a new conversation on Confucian mysticism, by considering the mystical dimensions in the thought of Chu Hsi, the twelfth century architect of Neo-Confucianism. The first part of the paper discusses Chu Hsi's idea of the "heart-mind of heaven-and-earth," the "spiritually efficacious" aspect of the cosmos that generates the ongoing transformations of existence in a way that is neither mechanistic nor teleological. The second part examines his simultaneously "essentialist" and "romantic" hermeneutic theory of classical learning, which provides a basis for one to transform one's heart-mind into the sagely heart-mind and thus understand the principle that permeates the heart-mind of heaven-and-earth.
A191
Mystical Experience As Emancipatory for Women
Donna Freitas, Catholic University of America
This paper lays the foundation for a new, feminist discussion on mystical experience as it impacts women's lives. This discussion is framed around the view that mystical experience has an emancipatory impact on women's daily existence. Resources for this conversation are clearly available and include the work of Grace Jantzen, Carol Christ, and Dorothee Soelle, but this far, no one has systematically mined what these women are saying to the benefit of the field of mysticism! The task at hand is to identify the voices involved and separate out the issues relevant to this discussion, piecing together a conversation that has clearly already begun. What women have to say about mysticism in relation to the self and daily life is unique and important to the study of mysticism. I intend to draw these voices into a unified discussion so they may be heard more clearly.
A191
Maqām and Hāl: The Mysticism of Ordinary Life in Sufism
Neil Douglas-Klotz, Edinburgh Institute for Advanced Learning
This paper proposes a comparison between classical Sufi descriptions of a mystical state (hāl) and mystical station (maqām) with modern and post-modern concerns about a "mysticism of everyday life." The experience of a hal denotes a state of grace that descends upon a Sufi practitioner, but which is only temporary and facilitates a new "station" in life that represents the ability to bring a visionary state into everyday life (Schimmel 1975, Nasr 1991, Ernst 1997). This functional dialectic can be usefully compared to various concepts of in the writings of humanistic psychology (Maslow 1962, 1971; Reich 1942, 1948). In both the classical Sufi terminology and practice, as well as in the evolving theories of humanistic psychology, one finds the attempt to contextualize "everyday life" itself within a mystical framework, that is, not only is there a mysticism of everyday life, but everyday life is a type of mysticism in itself.
A191
Beautiful Necessities: "American Beauty" and the Idea of Freedom
David L. Smith, Central Michigan University
The film "American Beauty" is structured around the mystical concept of non-attainment-the idea that meaning in life is unrelated to narrative structures, the stories by which we define our relations and identities and through which we usually seek liberation. At first glance, the story of "American Beauty" appears to be a typical "trouble in the suburbs" parody, and it seems to suggest that liberation comes through non-conformity: Lester Burnham's return to adolescence or Ricky Fitts' psychic outlawry. In fact, the film demonstrates how these quests are frustrated because they are so deeply implicated in the dysfunctional circumstances that impel them. Each character is finally caught in an inescapable karmic noose. Meaning and freedom emerge, by contrast, not as a result of the characters' variously misguided quests, but as Beauty, a mode of attention to ordinary circumstances that floats free of time.
A192
The Contextualization of Intellectual History: Its Merits, Limits, and Problems
James C. Livingston, College of William and Mary
The conventional practice of intellectual history, e.g., by Arthur O. Lovejoy and others, has been widely repudiated for implying the independence of ideas from their larger contexts. This paper will explore the relevant contemporary literature on the issues raised by contextualism in historical description and explanation in an effort to assess its importance as well as its limits and its problems in fields such as the history of philosophy and theology. This paper will then apply insights drawn from the current discussion to an analysis of the contextualist approach pursued in the essays in Catholicism Contending with Modernity. Among the issues examined are: What does an historical context encompass? What does a contextual description and explanation entail or require? How are its explanations justified? Are contextual explanations causal and, if so, do they necessarily entail reductive physicalist and social determinants?
A192
Doing Theology As If History Really Mattered
Michael J. Walsh, University of London
Most of the contributors to Catholicism Contending with Modernity have admirably situated their theological reflections within the historical context of France and Britain when they are describing the development of what came to be called "Modernism." However, the effect of Modernism upon the historiography of the English Roman Catholic community has, to my mind, not always been correctly assessed, and this impacts upon that community's openness, or otherwise, to modernity. The question then arises of how far that is true of the Roman Catholic community world-wide, and how much theologians at the end of the twentieth century have to learn from the experience of those at the end of the nineteenth.
A192
Text and Context: Catholicism Contending with Modernity and the Roman Catholic Modernism Group
Elizabeth McKeown, Georgetown University
Catholicism Contending with Modernity is the final product of a twenty-year conversation on the meaning of the modernist episode in Roman Catholicism. The face-to-face portion of the conversation took place at annual meetings of the Roman Catholic Modernism Group of the American Academy of Religion. The conversation was sustained by the circulation of seminar papers, in a series of printed collections of those papers, and in the individual publications of members of the seminar. This presentation will attempt to construct the context of Catholicism Contending with Modernity by reviewing the evolving state of the question of Catholic modernism over the life of the seminar and by reflecting on the organizational locations of the seminarists, as members of the AAR and as professionals in American higher education.
A193
Panel: Religious Naturalism Today
C. Robert Mesle, Graceland University, Presiding
Gordon D. Kaufman, Harvard University
Ursula Goodenough, Washington University
Henry S. Levinson, University of North Carolina, Greensboro
Charley D. Hardwick, American University
Donald A. Crosby, Colorado State University
Religious naturalism is undergoing a revival and emerging as a genuine option in today's religious discussion. The panelists, representing a variety of perspectives, have been asked to discuss their views of religious naturalism, including: 1) the possibility of an umbrella definition of religious naturalism (perhaps the Charley Hardwick, Rem Edwards, Jerome Stone characterization), 2) their own approach to religious naturalism, and 3) the chief issues facing religious naturalism today.
A194
Finding a Place Past Night: Armenian Genocidal Memory in Diaspora
Flora A. Keshgegian, Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest
This paper will explore the dynamics of disaster and trauma in relation to the complex place the history of genocide holds in the memory of Armenian people, particularly in diaspora. It will attend to the ways in which, in diaspora, memory stands in for "place" in a people's sense of identity. Ongoing denial of the genocide by the Turkish government threatens such memory. While the independence of the Republic of Armenia offered new possibilities for a sense of place, the current contestation between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno Karabagh reinforces a sense of threat and intensifies fears of disappearance that accompany diasp.oric existence. In exploring these dynamics further in this paper, I will draw on trauma theorists' explorations of personal and group trauma, as well as its generational transmission.
A195
Trans-bordering Identity: A Cuban-American Conversation
Margarita Suarez, Colorado College
How we know what we know cannot be based upon "experience alone." Experience must be interrogated using the tools of social analysis and by becoming a "vulnerable observer." This paper is a "vulnerable" dialogue between the researcher and "Vicki" a member of her faith community exploring the trans-bordered (U.S.-Cuban) issues of identity development, self-worth, acculturation, assimilation, and language. The epistemological basis for the conversation is a three stage process: being present in the midst of brokenness, taking responsibility for it and responding by trying to change it. When the theologian employs all three of these processes then can her work begin to be trusted to reveal some measure of truth about the faith of the people she hopes to represent.
A195
Notes toward a Chicana Feminist Epistemology (And Why It is Important for Latina Feminist Theology)
Nancy A. Pineda-Madrid, Graduate Theological Union
As long as Chicanas and Latinas long for and actively pursue the fullness of their humanity, and as long as Latina feminist theologians hope to advance the liberation of Latinas, the relationship between knowing and liberation must be of paramount concern. The primary aim of this paper is to "break ground" toward a possible Chicana Feminist epistemology by means of a few weighty anchoring symbols (La Familia, Our Lady of Guadalupe, and La Malinche) whose epistemic interpretations matter in Chicanas' drive toward their full humanity. The significance of a Chicana feminist epistemology lies in its ability to provide a theoretical foundation for Latina feminist theologies. The theoretical foundation, in turn, can strengthen the force of the liberative assertions of Latina feminist theologies.
A195
Illegality: A Socially Constructed Obstacle
Kevin O'Neil, Harvard University
Illegality is constructed in much the same way as boyness, girlness, straight, and queer are socially built in that illegality is engineered vis-a-vis norms and taboos. Illegality as a construction determines how we perceive, interpret, and know people that exist as "illegal," like the undocumented Hispanic immigrant. In relation to this phenomenon, this paper contributes to the exploration of the following question: Can Americans perceive the "illegal" Hispanic immigrant as human during theological reflections if that individual exists as a construction within the category of illegality? I propose, first, that "illegality" forces undocumented Hispanic immigrants to be perceived as less-than-human, theological reflections become less-than-authentic. My argument being that if we can begin to demystify "illegality" by exposing the power structures that construct "illegality," then interpersonal and intercultural theological reflections can become more authentic.
A195
La Luz del Mundo: Origins, Development, and Transnationalization Processes
Lourdes Arguelles, Claremont Graduate University
This paper traces the origins and development of a controversial religious globalizing organization , La Luz del Mundo, an organization with strong ties to the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI), the former ruling party of Mexico. The paper also focuses on the transnationalization agenda of La Luz del Mundo in general and the socio-political impacts of the activities of the organization in working -class and Latino neighborhoods in the United States. The paper is the result of a three year binational (U.S.-Mexico) transdisciplinary study and develops a robust argument for the need for more action research projects focused on La Luz del Mundo and similar organizations in Latino immigrant communities.
A196
Vanishing into Limbo: The Peculiar Career of Aunt Jemina
Emilie M. Townes, Union Theological Seminary, New York City
With the rise of massive global market capitalism, human lives and their cultures have become commodities that are marketed and consumed in the global marketplace. This paper is a preliminary investigation into one manifestation of this dynamic--the emergence of identity as property. Through a cursory examination of the image of Aunt Jemina, this paper will explore the structural matrix that supports the commodification of identity and its particular impact on the lives of African Americans.
A197
Geography and History in Herodotus and inEzra-Nehemiah
Thomas B. Dozeman, United Theological Seminary
The study of geography plays an important role in the development of historiography during the Persian period. The Histories of Herodotus provides illustration. Klaus von Fritz argued that Herodotus progressed from a geographer and ethnographer to a historian. Herodotus frequently employs an anthropocentric interpretation of realistic geography to advance the geopolitical theme of enmity between the East and the West. And, as a result, an interpretation of the Histories requires a spatial methodology, attuned to Herodotus' thematic and ideological use of territorial space. The historiography of Herodotus provides a point of departure for interpreting a similar use of geography in Ezra-Nehemiah. A spatial interpretation of the territory of Abar Naharah, "Beyond the River," will demonstrate its ideological use in Ezra-Nehemiah to idealize Persian law and to advance an interpretation of Yahwism based on law.
A197
The Trialectics of Biblical Study
James W. Flanagan, Case Western Reserve University
Historical critical methods in biblical studies emphasized history in its approach. Social world studies added society. Neither addressed spatiality. Following theoretical work primarily in human geography and urban planning, we know that human experience comprises a trialectic: historicality, sociality, and spatiality (to paraphrase Edward W. Soja). This paper applies Soja's trialectic to selected biblical materials.
A197
A Narrative-based Theory of Human Place-Relations
Wesley A. Kort, Duke University
There will be four parts to this paper. In the first part, I shall describe the present situation regarding the formulation of a theory of human place-relations, especially what factors militate against an adequacy in such a theory. In the second part, I shall talk about the relation of narrative discourse to an adequate theory of human place-relations. In the third part, I shall adumbrate what I take to be an adequate theory of place-relations, one derived from a study of modern fiction. And in the fourth part, I shall argue that the common binary of sacred and profane place is untenable unless it arises from a viable, narrative-based theory of human place-relations.
A197
Embodied Typology: Modeling the Mosaic Tabernacle
Burke O. Long, Bowdoin College
Adopting a thirdspace critical perspective proposed by Edward Soja, I analyze full size models of the Mosaic wilderness tabernacle, constructed spaces of dramatic enactment where biblical scholarship, archaeology, hermeneutics, and popular tourist culture intersect in layers of simulacra. This paper concentrates on one particularly rich example, The New Holy Land Park in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. With its various exhibits of Christian nostalgia, the park as a whole lends itself to a Soja-like geographical reading. The tabernacle, an "authentic" structure based on careful biblical exegesis, enables a fantasy of biblical "realia" which is but representation embodied in a biblical text that doesn't quite add up. Such a simulation might be viewed, among other things, as a material and spatial analogue to the intellectualized notion of something claimed to be experiential: incarnation, that is, of Christ/Word/Flesh.
A197
Spatiality and Marginal Social Groups in Ancient Palestine
Paula M. McNutt, Canisius College
Concepts of space have been recognized in recent studies as human constructs that are socially produced, and thus vary from society to society. As human constructs, they function as cultural subtexts, i.e., presuppositions that influence other perceptions, experiences, and descriptions of reality in a given society. Peoples in the biblical world held concepts of space quite different from those held in modern Western societies. For example, tribal peoples such as those portrayed in the biblical traditions do not establish identity by referring to territoriality. Rather, their identity rests more in group membership. Thus, they are not concerned so much with physical space, but with "space" derived from relationships that affect their status within society and is shared with particular social groups. Even when territorial terminology is used, this derives more from the relationship between people and the space they live in than from any abstract mapping of land and boundaries.
A197
Transcending the Boundaries: Expanding the Limits
Keith W. Whitelam, University of Sheffield
The paper will explore the fetish for the definition of boundaries that has dogged the study of Palestine's ancient past, particularly for the Iron Age. It will explore the ways in which the ideology of the nation-state and its concern with 'natural frontiers' and ethnic exclusivity has shaped understanding of ancient boundaries. To draw a boundary around anything is to define, analyse, and reconstruct it. The implications of this concern with the definition of boundaries suggests the need for a complete reappraisal of maps and mapping in biblical studies.
A198
Best-Selling Religion: Nineteenth-Century Evangelicalism and the Creation of American Mass Media
Candy Gunther Brown, Saint Louis University
This paper explores the intersections between evangelicalism, the origins of mass media, and the processes of cultural production and consumption in nineteenth-century America. It argues that evangelical publishing shaped the development of American print culture. Scholars who have studied religious publishing claim that religious leaders, in their bid to win and keep an audience, reduced religion to a market commodity. In contrast, the present study suggests that commercialization ought to be viewed as a productive process that created new religious meaning. Evangelical publishers reconfigured popular narrative styles and commerce as religious instruments: using innovative production and marketing strategies to reach larger audiences. Yet, market participation did reshape evangelicalism by shifting the sites of religious practice from the Sabbath church service to the weekday market and domestic fireside. Evangelicalism spilled outside traditional church institutions to intermingle with the broad spectrum of every-day places and times where media and culture took form.
A198
Methodism, Marketing, and the Emerging Media Sphere: A Case Study in the Making of "The American Way"
Kathleen J. Knaack, Drew University
This paper uses a case study of the Methodist television series "The Way" to examine how mainline Protestant used emerging media technologies of television and, in so doing, participated in the creation of a Cold war consensus about American identity, in which Christianity, democracy, and American consumer culture were conflated. The need for Americans to differentiate themselves from "those godless Communists" lead to the creation of the ideology of "civil religion" and "the American way". Though they saw themselves as merely pouring the "old wine" of the gospel message into the "new wineskins" of television broadcasting, Methodists actually ended up participating in the creation of both a new message of Christian and national identity and a new culture of mediated experience.
A198
Is There a Living Word?: Worship, Word and Ethics in an Image Oriented Culture
T. Scott Daniels, Southern Nazarene University
The debate concerning the value of images in worship has found a new expression in contemporary conflicts over appropriate forms of worship. This paper argues the merits of visual or sensual forms of worship as opposed to literary or exclusively auditory forms. It will analyze the work of Neil Postman and Jacque Ellul who both point to a deep sense of loss as we move away from word-centered forms of cultural dialogue to more image-centered forms. And on the opposite it will analyze the work of Walter Ong as a proponent of a kind of "oral literacy" that takes place in an image-oriented culture. It will conclude with a brief look at the iconoclastic debates of the seventh ecumenical council and will argue that the defense of iconography as incarnational can be "re-traditioned" by us as the basis for defending a cautious use of image-oriented forms of worship.
A198
Is It Always "The Media's" Fault? - Islam, Protestantism, and Media (Mis-)representations
Christopher Patrick Parr, Webster University
Recently various critiques have shown how structural and ideological presuppositions in the media militate against fair or insightful coverage of religions. This paper turns the tables, arguing that religions themselves at times are their own worst enemies regarding media treatment. I sketch out two arguments. First, Islam is at odds with the Western press not only because of deep historical presuppositions about "the other," but also because many Islamicists' conventional commitment to presenting an insistence on the unity of the Ummah only invites skepticism from media used to probing divisions -and well able to find them in both contemporary and historical Islam. Second, Western Protestantism's commitment to 'the Word' as embodiment of truth, both as theological doctrine and predisposition in preaching, means many mainline Protestants, including those involved in media analysis, are often unsympathetic to media that privilege image over word, icon over logos.
A201
Panel: Committee on Teaching and Learning - Ethnic and Religious Pluralism in the Classroom: What Can We Learn from the British Experience?
Michael Battle, Duke University, Presiding
Hugh S. Pyper, Univ of Leeds
David Jasper, University of Glasgow
Ann Loades, University of Durham
Chakravarthi Ram-Prasad, Lancaster University
Carol B. Duncan, Wilfrid Laurier University and Raymond B. Williams, Wabash College, Responding
Universities in Britain have experienced a remarkable increase in ethnic and religious diversity in religious studies classrooms similar to that in North America. Colleagues from Britain will describe the context and missions of their departments and both the theoretical issues they have engaged and the practical applications in teaching and learning they have developed responding to that pluralism. The goal will be to learn more about best practices of teaching and learning in classes of ethnically and religiously diverse students by comparisons and contrasts between the British and North American experiences.
A202
Deep Calling Deep: Wellsprings and Rilke's Praise
Bruce A. Heggen, University of Delaware
The poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926) draws on Christian scripture and Catholic Christian faith as well as the texts of pagan Greece and of world religions. Thus, while his poetry cultivates inner depth and artistic richness through spiritual disciplines of solitude, patience, and interiority, it is a stretch to make of him a "Christian" poet. In part this is because of a tension between "art" and "religion" that he finds exemplified in the reforms of Florentine Savonarola. But Rilke is also a modern who has given up on the idea of God or pagan gods. Nonetheless though disciplined attention to the world's splendor and squalor, and to his own joy and suffering, Rilke's poetry becomes the praise of an immanent transcendence with which he struggles, which yields him artistic freedom and creativity, and which serves both as challenge to and resource for Christian art and apologetic.
A202
"Getting the World Right": Wallace Stevens on Imagination and "The Vulgate of Experience"
Mark S. Burrows, Andover Newton Theological School
This paper explores Wallace Stevens' approach to imagination as what he called "a means of redemption." Through a close reading of his essays on poetics, gathered in the volume entitled "The Necessary Angel" (1951), and in conversation with several of his poems, the paper examines how Stevens sought to recover what he called "the vulgate of experience," a way of discovering in imagination, for those who could not believe, "the next greatest power to faith." For Stevens, "[t]here is always an analogy between nature and the imagination, and possibly poetry is merely the strange rhetoric of that parallel." This paper explores this assertion, discerning in Stevens' poetry an attempt to locate our place "in the center of a physical poetry," and thus a view of the poetic imagination as the grounding for a spirituality based upon "the eye's plain version."
A202
James K. Baxter's Late Poetry As Trying the Boundaries of Christian Spirituality
Christopher Patrick Parr, Webster University
New Zealand poet James K. Baxter (1926-72) not only wrote some remarkable Christian poetry - key shifts at the end of his life valuably tested relationships between religious conviction, creative spirituality, modernity, and poetry. Following a brief synopsis of his life illustrated with slides, my paper turns to this period when he adopted a "Maori Franciscan" lifestyle, establishing a short-lived community near the tiny town of Jerusalem. I see the shifts leading to Jerusalem as symbiotic in nature: his change from 'literary' models towards an 'engaged-performative' treatment of poetry motivated and supported by a shift in his own spirituality towards principles of community (drawing on Maori and Buddhist ideals), and hence assuming new views of texts and reading. Baxter's efforts were in some respects risky, even troubling. Yet his unconventional poetic imagination took Christian spirituality in inspiring and creative directions deserving of further exploration.
A202
Who Can't Be a Christian Poet?: The Problem of Boundaries and the Puzzling Case of H.D.
Sarah Avery, Rutgers University
This paper examines the possible boundaries, benefits and limitations of the category of the "Christian poet," using
the life and work of the major American Modernist poet H.D. (Hilda Doolittle, 1886-1961, who published under her initials) as a test case. Her visionary poetry is radically syncretic, incorporating pre-Christian pagan elements and offering critique and revision of biblical narrative, but many aspects of her work that would seem to rule out a view of her poetry as a part of a Christian poetic tradition, also reflect an embrace of her heritage in the Moravian Church, particularly of the ecstatic practices and radical theology of its early centuries. Her best known work, the Trilogy, recounts the prayers and visions that sustained H.D., and the city of London, during the nightly bombing of the Blitz, and the shocks of its aftermath (1942-1944).
A203
Constraint and Spontaneity in Tibetan Buddhist Dream Rituals and Interpretation
Serinity Young, American Museum of Natural History
This paper will explore dream rituals as an extended process: the events that stimulate a dream ritual, the ritual to stimulate a prophetic dream, the dream itself, its narration, and its interpretation. My examples will come from Tibetan Buddhism two sources of Tibetan Buddhism: first, the biographical literature, especially Milarepa's prophetic dream about his guru's (Marpa's) teaching lineage. Despite the fact that Milarepa was a wandering yogi, he lived at a time of increasing institutionalization in Tibetan Buddhism. For this reason alone, his biography reveals a possible shift in the charismatic function of dream experience and its interpretation. Secondly, I will examine these dream narratives in light of the elaborate dream ritual described in the Tibetan Buddhist Canon, the Kangyur and Tangyur, which provide the needed background for understanding the highly abbreviated dream ritual instructions in the biographies.
A203
Dreaming Religious Change in Highlands Papua New Guinea
Mary N. MacDonald, Le Moyne College
Storytelling and dreamtelling are important vehicles of both cultural continuity and cultural change, permitting reiteration and reinterpretation of metaphors in which individuals and communities construct their world. This paper explores dreams of two women from the highlands of Papua New Guinea--a younger woman, Berite, and an older woman, Rumbamye. Both dreamtellings comment upon the introduction of Christianity into the highlands of Papua New Guinea and upon the life situation of the dreamers. Interpretation of these dreams proceeds by elaboration on personal and cultural associations, taking account of the fact that indigenous interpreters of dream focus on what dreams reveal of current social tensions and what they say about the future. Almost everyone who narrates a dream either offers an interpretation that bears on the future or asks his or her audience for such interpretations.
A203
The Ontology of Dreaming: Visionary Epistemology in Indigenous Religions
Lee Irwin, College of Charleston
Dreaming is an important source of knowledge in many indigenous religious traditions around the world. Among many First Peoples of North America, dreams have played critically central roles in maintaining religious traditions as well as sanctioning innovation and change in those traditions. Further, dreams have acted as resources for prophetic movements, new techniques in healing, innovation in technology and crafts, a source of inspiration for enduring the hardships of colonialization and as a means for religious revalidation of older traditions. In this presentation I will discuss how dreams are classified, enacted, and instrumentalized among selected indigenous peoples as a highly valued form of knowledge. I will also consider the epistemological value of imagery over verbal texts and the centrality of visionary experience in dreaming typologies.
A203
Dream Rituals, Symbolic Dreams, and the Production of Power in Ancient Mesopotamia
Scott Noegel, University of Washington
Mesopotamia offers rich resources for the comparative study of symbolic dreams and their accompanying dream rituals. In addition to relevant literary texts, we possess a compendium of roughly one hundred symbolic dreams, and many dream ritual texts that serve a variety of purificatory, sympathetic, and therapeutic functions. This paper examines the function of Mesopotamian dream rituals in conjunction with the oracular compendium by considering the religious cosmology in which Near Eastern divinatory conceptions are rooted, and the relationship between divinatory and legal language. This paper argues that such considerations provide a useful theoretical framework for understanding the function and ideology of the dream texts. In particular, the paper shall aim to show that such a holistic approach to the divinatory contexts of these materials underscores the importance of performance and utterance in the ritual process, which in turn, offers insights into the function of the compendium and its ritual practitioners.
A203
Striking Cobras, Spitting Fire: Dream Rituals in Pharaonic Egypt
Kasia Szpakowska, University of California, Los Angeles
As far back as 2,000 BC in Ancient Egypt, clay figures were inscribed with lists of malignant forces-including dreams-and then broken in an effort to shatter their power. Over Egypt's long history a variety of other techniques were used to protect the sleeper, such as reciting spells, administrating poultices, and carving zoomorphic figures onto headrests. Apart from a few exceptions, rituals to entice good dreams remained rare, until the time when Egypt lost its independence to foreign rulers. Indeed, in the Hellenistic period, Egypt became famous for its dream interpreters and for dream incubation. Periods of stress and oppression affecting the self-identity of the community seemed to have a profound effect on the role of dreams in pharaonic Egypt. This pattern might also be apparent in other cultures. This discussion of Ancient Egyptian dream rituals may help us understand the need for these practices in a broader perspective.
A203
Rituals of Dream Interpretation in Contemporary America
Kelly Bulkeley, Graduate Theological Union
This presentation focuses on a specific practice of ritualized dream interpretation in contemporary America: group dream sharing. Developed over the past three decades in psychoanalytic, liberal Protestant, and Jungian settings, group dream sharing has provided several hundred thousand people with a public space for the expression of their dreams. The ritualized practices of these groups, their religious aspirations, and their connections to the dream traditions of other cultures makes them worthy of comparative religious investigation. This presentation will describe the demographic profile of those who participate in dream sharing groups, analyze the formal ritual elements common to the groups, and compare their practices to other forms of ritualized dream sharing and interpretation (e.g., in ancient Greek, Native American, and Islamic contexts). Final reflections will be offered on the deeply embodied and embodying nature of group dream sharing.
A204
Get Real: An Augustinian-Constitutional Approach to Political Ethics
Mark Ellingsen, Interdenominational Theological Center
In response to laments about the outcome and electoral shenanigans of the 2000 Presidential election, the traditions of Reinhold Niebuhr, the Constitution, and Augustine urge us to "get real." A political ethic that aims to have an impact on the process needs to take seriously the sinfulness of human nature. These classical sources remind us that underlying all political ventures is the quest for power. In the flawed world of politics, the key to ethics is just legislation and equal access to representation. These suppositions mandate reforms in campaign financing, which in turn have implications for the media's responsibilities for promoting the common good.
A204
Talking about Democracy: Christian Social Ethics and Campaign Finance Reform
Melissa Snarr, Emory University
While the issue raged at the national level, academic Christian social ethicists have been silent on the issue of campaign finance reform. This paper begins to break that silence by arguing that Christian ethicists can make a significant contribution to the public debate. Beginning with data about the importance of campaign finance reform, the paper analyzes and assesses "grass-roots" responses by Christian organizations. The paper develops a typology of "grass-roots" public theology looking at the National Council of Churches, the Catholic Bishops, Sojourners Magazine, and the Christian Coalition. After assessing their approaches to public theology on this issue, the paper concludes by offering perspectives from Christian traditions on democracy, with particular focus on moral anthropology, institutional formation of character, and social sin.
A204
The Ethics of Remembering and Forgetting: Spinoza, Post-Electoral Rhetoric, and the Ideology of Statehood
Jeffrey McCurry, Duke University
Philosopher Baruch Spinoza's epistemology of imagination as illusion provides a salutary resource for understanding the ways in which ideologies are produced and inhabited as so-called real knowledges. Using Spinoza's epistemology as a hermeneutical key, we can survey post-electoral rhetoric arising from the media, politicians of both parties, and even philosophically opposed members of the Supreme Court as providing an illuminating example of the ways in which plainly deconstructed ideologies nevertheless are continuously propounded in order to maintain the state-apparatus. The salient feature of this rhetoric involved recommendations of forgetting for the sake of unifying the country into its future existence. Members of otherwise diverse religious communities sharing commitments to radical truthfulness and to the place of memory can ally themselves to begin engaging in critical and prophetic evaluation of and response to these various ideologies that continue to perpetuate injustice and illusions through ethics of forgetting.
A205
The Religion of Homicide
John Helgeland, North Dakota State University
Based on lengthy interviews with thirteen convicted murderers in the North Dakota State Penitentiary, this project explores the "religion of violence." Criminology and psychology have produced a plethora of research about homicide but have imperfectly understood the role of religion in the homicidal event. The protocol which will be given to those at the session covers the background, the event, and the aftermath of the killing. These are the categories that help us to comprehend the strangeness of a homicide. Sacrifice: murders often kill in order to complete part of their own life story. Myth-Ritual: is a ritual carrying out a narrative often from the cinema. Mysticism: the moment of homicide is often a "mountain-top" event where the aura of having the ultimate power over another takes control of the remainder of the killer's life.
A205
The Theology of the NRA
William C. French, Loyola University, Chicago
Given the National Rifle Association's success in blocking tighter restrictions on guns, it is important to unpack the civil religious discourse that shapes its identity and mission. I use sociological, psychological, and religious studies perspectives to examine its cosmology of conflict that separates good folks and patriots from criminals and foreign threats, with a sacred history in which the gun becomes laden with potent emotional associations. The NRA holds that guns become a problem only when criminals get their hands on them. This ignores studies showing that significantly more gun homicides are caused by family, friends, or acquaintances, than by hostile strangers. I examine the argument that because handguns are inherently dangerous consumer products and threats to public safety, we should ban handgun sales and ownership. The gun culture deserves sustained media attention, scholarly study, and the engagement of religious communities.
A205
Taming the Image of the Wild West: Deconstructing the Myth of the Gun
Eugene James McBride, Fordham University
Gun owners usually describe gun ownership as a fundamental constitutional right legitimated by three arguments: (1) Americans have always possessed guns; (2) it is naïve to think that guns can be eliminated since violence and killing are natural; and (3) therefore, "law-abiding" citizens need their guns for self-defense. Recent studies (e.g., Michael Bellesiles, Arming America, Dave Grossman, On Killing) have shown, however, that all three arguments are baseless. This paper argues that passion for the gun instead arises from the mythology of the frontier, preserved in the cinematic image of the American West. Drawing on Will Wright's structuralist analysis of the Western (Six Guns and Society), the paper shows how the gun functions as a salvific metaphor in the psychic economy of the American male, but why the redemption of American society from violence will come a different "hired gun": the tort lawyer who files suit against the gun industry.
A205
Preventing Homicide: What Works
Glen Stassen, Fuller Theological Seminary
Much discussion of violence is uninformed by social scientific research on what works to prevent it. The remedies advocated often tend toward punitive or romantic solutions ineffective for reducing violence and homicide. I analyze extensive research critically to ask which kinds of intervention achieve the greatest reduction in violence, hoping to present the results in a clear fashion so that faculty who teach courses in which violence, punishment, the death penalty, or peacemaking are issues can teach what does effectively reduce violence, rather than merely disapproving of it. This fits an ethic of practices or transforming initiatives, as in Glen H. Stassen, ed. Just Peacemaking: Ten Practices for Abolishing War (Cleveland: Pilgrim Press, 1998). The parallels between the practices advocated in this paradigm designed for international violence and the research results reported here for domestic violence are striking.
A206
Hinduism Textbooks and the Silencing of Islam
James W. Laine, Macalester College
A survey of textbooks introducing Hinduism (as one of the "world religions") reveals a consistent tendency to discuss the period 1200-1800 A.D. with scant attention to Islam (another "world religion"), despite the fact that much of the subcontinent was ruled by Muslims in this period. Instead, textbook authors concentrate on the Puranas, and developments in philosophy and vernacular bhakti traditions, with hardly a mention of Islam. When Islam is mentioned, the authors rely on standard tropes, either about Middle Eastern Islam or about spiritual universalists (e.g. Kabir) who are celebrated for antinomian rejections of dogmatism. My paper will analyze some introductory textbooks on Hinduism to reveal the nature of their silences, and will draw on my own research on seventeenth century Maharashtra to make some suggestions for how to better account for Islam in Hindu experience.
A206
The Muslim Other of Digital Dharma
Bruce B. Lawrence, Duke University
I want to explore how the threefold process of screen bias applies to Hindu views of Islam, and Muslims, as the other. It is impossible to do justice to the numerous websites that mark Hinduism as a vital part of the sacred side of the World Wide Web. After all, even the net has been marked as a simulacrum of the Net of Indra, with one glossy-eyed geek gnostic proclaiming that "Indra's holographic net symbolized the mutual identity and mutually interpenetrating nature of all phenomena." But I will examine in detail the features of 4-5 prominent Hindu domains, and then ask whether their assessment of the Islamic/Muslim other does justice to the actual history, and the multifaceted nature, of Muslim-Hindu interaction in precolonial India or Hindustan.
A206
Hinduism and Islam in the Virtual Village
Peter Gottschalk, Southwestern University, and Mathew N. Schmalz, College of the Holy Cross
This paper examines one pedagogical tool that attempts to address the inter-penetration of Islam and Hinduism within contemporary South Asian society. Developed by Peter Gottschalk and Mathew Schmalz, "Arampur: A Virtual Indian Village on the World Wide Web" uses a combination of virtual reality panoramas and interviews with residents to bring a Bihari village onto the internet. As students navigate through the Virtual Village, they encounter and question residents as they explore the religious and social life of the village. This framework allows students to see how Hinduism and Islam overlap within local religious practice, particularly in the modes of worship and veneration seen as Muslim dargas and Hindu temples. The proposed presentation for the AAR not only displays aspects of the Virtual Village, but discusses the pedagogical strategies that would employ web-technologies to explore the interrelationship of Islam and Hinduism.
A207
Panel: Christianity in Jewish Terms: Reconsidering Avenues in Jewish-Christian Relations
David Fox Sandmel, University of Pennsylvania, Presiding
David Novak, University of Toronto
Peter Ochs, University of Virginia
Michael A. Signer, University of Notre Dame
Susan A. Ross, Loyola University, Chicago
In September 2000, "Dabru Emet: A Jewish Statement on Christians and Christianity" signed by over 200 rabbis and Jewish academics representing a broad spectrum of the Jewish community, was published as a full-page advertisement in the New York Times and Baltimore Sun. Dabru Emet generated an immediate reaction, including international media coverage, official reaction from several Christian denominations, and debate in the Jewish community. In order to provide a deeper exploration of the issues raised by Dabru Emet, the authors edited a volume of essays, Christianity in Jewish Terms. Dabru Emet is predicated on the assumption that changes in the Christian and Jewish worlds not only make possible but also demand a different kind of engagement. This session will include an introduction to the aforementioned documents and three presentations by authors of the statement unpacking the underlying assumptions of the project, and a response from a Christian scholar.
A208
Panel: Kierkegaard and Postnationalism
Paul F. Lakeland, Fairfield University, Presiding
Patricia Huntington, Loyola University, Chicago
Robert L. Perkins, Stetson University
Gary M. Simpson, Luther Seminary
This program will feature a panel discussion of Postnational Identity: Critical Theory and Existential Philosophy in Habermas, Kierkegaard, and Havel (Guilford Press, 1993) and other works on the theme by Martin J. Beck Matuštík in an attempt to focus on Kierkegaard's relevance to contemporary critical theory and the notion of postnational identity. The author will be present to respond.
A213
Yoeme Indian Place-Names and Religious Identity in Northwest Mexico
David A. Shorter, University of California, Santa Cruz
This paper examines the grounded relationship between Yoeme (Yaqui) oral traditions, territorial sovereignty, and continuing religious rituals. Recognizing how both southern and northern Yoemem ground their collective identity in religious performances provides a contemporary reinterpretation of heterogenous citizenship in diasporic and transnational communities. Moreover, I argue that Indigenous forms of "place making" provide new ways of understanding religious rituals as non-Western mapping practices. Drawing from and contributing to conversations in Anthropology, Ethnohistory and Religious Studies, this presenter proposes to show how one indigenous community uses religious ritual to inscribe localized Aboriginal identity among their ethnic and national "others."
A214
Polemics against Cult Images in Early Jewish Biblical Interpretation
Nathaniel Levtow, Brown University
Early Judaism inherited a highly developed tradition of polemics against "foreign worship" in general and against cult images in particular. The Jewish communities of the Hellenistic and Roman East responded to the cultic variety in which they lived with an interpretive rearticulation of earlier Israelite traditions. Such discourse of "idolatry" promoted the construction of social boundaries and identities through polemical representations of "incorrect" cultic practices. This paper will trace the ways in which Jewish authors and editors, from Philo and Josephus to Mishnah Avodah Zarah, inherited, interpreted, and rearticulated Israelite polemics against "foreign icons" amidst the new challenges of social formation in the Jewish communities of the Greco-Roman world.
A214
Idolatrous Spectacles and Christian Tableaux: The Paradox of Early Christian Cultural Criticism and Spectacles
Elizabeth Castelli, Barnard College
Christian cultural criticism from the second through the fifth centuries is full of polemics against what happens on stage or in the arena as a form of impious idolatry. This paper explores this stark critique of the spectacles and the idolatry that purportedly underlies it. It furthermore sets this rhetoric next to Christian appropriations of the language and practice of spectacle when they talk about Christian martyrdom. Writers as diverse as Tertullian, Asterius of Amasea, John Chrysostom, and Augustine repeatedly praise the spectacular character of verbal and visual retellings of martyrs' deaths. This paper explores the complex relationship between zealous critiques of idolatrous spectacles and the hearty endorsements of Christian tableaux of spectacles of suffering.
A214
"The Tyrant Became a Crucible for the Beauty of the True Ones": Apostasy, Idolatry, and the Nisibene Church in Ephrem the Syrian's Hymns against Julian
Thomas Buchan, Drew University
Composed at Nisibis in the weeks leading up to and following Julian's failed Persian campaign, Ephrem the Syrian's Hymns Against Julian offer several clear examples of the use of anti-idolatry rhetoric as a means of identity construction, consolation in loss, and proclamation of hope for the Church at Nisibis. Ephrem's Hymns provide a reading of the religious, political, and military events preceding and surrounding Julian's warfare with Shapur II as "signs of the times" which serve to illuminate the cosmic struggle between God's holy ones and the powers of evil. Julian, the Persians, the Jews, Nisibene pagans, and idolaters all take on a shared symbolic import as a result of their common feature: rebellion against God and opposition to His faithful Church.
A214
Preserve Your Chastity: The Rhetorical Formulation of Internal and External Idol Smashing in the Preaching of Augustine
Horace Six-Means, Hood Theological Seminary
Around the turn of the fifth century the Roman empire was undergoing a change in the religious landscape. Catholic Christianity was claiming exclusive rights over and against various competitors. This paper will examine Augustine's rhetorical construction of and attack on idolatry found in Sermon 360A/Dolbeau 24 in relationship to imperial laws. For Augustine idolatry was not limited to polyteistic practice. It will be argued that Augustine's conception of idolatry was designed to function on a social, an ecclesiastical, and an individual level. By reading selected Old Testament passages prophetically Augustine justifies smashing internal and external idols at all three levels. To maintain the chaste purity of the individual soul, the church, and public and private social spheres, for fear of a jealous God, idols must be destroyed.
A215
Racial Reconciliation or Racial Justice? White Evangelicals, Race, and the Love/Justice Problem
David P. Gushee, Union University
Despite the nearly unanimous public commitment of white evangelical leaders and institutions to racial reconciliation, progress has been slow. The uncritical embrace of the language of racial reconciliation is part of the problem and deserves serious reconsideration. Reconciliation, as an ethical category, is emptied of content unless it is built upon the solid foundation of justice. Yet white evangelicals tend to be much less interested in the language of racial justice than racial reconciliation. Revisiting Jesus' approach to issues of reconciliation and justice shows that he named violence, economic oppression, domination by the powerful, and exclusion from community as cardinal violations of justice. These four areas of injustice remain central to the ongoing realities experienced by people of color in the United States. The paper argues that racial reconciliation will prove impossible unless white Americans attempt to redress the kinds of injustices that Jesus named.
A215
Stirring Up the Evangelical "Melting Pot:" The Impact of Asian Pacific Americans on InterVarsity Christian Fellowship
Timothy Tseng, American Baptist Seminary of the West
What impact has the recent growth of Asian Americans on the racial dynamics and discourse of American evangelical organizations? This paper will examine the implications of the Asianization of contemporary evangelicalism for theological discourse. Specifically, it will look at the recent multi-cultural emphasis in InterVarsity Christian Fellowship (an evangelical parachurch campus ministry) as a case study. I will argue that the Asian American presence in IVCF has the potential to push evangelical theological and ethical reflection on race beyond both a "color-blind evangelical universalism" and a "black-white" binary analysis. Furthermore, the Asian American experience in ministries such as InterVarsity Christian Fellowship can lead to a development of racial consciousness within the framework of evangelical thought. Finally, this paper will interact with current theories about race and suggest ways that evangelical thought can engage racial diversity in a multiracial and possible post-ethnic future.
A215
How Race Shapes Interpretation: An Analysis of Racial Reconciliation Efforts
Jeremy Rehwaldt-Alexander, Vanderbilt University
Evangelical Christian efforts to promote racial reconciliation have been prominent over the past decade. Some scholars have argued that many recent efforts among white evangelicals have lost the focus on structural change promoted by many black evangelicals writing in the 1960s, focusing instead solely on building interpersonal relationships across racial lines and repenting for individual prejudice. At the same time, it appears that Black evangelicals' responses to the problem of racism remains highly structural. This paper explores these issues through an analysis of several in-depth interviews with both white and African-American congregants in one large, multiracial evangelical congregation in a southern metropolitan area. The understandings of racism and racial reconciliation promoted by the white church leadership and the interpretations of those understandings by white parishioners in the congregation are described. These understandings are then compared and contrasted with the understandings held by several African-American members of the congregation.
A216
Wonchuk's Transformation of Yogācāra Buddhism: A Process View
Sang Yil Kim, Hanshin University
Unlike the case of the San-lun and Hua-yen schools, a sharp contrast between Chinese and Korean thinkers occurred in the cast of Yogācāra Buddhism. In Yogācāra Buddhism we are able to see differences more clearly than in any other case. In this paper I will discuss the historical background of Yogācāra Buddhism, omitting Indian Yogācāra since my main concern is to compare the Chinese and Korean forms. Wonchuk and K'ui-chi both studied under Hsuang-tsang but their interpretations of Yogācāra doctrine differed to a large extent. Since two previous schools, the T'i-lun and the She-lun, come before K'ui-chi's Fa-hsiang school, I will discuss these school's theories as a preliminary and relate them to Fa-hsiang. I will discuss Fa-hsiang school together with Wonchuk rather than with t'i-lun and she-lun because Fa-hsiang school shows a clear-cut contrast to Wonchuk's Siming School.
A216
Creating a Buddhist Tradition: Wonhyo and the Making of a Korean Buddhist Identity
Eunsu Cho, University of Michigan
Wonhyo's approach to Buddhism has been used in contemporary contexts to describe various aspects of Korean life and thought. Most people-scholars and non-academics alike-have taken for granted the received narrative of Wonhyo, a narrative that is now highly nationalized. Following up the argument that has recently arisen among scholars (Shim Jae-ryong and Robert Buswell), linking Ch'oe Namson in the colonial period with the emergence of the syncretic ideology that has grounded contemporary Korean scholarship, I will expand the scope of investigation to include other attempts to write about Wonhyo and Korean Buddhism throughout Korean Buddhist history, and their subsequent elaboration in the 20th century. I will explore the spectrum of evolving perspectives on Wonhyo, and how modern ideas about him have continued to shift with changing socio-political conditions. This will help us to gauge the significance of Wonhyo and his scholarship in the creation of a Korean Buddhist identity.
A216
A Korean Buddhist Response to Modernity:Han Yongun's Doctrinal Reinterpretation for His Reformist Thought
Pori Park, U. of Colorado, Boulder
Han Yongun (1879-1944) was a leading Buddhist monk, as well as a celebrated poet and social critic during the colonial period. He proposed to reform Korean Buddhism in order to make the religion socially engaging. This paper examines the doctrinal underpinnings of Han's reformed Buddhism. Besides, it also focuses on the difficulties that Han faced in this process of incorporating social salvation into the Buddhist system and addresses his doctrinal resolution to Buddhist impasse in dealing with social salvation. Han established dialectical tension between the absolute and the relative through the nondual Son/Kyo unification. He emphasized internal attention through Buddhist meditation (Son) as much as the ideas of social involvement gleaned from Buddhist teachings (Kyo). He sought the absolute sense of truth, not in isolation from society, but in active involvement. The active involvement in turn does not hinder existential freedom by rendering each moment the perfect manifestation of the absolute.
A216
Neo-Confucian Elements in State-Protection Buddhism (Hoguk Pulgyo): Hyujong's Syncretic Approach to Buddhism and Confucianism
Goun Ho Kim, State University of New York, Stony Brook
This paper will discuss the theoretical background of Hyujong's engagement with society; whether it is an extended Bodhisattva practice, or a typical Neo-Confucian concern with society and nation, or whether it straddles both traditions. For this I will examine his writings, especially the Yuga kwigam (The Mirror of Confucianism), highlighting the theoretical background of his syncretic approach to Buddhism and Confucianism, and of his practice of Hoguk Pulgyo. I will also examine how Hyujong made mistakes in his effort to incorporate Neo-Confucian teachings into Son Buddhism. This will naturally emphasize the discrepancies, rather than the intrinsic commonalties, between Buddhism and Neo-Confucianism. In my view, the syncretic approach of Hyujong and other Korean Buddhist thinkers makes a strong case for the intrinsic commonalties underlying the East Asian religious and intellectual traditions. However, dismissing the differences between traditions in order to emphasize these commonalties can mislead us into too simplistic an understanding.
A217
Re(con)ceiving and Re(con)textualizing White Feminist Intersubjectivity: Conversations between Lesbian and Bisexual Women
Julie J. Kilmer, Chicago Theological Seminary
This paper will explore the effects of gender within conversations between lesbian and bisexual women. In the exploration of this issue, Judith Butler's troubling of gender categories is brought into dialogue with Jessica Benjamin's interpretation of intersubjectivity and AnaLouise Keating's appeal for transformational identity politics. Intersubjective dialogue between lesbian and bisexual women results in a transfiguration of identity and of the performance of gender. As similarities and differences are identified, rigid categories break down. Thus, identity and gender, which are formed and shaped within relationship, are continually modified.
A217
Ambiguous Identities: Navigating Whiteness in the Building of Lesbian Community
Jennifer Harvey, Union Theological Seminary, New York City
This paper will raise targeted questions about the ways in which the meanings and realities of white identity live themselves out in the formation of lesbian community. It will also consider concrete strategies through which a self-conscious interrogation of white identity might foster genuine realization of community. While all queer women well understand the significance of identity in a hostile world, for queer white women urgent questions about identity emerge when oppressive systems intersect with racial identities in a manner that mark one 'on the side' of the oppressor. This paper will explore strategic possibilities for addressing such issues: the cultivation of anti-racist white identity and the call to commit 'race treason.' Both point to the need for concrete engagement in behaviors that defy and betray a white supremacist system to become a central aspect of the work of lesbian community-building.
A217
Viewing 1950s Butch-Femme Social Practice As Possibly Religious Practice/Practicing Religion
Marie Cartier, Claremont Graduate University
This paper looks at the sexual practice of butches and femmes, particularly from bar culture during the 1950s in North America, as a source for a possible theology of corporeality. Based on over twenty in-depth interviews with butches and femmes from that period, plus written memoirs and fictionalized accounts, as well as the author's own participant-observer status in this culture, the study focuses on the subjective experience of participants, allowing their own stories to develop. The ways in which butch-femme culture of the 1950s fixed the gaze of the participant in the sexual act on a sacrality of experience is contrasted to the absence of this discourse in the heterosexual communities of that time. The role of memory and nostalgia is brought into consideration methodologically.
A217
Transgression, Sacrality, and Political Embodiment: The Relationship between Sacrilege and Queer Political Activism
Elizabeth Currans, University of California, Santa Barbara
This paper explores the possibilities for applying discussions of sacrality to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered and queer politics, through a consideration of the following questions. In what ways can discussions of sacrality help achieve a greater understanding of the relationship between hegemonic values and counter hegemonic activism? Have heteronormative doctrines been accorded sacred status within American culture? If so, how can queer political activism best succeed? In order to address these questions, I will examine discussions of transgression, sacrality and embodiment. Specific attention will be paid to Michael Taussig's explorations of the connection between sacrality and sacrilege and their relationship to secrecy, Judith Butler's discussions of gender melancholia, and Janet Jakobsen and Ann Pellegrini's examinations of the links between American 'secular' politics and capitalist-influenced Protestant ethics.
A218
Rupture, Rapture, Revelation: Confessions of an African Bishop and a Jewish Ghetto Policeman
Björn Krondorfer, St. Mary's College of Maryland
In critical and imaginative ways, I will compare two autobiographical works that seem to be, at first sight, incompatible: Augustine's Confessions and Calel Perechodnik's recently discovered and published memoirs Am I a Murderer? Testament of a Jewish Ghetto Policeman, which he himself called his "deathbed confession." This paper will illuminate aspects of confessional writings by male authors. Issues of identity, gender, and spirituality are part of this exploration.
A218
"I Believe God Has a Twisted Sense of Humor":A Survey of the Effect of Ministerial Misconduct Upon Male Parishioners
Elizabeth Pullen, Drew University
This paper will investigate the effect of the experience of ministerial abuse upon male church members. Through an examination of current literature and a two year field research project, it will be argued that men experience sexual abuse in similar but also fundamentally different ways than women. Although every experience is unique, men can experience a wide variety of responses over time ranging from denial to rage, apathy, guilt and, often, a complete withdrawal from church activities. While denominational leaders have responded to sexual misconduct by conducting workshops and drafting legislation targeting sexual harassment, men are infrequently seen as potential victims. I will argue in my presentation that new models of recovery are needed which address the potential abuse of men and which are directed towards their needs for healing and, potentially, reintegration into a church community.
A218
Shedding Blood: The Religious Roots of Supermasculinity
Judith A. Johnson, Claremont Graduate University
The American military officer presents a particular image of American manhood-a "masculine mystique" so old its 'origins' are lost in myth, yet as new as the latest scientific breakthrough or space-walk. This paper examines the prototype of the mythic warrior-hero-the savior figure in whom the image of holyman and warrior merge. It also outlines how supermasculinity expresses itself in today's cyber-technical (and 'super-power') world-including its fears and taboos (such as fraternization and sexual integration). As Western nations seek to promote peacekeeping goals rather than warrior-violence, it may become imperative that scholars begin to assess the hidden 'religious' dimensions of military superhero-icons; this paper begins that process.
A218
Black Machoism and Its Discontents
Horace Griffin, Seabury-Western Theological Seminary
"Black Machoism" is a common expression of black masculinity within the United States. Such machoism is often a reaction to white male domination and fear of emasculation. It achieves and maintains its status in opposition to so-called "weak" or feminine behavior thought to be present in black women and many gay men. This construction of black masculinity promotes misogyny toward black women and abuse of gay and occasionally heterosexual black men. This paper argues for more progressive constructions of black male identity. Movement beyond black machoism can occur when black men develop a healthier and more secure sense of self. This sense of self provides a better foundation for the struggle against racism than black machoism. When this fact is recognized, black women and gay men can be viewed as allies in the building of stronger families, churches and communities.
A219
The Visual Culture of Antebellum Millennialism: The Visions of Ellen White
Graeme Sharrock, University of Chicago
Among the phenomena that accompanied American millennialism in the mid-nineteenth-century were charts, books, tracts and platform displays of prophetic time lines. In addition, painters such as Thomas Cole and Frederich Church painted landscape scenes which encoded pessimistic or optimistic views of America's destiny. The visions of important religious figures such as Ellen White, however, have not been examined in relation to the visual culture of her period. Her visions and writings suggest familiarity with images from the Hudson School painters and religious panoramas of the 1850's. Those similarities will constitute the focus of the presentation.
A219
"The Branch She": Lois Roden and the Branch Davidians
Kenneth G. C. Newport, Liverpool Hope University College
Almost all the work on Waco to date has been focused upon the events that occurred during the leadership of David Koresh. This is unhelpful since it adds to the misconception that what happened at Waco was inexplicable, caused by a lone fanatic who somehow managed to get others to follow his idiosyncratic path. In this paper I begin to address this issue by looking at Koresh's immediate predecessor as leader, Lois Roden. First I outline the life of Lois Roden. Next I examine Lois Roden's teachings. In part three I seek to place Lois' life and teachings in the broader context of the development of Branch Davidianism. My paper hence does two things: first it gives a clear account of the role that Lois Roden played in the development of the Branch Davidian tradition. Second it illustrates something of the fuller historical-religious context out of which Koresh was to emerge.
A219
Christian Reconstructionism after Y2K
Adam C. English, Baylor University
This paper addresses the relationship of the movement called Christian Reconstructionism to the Y2K crisis. The argument will develop along the lines that Gary North and the Reconstructionists never believed that Y2K would be the "end of the world." Instead, a Y2K disaster would provide the type of world-wide breakdown needed for Christians (i.e. Reconstructionists) to step forward, take the reigns of leadership, and establish a biblically-based society. The year 2000 was to be a postmillennial event, not a premillennial one. The scope of the paper is extended by a survey of over 200 Y2K books to show that the overwhelming majority deal with how to survive Y2K. The result will be to show that most apocalyptic writers along with many concerned citizens, like North himself, stockpiled food, water, and guns, not in preparation for the "Rapture" but for the technological collapse of civilization.
A219
Ongoing Anxieties and Hopes: Millennialism in the Twenty-First-Century
Yaakov Ariel, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
The millennial excitement over the year 2000 and Y2K brought to the forefront a development that has characterized the latter years of the 20th century: the adoption of millennial beliefs and terminology, including by secular groups. Environmentalist and ecological groups, for example, warn against abusing the earth and prophesize doom if humans fail to amend their ways. Prophets of technological doom of the kind that took place in Chernobyl in the late 1980s have also voiced their warnings. Millennial anxieties have made their way to popular and seemingly secular novels and movies such as The Terminator, and point to fear of an imminent catastrophe. Millennial hopes have also intertwined in recent years with beliefs in UFOs. A number of new religious movements have expressed their conviction that UFOs were to play an apocalyptic or redemptive role. It seems more than likely that millennial beliefs will thrive in the coming decades.
A219
The Rise of Transmillennialism
Jay Gary, World Network of Religious Futurists
In response to "millennial madness" and "God-at-War" theology a new constructive millennialism has emerged, called Transmillennialism. This paper will 1) examine the 20th century context out of which this "covenant eschatology" has grown, 2) consider how Transmillennialism historically brackets eschatology within the world of Second Temple Judaism, 3) trace the history of this new school of millennialism over the last thirty years, and 4) reflect on how this paradigm opens up Christian theology to universal history and societal futures.
A220
Seeing and Being Seen: Italian Catholic Devotional Piety in San Pedro, California
Mary Clark Moschella, Wesley Theological Seminary
This paper analyzes the practice of visual devotional piety as a form of psychological mirroring in two case studies of Italian Catholic immigrants in San Pedro, California. Photographs of the specific art and artifacts in use will be shown. Using socio-cultural analysis as well as theoretical insights from Winnicott and Kohut, I will explore these questions: What happens for the devout when they stare into the face of a statue or image of the Madonna? How does this form of piety work as illusory or transitional experience? How does the Madonna function as mirror? What psycho-spiritual benefits or harm accrue to the devout through the use of these objects? Finally, how is the experience of immigration played out and addressed in this kind of devotion? The immigrants' visual devotions embody and express the paradoxical relationships of which Winnicott spoke--between tradition and innovation, separateness and union.
A220
Jesus As Substitute Self-Object: Kohutian Theory and the Life of St. Francis of Assisi
Lisa M. Cataldo, Union Theological Seminary, New York City
This paper explores the role of religious experience in the transformation of narcissism, illustrating Kohut's theory through the legend of the conversion of St. Francis of Assisi. Kohut proposed that within the analytic setting, specific transference phenomena arise spontaneously, allowing the analyzed to confront infantile grandiose fantasies and unresolved narcissistic wounds. The paper addresses the question of how relationship with a transcendent "other" can serve as the milieu for the activation of transference phenomena as described by Kohut, and result in the transmuting internalization of that other as transformative self-object. Francis' legendary mystical experiences and spiritual poetry serve as the ground of discussion. The story of St. Francis illustrates that religious experience--specifically the ongoing encounter with a transcendent other--can provide the therapeutic milieu in which the transferences described by Kohut can spontaneously arise, and within which pathological narcissism may be transformed into the "cosmic narcissism" of the healthy personality.
A220
"I Do Not Do the Good I Want, But the Evil I Do Not Want Is What I Do:" The Concept of the Vertical Split in Self Psychology in Relation to Christian Conceptions of Good and Evil
Pamela Cooper-White, Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia
The concept of the "vertical split" was first introduced in Kohut's "Two Analyses of Mr. Z." It has lately been the subject of much discussion in self psychology circles. This concept will be examined from within both self psychological and theological perspectives for its usefulness and limitations as a framework for addressing Christian conceptions of good and evil. Questions from a postmodernist, constructivist, relational psychoanalytic framework, will be brought into dialogue with these observations. It is the view of this paper that relational theory offers additionally helpful perspectives on the phenomena of splitting, the clinical experience of evil--particularly in treating trauma--and more generally the inherent multiplicity and complexity of human experience, both conscious and unconscious. Concluding thoughts are offered about a theological anthropology, drawing from contemporary trinitarian and "radical orthodox" theologies to address the human psychological mechanisms of splitting in relation to the problem of theodicy.
A220
The Split Self: A Self Psychological Approach of Two Christian Doctrines of Human Nature
Thandeka, Williams College
Augustine was a being of two minds. His "two wills" at war within himself are an example of the split self Arnold Goldberg describes in his book, Being of Two Minds: The Vertical Split in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy [Hillsdale, NJ: The Analytic Press, 1999]. Is such a self psychological approach to Augustine useful? In my proposed paper, I answer this question affirmatively. This psychological approach, I argue, can help explain why the legacy of Augustine's doctrine of human nature remains so compelling today. It can also help us understand why the alternative doctrine of a reunited human nature proffered by the father of modern Protestant theology, Friedrich Schleiermacher, is such an elusive and difficult doctrine to grasp by minds that interpret splitting as a redemptive act.
A221
"Mine is a House of Order": A Comparative Analysis of Mormon and Focus on the Family's Prescriptive Parenting Literature
Susan Ridgely Bales, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
By analyzing the prescriptive parenting literature either produced by, or sanctioned by, the Mormon Church, as well as literature offered by Focus's parental reading lists, this paper explores how each group's theology, especially their view of children, creates unique family templates from the same biblical blueprint. Although these comparisons don't provide information on life as it is actually lived in either group's homes, they offer interesting insights into their ideals, their shared concerns, and their differing perspectives. Through focusing on issues of parental authority and divinely-ordained gender roles this paper demonstrates that for the process-oriented Mormons the family template resembles that of a corporation, with the father as CEO, while for obedience-centered Focus, the ideal family organization looks more like a benevolent patriarchal dictatorship. Additionally, this paper illustrates the need for scholars to examine more than just scriptural prescriptions when they seek to uncover how different groups conceive of families.
A221
Harry Potter and the Disenchantment of the World
Michael M. Ostling, University of Toronto
Educators and reviewers have credited J.K. Rowling's mega-hit children's series with introducing a new generation of readers to a magical world of wonder; Rowling is regularly compared to C.S. Lewis or J.R.R. Tolkien. At the same time, some Christians have decried the books as portals into the New Age, Wicca, and diabolical magic. Through an examination of the Christian rhetoric on both sides of the debate, and a comparison of the Harry Potter books both to The Lord of the Rings and to historical examples of magic, I hope to show that Rowling's work presents magic-as-technology. The disenchanted magical world of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry reflects secularity in the same way that Tolkien's work reflected his romantic nostalgia for an imagined religious past. Harry Potter's brand of magic thus shows the degree to which wonder has been standardized and commodified in 21st-century consumer society.
A221
Print the Legend: John Ford's Liberty Valence and the Martyr of Columbine
Justin Watson, Lafayette College
John Ford's 1962 film, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, contains the director's summation on the power of legend over fact, "When the legend becomes fact, print the legend." Liberty Valance provide a useful lens through which to view a new legend, the "martyrdom" of Columbine victim Cassie Bernall, who was supposedly shot after answering "Yes" to the question, "Do you believe in God?" Despite the rejection of this account by the police, the story of "the girl who said yes" persists and thrives within the American evangelical community. Why? Perhaps because the threat to meaning represented by the Columbine killings requires an affirmation of God, a source of meaning. The legend of girl who made such an affirmation is too precious to relinquish even when the facts are in doubt.
A221
After Columbine: Demonic Teens on the Internet, God's Martyrs in the Headlines
Sarah Pike, California State University, Chico
Friends of teen assassins Klebold and Harris and families of murdered students memorialized the 1999 Columbine school shootings in religious worlds far removed from each other, while the national news demonized the killers and sanctified their victims. In this paper I argue that if Americans are so concerned about the moral dangers posed to and by teens, it is striking how little anyone listens to what teens have to say. I look at representations of Columbine in the news media and then turn to the ways in which adolescents challenge these media versions of their lives. Evangelical teens that identified with the victims and other adolescents who felt outcast like the killers turned to the Internet to create spaces of mourning and testimony. I discuss music and images at these virtual sites, on-site memorializing at Littleton, Colorado and evangelical teen jamborees that honored the fallen.
A222
Feminist Theology and the Science and Religion Discourse
Lisa L. Stenmark, Graduate Theological Union
While some work has been done on the implications of feminist and ecofeminist philosophies for the science and religion discourse, very little (if any) has been done to examine the contributions of feminist theologies. In this paper, I do just that, using the commitments of feminist theology to make constructive proposals science and religion. Those include: the use of women's experience as the basis for theological reflection, questions of the function and power of language, myth and metaphor (especially models of God and creation), an understanding of existence and God as relational (especially its epistemological, ethical and methodological demands), a critique of idolatry, the Hermeneutics of Suspicion as an interpretive standpoint, and a commitment to Liberative Praxis. I argue that this commitment and the strategies offered by feminist theologies make it possible for religious thinkers to make genuine positive commitments to science and to religious reflection.
A222
Practical Theology as a Feminist Method in Religion and Science
Robin Ficklin-Alred, Emory University
I will begin by examining some commonalities and differences in the assumptions, methods, and commitments of women in the sciences and in religion. I will then turn to a description of practical theology (drawing on Pam Couture, James Fowler and Don Browning), setting it forth as the method used by the theologians cited above, and as a method which is well-suited to feminist, mujerista, womanist, Asian women, and other liberation research programs. I will show that, as a theological method rooted in the concrete and designed to draw together diverse disciplines, practical theology is also particularly appropriate for work in the interdisciplinary field of religion and science. I am not arguing that practical theology is the only feminist method, nor that practical theology is always feminist.
A222
Gender Differences in the Pursuit of Religion and Science
Ann M. Pederson, Augustana College
The more we find out about the functions and mechanisms of cognition, the more we have to give up commonly held assumptions about the way we think. Many presuppositions generally held about gender differences in cognition can be shown as unfounded. On the other hand, statistical surveys seem to suggest that the female genetic disposition tends to feature specific functions of cognition as well as the male genetic disposition. This is not to say that gender differences are clear cut; we cannot assign certain features to either the XX or the XY chromosomic makeup. We will present a survey of recent discoveries of gender differences in cognitions that are statistically relevant and will draw conclusions for the pursuit of dialogue between religion & science. A brief summary of major female thinkers will suggest similarities as well as differences in the approach to the field of religion and science.
A222
Gender Differences in the Pursuit of Religion and Science
Anne Foerst, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The more we find out about the functions and mechanisms of cognition, the more we have to give up commonly held assumptions about the way we think. Many presuppositions generally held about gender differences in cognition can be shown as unfounded. On the other hand, statistical surveys seem to suggest that the female genetic disposition tends to feature specific functions of cognition as well as the male genetic disposition. This is not to say that gender differences are clear cut; we cannot assign certain features to either the XX or the XY chromosomic makeup. We will present a survey of recent discoveries of gender differences in cognitions that are statistically relevant and will draw conclusions for the pursuit of dialogue between religion & science. A brief summary of major female thinkers will suggest similarities as well as differences in the approach to the field of religion and science.
A223
Will the Real Kailas Please Stand Up!: Towards a Theory of Himalayan Pilgrimage
Alexander C. McKay, University of London
Although Tibet's Mount Kailas is commonly described as 'the most sacred place in Asia', this understanding is a British imperial construct dating to the early 1900s. Formerly, the Indian understanding of Kailas, as expressed in texts such as the Mahabharata, was of a sacred land only accessible to renunciates with great ascetic powers. To Tibetans, Kailas is one of around eight equally sacred [Buddhist] mountains. Kailas is not, therefore, privileged in either Hindu or Buddhist traditions. Rather it is part of a much wider, pan-Asian, understanding of sacred mountains. Moreover, there are a number of mountains in the western Himalaya known as 'Kailas'. In addition to Kedernath and Shivling (often known to local inhabitants as 'Kailas'), there are Mount Kailas's in Kinnaur, Kumaon, and Kashmir. This paper presents results of field-work at these 'other' Kailas's, comparing various understandings of the different mountains in order to suggest possible wider theoretical implications.
A223
The Life and Fasting Ritual of dGe slong ma dPal mo: The Experiences of a Leper, Founder of Smyung Gnas, and Transmitter of Buddhist Teachings on Suffering and Renunciation in Tibetan Religious History
Ivette Vargas-O'Bryan, Harvard University
One of the ways in which the Tibetan tradition was able to project central Buddhist teachings on suffering and renunciation was through the lens of the profound and painful experiences of its influential practitioners. In the following study focusing on the Kashmiri Buddhist leper-nun dGe slong ma dPal mo (Gelongma Palmo), certain questions emerge about these central concerns: How can one overcome the limitations of physicality? How can leprosy and fasting help reinforce central Buddhist teachings on suffering and renunciation? How can biographical literature reinforce these teachings in Tibetan Buddhist communities? This study will fill a gap in previous scholarship by examining the hagiographies and ritual texts of Gelongma Palmo specifically, the teachings on the hermeneutics of suffering and renunciation through her experiences of leprosy and a fasting ritual.
A223
Digital Library and the Study of Tibetan Buddhism
David Germano, University of Virginia
My paper will deal with the intellectual, political and technological issues pertaining to the creation of a digital library system and associated "information community" for a geo-culturally defined area, and how these impact on our scholarly analysis and interpretation of Buddhist cultures located in that area. This includes the reproduction, translation, and analysis of Buddhist literature, but also ranges over ethnography, geography and other aspects that constitute a Buddhist culture overall. The specifics will be drawn from work on The Tibetan and Himalayan Digital Library (thdl.org), which focuses on the geo-cultural area of Tibet and associated information community, and hence Tibetan Buddhist culture. It will include a demonstration of each element using digital maps, images, videos, three dimensional models of monastic architecture and so forth, and discussion of the intellectual ramifications of these technological innovations within religious studies.
A223
The Magical Wheel: Mind-Body Relationship in the Bon Tradition and Its Applications in Today's World
Alejandro Chaoul, Rice University
Since at least the tenth century, Tibetan traditions have employed as part of their esoteric practices what in the West is referred to as "mind-body" techniques. My paper focuses in the "Magical Wheel of the Channels and Vital Breath" (rtsa rlung 'phrul 'khor) from the Bon Aural Transmission of Zhang Zhung (Zhang zhung snyan rgyud), Particular attention will be given to the possible benefits of using these mind-body practices as part of a complementary treatment for people with cancer. Together with a group of doctors of the MD Anderson Cancer Center of Houston, I have begun a randomized controlled trial to determine the feasibility, acceptability, and initial efficacy of conducting these exercises with cancer patients. In this study we will also conduct an initial evaluation of whether rtsa rlung 'phrul 'khor practices may help buffer the negative psychological and physiological changes caused by the cancer diagnosis and treatment.
A223
The Dalai Lama and Rangzen: Changing Symbols
Eve L. Mullen, Universitat Hamburg
This paper explores transformations in Tibetan identity in contemporary exile. In reaction to life in exile, Tibetans are innovating a religious identity in which unity and political activism for Tibet are key. The result is creative transformation: what is deemed Tibetan Buddhist by the Tibetans themselves is political activism. The changes can be seen most clearly through the changing meanings given to the rallying symbols of the Dalai Lama and Rangzen. Interviews with and observations on New York's Tibetan transnational population inform the author. Margaret Nowak's work on Tibetan identity in exile in the 1970's provides a starting point for comparisons and contrasts between time periods. The framework of Anthony Giddens provides the basis for identity construction discussions. References are made to current scholarship in these areas, and conclusions are drawn about the symbols within and influences acting upon Tibetan identity.
A224
Charles Wesley's Theological Anthropology: A Song of the Self?
Elaine Robinson, Texas Christian University
This paper reconstructs Charles Wesley's theological anthropology as found in his hymns and sacred poems. First, conceptual metaphor theory is applied to his writings in order to identify and establish the recurring and dominant images, metaphors, and themes which relate to and define his theological anthropology. The question of authorial "voice," as distinguished from the perspective of the hymnody, is then considered by means of literary theory. The conclusion seeks to describe the basic sense of "self" emerging from his sacred verse, the relationship of the human being to God and others, and the ways in which Charles Wesley's doctrine diverges from or coincides with that of John Wesley.
A224
The Campmeeting Holiness Self As Romantic/Sentimental Self
Chris Armstrong, Duke University
Through reading closely their testimonies and hymns, I examine camp meeting holiness Methodists' construal of selfhood (1867-1890). That construal was romantic. That is, holiness adherents sought to realize a unique, supra-conventional, subjectively-deep personality, through securing a single, intimate, exclusive relationship (with Christ). It was also sentimental. That is, holiness people attained this romantic self through reading or hearing narrative "scenes" that used concrete, representational, imagistic language to teach "scripts" for key emotions; they then reconstructed those scenes and their emotions in their imaginations, thereby reshaping or managing their own emotions. That in the Victorian period the romantic and sentimental modes I describe were considered the special (though not exclusive) domain of women, and that the sentimental style in the nineteenth century is today being recovered and anatomized preeminently by scholars of women sentimental novelists, further leads me to ask questions of the genderedness of this particular "Wesleyan self."
A224
Women Preachers Proclaim a Sanctified Self
Susie Stanley, Messiah College
This presentation draws on autobiographies by thirty-four Wesleyan/Holiness women preachers. The analysis incorporates a feminist approach to women's history and also employs autobiographical criticism to examine the relationship between the spiritual self fostered in the Wesleyan/Holiness movement and the gendered construction of self that society sought to impose upon all women. The doctrine of sanctification played a major role in transforming women's understanding of self. Formerly shy women experienced empowerment as a result of sanctification that enabled them to engage in public ministries. Sanctification resulted in a new construction of self, a self no longer plagued by self doubt or fear. Opponents reminded women they were not fulfilling gender role expectations and contended that preaching was unwomanly. Exhibiting holy boldness, women preachers proclaimed a sanctified self which offered an alternative to society's narrow script for women.
A224
Freedom and Identity in Late Nineteenth-Century Methodism
Michael Turner, Vanderbilt University
This essay concentrates on two representative figures of the northern and southern branches of the Methodist Church in the late nineteenth century, Daniel Dennison Whedon and Albert Taylor Bledsoe. My argument is that among these two thinkers, conceptions of existential and political freedoms were interrelated. The former thinker-one of the most important writers and editor of northern Methodism-was an ardent abolitionist, while Bledsoe-a renowned theologian and editor-was an internationally known defender of slavery and southern nationalism. The differing conceptions of human agency held by these men was informed, explicitly and implicitly, by their own struggles with the role of slavery in American culture.
A226
Crossing the Tracks for Social Justice: A College-High School Collaboration
Tina Pippin, Agnes Scott College
This presentation will develop some theoretical and practical frameworks around a model of long-term commitment and collaboration with the community outside the traditional classroom walls and beyond the college. The specific example is a four year old program organized through my Department of Religious Studies in which students and I explore gender justice and human rights education with high school mothers. Using theories of service-learning/experiential education and liberatory pedagogies, I will explore with the audience the differences in this type of work and the traditional model of semester-long internships, along with the ethical possibilities in this collaborative work for mutual social change.
A226
Making the Most of a Good Story: Effective Use of Film As a Teaching Resource for Ethics
Ellen Ott Marshall, Vanderbilt University
Many faculty reach for powerful clips or entire films to give background information to a topic or to provoke discussion. We do this because we have a sense that such materials engage students in a way that more theoretical texts, speculative discussions or even case studies do not. In this paper, however, I suggest that we need to think more carefully and critically about the use of film as a pedagogical tool. When and how do we employ film in the classroom? What kind of supplementary material must we provide so that films become genuine pedagogical tools, as well as, interesting and memorable classroom components? What are the limitations of film as a teaching resource for ethics?
A226
Teaching Ethics Actively: Experiential Learning and Social Justice Action
Fred Glennon, Le Moyne College
This essay/presentation explores the implications of an experiential approach to teaching about social justice. The first part describes experiential learning theory as Dewey, Kolb, and others have developed it. What they suggest is that experience is crucial for all learning, especially about ethics, because it forces students to reformulate what they already know in light of new experiences, Second, I discuss how I implemented this theoretical approach in a senior seminar I teach on Religious Ethics. In that class I required each student to research and act upon a social justice issue, then to make a presentation and write a reflection on that experience. Finally, I discuss the benefits and constraints of this approach. The result of this experience most students reported was that it made the learning more significant than if they had only read about and discussed the issues in the classroom.
A226
The Ethics of Responsibility and Difference: The Relationship between Ethics and Justice in the Undergraduate Classroom
Suzanne Holland, University of Puget Sound
The question of "difference," is one that drives all of my work as a social ethicist: what does it mean to respect those who are "other" from oneself--culturally, sexually, politically, and so on? How does one approach the face of the other from a position, not of rights, but of responsibility, as Emmanuel Levinas insists upon--and what does this mean, concretely, for teaching religious and social ethics? It seems to me that this question of responsibility for the other is, in some ways, at the very root of teaching ethics and social justice. It is the justice question par excellence, so that if students can learn to enter into a dialogical process with this question, I submit that they will be able to formulate coherent positions on most other problems of social justice.
A226
Hearing Each Other into Speech: Teaching Ethics and Social Justice in Genuinely Diverse Communities
Katharine R. Meacham, Mars Hill College
This paper proposes a Whiteheadian version of a virtue ethical theory, with service-learning and classroom pedagogies for teaching social justice. I am the only non-male, non-Baptist, non-ordained member of a Religion and Philosophy department with students who are not accustomed to women like me teaching them anything - much less religion and philosophy. Teaching social justice in the context of folk who do not share ideological, political, economic, and theological assumptions requires a radical openness modeled by both teachers and learners. It means giving voice to silent assumptions and judgments. Using examples from both classroom and service-learning settings, I will explore theory, methodology, and practices that aim at real listening, or, in Nelle Morton's words, "hearing each other into speech."
A227
The Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement of Sri Lanka: Gandhian Discourse and Millenialist Visions in Response to Buddhist Nationalism
George D. Bond, Northwestern University
In the post-colonial era the political and economic climate in Sri Lanka has been controlled by governments that have promoted Sinhala Buddhist Nationalism. The Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement, with its socially engaged Buddhist agenda, has coexisted with these governments and their policies with varying degrees of difficulty. As the ethnic conflict in the country has gotten worse, however, Sarvodaya's philosophical differences with the ruling parties have become more open. Sarvodaya has emerged as the primary peace movement in the country and has put forward a plan for an alternative form of participatory democracy. These programs represent Sarvodaya's dialogue with its Gandhian heritage. A.T. Ariyaratne has declared that Sarvodaya's aim now is to build a new society without political parties and in which the power will rest with a network of self-sufficient village democracies.
A227
Gentle or Harsh? The Practice of Right Speech in Engaged Buddhism
Christopher Queen, Harvard University
The Dalit Buddhist struggle against caste in India has been a war of rhetoric and ritual--protest poetry and posters, book writing and burning, marches and demonstrations. The language is often harsh, polarizing, and disturbing to traditional Buddhists who believe that the Dhamma means "right speech" (sammaa vaacaa), words that are "timely, true, gentle, beneficial, and friendly" (Majjhima Nikaaya 21.11). This paper surveys the practice of right speech in engaged Buddhism today, from Dalit militancy to the non-confrontational discourse of the Dalai Lama and Thich Nhat Hanh. We examine a selection of traditional texts on right speech, including the Abhayaraajakumaara Sutta's advocacy of speech that is timely, true, and beneficial--but possibly "unwelcome and disagreeable" (M 58.8). We propose a "prophetic speech" for engaged Buddhism that avoids both the psychic violence of interpersonal vilification and intergroup polarization, and the harmonizing and potentially narcotizing speech of nondualism and non confrontation.
A227
Buddhist Values and Cambodian Human Rights NGOs
John Marston, Colegio de México
Since 1993 UN-sponsored elections, local NGOs (non-government organizations), largely funded internationally, have rapidly flourished in Cambodia. Among those which have had the clearest social impact have been NGOs involved in programs of human rights education. The emergence of these NGOs has coincided with greater liberty in religious practice, and many explicitly declare as part of their mission the restoration of Buddhist values. Some NGOs have trained Buddhist monks in human rights concepts, hoping that they will achieve currency at grass-roots levels. Observers differ as to whether the Buddhism of these organizations is a conservative influence, redefining "human rights," or whether the human rights agenda changes the nature of Cambodian Buddhism. This paper explores the interface between Buddhism and human rights organizations in Cambodia to explore how larger patterns of social transformation relate at once to change and reinforcement of belief systems.
A227
Justice for All? Engaged Buddhist Avoidance of Justice Language.
Sallie B. King, James Madison University
While they readily use human rights language, contemporary Engaged Buddhists in general avoid using justice language, though frequently called upon to speak in an international forum where Western ethical language dominates. What is the significance of this avoidance? This paper draws primarily upon interviews with Engaged Buddhists and observations of them at work to explore Engaged Buddhist reluctance to use justice language. Issues addressed include: karma as an alternative justice language; and the presence of concepts of impartiality, moral rectitude and corrective justice in Buddhism. Causes of Engaged Buddhist avoidance of justice language include its association, in their view, with retribution, justification of violence and one-sidedness.
A228
The Poetics and Politics of Ritualized Weeping in Early and Medieval Japan
Gary L. Ebersole, University of Missouri, Kansas City
Religious ritual weeping occurs as part of a larger performative complex in which, among other things, hierarchical relationships--social, political, gendered, moral--are displayed. Within the spatio-temporal bounds of ritual, agents attempt to represent these hierarchical relations in their ideal and "natural" or proper form. Ritualized weeping is scripted and stylized; it is not spontaneous, even though the power of ritualized tears often depends on their apparent spontaneity. Ritualized weeping is a performative art form. As such, performers are subject to critical evaluation-both positive and negative--by others on aesthetic grounds and in terms of propriety. This paper will explore the poetics and a politics of ritual weeping in early and medieval Japan. It will illustrate some of the ways changing religious and social values were reflected and contested in specific instances of ritualized weeping.
A228
Productive Tears: Weeping, Water, and the Underworld in Aztec Tradition
Kay A. Read, DePaul University
Weeping has never been explored in the pre-Conquest Nahua or Aztec world, even though this very human activity appears as a frequent element in a variety of ritual contexts. In this ancient world weeping: expressed grief at funerals both for royalty and fallen warriors; sent prayers to deceased, but still powerful royal ancestors; and brought rain both at annual child sacrifices performed during the dry season, and petitioned potent deities for rain during severe drought. I will argue that: 1) ritual tears are more than a purifying expression of grief, for they cosmologically link to the Underworld's fertile waters in both death and the need for rain; 2) weeping represents a salty, destructive "counter-water" necessary to creative production, just as the Basin of Mexico's salty "sea-water" had to flow in appropriate ways in order to grow crops; and 3) metaphorically experiential ritual expressions harnessed these counter-waters effectively.
A228
"Why Do Your Eyes Not Run Like a River?" Ritual Tears in Greek Funerary Traditions
Gay Lynch, Graduate Theological Union
Since the "mists of time" glistening tears, as much a part of lamentation language as words, have flowed within a dense web of ritual boundaries in Greek culture. Ritual weeping is the longest-surviving and most powerful of Greek traditions. Its survival and power as a living form has depended not only upon the ancient and rhetorically complex ritual of which it is a part. Of crucial significance also, in ancient and modern Greek eschatology, are the rich symbolic and efficacious power of shedding tears. The very wellspring of Greek sensibility, ritual tears are an expression of divine essence; they satisfy the dead's thirst, while promoting the earth's fertility; they mediate between the living and the dead by linking disparate realms; they enable the dead to bathe, cook, and make themselves attractive; they carry the dead forward in the stream of life; and they facilitate discourse in pain that constitutes truth.
A228
Holy Tears and Divine Weeping in Rabbinic Literature and Hasidism
Nehemia Polen, Hebrew College
This presentation will explore the theme of human and divine weeping in rabbinic sources, especially as a response to personal or national catastrophe. After surveying the theme's development in the Jewish mystical tradition, we shall examine its use in the homiletic discourses of the hasidic master, Rabbi Kalonymos Shapira of Piaseczna (1889-1943), composed in the Warsaw Ghetto during the Holocaust. Our suggestion is that the theme of divine weeping serves as a faith-full response to suffering which avoids an attempt at theodicy. It also serves to simultaneously affirm the value of individual life and its associated struggle and grief, while at the same time embracing a mystical perspective beyond human individuation. Similarly, human weeping in a religious context serves to respect and honor personal travail and loss, while pointing the way toward the consoling power of shared experience and transcendence.
A229
Women and Confraternity of Miséricordia in the Early Modern Portuguese Empire
Haruko Nawata Ward, Princeton Theological Seminary
Confraternity of Miséricordia was established as an imperial foundation of charity in late medieval Portugal. As the Portuguese seaborne empire spread across the globe in the sixteenth century, it planted the Miséricordia in its major colonial outposts. Missionaries, who were sent under the padroado real (royal patronage), were active in establishing and operating these Miséricordia following the Lisboa model. In this paper, I will argue that even though the system was meant to serve exclusively the pure-blooded Portuguese male communities, in actual life, local women were able to find ways to participate in both having and receiving charity through the Miséricordia. I will examine first the limits of the imperial control of the Miséricordias in Goa, Macao, Bahia, and Nagasaki. Then I will give examples of the creative ways of the local women's participation from each outpost.
A229
Working out the Mission Theory of Charles Henry Brent, Episcopal Bishop of the American Empire in the Philippines, 1901-1917
Arun W. Jones, Princeton Theological Seminary
The annexation of the Philippines in 1898 brought a wave of American Protestant missionaries to the islands, among them Bishop Charles Henry Brent of the Protestant Episcopal Church. Bishop Brent saw himself not only as an Episcopal bishop, but also chief pastor of the Americans and the American empire in the islands. His self-definition grew out of a theory of mission which stressed an identification of the Church with a people or nation. When this mission theory became the basis on which a branch of the Episcopal Church among the mountain people of northern Luzon was begun, however, it gave rise to a church in the Philippines that could and did conflict with the political and economic aims of the American and Japanese empires.
A229
"The British of Asia": The Rise of Japanese Imperialism and Its Impact on American Understandings of Race, Religion, and Missions
Karen Seat, Franklin & Marshall College
By 1900, Japan had achieved many of the trappings by which westerners deemed themselves "civilized" -- such as industrial prosperity and military power -- yet Japan by no means embraced western religious and cultural systems. In this paper, I argue that there were few events that posed more of a challenge to nineteenth-century western assumptions about the interconnections of westernization, Christianization, and civilization than the rise of the Japanese imperialist nation-state. Furthermore, I will show how such ideological challenges profoundly affected the thought and practice of American missionaries in Japan. The American missionary movement in early imperial Japan provides an interesting case study of how missionaries involved in a situation outside of western colonial control were forced to reexamine their commitments (conscious or unconscious) to western political/social/racial dominance, and to more clearly determine how the Christian life differed from western norms of civilization.
A231
Panel: Religious Toleration and Proselytism
William J. Wainwright, University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Presiding
Jean Bethke Elshtain, University of Chicago
Paul J. Griffiths, University of Illinois, Chicago
Philip L. Quinn, University of Notre Dame, Responding
Religions that actively seek converts and are devoted to proselytism generate a puzzle for liberal politics. On the one hand, liberalism's commitment to religious freedom seems to indicate that proselytizing must be tolerated; on the other, proselytizing seems to many to express religiously intolerant attitudes. The puzzle is made sharper by salient features of the current global situation. First, proselytizing religion has historically been associated with colonialism. And second, liberalism itself has fallen on hard times in postmodernist cultures, and prospects for a universal liberal political order are dim. All these factors combine to cast doubt on the liberal ideal of a religiously tolerant global political order. The speakers in this session will address this cluster of issues.
A232
The Individual and the Collective: The Politics of the Psychology of Religion
Jeremy R. Carrette, University of Stirling
The paper attempts to put the discipline of the psychology of religion "on the couch" by examining a problem that goes to the heart of the subject--the binary opposition between the individual and society. The paper starts from the assumption that the psychology of religion is plagued by a "disciplinary amnesia," arguing that the contemporary crisis in the field returns the subject to its earliest memories of foundations. Examining the various cycles of generation in the discipline, the paper will show how the psychology of religion has repeatedly suppressed the problem of the social foundations of individual psychology. By taking the work of Erich Fromm, the paper will show one particular disciplinary cycle, in which political and social realities were integrated into an individual psychology. However, it will show how such work is marginalised in post-War theory and highlight how the subject reflects mechanisms of governmentality in the Western world.
A232
Narrative Psychology Meets Ethics: Toward a Practice of Transformation
Erin E. Dufault-Hunter, University of Southern California
By emphasizing that language itself helps create reality, narrative psychology hopes that it can aid people who need to rewrite their personal history in order to live more adequately (that is, with a greater level of self-consistency, coherence, and comprehensiveness). While helpfully drawing on the ethical implications of recent work on discourse theory, these psychologists fail to appreciate the unique role religion plays in personal transformation. The paper concludes with a proposal for wedding the insights of narrative psychology to that of the narrative ethics, observing along with MacIntyre and others that all traditions must be constantly reconstructed in order to remain viable and transformative. Narrative psychology offers narrative ethicists an operational sense of how personal change happens through storytelling, while those who emphasize religious tradition and the importance of community remind psychologists of the potential dangers of unanchored individualism and strictly academic "knowledges."
A232
Christian Spiritual Formation and Psychological Theory and Practice: Two Contrasting Paradigms
Patricia Brown, Union Institute
Religious communities are adopting a philosophical psychological model based on the human potential movement, abandoning a faith-based model of spiritual development. Faith-based formation is a different and distinct discipline from psychology's developmental perspective. Each contributes to the other, but the properly behavioral and the properly religious dimensions of life are irreducible one to the other. The works of Carl Jung, Erik Erickson, Gwen A. Hawley, James W. Fowler, Joan Borysenko, Robert Kegan and M. Robert Hulholland, C.S. Lewis, and Evelyn Underhill; and newcomers to the field, David Olive; Elizabeth Glenn; Robert Berger; Lynne Babb on mysticism; John Ackerman; Elizabeth Glenn's on shamanism; and Sat-Kaur Khalsa are examined. This paper contributes to the ongoing study and practice of religion and psychology 'on the couch': controversies in the relationship between psychological methods and the study of religion, offering one view of psychology's relevance and applicability in the study of faith-based formation.
A232
Encounters between Psychotherapy and Spiritual Direction: Method, Convergence, and Dialogue
Michael A. Hayes, University of Surrey
This paper proposes that with the advent of post-modernity a new academic disposition had emerged for a discussion on psychotherapy and religion. We are moving from a world-view where rational thought alone was given worth to a worldview where the religious, the numinous, as well as the rational are included in the debate. The role of religion and religious experience has become a legitimate area of debate and discussion. Using discourse analysis the paper presents the results of a study that compares the spiritual experience of psychotherapists trained in a transpersonal school of psychotherapy and spiritual directors trained in Ignatian spiritual direction. These results indicate some common ground in terms of language and spiritual experience, and some differentiation in the structuring of that language and experience. The implications for 'meaningful dialogue' between psychotherapy and spiritual direction are discussed.
A233
Panel: Custodial Rites: The Conservation and Historiography of Pilgrimage Centers in India
Philip Lutgendorf, University of Iowa, Presiding
From the legacy of the ancient sage Kapila to a recent discovery made by a shopkeeper in the village of Bandharusa, from Srisailam in Andhra Pradesh to Maharashtrian and Sikh sites, this panel inquires how religious traditions in India have controlled their past and fashion their present through the practice of pilgrimage. Combining textual studies and ethnographic fieldwork, the panel considers six regional traditions in relation to: location, text and myth for Kapila sites (Jacobsen); the interrelationship of text, sacred geography and pilgrimage (Reddy); the mutual conservation of practice, history, and identity in Sikh (Pinkney) and Varkari (Novetzke) pilgrimage; and the contestation between power and religious place through Hanuman temples in Maharashtra (Brackett) and the emergence of a new pilgrimage site near Uttarkashi (Pennington). Incorporating visual material into themes presented, this panel considers the practice of pilgrimage as a powerful attribute in the assertion of regional and community identity in India.
A234
Regarding the Islamic Polemic behind the De Rationibus Fidei of Saint Thomas
Gabriel Said Reynolds, Yale University
The De rationibus fidei has thus far been studied only for its importance regarding the thought of Thomas Aquinus. The current paper, however, examines the treatise for the witness that it gives to the Islamic theological critique of Christianity. Specifically, precedents are sought within the Qur'ān and polemical literature for the Islamic challenges presented to St. Thomas therein. By so doing, and by examining the historical milieu behind the treatise, it is argued that the challenges stem not only from this literature, but also as the result of actual disputation. The De rationibus fidei can thus be considered a valuable resource for our understanding of medieval Islamic/Christian encounter.
A234
Postmodernity, Postmodernism, and Islam
Behrooz Ghamari-Tabrizi, Georgia State University
Whereas postmodernism -- as incredulity toward all metanarratives -- appear incongruous with religious belief, postmodernity -- as a social condition of fragmentation and time-space compression -- facilitates the formation of new religious identities and communities. Whereas dominant renditions of all religions chastise postmodernism as an extension of the counter-cultural mode of "anything goes," the postmodern condition with its hostility toward modern welfare state provides the most conducive grounds for the emergence of faith-based institutions in civil society. In this paper, I argue that in the case of Islam, these contradictions are manifested differently in Muslim Diaspora communities, on the one hand, and Muslims in the homeland, on the other. This paper compares cases from England and the United State with postrevolutionary debates in Iran.
A234
Rediscovering Islam in a Diasporic World : Islam As Master Narrative in the Philosophical Discourse of Mohammed Arkoun, Fethi Benslama and Abdelkebir Khatibi
Ruth Mas, University of Toronto
The object of this study is to identify an emerging movement in which philosophically inclined Muslim intellectuals from the Maghreb are distinctively rethinking Islamic traditions via an engagement with post-structuralist concepts and resources. The paper will introduce a group of Muslim intellectuals working primarily in French--Mohammed Arkoun, Fethi Benslama and Abdelkebir Khatibi. In this paper, I argue that there is a current of thought whose philosophical focus and intellectual preoccupation is with the notion of plurality, which is distinct from those defined by the varying imaginaries of Islamic nationalist unity. In other words, the rise of modernity cannot be fully equated with the rise of Islamic fundamentalistic thinking and the political reification of the concept of unity. More importantly, the rewriting of plurality into Islamic unity as introduced by these thinkers, is a necessary implication of their hybridity as constituted by their socio-cultural and philosophical interaction with the West.
A234
Virtual Pilgrimage? The Hajj in the Modern Media
Juan E. Campo, University of California, Santa Barbara
This is an examination of the hajj in the modern electronic media. It first analyzes its modern media representations in relation to traditional Islamic ones, then situates the modern representations in relation to agencies that have produced and disseminated them: individual pilgrims, Islamic organizations, media corporations, and governments. Few scholars have considered the hajj in its modern setting as a religious phenomenon that has undergone historical transformation. Moreover, no one has yet looked at the way it has become reembedded in the global print and electronic media, and the implications this has for understanding Islam's place in the (post-)modern world. This paper argues along the lines of Derrida and Taylor that techno-science has created a dialectic within which Islam articulates resistance to globalizing hegemonic forces. Thus, the pilgrimage landscape of the hajj and its rituals are becoming reembedded in new techno-mediascapes that allow for the possibility of performing virtual pilgrimage.
A235
Aesthetics and Redemption: Rosenzweig's Theory of Art and Celan's Piercing of Blindness
Barbara E. Galli, McGill University
With Rosenzweig's theory of art as a resource, I propose a study of aesthetics and redemption in connection with the poems and poetics of Paul Celan (1920-1970), focussing on language as associated with portrayals of blindness in Celan's corpus: the eye, whirling sight, groping, and the lines "there are / still songs to sing beyond / humankind." Although Franz Rosenzweig (1886-1929) was a pre-Shoah thinker, he provides resources for receiving artistic expressions in works of art during and since the Shoah. If we are seriously to consider Rosenzweig's theory, which aims in part to cast down idealism's apotheosization of art, and inadvertently fends off Dostoevsky's unwilling prediction that we would come "to quarrel more fiercely about art than about God," then Shoah-related art works require reviewing, in such a way that they come to be seen neither as anti-redemptive nor as redemptive in any hitherto accounted for sense.
A235
Ornament and Insight in Abraham Heschel's Poetic Rhetoric
Edward K. Kaplan, Brandeis University
Abraham Heschel's rhetoric combines several modes of exposition intended to lead readers to a spiritual insight akin to prophetic inspiration, a form of phenomenological intuition. At the same time he strictly delimits the esthetic from the religious. This paper examines some of Heschel's predominant metaphors, analogies, and comparisons to show how they open consciousness not only to the world's esthetic beauty but lead to an awareness of a transcendent presence within the human experience. The esthetic aspects of Heschel's narrative practice (if not in his theory) become more than mere ornament; they address the reader's unconscious as well as conscious memories, yearnings, and feelings, thus initiating a cognitive process that integrates them. Memory becomes the vehicle of insight and conversion of ordinary consciousness to a theocentric awareness of being an object of God as Subject. In Heschel's literary practice, the esthetic opens us to the religious foundation, to God's presence.
A235
Hermann Cohen and Steven Schwarzchild: Art, Judaism, and the Problem of Style
Zachary Braiterman, Syracuse University
I assess claims made by two different Jewish thinkers, Hermann Cohen and Steven Schwarzchild about the relationship between Judaism and art. I will argue that Jewish philosophical ideas about Judaism, art and idolatry typically hang upon once regnant modern art-styles. Jewish philosophers turn to art-styles at the very moment that they go out of fashion. Cohen's negative understanding of art builds on a subtle understanding of Impressionism but fails to note the Expressionism that was to overwhelm it. Similarly, Schwarzchild's essay works on a modernism that shows no sympathy for the turn to the hyper-real in postmodern art. This speaks to a broader point. Cohen's rejection of all plastic art and Schwarzchild's openness to some art are made to conform to Judaism and its "idea." The attempt to privilege one over the other has obscured the co-priority that always already binds Judaism and art, theory and style.
A235
Poetic Envisioning and the Harmonics of Internal Time Consciousness
Elliot R. Wolfson, New York University
This paper will outline a theory of poetics based on the classical work of medieval kabbalah, Sefer ha-Zohar, the "Book of Enlightenment." Utilizing contemporary hermeneutics, psychoanalysis, literary criticism, and feminist theory, I will attempt to articulate the aesthetics of the poetic envisioning that infuses the imaginary symbolic world of the Castilian kabbalists responsible for the composition of this mystical anthology. I will elucidate the confluence of the apophatic and kataphatic elements in the contemplative vision that informed the life-experience of these kabbalists, and will note the merging of the auditory and ocular dimensions of the poetic dwelling, the seeing of the invisible and the articulation of the ineffable. Finally, I will explore the possibility that a more general aesthetics can be elicited from the zoharic text, which is predicated on locating the beautiful not in the external, spatial form, but in the rhythm and harmonics of internal time consciousness.
A236
Ritualization and the Making of Elijah Muhammad the Religious Prophet
Edward Curtis, Trinity University
Building on previous works that have emphasized sociological and historical explanations for the success of Elijah Muhammad, this paper forges new methodological ground by examining the role of ritual in constructing the prophetic authority of this important religious leader. Paying attention not only to Muhammad's pronouncements, but also to the activities of his followers, the paper will adapt some of Catherine Bell's methodological tools in Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice to show how ritualization "(1) empowers those who more or less control the rite, (2) how their power is also limited and constrained, [and] (3) how ritualization dominates [and empowers] those involved as participants" (211). In so doing, it will analyze the unique synthesis of African-American religion and Islam in NOI ritual, the irreplaceable role of Elijah Muhammad in this ritual complex, the life-changing consequences of ritualization for Muhammad's followers, and the ultimately limited nature of his prophetic authority.
A236
Rivals in the House of the Lord: Daddy Grace and Father Divine on 115th Street
Marie W. Dallam, Temple University
This paper examines the relationship between two controversial twentieth century African-American religious leaders. Those leaders, Daddy Grace and Father Divine, are often seen as having a parallel relationship, especially in terms of their church structure and audience. While Divine and his Peace Mission are commonly thought of as bold and innovative, Grace and the House of Prayer are eschewed as cheap imitations. This paper examines the spirit of rivalry that existed between them, and posits that Grace and Divine must be considered in relation to each other. Only when we see their symbiotic connection are we more fully able to understand the history and success of both churches.
A236
Iyanla Vanzant, Coming to a Church Near You
Darnise C. Martin, Graduate Theological Union
This paper addresses the theme of 20th century popular figures and movements. In particular I want to explore both the popularity of Iyanla Vanzant as a contemporary spiritual leader and the acceptance of New Thought religious teachings that are becoming increasingly visible among many African-American communities. Because Vanzant's message is at least partially rooted in New Thought teachings I contend that one way to gain insight on her success is to view it through the expansion of New Thought ideas into African-American religious consciousness. The paper will be shaped around identifying Vanzant's message, understanding its context and its popularity, and exploring some implications for African-American religious studies. I intend to explore the questions, what does New Thought have to offer to African-Americans, and what are some implications for African-American religious studies and for Black Theology?
A236
Unto the Ancestors: Spiritual Renewal and Cultural Preservation of the Gullah Geechee Peoples
Gail M. Harley, University of South Florida
A direct link to the continent of Africa exists in the Sea Islands of South Carolina, Georgia, and north Florida. These Sea Islands were remote areas without bridges, and the journeys from one island to the others or to the mainland were made by boat. Gullah and Geechee cultures were developed on these coastal islands during the enslavement of Africans in America. Sharing melded experiences from their arduous Middle passages to the New World, their African heritage became not only preserved but flavored with their unique adaptation to the rare and isolated circumstances of life on the Sea Islands. The revitalization of Gullah Geechee culture yields the most significant data in the reconstruction of African heritage. It harbors within its culture potentially untainted avenues for the interpretation of African American religious history through music, ritual, art, drama, storytelling, and the recovery of items of antiquity.
A237
Spirituality and Pedagogy: Faith and Reason in the Age of Assessment
Anita Houck, Saint Mary's College
The perspective of assessment may rightly seem foreign to the practice of teaching spirituality. But if accreditors are asking seminaries to assess their students' spiritual growth, and if colleges are reevaluating the general education courses that often give undergraduate students their only academic exposure to spirituality, then it seems that teachers of spirituality are being nudged, more or less insistently, to articulate more clearly what we seek for our students and expect of ourselves. This paper attempts to approach the teaching of spirituality-and in particular the tension between self-implicating reason and critical reason that arises within it-by drawing on research in educational assessment, pedagogy, and the nature of spirituality as an academic discipline, and it suggests ways teachers of spirituality might survive in the world of assessment with their integrity and vocation intact.
A237
Beyond Recognition: Trauma, Spirituality, and Pedagogy for the Prophetic
Lynn Bridgers, Emory University
Is it possible to use Christian spirituality to frame a pedagogical approach that is both deeply rooted in tradition and committed to the healing and empowerment of traumatized populations? Our churches are beginning to recognize the components necessary for healing in the aftermath of traumatic experience. But beyond simple recognition, survivors need a pedagogy that integrates experience into spirituality, empowering them to move beyond isolation and stigmatization. Through the work of Jose Comblin, Paulo Freire and the lives of the mystic saints, the paper shows how the traumatized can take their place in the heart of Christian tradition, in a greater mystical, prophetic and liberatory tradition. Why? The work of William James and more recently Jerome Kagan both suggest it is imperative for churches to develop such pedagogical responses. To harvest a tremendous potential for spiritual creativity and fresh interpretations of standing traditions, our churches must begin to move beyond recognition.
A237
Spirituality in/of the Classroom
Lucinda Huffaker, Wabash Center
Professors in religious studies and the various theological disciplines, like academics across the landscape of higher education, are struggling to bring the pieces of their scholarly lives together in some meaningful way. This paper suggests that they are giving voice to a spiritual longing and that the language of Christian spirituality accurately describes both the needs expressed and some contexts and processes that effectively address those needs and point the way to a better future for academics. Illustrations are provided of particular spiritual metaphors and concepts, but the purpose of the paper is to bring attention to this broad phenomenon of teachers searching for meaning in their work, and then invite the audience to brainstorm about resources of language and conceptual frameworks within our Christian spiritual tradition, and how such resources might be introduced into the flourishing conversation about "the inner life of teachers."
A237
Toward a Contemplative Pedagogy: Theory and Technique for the Use of Silence in Teaching Spirituality
James J. McGee, Santa Clara University
Educators strive for complementarity between course content and pedagogy. This paper looks at this ideal from the perspective of silence - not merely as a technique to facilitate learning but as a source of knowledge itself. Grounded in the primacy of silence and awe in the understanding of the experience of revelation in prayer, the author posits the need to highlight the place of silence in learning. The author will cite examples from various "classroom" settings to highlight that such a pedagogy is not only applicable to the teaching of spirituality but also to the teaching of various academic disciplines.
A238
God's Love Without God? The Nondifference of God As Mystical Solution of Feuerbach's Antinomy of Love
Roland Faber, University of Vienna
Ludwig Feuerbach's antinomy of love interprets the equation "God is Love" as follows: If God totally is love, God must vanish in this love, or God remains a hidden subject beyond love. In accepting this antinomy, we are forced to renew theology. With mystical theology's talk of "nondifference"-known from Meister Eckhart and Nicolas of Cusa-we discover a genuine tradition understanding God's love beyond the trivial difference the antinomy attacks. In avoiding the pantheistic trap of "difference-less identity" of God and world and Derrida's trap of "différance-less presence" of God in the world, the "in/difference" of difference and nondifference-that God is "in difference" to the world precisely be being "not different" from it and, thus, is not their integration, but their origination-appears as mystical solution of the antinomy: God's love as total expression within the difference of God and the world that God creates.
A238
St. Anselm's Cur Deus Homo: A Nuanced Doctrine of the Love of God
Rachel Reesor, Bluffton College
St. Anselm of Canterbury's very nuanced argument in his Cur Deus Homo? (CDH) provides an illustration of the love of God that is needed today for it is extravagant in its compassion even as it includes the demands of a restorative justice, considering the rights of both the victims of injustice and their offenders - a love that includes suffering and self-sacrifice but does not make self-sacrifice an end. This reading of Anselm's Satisfaction theory of Atonement relies on Anselm scholarship of the past 60 years, which places CDH in the context of Anselm's whole theology in its medieval context and appreciates Anselm's distinctions. It challenges the popular interpretation of CDH inherited from a line that runs through Adolf von Harnack where God is portrayed as a private man whose honor has been offended and who cannot forgive until adequate payment has been made.
A238
Martin Luther's Joyful Exchange: A Trinitarian Theology of the Gift
Barry G. Rasmussen, University of Winnipeg
As part of his prolegomena to a Trinitarian ontology, John Milbank has criticized a tradition that emphasizes the purity of the gift at the expense of the happiness of the giver and the one receiving the gift. The theological, existential and moral problems that arise from such a conception of an abstract gift and giver can only be circumvented through the development of a thoroughly Trinitarian theology and practice of love. This paper will explore how the pre-modern Martin Luther's use of the fröhliche Wechsel might add some insight into a postmodern discussion. For Luther, the gifts of God do not come without the giver. The joyful exchange that takes place between God and humanity in Christ is defined by love.
A239
Telling Tales from Memory: Women, History, and Power
Flora A. Keshgegian, Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest
This paper brings together two conversations within feminist theory and religious reflection to shed light on the dynamics of power in relation to cultural memory. One conversation/debate within the field of women's history concerns its nature and purposes. The other is among feminist and other theological voices arguing for cultural memory for the sake of emancipation. On the one side are voices which focus on historical struggle for power as the locus of emancipatory interest. On the other side are those more concerned with historical narrative for the purpose of naming and claiming distinctive cultural identities, located in gender and/or race, ethnicity or some other identifier. Cutting across all these approaches is a concern for cultural memory as emancipatory and, therefore, coherent and purposive. The question then becomes not what is the purpose of women's history, but how to envision telling tales of power which do not demand a delimiting coherence.
A239
Re-membering Jewish Ethics: Gender, Modern Jewish Philosophy, and the Shoah
Deidre Butler, Concordia University
This paper proposes an agenda for the development of a post-Holocaust Jewish feminist ethic by engaging in a dialogue with modern Jewish philosophical ethics. Incorporating modern Jewish philosophical responses to the Shoah, feminist theory, Jewish feminist thought and the history of women and the Holocaust, this ethical model offers a corrective for Jewish feminism's failure to respond adequately to the Holocaust as well as for modern Jewish philosophy's distortive inability to include feminist voices within its discourse. More importantly, it exposes the pitfalls of keeping these discourses distinct. Jewish feminist and post-Holocaust ethics must be framed as mutually upholding each other. Each ethical discourse needs to be able to authentically engage the concerns, questions and challenges which inevitably arise. Their complimentary interests in justice, abuse of power, respect for the integrity of the individual and concern for Jewish continuity, suggest not merely common ground but an inviolate and vital connection.
A239
Telling Stories: Trauma and the Writing of Feminist Theology
Susan M. St. Ville, University of Notre Dame
This paper explores implications of the use of trauma theory for the writing of feminist theology. To do so, the paper examines Joan Scott's "The Evidence of Experience" and Cathy Caruth's explorations of narratives of trauma. Of central concern are questions entailed in the formal production of feminist theological texts, theological method and feminist historical retrieval.
A240
Panel: Engaging Sodom: Responses to Mark D. Jordan's The Silence of Sodom: Homosexuality in Modern Catholicism
Jay E. Johnson, Richmond, CA, Presiding
Donald L. Boisvert, Concordia University
Robert E. Goss, Webster University
Mary E. Hunt, Women's Alliance for Theology, Ethics, and Ritual
Edward J. Ingebretsen, Georgetown University
This panel explores the themes and questions raised in Mark D. Jordan's groundbreaking book, The Silence of Sodom: Homosexuality in Modern Catholicism. Jordan argues persuasively for a reading of Catholic clerical culture as both homoerotic and campy. His contention is that Roman Catholic theological discourse, through a series of deliberate rhetorical devices, effectively "silences" homosexuality within the Church, while at the same time opening up a vast panoply of performative possibilities for its energetic expression in, among other places, Catholic liturgical and cultic life. Panelists will respond to the author's arguments and observations. The author will be present to respond.
A241
Kamiari-sai in the Month of Kan'nazuki
Takeshi Kimura, Yamaguchi University
Kamiari-sa (Shinto festival of the kamis' presence) in the month of Kan'nazuki (month of kamis' absence). The Kamiari-sai is performed in the Izumo region in the eleventh month (Kan'nazuki) of the lunar calendar. This festival is said to be an occasion when all kamis (except Amaterasu) go and gather in Izumo. I investigate the history of this festival and the unique character of the priestly family which claims its ancestry back to Ameno-hohi-no-mikoto and maintains the rituals associated with the notion of death, which is rather unique. Okuninushi at the Izumo shrine is the master of both the otherworld and the living world. At the Sata Shrine, it is said that all kamis gather to mourn the death of Izanami-no-mikoto, the mother of all kamis.
A241
Court Ranks for Local Tutelary Shrines: The Spread of Yoshida Shinto in Mid-Tokugawa Society
Hiromi Maeda, Harvard University
While scholars generally agree that Shinto shrines' strong ties with imperial authority were formed as a product of Meiji ideology, few studies address how shrines were related to imperial authority before Meiji. This paper examines the relationship between imperial authority and local Shinto shrines by scrutinizing the spread of Yoshida Shinto practices in agrarian villages in 18th-century Japan. The Yoshida house, part of the imperial court, issued by its own authority pseudo-court ranks and marketed them among local tutelary shrines. While the spread of such ranks enabled the Yoshida house to reinforce its authority over local shrines, Yoshida responded to village leaders' needs to establish the identity of local tutelary shrines: what their local deities were, who controlled the shrines, and what rituals were appropriate to them. This paper will argue that imperial authority mediated by the Yoshida house had significant impact on the institutional development of local shrines.
A241
"The Profoundest Bow": The 1890 Imperial Rescript on Education and the Construction of Imperial Divinity
Jonathan Stockdale, University of Chicago
Scholars of modern Japanese religion have rightly linked the Imperial Rescript on Education of 1890 with the Meiji government's project to foster reverence for the emperor and the imperial ancestors. Yet it is still commonplace to find historians asserting that the creation of rituals surrounding the rescript led organically to the growth of sentiments of affinity toward the emperor among the populace. In this paper, I will trace the development of religious elements involving the Rescript as part of a project which promoted the emperor within a Shinto idiom as a divine source of public morality and virtue. However, in place of theories which see a direct relation between the performance of ritual and the inculcation of belief, I will locate the ritualization of the Rescript within the attempt by the Meiji government to enforce a public transcript, utilizing James Scott's theories of public and hidden transcripts of power.
A241
Amaterasu-O-Mi-Kami: Great Ancestor of the Emperor and Mother of the Japanese Nation
Susan G. Carter, California Institute of Integral Studies
Of the world's main religions, only in Shinto is a goddess, Amaterasu-O-mi-kami, publicly and formally worshipped by a ruling sovereign, the emperor of Japan. This paper explores why Amaterasu-O-mi-kami came forward in female form, came to be the Yamato clan's tutelary kami (deity), and still survives into the present. This study also explores Amaterasu-O-mi-kami's continuing social, political, and religious influence with a focus on the potential import for the imperial family and the Japanese people today. The hypothesis is set forth that the matristic aspects of Japan's prehistoric culture provided fertile ground for the myth of Amaterasu-O-mi-kami and her emergence in female form in early history. Her continuing spiritual reign and survival today, in part, can be attributed to the remaining characteristics of this earlier culture and to the political success of the Yamato clan, who came to be the ruling imperial family--the longest continuous reigning family in the world.
A242
Identity Politics and the Politics of Identification: Residential Schools and Native Canadian Writers
Jamie S. Scott, York University
Christian churches face bankruptcy paying legal reparations for abuses suffered by Native Canadian children in the Residential School system, while leaders of the First Nations Assembly talk about a South African-style Truth and Reconciliation Commission to air these issues. This paper argues that the work of such Native Canadian writers as Jane Willis, John Tootoosis, Jeannette Armstrong, Basil Johnston and Tomson Highway helps to map the ground upon which such a conversation might take place. Such Native voices speak from a position of identity politics, but they also implicate readers in a politics of identification which passionately (literally, "co-sufferingly") recreates memories of suffering to engender compassionate (literally, "co-suffering") responses from non-Native readers. Itself a matter of recompense, with resonances both in Native traditions of sacrificial reciprocity and in Christian doctrines of atonement, such identification in suffering creates the conditions of possibility for more concrete forms of reparation.
A242
Dear America, My Heart is Not on the Ground: Semiotic Repatriation and the Boarding School Experience
Laura E. Donaldson, Cornell University
This presentation articulates the concept of semiotic repatriation by examining a contemporary case study: My Heart is on the Ground, a novel for young adults published in the "Dear America" series of Scholastic Press. Riddled with historical inaccuracies and stereotypical representations, this alleged diary of a young Lakota girl sent to Carlisle Indian School also uses names taken from actual gravestones in the school cemetery for many of its main characters. In the context of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), "repatriation" refers to the return of sacred objects or other "cultural patrimony" from museums and collections to their home communities. Given the flagrant disregard of American Indian peoples by such institutions as Scholastic Press, however, the notion of repatriation needs to be expanded.
A242
Sweating in the Joint: Native American Sweat Lodge Practice in Prison
Emily Brault, Vanderbilt University
Indigenous peoples are over-represented in American and Canadian prisons alike. As Luana Ross (1998) notes, such high crime rates are not the result of individual behavior alone but originate socially and historically from a context of colonization and oppressive race/ethnic relations. I argue that rehabilitation of natives in prison must also involve rehabilitation of culture. One means through which this is being done is through the practice of the sweat lodge ritual by natives in prison. The purpose of this paper is to explore this practice, particularly in the context of a maximum-medium security prison in the Midwest where the Native American men incarcerated there gather to sweat once a week. Through interview and research, I propose that these men are not merely exercising their "freedom of religion" but are also reclaiming cultural forms for personal and cultural renewal and healing and participating in personal, cultural, and political resistance.
A242
Indigenous States of Confinement: Ex-slave Perspectives on Southeastern Indian Slavery
Justine Smith, Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary
Slavery was an issue of confinement that dominated the politico-economic-historical landscapes of most southeastern Native nations and yet has received relatively little analysis. Research that does exist predominantly focuses on the influence of white slavery upon indigenous peoples or on the role of Native slaveholders. This study seeks to balance the scholarship dealing with slavery in southeastern Native nations, particularly the Cherokee Nation, by reevaluating the institution of slavery from the slaves' point of view. Drawing from ex-slave interviews recorded in the Works Progress Administration (WPA) Narratives, I will offer an alternative portrayal of slavery within southeastern Native nations from the vantage point of slaves. Such a portrayal counters accounts given by Theda Perdue and Annie Abel that often border on apology for Native slaveholders.
A243
Suma Ching Hai: Commerce, Image, and Femininity in a New Syncretic Movement
Edward A. Irons, Graduate Theological Union
The international movement centered around Suma (Supreme Master) Ching Hai has spread roots in a dozen countries from Asia to Europe, America, and Latin America. She has recruited a dedicated cadre of hard-working, educated disciples. In recent years a more overtly engaged, personal style has emerged centered around her ever-evolving public image, which appears to change by the month as she is pictured in multiple fashions and changing hair styles and colors. She represents, in fact, a feminine ideal at odds with most traditional religious imagery. Group activities now often include participation in small-scale business pursuits as well as highly-publicized philanthropy. This paper looks at the rise of Ching Hai, the reasons for her appeal to members, and the key doctrines of the group.
A243
Not All Sweetness and Light: The Controversy over Sukyo Mahikari outside Japan
Paul Alan Laughlin, Otterbein College
It is not unusual for one of the new religions of Japan to raise suspicions and cause controversy in its native land, especially among government officials and the press. It is much less common for one of them to spawn a profoundly negative reaction in other countries, particularly among non-Japanese former adherents. Yet, Sukyo Mahikari, a quasi-monotheistic religion with an emphasis on healing founded in the 1970s, has done just that in virtually every foreign land that it has touched, including Australia, the Americas, Africa, and Europe. This paper uses information and impressions obtained at the religion's World Shrine in Takayama as well as testimonies of current and former members to account for this phenomenon in light of the related Sekai Mahikari Bunmei Kyodan and the independent Seicho-no-Ie, which are likewise new religions with a healing emphasis, missionary zeal, and international success, but with little or no
A243
Socially Engaged Buddhism? Asian and American Sources of an Emergent Religious Tradition
James E. Deitrick, University of Central Arkansas
Socially engaged Buddhism (SEB) is the product of efforts by Asian and Western Buddhists to delineate Buddhism's relevance for contemporary social problems. This paper examines the relationship of SEB in the U.S. to traditional Buddhist and mainstream American religious social ethics. While there can be no doubt that both have contributed to the formation of this movement, the focus of this paper is on the nature and degree of the influence of each. Using the theory of Areligious creolization@ developed by Stephen ProtheroBwhich distinguishes between the deeper Agrammatical@ structures of religions and their more superficial Alexical@ elementsBI suggest that SEB in the U.S. can best be understood as something akin to a Acreole faith,@ blending relatively superficial Alexical@ elements of Buddhism with a more typically American Agrammatical@ structure, and thus owes more to the American religious discourse in which it has grown than to traditional Buddhist sources.
A243
Why Falun Gong? A Report to the Academy on an Emerging Religious Movement
Craig A. Burgdoff, Syracuse University
Little academic analysis of Falun Gong or founder Li Hongzi as religious phenomena has been published. Attention has instead focused upon Falun Gong as a human rights issue. I will argue that Falun Gong warrants scholarly attention as an important emerging religious movement in addition to concerns about human rights abuses in China. My presentation will consist of three parts. First, I will discuss the socio-religious factors that have fueled the popular success and appeal that now makes the movement a danger to the state. Second, I will discuss the human rights issues and political actions that have followed the official ban of Falun Gong. Third, and most important, I will sketch out the foundational categories and beliefs behind Falun Gong practice. I will argue that scholarly attention should go beyond the popular tendency to situate Falun Gong within the context of human rights while ignoring its rich socio-religious content.
A244
Nussbaum's Therapy of Desire: Ethics and Epistemology in Augustine, Eriugena, and Anselm
Willemien Otten, Utrecht University
With her study on the therapy of desire Martha Nussbaum has found a unique way to unlock difficult texts of ancient philosophy long considered obscure. To put it superficially, Stoic and/or Neoplatonic texts can be seen as a kind of ancient self-help books. The question with which this paper is concerned is to see to what extent this idea of "the therapy of desire" can be used to unlock Christian texts as well. While things are relatively straightforward in Augustine, whose exegesis circles famously around the command to love God and neighbor, the situation is more complex in early medieval authors such as John the Scot Eriugena, who expands the reading of canonical Scripture with cosmological ideas derived from Greek Christian-Platonic authors, and Anselm, for whom the monastic community organized around the Benedictine Rule functions as a spiritual laboratory for the church at large.
A245
Hope Before Knowledge: Rorty and the Messianic
Tirdad Derakhshani, University of Pennsylvania
Rorty has stated that we put "hope before knowledge" in our self-descriptions. My paper argues that Rorty's privileging of ethical concerns over epistemological ones is a complement to the post-structuralist ethical and religious philosophy advocated by Levinas and Derrida. Drawing on Derrida's notion of the "Justice to come" and Levinas' analysis of the "eschatology without hope" opened up by the absolute responsibility to the Other, I argue that Rorty's pragmatism partially repeats a messianic structure in which "fuzzy" expressions of hope are the guides to action. Yet, Rorty's resistance to the "quasi-religious" and gothic overtones of Derridean and Levinasian language betrays a lack of appreciation for the radicalism of the messianic model of futurity. I argue that Rorty's ethics suffers from a triumphalism and an over-estimation of present structures in lieu of the restless view of futurity that impels us to resist the temptation to good conscience.
A245
Breaking Habits: Whitehead and Butler As Theological Opportunity
Christina Hutchins, Graduate Theological Union
We live in an era in which the serviceability of habits of thought that sediment oppositional dualities has been ruptured: the environmental crisis rends a nature/culture opposition obsolete; humans kill one another over human/divine oppositions reified as adversarial religious identities; and, the fluid, generative relations of human sexuality exceed the man/woman and homo/heterosexual oppositions through which we legislate and institutionalize our lives. A conjunction of American pragmatist/process thought and continental-influenced philosophies offers unique resources that simultaneously break insufficient habits of thought and advance novel and dynamic strategies pivotal to contemporary theologies. Bringing together A. N. Whitehead's pragmatic process metaphysics and Judith Butler's Derridian/Foucaultian postmodernism, this paper outlines the spectrum of methodological commonalties (e.g. moves from 'subject' to 'subjectivities,' from 'substance' to 'relation/event') and contrasts (e.g. uses of 'universal' and 'particular') as opportunities this mingling opens for Christian theologies, concluding with a glimpse at a particularly productive alliance.
A246
Newbigin on Socio-Cultural Engagement
Guenther Haas, Redeemer College
This paper examines the distinct model of contextualization that Newbigin develops for the relationship between gospel, church, and culture, and argues that it constitutes a positive contribution to the missionary task of the church in Western society. He employs it for the church's calling to engage in cross-cultural communication of the gospel to its culture. Newbigin attempts to forge a synthesis between the Anabaptist and Reformed models for cultural engagement, because he believes that each model has strengths to contribute to this task, and each has weaknesses that the other can overcome. This paper gives an exposition of Newbigin's synthesis, and evaluates its strengths and weaknesses. It points out some problems in the synthesis, and it gives some positive suggestions on how to solve them. But the overall argument is that Newbigin's work on socio-cultural engagement is a significant contribution to guide the church in ongoing cultural engagement.
A246
What Contemporary Reformed Christians Can Learn from the Sacramental Theologies of John Williamson Nevin and Lesslie Newbigin
Scott Collins-Jones, Pittsburgh Theological Seminary
There are remarkable similarities between the lives of John Williamson Nevin, the 19th century liturgical reformer of Mercersburg, and Lesslie Newbigin, the 20th century missionary bishop and ecumenist. Both switched ecclesiastical homes in their adult lives, each offering their respective communions theological leadership, particularly where their churches' worship and liturgical lives were concerned. Both also held to a high view of the sacraments. Eschewing both memorialist and magical perspectives, Nevin and Newbigin argued that in baptism and the Eucharist believers are really united to Christ and to one another in a mystical way. This paper will argue that through engagement with the sacramental theology of Nevin and Newbigin, Reformed Christians in Mainline Protestant denominations might be able to develop sacramental theologies and practices that are both thoroughly catholic and distinctively Reformed.
A246
Lesslie Newbigin and Hindu-Christian Dialogue: A Decided Ambivalence
Robert A. Robinson, Christian Studies Center
Based in part on this writer's monograph Christians Meeting Hindus: an Analysis and Theological Critique of the Hindu-Christian Encounter in India, the paper engages in critical analysis of three related phenomena. (1) Newbigin's principled ambivalence towards the formal Hindu-Christian encounter--by comparison with the principled engagement of many others. (2) His failure to engage the Hindu world with the degree of vigour and rigour later displayed in his critique of post-Enlightenment modernity. (3) His reluctance to follow Indian colleagues in engaging in Hindu-Christian encounter in depth. The paper then outlines: (4) the potential contribution of Newbigin's critique to the continuing Hindu-Christian dialogue; (5) potential gains for a Newbigin perspective from such dialogue. In other words, Newbigin's decided (that is, principled) ambivalence toward the concrete Hindu-Christian encounter exemplifies both strengths and weaknesses in aspects of his theology and praxis.
A247
Redeeming the Holocaust: Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation
Sara Kviat Bloch, University of California, Santa Barbara
Founded by Steven Spielberg in 1994 as a non-profit organization dedicated to collecting eyewitness accounts of the Holocaust worldwide, Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation has at this time recorded over 50,000 videotaped interviews. The Shoah Foundation sees as its purpose the recording of individuals' memories of the Holocaust in order to create an interactive historical archive, but in the process, the Shoah Foundation is imposing utopian structures on the interview format which privilege a narrative in which the hero, the happy ending, and tales of survival constitute the redemptive framework. This paper will discuss the myth of redemption as articulated by the Shoah Foundation and the ways in which the Shoah Foundation embraces digital multimedia technology to an extent where it becomes an integrated part of the redemptive promise in order to explore the construction and reconstruction of Holocaust memory in visual culture.
A247
Gustaf Aulén Meets Ripley, Bess and Babette: Redemptive Themes in Contemporary Film
Carl Reinhold Bråkenhielm, Uppsala University
The presentation is a comparative analysis of redemptive themes in Alien (1979), Aliens (1986), Breaking the Waves (1996) and Babette´s Feast (1989). I will explore the redemptive themes in these films in the perspective of Christus Victor (1931) by the Swedish theologian Gustaf Aulén. Auléns famous typology sheds unexpected light on these films, but it stands in need of a secularized reformulation. Central in the films is the question what stands in the way of community between humans - not primarily between humans and God. Is it lust for power through science and technology (as in the Alien-saga), the rigid laws of retribution (as in Breaking the Waves) or human hardness of heart (as in Babette´s Feast)? The heroines share a remarkable solidarity with the weak, but their acts of self-renunciation are open both to secular and religious interpretations.
A247
Blessed Broken Bodies: Exploring Redemption in Brazilian and Danish Film
Jeanette Reedy Solano, University of Southern California
I focus specifically on the theme of redemption as it is presented in two very different films: Walter Sales' moving Central Station (1998) from Brazil and Dane Lars Von Trier's haunting Breaking the Waves (1996). The former provides us with a tale of dual redemption while the latter film reinterprets the power of bodily redemption as Bess uses her body to broker salvation and healing for her paralyzed husband. Both these films force the viewer to critique traditional notions of redemption and revision alternatives. Both have broken women's bodies as pivotal symbols/events in the story and both affirm feminist theology's emphasis on this this-worldly redemption, rather than an eschatological disembodied reunion with God in the heavenly realms. Tracing these similarities and differences, as well as clarifying and challenging the theological statements made within the films are my main goals.
A247
Plagiarizing Redemption: Finding Forrester in a Glass Darkly
Crystal Downing, Messiah College
Gus VanSant's Finding Forrester redeems plagiarism from its modernist damnation by reinscribing it as the intertextuality necessary for human transformation to occur. The film visualizes the concept of intertextuality by including repeated shots taken through reflective glass, such that characters talking within the "mise en scène" are accompanied by faint imagesof bodies which are beyond the frame of audience perception, implying, I will argue, that redemption is inevitably tied to the presence of the Other.
A247
Redemption in the Film Fight Club: Embracing the Shadow Side
Donna Yarri, Alvernia College
In the movie Fight Club, redemption is portrayed in Jungian terms, in which human wholeness, or salvation, can only come to fruition by an embracing and accepting of those less desirable aspects and tendencies of one's personality. Redemption is understood, then, not as the successful fight against these evil tendencies as much as in the refusal to fight against that which one truly knows one is capable of. This paper will analyze the lead character's path to redemption by exploring his progress toward redemption, the symbols of this redemption, the actual meaning of redemption, and the fruits of this redemption. The underground fight club itself simply becomes a symbolic representation of the struggle against evil within each human breast, a struggle which, according to the film, can only be overcome by an acceptance of that which one finds morally reprehensible within one's self.
A248
Walking the Way of the Cross: German Places, Church Traditions, and Holocaust Memories
Tania Oldenhage, Mount Union College
Many Germans have begun to remember the crimes of the Holocaust by recovering local histories of anti-Jewish violence. These efforts are crucial because they force especially young Germans to integrate the events of the Holocaust into their understanding of Heimat. Commemorative walks are typical of such efforts which lead German citizens through the streets of their hometowns, in order to learn the names of Jewish families that once were part of the community. In this paper, I will examine a variation of such a commemorative walk, the annual common church practice of "The Way of the Cross" which has recently been informed by Holocaust memories. By drawing from the work of James Young I will explore the complicated relationships between places, traditions and Holocaust memories.
A248
Remembrance, Contestation, Excavation: The Work Of Memory in Oklahoma City, the Washita Battlefield, and the Tulsa Race Riot
Edward Tabor Linenthal, University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh
This presentation will focus on three memory projects underway in the state of Oklahoma, the intense and complex public commemoration of the Oklahoma City bombing, the ongoing controversy over George A. Custer's attack on Black Kettle's Cheyenne village on the Washita, battle or massacre, and the significance of a special commission's report on memorial possibilities in remembrance of the Tulsa Race Riot.
A248
Indigenous Traditions, Alien Abductions: Creolized and Globalized Memory in South Africa
David S. Chidester, University of Cape Town
One of the stated intentions of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission was to produce a shared memory, a collective reckoning of the past that would facilitate personal healing, social transformation, and nation-building. This paper explores two features of the shifting terrain of memory in a post-apartheid South Africa. (1) A new local space of memory is recasting indigeneity as essentially multicultural, recalling creolization throughout South African history. (2) Local memory has been globalized in new and unexpected ways. Statutory commissions translate memory into money, monetarizing the values of life, land, and human rights, though reparations are called "unpayable debts to the past" due to uncontrollable global market forces. Finally, the paper examines the creolizing, globalizing space of memory in the work of Credo Mutwa, guardian of indigenous Zulu tradition, who remembers a past remembered perhaps by no one else but also remembers being abducted by aliens from outer space.
A249
Spiritual Practice or Evil Cult? Comprehending Falungong in the Context of China's Religious Policy
Zhonghu Yan, University of Toronto
Since a group of Falungong followers "besieged" Zhongnanhai, the compound of Beijing's political center in April 1999, there have been an increasing number of reports in the Western media of this movement sometimes called "spiritual practice" or, to follow the Chinese government's most recent label, "evil cult." This paper will argue that in order to understand Falongong properly, it is necessary to examine China's religious policy especially in the last two decades. While general discussions on human rights in the Chinese context are helpful, a sharper understanding of Falungong requires a focused study on the right to freedom of religion as the government would conceive and allow it.
A249
Your Freedom When It Loses Its Fetters Becomes Itself the Fetter of a Greater Freedom: Implementation of Religious Freedom Laws in South Asia
Shelini Harris, Emory University
In this paper I argue that the implementation of certain human rights laws based on interpretations that ignore the historical and social structural contexts that continue to destroy the freedoms of the majority of the poor, can create freedom that actually fetter many other freedoms, some which may be more fundamental to the survival of those most in need of protection. To illustrate this I use the example of Sri Lanka, to show that given the past colonial and current neo-colonial impositions that have been responsible for the repression of alternative values and knowledge, the claims for greater freedoms by certain Christian groups that represent the dominant forms of knowledge, could indicate further loss of freedoms for the rest.
A249
The U. S. Implementation of Religious Freedom: The International Religious Freedom Act in India
Laurie A. Cozad, University of Mississippi
In 1998, the United States Congress passed into law the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA). While the IRFA emphasizes its universal orientation, it is nevertheless a piece of U. S. legislation and was first conceived of as a means for protecting the international religious freedom of Christians. It is therefore interesting to examine the IRFA in relation to a country such as India, for compared to the U. S., India was founded on very different principles concerning the relationship between religion and politics, and as a result has experienced a higher degree of interaction between these two realms. Thus, the purpose of this presentation is to examine the way in which the Commission on International Religious Freedom has contextualized India-particularly the rise of the Bharatiya Janata Party and the armed conflict in Kashmir-to determine whether or not the U.S. is imposing 'the American way' in its quest for religious freedom.
A249
From East to West, North to South: The Contribution of the European Convention on Human Rights to Religious Freedom in Europe and Beyond
Anna Doswell, University of Derby
The aim of this paper is to assess the contribution of European Convention of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms 1950 to meaning, scope and application of freedom or religion in Article 9 across Europe and beyond. The European Court of Human Rights is at the centre of an expanding, but culturally, politically and economically diverse Europe. However, few complaints of Article 9 violations have been brought or upheld. The territorial application of the Convention would suggest that Article 9's rights are needed, particularly given the absence of any specific protection for minority rights in the Convention. How are the contributions of Article 9 and the limited, though powerfully expressed pronouncements of the European Court of Human Rights to be assessed in an expanding but diverse European family of states?
A254
Panel: Teaching and Learning As Transformation: A Discussion of the American Association for Higher Education's Service Learning and Religious Studies
Joseph A. Favazza, Rhodes College, Presiding
F. Michael McLain, Rhodes College, Presiding
Elizabeth M. Bounds, Emory University
Raymond B. Williams, Wabash College
Charles R. Strain, DePaul University
Panelists will discuss Service Learning and Religious Studies, edited by Richard Devine, Joseph Favazza and F. Michael McLain and published in the American Association of Higher Education Series on Service-Learning and the Disciplines. Discussion will focus on issues connected with the use of service-learning in religious studies, such as service and the "other," service and the nature of the discipline, service and institutional mission, best practices in the use of service-learning and the like. The panel include reviewers and responses by contributors to the volume.
A255
The Maitreya Project: A Case Study in Transnational Tibetan Buddhism
Abraham Zablocki, Cornell University
This paper examines the Maitreya Projects, the planned construction of the world's tallest statue in Bodh Gaya, India. The paper analyzes the transnational character of contemporary Tibetan Buddhism by exploring a) how the Project has relied on an organizational structure derived from modern corporate capitalism; b) how the Project has utilized cutting-edge technology in its design, and how this has contribut4ed to a sense of the Project's "modern-ness;" and c) how the Project has depended almost entirely on funding from Taiwan, and how this exemplifies the rapidly growing importance of (ethnic) Chinese patronage throughout the Tibetan Buddhist world. Finally, the paper examines both local and international opposition to the project.
A255
The Sahā Triad As a New Buddhist Pattern of Cultic Devotion: Image Worship and Restructuring Religious Consciousness in Modern Taiwan
Zhi-Ru Ng, Pomona College
This paper studies an emerging vogue of image worship in Taiwan centered around a new configuration of Buddhist triad that shows Buddha Śākyamuni flanked by Bodhisattvas Avalokiteśvara and Kṣitigarbha. This so-called "Sahā Triad" originated with the Ciji organization, a Buddhist charity movement that has literally overtaken the religious scenario of Taiwan in the last two decades or more. This paper proposes that the emergence of the Sahā Triad should be understood within the larger intellectual trend that promotes "Humanistic Buddhism." The Sahā Triad, this paper argues, functions as the visual imagery that concretizes and translates the discourse of Humanistic Buddhism into material objects of religious piety. In addition, worship of the Sahā Triad may also be regarded as a specific religious response to the socio-political upheavals that modern Taiwanese are facing.
A255
The Shingon Ritsu School and the Hannyaji Monju Cult: Image, Economy, and Magic
David Quinter, Stanford University
The Shingon Ritsu school was central to the revival of Nara temples in the Kamakura period (1185-1333). The school's promotion of images and relics associated with various saints and deities, including Monju, helped establish cultic centers for its fundraising and restoration efforts. This paper translates and analyzes two votive texts dedicating Monju and attendant figures as part of the Hannyaji restoration. These texts and their context unveil the rich interplay between the school's ideals and its symbolic and material economy: Monju and the Shingon Ritsu school representing the bodhisattva offer outcasts "skillful means" for transforming their karma. In turn, the socially marginalized afford the school skillful means for establishing its socio-economic role, a role accommodating yet depending on class differences. By examining scholarly and self-images of Shingon Ritsu monks and the Hannyaji Monju cult, I will illustrate a distinctive Shingon Ritsu juxtaposition of egalitarian and hierarchical views and practices.
A255
The Maṇi-yāna: A Medieval Tibetan Unification Discourse from Guru Chos-kyi dbang-phyug
Bryan Phillips, University of Virginia
This presentation features a 13th century fusion of horizons between the Mahāyāna and Tantric forms of Buddhism in Tibet, in which Mahāyāna compassion is advocated as the most profound quality of merit. Jurisdictional contestations, sectarian rivalries, and the imminent threat of Mongol invasion had all contributed to unprecedented soci estrangement, but out of this turmoil Gury Chos-kyi dgang-phyug [1212-1270] initiated a syncretic system which enfolded every Buddhist tantric vehicle of his time--even his own sect's Great Consummation (rDzogs-chen)--under the aegis of Avalokiteśvara-Mahākāruṇika. Hence Chos-dbang's innovative theology is an potent example of both doxographic interpolation and concession during the Latter Diffusion in Tibet; it also served a crucial role in ensuing centuries, with the eventual re-formulation of a Buddhist national polity under the Dalai Lamas.
A255
Zazen or Not Zazen? The Predicament of Sotoshu's Missionaries in Brazil.
Cristina Rocha, University of Western Sydney
This paper offers an analysis of the historical and contemporary development of Zen Buddhism in Brazil by examining the lives and experiences of Sôtôshû missionaries who have been sent there since 1950s. I argue that the missionaries' experiences in Brazil have been profoundly shaped by Sôtôshû's dualistic attitude towards zazen. For while zazen is at the core of Sôtôshû and is the essence of Dôgen's (1200-1253) teachings, Sôtôshû does not promote zazen to its congregation and very few of its priests actually practice it. In this paper I examine the various ways in which Sôtôshû's missionaries in Brazil negotiate this complex predicament in their efforts to promote Zen Buddhism amongst both the Japanese community as well as Brazilians of non-Japanese origins. The data for this paper were gathered in fieldwork research undertaken in Brazil and in Japan. The latter was supported by a Japan Foundation Fellowship in 2000.
A256
Panel: Carnal Israel and Eucharistic Theology: A New Encounter?
Michael Wyschogrod, University of Houston, Presiding
Scott Bader-Saye, University of Scranton
Lauren F. Winner, Columbia University
Randi Rashkover, York College of Pennsylvania
William T. Cavanaugh, University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Responding
Historically speaking, Christian participation in the body of Christ has often been juxtaposed to assumptions about Jewish carnality and Jewish denial and murder of the body of Christ. Is anti-Judaism woven inextricably into Eucharistic theology? Recently, Narrative and Radical Orthodox theologians have shown renewed interest in Eucharistic theology. Narrative theologians have explored Eucharistic theology's potential for advancing Jewish-Christian relations. Can Christian participation in the body of Christ link Christians to God's covenantal relationship to the Jews? Radical Orthodox theologians have not connected their Eucharistic theologies to work in Jewish-Christian relations. Nonetheless, Radical Orthodoxy's presentation of the Eucharist within an ontology of difference may prove useful to Jewish-Christian relations. Do Jewish-Christian relations require acknowledgement of the Jewish body of Christ or conversely, an appreciation of the destabilized body of Christ? Can the Narrative or Radical Orthodox approaches to Eucharistic theology overcome Christianity's historical and theological past?
A257
What's in a Church's Name?: Mormonism, Christianity, and the Limits of Self-Identification
David Charles, Oxford University
By analyzing the relationship between Mormonism and Christianity, this paper considers the process, purposes and limits of religious self-identification. The place of Mormonism within the spectrum of religious groups challenges traditional categorizations. The process and relevance of name formation and usage in Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism establish an historical framework of (mis-) naming religious traditions. The openness of original "Christianity" has been replaced by the current multiplicity of exclusivist denominational claims. Mormonism's own self-understanding as a restoration of primitive Christianity creates a paradoxical relationship toward Christian history. Likewise paradoxical is the role of belief and genealogy in the formation of the boundaries of Christianity. The implicit differences between the LDS Church's official name and "Mormonism" suggest that the recent emphasis on the former aims at propagating the image of a unified, essentially ahistorical organization.
A257
Solving the 'Mormon Problem': The Smoot Hearing of 1903-1907 and the Delimitation of Religious Citizenship
Kathleen Flake, Vanderbilt University
In 1903, the U. S. Senate initiated a hearing ostensibly to determine whether the recently elected senator from Utah and Mormon apostle Reed Smoot could retain his seat. The actual defendant was, however, the Senator's church on the grounds that it treasonously suborned the practice of polygamy. Lasting four years and attracting the largest record of citizen petitions in the national archives, the trial of Senator Smoot and his ecclesiastical colleagues was a turning point in the history of America's continuing efforts to define "free exercise of religion." The Smoot hearing demonstrates America's use of law to define denominational status and the effect of law and politics on the religious landscape of the twentieth century. In finally resolving the nation's "Mormon Problem," the Senate articulated the terms by which radical, religious otherness would be circumscribed within the protections of constitutional law for the remainder of the century.
A257
Mormonism in the 'American Religion' Survey Course
Grant Underwood, Brigham Young University
This paper analyzes the treatment of Mormonism in a sampling of "American religion" survey courses. Two entry points for such an analysis are available. First, nearly every "American religion" survey text includes a section on Mormonism. Second, most professors assign supplementary specialized readings on the topic. In this paper, I evaluate both types of literature in light of current Mormon Studies. My assessment focuses on the "factual" accuracy and topical balance in the survey texts as well as on the analytical acuity and historiographical sensitivity of the specialized readings. In short, how well do the texts and the supplementary readings reflect the best contemporary scholarship on Mormonism?
A258
Panel: Of Two Communities: The Possible Postmodern Benefit of Royce's Late Thought for the Life of Both the Polis and the Ecclesia
Greg Zuschlag, Graduate Theological Union, Presiding
Kelly A. Parker, Grand Valley State Univ.
Nancy A. Pineda-Madrid, Graduate Theological Union
Alejandro Garcia-Rivera, Jesuit School of Theology
John J. Markey, Barry University
C. Hannah Schell, Monmouth College
Linell E. Cady, Arizona State University, Responding
Robert Bellah's sociological studies show that religious and civic institutions are affected by and contribute to two countervailing forces in contemporary "post-modern" U.S. culture: a fervent yearning for a type of shared interpersonal experience bonding that only genuine community can provide and an unchecked dependence on radical individualism and neocapitalism that subverts attempts at community life. Thus, both the polis and the ecclesia have a profound stake in the renewal and recovery of community in America. This panel seeks to mine the resources of the American philosopher Josiah Royce for a deeper understanding of community: Royce's expansion of C. S. Peirce's concept of community through his theory of interpretation; the mediating role interpreters-in-community and interpretating communities play in the larger sphere; and the communal strategies for addressing the existence of evil, the viable threat to human meaning.
A259
Panel: Recasting the Globalization Debate: Research Projects from Religious Perspectives
Max L. Stackhouse, Princeton Theological Seminary, Presiding
Maryann Cusimano Love, Catholic University of America
Gaspar Lo Biondo, S.J., Woodstock Theological Center
Vittorio Falsina, Harvard University
William Schweiker, University of Chicago, and Scott Thomas, University of Bath, Responding
This panel aims at expanding the current debate on globalization to include the religious, cultural and ethical dimensions that remain largely understudied. Three projects will be presented: first, the US Catholic Bishop drafting process of the document Globalization and the U.S. Church; second, the Jesuit research project on Global Economy and Culture, focusing on narratives collected from 40 Jesuit Centers worldwide; and third, the Harvard project on Recasting Globalization: Religion, Culture and Ethnicity, based on fifteen cases studies illustrative of the five major world religious traditions. The goal of this panel is to discuss ways of developing multi-disciplinary studies of globalization centered on religious and theological perspectives.
A260
Panel: Mahagurus and Their Movements in a Global Context
Christopher Chapple, Loyola Marymount University, Presiding
Thomas Forsthoefel, Mercyhurst College
Tamal Krishna Goswami, Cambridge University
Elizabeth Lassell Hallstrom, University of New Mexico
Cynthia Ann Humes, Claremont McKenna College
Smriti Srinivas, Ohio State University
Lola L. Williamson, University of Wisconsin, Madison
Selva Raj, Albion College
Daniel R. Gold, Cornell University, Responding
This panel session examines nascent Hindu global theological perspectives by focusing on strategies which Hindu gurus and/or their followers have taken when they attempt to extend their message and movements into a global context. The panelists will interrogate multiple cultural negotiations that take place in the process of globalization efforts of nine great gurus and their movements: Ramana Maharshi, Swami Prabhupada, Anandamayi Ma, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Sai Baba, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, Swami Muktananda and his successor Gurumayi, and Ammachi. Each panelist will consider how new contexts have influenced gurus, their movements, their messages, and their modes of spiritual practice; how perceived innovations raise questions of Hindu identity; and to what extent "hindu"-ness(es) as each guru might construct such correspond to "global" and "universal" spiritual identities. Finally, they will consider how various models of leadership in Hinduism have reshaped conceptions of leadership outside South Asia, and vice versa.
A261
Experiential Knowledge of God in Classical Sufi Manuals
Jack Renard, Saint Louis University
Between the tenth and thirteenth centuries, a number of important Muslim authors penned substantial prose works in both Arabic and Persian that supply much of what we know about the evolution of Islamic mystical thought. These manualists have addressed the concept of experiential knowledge from various points of view. The concept of ma`rifa traditionally -- and unhappily translated as "gnosis," does imply privileged connection between certain human beings and the divine being. But it further suggests more than intellectual knowing, in a way that "gnosis" cannot quite convey. I propose to characterize (very broadly) and evaluate (very selectively) data from a selection of these sources with respect to: how fuller treatments compare with briefer ones; types of sources used and their interpretation of them; the way they situate experiential knowledge within their respective psycho-spiritual typologies; and to what degree they are concerned with defining ma`rifa in relation to `ilm.
A261
God-Knowledge from the Heart: Modes of Sufi Knowledge According to Ayn al-Quzat Hamadani
Omid Safi, Colgate University
The discussion of the various modes of mystical knowledge in the writings of Ayn al-Quzat Hamadani (d. 1131) is significant in signaling the self-confidence of Sufis to designate their own discipline as a religious mode of knowledge on par with that of philosophers, theologians and legal scholars. In his writings, Ayn al-Quzat passionately argues the Sufis also have a right to designate their own mode of knowledge, which he terms "Divine knowledge." What is more unconventional about Ayn al-Quzat's approach is that he does not limit himself to the Sufi mode of Knowledge. Recalling Marshall Hodgson, Hamadani is a sample of the "best thinkers" of this Early Middle Age period who would have felt free to incorporate modes of knowledge from fiqh, kalam, falsafa, and Sufism. The result is a highly individualized synthesis of knowledge and personal experience which draws on all the intellectual disciplines without being bound by them.
A261
Love as Knowledge in the Mystical Thought of Ibn `Arabi
Michael Sells, Haverford College
The writings of Ibn `Arabi (d. 1240 CE / 638 H) cover the entire range of thought worlds in medieval Islam, all of which are integrated into a particular kind of mystical discourse. That discourse is more a "dynamic," a constantly moving linguistic energy, than it is a system. Within the dynamic of Ibn `Arabi's writings, the issue of knowledge entails both an appreciation of the rational intellect (`aql) and a critique of the limits of intellect. To engage the full meaning of reality (al-haqq) requires, for Ibn `Arabi, the imagination (khayal) and the bewilderment (hayra) caused by love. This paper will explore the facets of "love as knowledge" in Ibn `Arabi's collection of love poems, The Interpreter of Desires, and in the theosophical commentary he wrote upon that same collection.
A261
Experiential Knowledge according to Aziz-i Nasafi
Ahmet T. Karamustafa, Washington University
Aziz-i Nasafi (d. circa 1300), in his Kashf al-haqa'iq (Unveiling of Realities, completed in 1281-2) foregrounded experiental knowledge and, furthermore, understood experiential knowledge to mean personal verification of discursive and spiritual knowledge. Nasafi acknowledges that in the attempt to build his/her own epistemic edifice, the individual will necessarily fall back on patterns of learning and discovery that others have developed before him/her, yet he insists that these patterns can only be activated through actual, lived experience. It will be argued in the paper that this foregrounding of personal experience is an endorsement of individuality, even of individualism. In this view, each human individual who can rise to the challenge of acquiring true knowledge appears as a face of God.
A262
Social Activism and the Divine Campaign Unfolding
Ellen Ott Marshall, Vanderbilt University
This paper begins with the claim that theology can be a form of social activism if it preserves a prophetic sensibility and embraces bodily as well as spiritual concerns. It then moves past this social gospel argument to the theological method employed by liberation theologians. Through praxis, theology not only leads to social activism, but is also evaluated in light of it. This point, however, opens the door to H. Richard Niebuhr's concern that we tend to conflate our own agenda with the divine campaign unfolding. The second part of the paper focuses on this criticism, as it finds expression in the work of James Gustafson and postmodern critics of liberation theologies. In light of this criticism, the question arises: "Under what conditions does theology become a form of social activism and yet remain theological?"
A262
Karl Rahner's "Freedom" and Gustavo Gutierrez's "Liberation" in a Postcolonial Perspective
Susan Abraham, Harvard University
This paper aims to provide a relevant emancipatory theology of freedom for the Indian postcolonial context. It first compares and contrasts the understanding of "freedom" and "liberation" in the theology of Rahner and Gutierrez. Secondly, it argues that the two theologians introduce subtle shifts in the meaning of the two words to provide for a contextual theology. Even as these moves have salutary significance within each representative theological agenda, they are inadequate in the light of contemporary postcolonial perspectives. In the colonial encounter, freedom does not refer to an anthropological or existential category as in Rahner. Freedom does mean "liberation" from unjust economic systems as in Gutierrez. However, both uses of freedom and liberation "lack fit" in the complex context of colonial subjugation and negotiation.
A262
Between Economics and Postmodernism: Overcoming an Arbitrary Division of Labor in Theological Studies
Joerg Rieger, Southern Methodist University
This paper is an attempt to overcome the rather arbitrary division of labor between economic and postmodern concerns in theological studies. Postmodernism appears in new light if it is seen as the logic of recent shifts of economic constellations. This insight provides new leverage for theological engagement, leading us far beyond the still fashionable rejections or celebrations of selected postmodern ideas. Economic structures and relationships, when seen through a postmodern lens, become all-powerful signifying chains that possess the power to shape new ways of living and thinking. From this vantage point, theological engagement with economics needs to begin not with a celebration or rejection of current economic tendencies but with an assessment how much theological premises have already been shaped by economic sensitivities. In light of the all-pervasiveness of economic structures in postmodernity and the postmodern character of economic structures, what new forms of resistance and leadership can theology develop?
A262
Divin/e-commerce: Constructing Theological Economies in Postmodernity
Marion S. Grau, Drew University
Despite the widespread recognition that economic reasoning determines a large part of our lives, only a modest number of recent Western theological texts concern themselves with the ever-increasing dominance of globalizing capitalisms. A critical assessment of the approaches to economics and economy such as those of John Cobb, Douglas Meeks, Sallie McFague, Mark C. Taylor and Stephen Long is supplemented by the proposition of a counter-economic theology that locates itself in a third space between accommodation and complete opposition to dominant capitalist economic practices. While it is in solidarity with the constructive critiques of economy through the ancient and biblical concept of oikonomia counter-economic theology is deeply aware of the complicity of biblical and patristic economic concepts with domination and oppression and thus profoundly critiques and reconstructs economic concepts in early Christian texts through a dialogue with poststructuralist, feminist and postcolonial texts.
A263
Sexual Purity and Danger: Images of Buddhist Nuns in Sung (960-1279) Confucian Writings
Ding-hwa Hsieh, Truman State University
This paper examines the images of Buddhist nuns portrayed in Sung scholar-officials' writings. By focusing on the issue of women and Buddhism from a Confucian perspective, it seeks to explore why the Sung dynasty marks a significant shift in people's perceptions of Buddhist nuns. Negative representations of nuns emerged particularly at the turn of the thirteenth century. These narratives can be understood as Confucian moralists' reactions to a changing social scene, a faltering political regime, and a threatened Confucian moral order. Accounts of nuns' sexual scandals and immoral deeds, on the one hand, serve to testify the nonetheless thriving growth of Buddhist nuns' communities during this period and, on the other hand, reveal Confucian men's attempts to regulate women's role and position against a faltering reality.
A263
Female Pilgrims As Seen through Seventeenth-Century Chinese Literature
Shin-yi Chao, University of British Columbia
This paper explores contested meanings of women's roles, the "freedoms" women could claim through pilgrimage and the different ways in which men and women understood piety in seventeenth-century China. Female religious pilgrims posed a challenge to prevailing concepts of women's proper social and sexual roles in late imperial China. In defiance of their husbands, government regulations, and general elite public opinion, some women insisted that their vows to their god overrode other considerations. The resulting conflict highlights tensions over women's roles and the importance of popular religious beliefs as a source of authority for women. This paper examines three genres of seventeenth-century literature: "advice literature" which provides conducts considered proper for a "good" woman; religious literature which demonstrates religious piety expected from devotees; and popular literature which relates arguments held by people of different positions, status, and gender.
A263
Mizuko Kuyô: Perceptions and Realities
Cabell Gathman, Truman State University
Mizuko kuyô, a Japanese ritual to appease the souls of fetuses, usually aborted, is subject to many misconceptions both in Japan and in the West, where organizations concerned with abortion often attempt to reinterpret the practice to better suit their own cultures and agendas. In Japan, it is commonly believed to have a solid basis in Buddhist canon; in fact it is a folk religion practice of uncertain origins. Groups in the West generally ignore the large role played by the media and threats of fetal spirit attacks in the popularization of mizuko kuyô; they are also unaware of the differences in Western and Japanese cultures concerning abortion and the idea of fetal personhood. However, there are many forms of mizuko kuyô practiced in Japan, and it is possible that some may be successfully adapted by Western women who have experienced abortion.
A263
Violence against Asian Women
Grace Ji-Sun Kim, University of Toronto
Violence against women appears in various forms and degrees across all classes, races and cultures. Even women who belong to religious groups are not exempt from violence. This paper examines two religious traditions, Confucianism and Christianity, to see how they address violence against women in East Asia. Much violence against women exists in Asian countries ranging from domestic to sexual violence. Since religion is a large component in the daily lives of Asian people and violence is prevalent, it is evident that the religious traditions of Asia did not try to eliminate or discourage violence against women. In many ways, they allowed or gave permission to men to commit violence against women due to the religion's negative teachings and views of women. This paper will examine the roles of Confucianism and Christianity in perpetuating violence against women.
A264
Religious History and the Construction of Modernity
Hans G. Kippenberg, University of Bremen
My paper deals with two issues. In the first part it presents a redescription of the rise of comparative religion between 1870 and 1920. It argues that the reconstructions of the past depended on a critical evaluation of the present. Using comparative methods, scholars identified in their own culture elements of ancient, oriental and tribal religions, not merely as survivals, but increasingly as powerful manifestations of human culture not subdued by rationality. Mysticism, soul, ritual, magic, pre-animism, world-rejection and other notions contained a perspective of the modern world as partly still dependent on religious history. The context in which the concept of a history of religions emerged and became plausible was the phenomenon of modernization. In the second part of my paper I relate this finding to the main theories about the relation of religion and modernity.
A264
Relative, Contingent, Determined: The Category 'History' and its Methodological Dilemma
Kocku von Stuckrad, University of Bremen
During the last two decades the academic study of religion has undergone a deep reaching process of transformation. Categories that hitherto had been used as decisive instruments for analyzing religious phenomena now appeared to be highly biased constructions of certain interests and theological normative discourse. From this point of view studying the 'history of religions' became synonymous with an Eliadean phenomenology of religion that is (correctly) regarded as methodologically problematic. But together with this stance goes the neglect of another scholarly tradition that referred to the term 'history' in a different way. This tradition is connected to scholars like Ernst Troeltsch or Max Weber. In his new book Hans G. Kippenberg puts emphasis on this methodological approach and argues for a new application of it in the light of 'postmodern' discourses.
A264
Religion, Modernity, and the Dilemmas of Reflexivity
Gustavo Benavides, Villanova University
Reflexivity is one of the main characteristics of modernity. This reflexivity forces scholars of religion to examine in a critical manner the historical conditions which made the emergence of their discipline possible in the first place; it also forces them to be constantly aware of the reasons that underlie the emergence of theories, methodological approaches, fashions. This presentation will be devoted to the investigation of the limits, and perhaps also the limitations, of such reflexive approach. The following issues will be explored: Is contemporary scholarship too concerned with reflexivity, or is it the case that we are not reflexive enough about reflexivity? Does the reflexivity that does not go far enough interfere with the formulation of a scientific theory of religion?
A264
The Power of Pre-Animistic Religion: Narrative and Explanation in the History of the Study of Religion
Ann Taves, Claremont School of Theology
Hans Kippenberg's history of the rise of the academic study of religion (Religionswissenschaft) may profitably be compared with the earlier histories of Eric Sharpe and Samuel Preus. In contrast to Sharpe and like Preus, Kippenberg's new work offers a fairly straightforward narrative of the rise of the academic study of religion. Where Preus constructs a narrative around figures who explained religion in non-religious terms from Hume to Freud, Kippenberg constructs a narrative that moves from figures who explain religion (Müller, Tylor, and others) to figures who use religious history to explain modernity (Marett, Durkheim, Weber, James and Otto). Where Hume is the pivotal figure in the rise of the academic study of religion for Preus, Marett is the pivotal figure for Kippenberg. This paper will consider Kippenberg's evidence for and explanation of the shift from religion as survival (Tylor) to religion as power (Marett).
A264
The Idea of Europe and the Origins of Religionsgeschichte: Some Thoughts after Kippenberg
Steve Wasserstrom, Reed College
The founding of critical study of "religion" in the last half of the 19th century and the first quarter of the 20th century expressed European cultural ideals. Located in the new universities, enjoying the fruits of imperial economies pouring new cultural information into them, the founders of this new science understood their cultural work to be the expression of something distinctively "European." Kippenberg explores the first contacts with prehistorical and non-European cultural forms in the context of the European age of modernization. This paper will consider the role played by the idea of Europe in the rise of the study of religion, as it is presented by Kippenberg.
A265
What Can Pentecostal Theology Offer Evangelical Theology?
Terry L. Cross, Lee University
Pentecostals have only recently begun doing serious theological reflection. Part of this reflection includes a consideration of its theological heritage (evangelicalism) and its theological conversation partners (the broader theological landscape). Following a pattern similar to George Hunsinger's attempted rapprochement between postliberals and evangelicals (in The Nature of Confession), this essay attempts to offer possible points of convergence and mutual assistance from the nascent Pentecostal theological endeavors to the rather diverse and broken evangelical theological situation. It examines postmodernism and Pentecostal responses to this phenomenon, contrasting these with diverse evangelical responses. It also targets potential gains evangelical theology might have by listening to young theological efforts of Pentecostals currently attempting theological method 'from the inside out.' Finally, it concludes with several case studies in Pentecostal doctrine, again offering potential points of dialogue with the splintered evangelical movement.
A265
The Prophetic Stance: Social Ethics In A Niebuhrian/Neo-Pentecostal Perspective
William D. Eisenhower, Trinity Presbyterian Church
Once we recognize the need for a prophetic stance toward matters of social concern, an ethical theory which combines insights from Reinhold Niebuhr and neo-Pentecostalism has real possibilities. For Niebuhr, "prophetic religion" was as religion at its best. By contrast, neo-Pentecostals would understand it to be faith open to an important gift of the Holy Spirit. My thesis is that these two-admittedly very different-understandings of prophecy need each other. Their synthesis could be called Charismatic Realism, a view holding that our social wounds can be healed only as God sends us prophets-those anointed to communicate both judgment and mercy in words which are both self-critical and, in some sense, true. The paper assesses recent works on Niebuhr, pop books on prophecy, and Evangelical critiques of culture.
A265
The Spirit Set Us Free: Implications in Pentecostal Theology for a Pneumatological Soteriology
Frank Macchia, Vanguard University
This paper explores the pneumatological notion of salvation typical of Pentecostal understandings of God's salvific work, and seeks to bring this soteriology into conversation with recent efforts, especially among Evangelicals, to overcome the lack of a role for the Spirit at the foundation of soteriology in the West. Pentecostals have not favored legal metaphors for salvation but have assumed instead a "material" understanding of salvation as deliverance from sickness, oppression and death through the ministry of Jesus in the power of the Spirit. Recent biblical research has revealed the pneumatological, eschatological, and cosmic dimensions of concepts such as justification. Similarly, recent ecumenical discussions among Catholics, Protestants, and Orthodox about justification have sought ways of connecting it to the life-transforming work of the Spirit. My purpose will be to develop the implications of a Pentecostal pneumatological soteriology as an Evangelical response to the above-mentioned trends.
A266
Teresa Urrea: Mexican Mystic, Healer, and Revolutionary
Alexander Nava, Seattle University
This paper investigates the life and influence of the Mexican healer Teresa Urrea (1873-1906). This remarkable and relatively unknown figure not only became a widely popular healer among several Indigenous groups in northern Mexico, but through her mystical encounters with God and Mary came to exercise an influence on the life of her followers that was not limited to the realms of spirituality and healing, but spilled over to the political arena of resistance and rebellion among the Indians of Northern Mexico. This paper will show the multifaceted role of this figure in late 19th and 2oth century Mexico and the various functions and symbolic meanings that she came to embody in the arenas of spirituality and healing, theology and politics.
A266
Indigenous Women and Healing Power: Isihlambiso in Southern Africa
Henrietta Montjane-Malete, Topsfield, MA
Indigenous African healers believe that all aspects of their patients' lives are imbued with a life-force, and that health cannot be restored without understanding their social and political environment. This paper will discuss the power of African women healers in Southern Africa, with particular reference to Isihlambiso, the Zulu concept of ceremonial cleansing. It will demonstrate the holistic approach of Indigenous African medicine, exploring relationships between patients' health, land, plants, animals, and community, and the effectiveness of women healers in both rural and urban contexts, a continuation of ancestral wisdoms in modern-day capitalist society.
A266
Zar Ritual of Ethiopia and Yemen: The Use of Talismanic Art and Drum and Dance Circles As Healing Traditions
Miri Hunter Haruach, Project Sheba
Traditionally, women are carriers of the Zar tradition. A Zar is a spirit. Some Ethiopians and Yemenis have their own Zar, like a guide of guardian angel. The dance ritual, Zar, like other traditional healing ceremonies, as for instance practiced by the !Kung of Southern Africa, is done to regain a sense of balance and harmony in one's life and in tandem with the community. This paper will explore the traditions of the Zar and discuss the manner in which women are re-discovering the lost ritual and art and using them in contemporary healing and transformation.
A266
Reclaiming Indigenous Identities for Healing within the Academy and Community: Assertion of Indigenous Languages and Ancestral Wisdoms
Ivy N. Goduka, Central Michigan University
Indigenous peoples globally have been colonized by colonial occupation forces, a primary conduit of which has been the colonizer's language. Within the academy and in scholastic discourse, particularly, Indigenous peoples' languages have been devalued, de-intellectualized, and denigrated as constructions of the primitive, to the point that Indigenous scholars have often been forced to distance themselves from their mother-tongues when speaking, writing, and publishing in the academy. This paper takes issue with such marginalization and demonstrates that in fact Indigenous languages have much to contribute in the way of curricular transformation in education, including religious education, and in effect, can function to re-ground, re-orient, and re-structure the very basis and transmission of knowledge itself. The paper will show how Indigenous languages signify an extension of ancestral wisdoms that teaches harmonization with our Mother Earth and can foster healing of all forms of societal and global oppression.
A267
Ethnicity and/as Religion: The Sopranos (Just When You Can't Go Home Again, It's Finally OK to be from New Jersey)
Linda A. Mercadante, Methodist Theological School in Ohio
The popularity of the HBO series "The Sopranos" highlights a little considered part of American religion and culture, that is, the nostalgia for immigrant roots in second, and especially third, generation audiences who have assimilated and lost many of their particular practices, both religious and cultural. I will address the issues of immigrant longing in visual culture, speak specifically of the history of Italians in America as it relates to this show and consider the particularities of "The Sopranos" audience. I will analyze some of the reactions to the series and its portrayal of organized religion itself. While the series has also engaged protest, to dedicated viewers "The Sopranos" represents a hallowing of ethnicity and a wistful reconsideration of the cultural and religious characteristics we so readily left behind.
A267
Of Mummies and Methodism: Reverend Clarence True Wilson and the Legend of John Wilkes Booth
C. Wyatt Evans, Drew University
An analysis of the legend of Booth's escape and life as a fugitive in the Southwest through the life and writings of the Methodist minister and legend believer Clarence True Wilson (1872-1939). The period of Wilson's greatest effort on behalf of Prohibition--as general-secretary of the Methodist Board of Temperance--also saw his growing involvement with the legend. Wilson's articulation of why Booth had to live on sheds light on Protestant cultural responses in the era of Prohibition. Wilson's involvement included examining and defending as genuine Booth's alleged mummy. The mummy traveled throughout the West with carnival sideshows during the 1920s and 30s. Taken together, Wilson's articulation of Booth's fate and the popular display of Booth's purported cadaver, provide the basis for interpreting the legend as a vernacular memory site.
A267
The Holiness of Holidays: The Religious Dimension of Holidays in Popular Culture
Dell deChant, University of South Florida
While it can be argued that American holidays have become secularized, this paper proposes that it is precisely their "secular"(commercial/consumerist) dimension that makes them religious events in postmodern culture. Rather than being casualties in the struggle between commercialism and traditional values (as suggested by Nissenbaum and Schmidt), the loss of conventional holiday meanings may actually signal a shift from transcendental to cosmological religiosity. This shift delegitimates foundational faith claims of both monotheistic and civil religions while articulating new and contrasting understandings of the sacred. The paper specifies neo-cosmological features of popular culture, with attention given to the mythico-ritual function of economics, advertising (following Underhill), and "upscaling" (following Schor) in forming the social foundation for a postmodern sense of the sacred. The designation of specific holidays as holy days is based on their mythico-ritual significance with supporting data from the U.S. Commerce Department, National Retail Federation, and Bank of Tokyo.
A267
Totemic Desires: Advertising As Divine Mediator, Sacramentality, and Ultimate Concern
Tricia Sheffield, Drew University
In "Advertising as Religion: The Dialectic of Technology and Magic," Sut Jhally utilizes a Marxian analysis to argue for advertising as a religion. This is a crucial thesis, for no one has asked the important question that Jhally does: "If advertising is a religion, what kind of religion is it?" Jhally concludes that advertising is akin to a fetish religion, whereby it is not a total spiritual belief system, but rather a part of a larger one (capitalism), in which its adherents may have a belief in a higher spiritual power, namely a Supreme Being. For advertising to be a religion, it would need to have a systematic theology, which it does not. Instead, I argue that it contains elements of a Durkheimian analysis of religion, namely, totemism.
A268
The Art of Self-Forgetfulness: Etty Hillesum, the Holocaust and Critical Jewish Thought
Marc Philippe Lalonde, Concordia University
This presentation analyzes the religio-ethical development of the Jewish woman Etty Hillesum as chronicled in her diary composed during the Nazi occupation of Holland. It is in relation to this oppressive political situation that Hillesum fashions, what she calls, "an art of self-forgetfulness": namely, a studied effort to apprehend a form of transcendence that affirms the ethical priority of the "Other" over the self while holding fast to a reflexive identity. With philosophical assists from Buber and Levinas, I suggest that Hillesum's "art" not only conveys a distinct Jewish sense of the world, but that it adumbrates a critique of those modern values that bolstered the Nazi regime. Consequently, the import of Hillesum's meditations are broached in tandem with a philosophical tradition that underscores the critical significance of modern Jewish thought.
A268
The Religious Elements of Genocide: The Holocaust through the Eyes of Yugoslavia
David E. Roberts, University of Edinburgh
This paper looks first at the religious elements of the justifications for racial hatred given in Yugoslavia in the 1990s and then looks for similar elements in the propaganda used against the "enemies of the Reich" in Nazi Germany. The purpose is to enlarge our understanding of the causes of the Holocaust in order to broaden what we learn from it to help prevent similar events from occurring again. This study allows for a broadening of our understanding of the causes of the holocaust without denying the central role of the Jews in the Nazi policies that led to the Holocaust. I argue that the racism that led to genocide in Yugoslavia and the anti-Semitism that led to the Holocaust in Nazi Germany have religious elements that were enlisted in order to support the murder of innocents.
A268
Theology after the Holocaust and after Slavery: Emil Fackenheim and James Cone
David O. Woodyard, Denison University
The purpose of this paper is to initiate a conversation between Emil Fackenheim and James Cone as representatives of post-Holocaust theology and Black theology. They are selected because within their constituencies both are left of center. Fackenheim would seem to block the prospect of any rapprochement by the claim that the situation of the victims differentiates the Holocaust from instances of unjust suffering. Some argue that if the issue of equivalency is not pressed, comparison can be made. Certainly they can be made in terms of theological responses. This paper will pose comparisons in relation to some of the following. How do the two theologians propose to read Scripture? How do they interpret suffering? What are the grounds of survival for each? In what sense is liturgy integral to survival and healing? This paper does not presume to reach landmark conclusions. It is a modest attempt to seek connections.
A268
Strategies of Resistance: Audacity and Thanksgiving in the Concentration Camp Memoirs of M. Fabiola Ditek: Pacratz, Terzin and Ravensbruck, 1943-45
Sally A. McReynolds, Saint Mary College
M. Fabiola Ditek was the elected leader (Superior General) of the 1,000 member School Sisters de Notre Dame whose Motherhouse was in Horazdovice, Czechoslovakia. On December 10, 1943, following a series of investigations by the Gestapo, M. Fabiola Ditek was driven off by night to Pancratz Prison in Prague. From there she was transferred to the prison at Terezin and then on to the women's concentration camp at Ravensbruck in Germany. After the May 10, 1945 truce she endured a month long trek back to Czechoslovakia. At the request of many sisters M. Fabiola wrote her memoirs of this experience in Czech. This study examines the spirit of audacity and attitude of thanksgiving which permeates M. Fabiola's memoirs. It also investigates the circumstances of the Czech Roman Catholic Church and the Notre Dame Sisters under Nazi occupation.
A269
Panel: Re-thinking Latino/a Religion and Identity
Gaston Espinosa, University of California, Santa Barbara, Presiding
Manuel Vasquez, University of Florida
Laura Pérez, University of California, Berkeley
Luis Leon, Arizona State University
Miguel A. De la Torre, Hope College
Within the field of Latino/a theology, an aversion to postructuralist and/or postcolonial thought seems to exist. This panel calls Latino/a scholars to move beyond "the rhetoric of blame," and instead focus on how the construction of the Latina/o identity and its theological worldview contributes to intra-Hispanic oppression. The panelists are informed by and in dialogue with Latina/o theological perspectives and will examine their own structures of power to reveal what is hidden in the very construction of Hispanic theology and its academic study as a discipline. This panel will take the first steps toward developing an analysis which criticizes how Latina/o theology is produced by focusing on the theoretical and methodological approaches past Latino/a scholars of religion took to interpret their religiosity, specifically Hispanic Theology. Intra-Hispanic power structures will be explored to unmask and demonstrate areas where the academic rhetoric is incongruent with the Latina/o reality.
A270
Out of the Ethical Void: A Womanist Approach to An Analysis of Teen Suicide
Valerie Elverton Dixon, United Theological Seminary
Out of the Ethical Void reads the works of Cornel West and Ed Wimberly to think about ways that an elastic, relational, communal definition of self can meet the challenge of nihilism and create a hedge of protection from hopelessness for young people and lead them out of the ethical void that is causing them to want to die by their own hand.
A270
Machiavellian Morbidity or the Epidemiological Personified Violence of Tupac Amaru Shakur (1971-1976): Teens, Violence, and Death
Cheryl A. Kirk-Duggan, Graduate Theological Union
Long before the Cripps, Bloods and Rap Music, violence and gangster life thrived in the United States. Their precursors included Billy the Kid, Al Capone, spaghetti westerns, and "The Untouchables," a television drama based on early 1930s gang violence. Our existential circularity of art imitating life and life imitating art has spawned an ethos of violence. Our prevailing American civil religious metanarrative evokes manifest destiny, violence, and Machiavellianism, infecting teenagers, epitomized in the icon of Tupac Shakur. The texts of his life and songs personalized violence and death. This essay explores a Womanist theological-ethical understanding of death by teens via Tupac's music. After reviewing my Womanist methodology, I: (1) review Tupac's violent biography; (2) interrogate the violence within the United States during Tupac's lifetime;(3) review death, violence, and misogyny in his music;(4) examine teens' reactions to recent public tragedies, and the role of lament as response.
A270
The Violence of Racism, The Strategy of Empowerment: Relational Hope and Co-Action With Black Youth
Anne E. Streaty Wimberly, Interdenominational Theological Center
As in past generations, racism continues to be a key issue confronting Black youth today; and this reality is identified by these youth as violent assault. Black youth experience high rates of unemployment, racial profiling by law enforcement, disproportionate incidences of arrests and incarceration along with inadequate legal counsel, negative portrayal in the media, and questionable opportunities for educational advancement beyond high school. These experiences constitute institutionalized and systemic violence which attack Black youths' personhood and dignity. This form of violence inflicts physical and socio-psychological injury and damage. It contributes to Black youths' sense of meaninglessness, purposelessness, and hopelessness. It threatens the very lives of Black youth and, all too often, brings premature death. But what is the answer to this violence? What guides may be offered by a womanist practical theological approach? This paper proposes a womanist perspective called "relational hope and co-action" with Black youth as an answer.
