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http://www.aarweb.org/Meetings/Annual_Meeting/Past_and_Future_Meetings/2006/abstracts.asp

AAR Abstracts

November 18-21, 2006
Washington, DC, USA

    A17-2

Chairs Workshop – Personnel Issues: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Sponsored by the Academic Relations Committee

The workshop will deal with a multitude of personnel issues that come up within departments and will address individual, departmental, and higher administration concerns. In addition, it will address life-cycle, legal, and conflict issues that arise at each level. Plenary, panels, and interactive break-out sessions are featured, including an address by a Georgetown higher education attorney.

You may register for the workshop here: www.aarweb.org/department/workshops/2006Washington/default.asp.

    A17-3

Religion and Media Workshop - The "Muhammad Cartoon" Controversy: Perspectives on Media, Religion, Law, and Culture

This year’s media and religion preconference will be an interdisciplinary conversation setting a broad scholarly context for understanding the meanings and emerging consequences of this event. Brief formal presentations will focus on such things as visual culture, religious authority, media representation, local and global identities, and emerging ideas about human rights and expression. The meeting will be structured to maximize interchange and dialogue among presenters and participants.

Questions about the workshop should be directed to Stewart Hoover, hoover@colorado.edu, Michele Rosenthal, rosen@research.haifa.ac.il, or S. Brent Plate, b.plate@tcu.edu.

    A17-4

Women's Caucus Workshop

Includes three mini-sessions on Strategies for Women in the Profession; Women and Academic Freedom Issues; and Women’s Health Issues in the Academy.

    A17-100

Arts Series/Films: Dawn of the Dead

Sponsored by the Religion, Film, and Visual Culture Group

Through its witty and pointed criticism of consumerism, materialism, and other sins such as racism, sexism, and violence, George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead rises above the average horror movie, or Hollywood movie in general, to become a timeless classic of social criticism and theological reflection. For Romero, it is not the zombie’s bite that turns us into monsters, but materialism and consumerism that turn us into zombies, addicted to things that satisfy only the basest, most animal or mechanical urges of our being. This is repeatedly shown throughout the movie in the behaviour of both the zombies and the human characters.

Directed by George Romero, 1978, 128 minutes, R rated (color, USA)

    A17-101

Arts Series/Films: Les Maîtres Fous

Sponsored by the Religion, Film, and Visual Culture Group

Les Maîtres Fous (The Masters of Madness) is a documentary film produced by the prominent French anthropologist and ethnographic filmmaker Jean Rouch on the possession ritual of the Hauka movement, which was practised by Songhay migrants from Niger in Accra, Ghana, during the time of French colonialism. In 1954 Rouch was invited by the Hauka to make a film on their possession ritual, which became a classic in the history of French cinema. It is currently known as one of the most prolific contributions to the cinéma vérité. Even though this film turned out to be a major point of departure for the rise of visual anthropology in the 1970s, it is continuously neglected in the field of religious studies in general and even in the field of what is recently called “visible religion.”

Directed by Jean Rouch, 1954, 35 minutes, unrated (color, France)

    A17-103

EIS Center Orientation

The EIS Center orientation will feature a short presentation which will include an overview of the center, an explanation of how to best utilize the center, and a question and answer session. After the presentation, the center will be open for use, with the exception of the Interview Hall. Employers will be able to review candidate credentials, leave messages for registered candidates, and make reservations for booth space. Candidates will be able to pick up their copy of the Annual Meetings Special Edition of Openings, and leave messages for employers. The center will also

accepting onsite registrations at this time. Employers and candidates are encouraged to participate in orientation but are not required to attend.

    A17-104

AAR Program Unit Chairs and Steering Committee Members' Reception

Program unit chairs and steering committee members are invited to a reception in their honor hosted by the Program Committee.

    A18-2

International Members' Breakfast

All AAR international attendees are invited to an information session and continental breakfast hosted by the AAR’s International Connections Committee.

    A18-3

Regional Officers Breakfast

Networking Breakfast for AAR Regional Secretaries and AAR Regional Officers.

    A18-4

Theological Education Steering Committee Meeting

Carey J.Gifford, Acting Chair

    A18-5

Student Liaison Group Annual Business Meeting

Appointed and elected Student Liaison Group members will gather to discuss business.

    A18-7

Special Topics Forum

Theme: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the On-Campus Interview

Sponsored by the Graduate Student Committee

So you finally get that coveted on-campus interview—now what? Come hear advice from seasoned interviewers on what they are looking for (and what they are not). This is an invaluable behind-the-scenes look to help doctoral students in religion conquer the process of interviewing for a professorship on campus.

    A18-8

Academic Teaching and the Study of Religion Section

Theme: "When You See the Teacher on the Road, Kill Him": Contemplative Practice as Pedagogy

A Practical Approach to Mysticism
Ramdas Lamb, University of Hawaii, Manoa

My proposed paper will address my methods and approaches in teaching a course entitled “Mysticism: East and West.” In it, student participation and experience are integral to their understanding of the subject matter. The course is taught every summer and typically has a waiting list of students to enroll. Over the years, I have added a number of homework assignments meant to stimulate students into a more “practical” approach to the subject. These include a 24-hour fast and day of silence. Students are also taught a basic breathing practice and method of concentration. Additionally, religious teachers and practitioners from a variety of traditions are invited as guest lecturers to help bring a more comparative approach to the material. As a result of this methodology, students find they are better able to perceive and appreciate mystics and mystical traditions and have a more practical and experiential understanding of the topic.

Contemplative Exercises in an Undergraduate Buddhism Course
Andrew O. Fort, Texas Christian University

I propose to describe and then discuss two experiential exercises which students undertake in my junior/senior level seminar called Buddhism: Thought and Practice. First, students are asked to do a week-long exercise which introduces basic Theravada vipassana (noticing) meditation, during which they keep a daily journal. The second exercise is an opportunity to reflect on the attempt to follow the first five ethical precepts of the Buddhist tradition. These exercises seek to give students a flavor of Buddhist contemplative practices in a liberal arts university setting, providing an alternative, ideally more Buddhist, mode of inquiry or “learning style,” which allows better realization of two goals of liberal education: a more accurate understanding of others’ worldviews and increased reflective “self”-awareness. Students report that these exercises are valuable in gaining a more “lived” understanding of the Buddhist tradition. I hope to hear feedback from colleagues: recommendations, reservations, and experiences with similar exercises.

Contemplative Practices in Higher Education: Silence and Social Action
Stanford J. Searl, Union Institute

This paper will explore the connections among silence, education and social action, with particular attention to a Quaker perspective. The paper will be experiential, in the sense that it will offer a worship sharing approach to knowledge, meaning a way to develop a communal and experiential understanding of silence, contemplation and education. The presentation draws upon the theoretical perspectives from the literature, based upon a theoretical literature as presented by Kalamras (Reclaiming the Tacit Dimension), Mack (Visionary Women), Dandelion (A Sociological Analysis of the Theology of Quakers) and Searl (The Meanings of Silence in Quaker Worship).

Contemplation in Creativity and Inspiration
Richard M. Carp, Appalachian State University

'Creativity and Inspiration' is an elective class for upper division undergraduates. Students shuttle back and forth from personal experiences of contemplative practice to studies of creativity. These seem to connect creativity (phenomenologically and theoretically) with the personal experience of contemplation and with the world revealed therein (to the extent that these can be separated) or with the non-dual unity of self/world uncovered in contemplation.

This challenges the heroic, individualistic, 'talented genius' view of creativity with which most students begin the class. It also engages students' religious histories, personal spiritual experiences, current grapplings with religious issues, and ongoing contemplative experience during the semester. Because the class is not explicitly about religion, and because students engage in contemplation as an experiment in enhancing creativity (not, explicitly, for religious purposes), they are remarkably open in disclosing their experiences and reflecting on them and in accepting and responding to others' experiences and reflections without judgement.

    A18-9

Buddhism Section

Theme: Omnibus Panel: Critical Perspectives on Interpreting Buddhist Texts and Traditions

Transdiscursivity: Japan’s Shōtoku Taishi as “Author” of Buddhist Texts and Tradition
Mark Dennis, University of Wisconsin

In describing early Western studies of Buddhism and its founder, Charles Hallisey argues that “knowing the biography of the Buddha was an essential part of any attempt to understand the Buddhist texts which were attributed to him.” This approach, common in the field’s “classical paradigm,” is also evident in studies of other “founding” figures in Buddhist history, including Japan’s Shōtoku Taishi (574-622). Modern studies of Shōtoku and the Sangyō-gisho (three Buddhist commentaries attributed to him) have sought to recover the “authentic” Shōtoku, and scholars have expended great effort trying to prove the truth or falsity of his authorship of these texts. This paper will draw on the ideas of Michel Foucault and Alexander Nehamas regarding texts, authors, and tradition as a means to offer an alternative angle of critical vision to this established approach.

Alternate Ways of Categorizing Buddhist Doctrinal Systems: The Textual Organization of Qixinlun in Commentaries
Tao Jin, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

As a part of a larger study on the exegetical tradition of Qixinlun, this paper looks at the textual organization, or kepan, of Qixinlun by both the author and the commentators, and, particularly, at the latter’s elaborate and amplified reconstruction of the authorial version. By examining and delineating the intricate and complex processes of such acts of organizational innovation, this paper distinguishes between the authorial and the commentarial in terms of kepan and, in doing so, clarifies certain thematic misconceptions about Qixinlun. In the meantime, such an examination/delineation also demonstrates how kepan structurally transforms the original text, an act that allows us to appreciate and show the extent of sophistication in the writing of exegesis, and thus presents an instance of Buddhist scholasticism in the exegetical tradition of Qixinlun.

Jodoshinshu’s Two-Truth Theory and the Politics of Religion in Meiji Japan
Mark L. Blum, State University of New York, Albany

The Meiji period (1868-1912) in Japanese history turned government policy against Buddhism for the first time, resulting in persecution, loss of land and a felt need to justify the value of Buddhism for society. The combined branches of Jodoshinshu made it the largest form of institutional Buddhism, and it was particularly suspect because of its deep roots in rural communities. Both intellectuals and church leaders frequently voiced an earlier strategy of fusing the Buddhist doctrine of two-truths, one ultimate and one historical, with ancient norms of the harmonious balance of Buddhist "law" and king's "law." But because the original Buddhist formulation was not dierected at secular doctrines, these statements varied in defining the relationship between these two truths, and in doing so they reveal different presumptions about the relationship between religious authority and political authority.

Literatis' Interpretations of the Suramgama Sutra in Seventeenth-Century China
Jiang Wu, University of Arizona

This paper explores the role of Buddhist texts in a special cultural and social environment. It will focus on literati commentaries on the Suramgama Sutra written in the seventeenth century. In the late Ming, this text was extremely popular among Confucian scholars because its sophisticated theory of mind echoed the growing interests in Wang Yangming’s Learning of the Mind. Based on my analysis of these commentaries written by the literati, I will point out the intellectual connections between the Suramgama Sutra and Chinese thoughts: the concern of knowledge in this sutra echoes a long-standing intellectual/philosophical issue in Chinese intellectual history, that is, the relationship between knowledge and action. I suggest that the Suramgama Sutra, which also concerns the issue of knowledge and practice, met Chinese intellectuals’ demand for a more sophisticated solution of this issue.

Keeping Milarepa in Mind: Tibetan Biography as Autobiographical Revelation
Andrew H. Quintman, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

If the eleventh-century Lord of Yogins Milarepa is commonly referred to as Tibet’s preeminent saint, credit is no doubt largely due to the biographical work of Tsangnyon Heruka (1452-1507), the so-called “Madman of Tsang.” Although written some four centuries after the yogin’s death, Tsangnyon’s Life of Milarepa quickly gained canonical status as the authoritative representation of the yogin’s activities. This paper will examine the sources of Tsangnyon’s biographical authority, probing the boundaries between biography and self-written lives by understanding Milarepa's Life as a work of autobiographical revelation. As both biographer and autobiographical subject, Tsangnyon maintains a position not only to shape the past in the present, but to do so from the position of ultimate authority. From this location literary genres blur, bios becomes autobios, and the life story, a hidden treasure waiting to be unearthed. And like a treasure, Tsangnyon’s story of Milarepa’s life surfaces as revelation.

    A18-10

Christian Systematic Theology Section

Theme: Economies of Hope: Confronting Globalization

Economics of Hope: Church Life in a Global Era
Timothy Harvie, University of Aberdeen

This paper explores the impact of eschatological thinking on the church's involvment in the economics of globalization. It will examine the impact of divine promise, and its creation of a 'between-space' as an eschatological sphere for ethical action. After outlining the ethical import of such an eschatological construction, the paper will compare the derivative effects such a conception of the church has on the moral involvement of Christians in the economic realm. Comparing and contrasting the monetary activities of varying Christian proposals for economic involvement in an era of globalization, this paper will conclude with a constructive proposal for Christian engagement in the economic sphere within the globalized framework of contemporary life. These pragmatic suggestions will aim to be firmly grounded within an eschatological milieu that allows for creative praxis which creates liberating equity among all humanity.

Consumerism, Personhood, and Christian Political Witness
Luke Bretherton, King's College, London

There is little engagement by either contemporary political theologies or systematic theology with the relationship between consumerism and Christian witness. What analysis there is tends to be wholly negative. However, the negative construal of the relationship fails to account for how the churches are a key catalyst for constructive engagement with consumerism. Examples include the promotion of ethical consumption and the fair trade movement, both of which utilize consumer mediated forms of association, communication and mobilization. This paper will give a critique of the relationship between consumerism, personhood and Christian witness via a theological evaluation of the involvement of churches in the fair trade movement. Drawing on a Trinitarian theology of personhood and recent debates in ecclesiology, the paper will assess whether consumer modes of political action are hospitable to or productive of the deepening of personal agency, the flourishing of human solidarity, and the good ordering of society.

Redeeming Catholicity for a Globalizing Age: The Sacramentality of the Church
Paul D. Murray, University of Durham

This paper will focus on the way, prior to any social teaching or action, the very being and life of the Church – discussed here under the category of catholicity – should be sacramental of a globalization for the good. The paper will move through three phases. First, the challenge posed to Christian social thought and action by the emergence of a global capitalist economy will be identified. Second, via brief reflection on the character of Christian hope, the authentically sacramental character of Christian activism will be identified and illustrated. Third and most substantially, attention will turn to exploring the ways in which a redeemed performance of the catholicity of the Church has the potential to disclose afresh to the world what it might mean to exist as a global communion, the health of which presupposes the health of all its parts. The argument is traced here in outline.

Why Barth Makes a Difference in the Globalization Debate
David Haddorff, Saint John's University

This paper draws especially on Karl Barth’s theology as a way to assess the current discussion about theology and globalization. This paper is divided into two sections: 1) globalization and theology; and 2) theology and the market economy. In each section, I develop a Barthian dialectical principle of relating theological and non-theological sources, particularly the social sciences, through relating and differentiating without either complete identifying or separating. This position is contrasted with Radical Orthodoxy, which unlike Barth, repeatedly loops back to the Christian community and not to the Word of God, which transcends the church. Unlike this unilateral position that privileges the ecclesial sphere against the secular world, Barth argues that the church stands neither ‘against’ the secular nor ‘for’ secularism, as the hegemonic power in the world. Instead, the church stands ‘with’ the world, which encourages a more positive evaluation of globalization, as a place too where God’s grace may be found.

    A18-11

Comparative Studies in Religion Section and Religion in South Asia Section

Theme: Powerful Objects: Materiality and Metonymy in Four Religious Communities

Most religious traditions feature a set of revered objects perceived as bearing sacred power. In South and Central Asia, ‘powerful objects’ include those central to everyday ritual life: sanctified liquids such as water, milk, honey, foodstuffs, ephemeral consumables such as smoke, ritually invested images and structures, historically significant objects, and so on. Objects can be revered for their ability to embody and manifest divinity; alternatively, other modes of representation de-emphasize divine presence. When viewed comparatively, the various “lives" of South and Central Asian powerful religious objects (in Richard Davis’ terms) raise questions about materiality, metonym, and identity. This interdisciplinary panel explores these themes through textual, biographical, ethnographic, and filmic examinations of four types of powerful objects: prasāda (divine exuberance/plenitude) in Purāņic and Epic literature; the Guru's weapons in post-colonial Punjab; lobān (ritual incense) at South Asian Muslim shrines; and sacrificial food used among Central Asian Buddhists and shamanists of Buryatia.

Form from Plenitude: Prasāda in Classical Sanskrit Literature
Andrea Pinkney, Columbia University

In contemporary Hindu practice, prasāda is often understood as material and edible, taking the form of sweetmeats, flowers or other such ephemeral items. However, in classical Sanskrit literature, prasāda is much more than just an object -- typically it is an outpouring of emotion or energy which always blesses its recipients; and less frequently is it identified as material. Presenting new research on prasāda, or ‘divine plenitude’ in Sanskrit literature, the foundational concept of prasāda is explored and understood as both material object and divine energy, or, as ‘affective’ force, which animates a wide range of transactions between humans, gods and other beings. Based on newly translated primary source material, this paper documents references to the ‘abstract’ and ‘material’ forms of prasāda in representative Epic and Purāņic literature and considers how analysis of the exchange of prasāda in these texts offers insight into the classical norms governing human-divine gift economies.

The Guru's Weapons
Anne Murphy, The New School

Sikh objects are powerful in multiple ways. Unlike such objects in many other religious traditions—paradigmatically, the Buddhist and Christian traditions—the embodiment of religious presence is not a central aspect of the power articulated through the Sikh object. Most importantly, these objects represent the Sikh past. In doing so, these objects also narrate the relationships that constitute the community, both with the Guru and his followers, and among these followers (or “Sikhs,” literally meaning the “students”) of the Guru. This paper examines the biography of a set of Sikh objects and investigates their “powers” in religious as well as political terms, in relation to their representation of Sikh past(s) and the relationships they express in the present. The overall goal of the paper is to hold the religious and political meanings for these objects in productive conversation, to understand the work of these objects in both realms.

Got Lobān? Effacement, Abundance, and the Cross-Tradition Appeal of Indian Islamic Healing Centers
Carla Bellamy, Columbia University

The powerful object next under consideration is a particularly Indian Muslim substance which figures prominently in the ritual life of dargāhs, or Muslim saint shrines: lobān or ritual ‘incense’ (an Arabic-derived Urdu term). Muslim saint shrines in northern India enjoy a general reputation of being centers of healing; however, the reasons for their appeal to members of other South Asian religious communities have, until now, been relatively unexplored. Based on extensive ethnographic research at a previously unstudied pilgrimage center, this paper situates the burning and consumption of lobān in relation to dargāh patients’ narratives of healing and recovery; and suggests that lobān’s cross-tradition appeal derives in part from its participation in several pan-South Asian cultural forms. Understanding lobān as a powerful, ritually invested object, this presentation offers insight into the cross-tradition appeal of Muslim Saint shrines through identifying the Islamic, South Asian, narrative, and non-narrative elements of lobān’s character.

Food for the Gods: The Matter of Sacrifice among the Shamans and Buddhists of Buryatia
Anya (Anna) Bernstein, New York University

Based on research with the Buryats of Central Asia, this paper-and-film presentation considers how people interact with sacrificial food to convey specific religious meanings, and demonstrates how food itself sustains and negotiates specific religious identities. Methodologically based within the framework of 'material religion,' food is understood not as a window onto a particular religious world but as a potent, edible object, which itself becomes meaningful within specific patterns of human-object relationships. In Buryatia, the moral and intellectual differences between the Buddhist and shamanist communities preclude the possibility of considering them complementary parts of one religious system – despite their many commonalities and high degree of mutual interpenetration. This presentation argues that the meaning of 'powerful food' in Buryat sacrifical ritual is contingent on how it is used and by whom, showing that two above communities – Buddhist and shamanist – endow the same foods with strikingly different meanings.

    A18-12

Ethics Section

Theme: Evangelical Initiatives/Women's Bodies

Globalizing "The Word": The Influence of Faith-based Organizations on US Anti-sex Trafficking Policy
Lucinda J. Peach, American University

The trafficking of human beings for prostitution and other forms of commercial sex work (hereafter referred to as CSW) has become a multi-billion dollar global industry in recent years. The United States, especially under the current Bush administration, has been a prominent player in the “war against sex trafficking.” As part of its efforts, it has promoted and financially supported the anti-trafficking activities and agendas of so-called “faith-based organizations” (FBOs), as well as adopted particular policies favorable to FBOs. After briefly summarizing the influence of FBOs on US anti-trafficking policy, this paper will address some of the morally problematic aspects of this relationship, and conclude with some recommendations for policy modifications better designed to protect women's human rights.

Desire and "Health": Making Bodily Change in Two Evangelical Ministries
Lynne Gerber, Graduate Theological Union

Ex-gay ministries and Christian weight loss groups are important contemporary examples of religious experiments in bodily discipline pursued in a moral context. Based on participant observation, interviews with ministry members and content analysis of organizational material this paper will examine the uses of 'health' in the justification of these programs. It will argue that the discourse of health emerges as a way to mediate between an individualistic ethical orientation that informs evangelical culture and the socially oriented moral concerns these ministries raise by addressing socially marginalized groups with disciplines of conformity to dominant norms. It will explore how health in these contexts comes to have new religious and moral force in ways that are both specific to evangelicalism and reflective of larger cultural concerns.

Lobbying for Abstinence: Gender, Race, and the Politics Surrounding the HPV Vaccine
Jenna Gray-Hildenbrand, University of California, Santa Barbara

Both Merck and GlaxoSmithKline plan to release vaccines this year that in clinical trials have proven 100% effective in combating four prominent strains of the human papilloma virus (HPV). These four strains are responsible for 80% of all cases of cervical cancer, which infects 10,000 U.S. women each year, killing 3,700. While many in the medical community are hailing this as a triumph and pushing for the mandatory inoculation of girls ages 10-14, conservative Christian abstinence groups criticize the plan as sending a message to young girls condoning promiscuity. This paper explores the sexual ethics of abstinence advocated by a particularly powerful Christian lobbying group, the Family Research Council, and how their sexual ethic, when applied to the public health policy surrounding the distribution of the HPV vaccine, reinforces negative gender and racial stereotypes.

    A18-13

History of Christianity Section

Theme: Author Meets Critics: Review of Lyndal Roper's Witch Craze: Terror and Fantasy in Baroque Germany (Yale University Press, 2004)

In this session panelists will review Lyndal Roper's book Witch Craze: Terror and Fantasy in Baroque Germany (2004).

    A18-14

North American Religions Section

Theme: The Washington, DC Mall: Living Civil Religion or Museum Artifact?

Religion on the Mall
Elizabeth McKeown, Georgetown University

The U.S. Congress has designated 2006 the Year of the Museum. This presentation will celebrate the occasion by identifying some of the resources offered by museums for the scholarly study of religion. Two museums on the National Mall in Washington–the National Museum of the American Indian and the United States Holocaust Museum–will provide data for a “local” venture into a much larger enterprise–the comparative assessment of “museums and American religion.”

Washington, DC: Sacred Capital on the Banks of the Potomac
Eric Mazur, Bucknell University

Analyses of American civil religion have tended to focus on rhetoric, paralleling Protestantism’s privileging of words and beliefs over actions. Spatial- and ritual-based analyses of American civil religion are more productive, overcoming an ideological blind spot related to the changing status of public Protestantism therein. Such a spatial- and ritual-based analysis of "official" Washington, D.C. (the federal government complex, as well as the museums, memorials, parks, and roads) reveals the foundations of a republic where the few are empowered to make decisions for the many. Coupled with an analysis of the federal government’s evolution from its dependence on Protestantism to its relative independent from it, this approach reveals the dynamic of an American civil religion that is more than just a reflection of its Protestant dominant culture.

    A18-15

Philosophy of Religion Section

Theme: Paul Ricoeur and the Philosophy of Religion I

Between Belonging and Estrangement: Paul Ricoeur and Jürgen Habermas on the Question of Religious Identity and Tradition in a Post-Secular World
Ronald Kuipers, Institute for Christian Studies

In Faith and Knowledge, Jürgen Habermas appeals directly to Judeo-Christian semantic resources as part of an attempt to assess the socio-political dangers inherent in newly developed reprogenetic technology. In order to understand the cultural dynamics at work in this appeal, this paper will place Habermas’ appropriation of religious themes in the context of Paul Ricoeur’s analysis of the dialectical interplay between traditional belonging and critical estrangement. While Habermas’ ongoing appreciation for the semantic potential present in religious culture and tradition tempers his persistent allergy to religious traditions (as insufficienly critical and communicative), he still resists a full recognition of the existence and operation of such a critical-dialectical moment within religious traditions themselves. Once we appreciate the critical capacities inherent in the ongoing donation and appropriation of religious traditions, however, the need for communicative rationality to mark an autonomous moment in the history of human discourse becomes anything but apparent.

Ricoeur, Levinas, and the Problem of Suffering
Jennifer L. Geddes, University of Virginia

This paper will reconsider the project Ricoeur proposed in The Symbolism of Evil, that is, how to revitalize philosophical thought about evil, in light of the problem of suffering--a move that Ricoeur himself suggested as one shaping his own later work. Moving from thinking about evil as sin to thinking of it in the context of suffering marks Oneself as Another, where Ricoeur takes on, among others, the task of articulating a phenomenology of suffering, akin to what Levinas does in Useless Suffering, though differing in important ways. These phenomenologies reframe the problem of evil for both Ricoeur and Levinas, suggesting ways that philosophical thought about evil might, indeed, move beyond its stalemates on the topic, particularly those involved in theodicy.

An Odyssey of Interpretation: Ricoeur's Latest Works
Dan Stiver, Hardin-Simmons University

Ricoeur's two latest works — Memory, History, Forgetting and The Course of Recognition — appear to be a return to his first love, namely, phenomology. These new works are also, however, closely related to his later hermeneutical emphasis. What I propose is not only to connect these works with Ricoeur's previous work, especially his hermeneutical and narrative arcs—but also to connect them with two other related threads that wind consistently through Ricoeur's thought. One is the recognition of a break or limit to cognition. The other is the turn to “attestation,” which allows one to make judgments in light of such ruptures. The first part will thus show how these latter works deepen the hermeneutics of his earlier works. The second part will bring out the theme of discordance. Lastly, I draw these themes together under the idea of an odyssey of interpretation.

From Verdict to Voice: Ricoeur's Reconstruction of Conscience
Diane M. Yeager, Georgetown University

In 2002, Routledge and SUNY issued collections of essays celebrating Ricoeur as a moral philosopher. Neither included an essay focused on the analysis of conscience with which Oneself as Another concludes. Addressing this lacuna, I will show that his phenomenological analysis (“mov[ing] against the current of moralizing interpretations”) is not only a distinctive contribution in itself but also allows us to better understand the philosophical and theological variations in the way others have interpreted and invoked “conscience.” Focusing then on Ricoeur’s substitution of credence/attestation in place of “self-founding knowledge” and his insistence on the intersubjective character of conscience itself, I will argue that recent efforts within the Roman Catholic and ELCA communions to associate conscientious dissent with rootless modern relativism exemplify the very dangers of moralizing conscience that philosophers have exposed and, even at their best, fail to match Ricoeur’s success in defending the association of injunction with attestation.

    A18-16

Women and Religion Section

Theme: Dorothee Sölle Retrospectives

“How Do We Live Whole Lives in the Midst of a Death Machine?”: Dorothee Sölle and the Empire of Full Spectrum Dominance
Ann Herpel, Union Theological Seminary, New York

In the era of full spectrum dominance, Dorothee Sölle’s answer to her query, “how do we live whole lives in the midst of a death machine?” becomes more ethically, theologically, and politically relevant and urgent. In this paper I will examine Sölle’s answer to that question, looking at her theological assumptions, her political activism in the peace movements in Europe, and the biblical and theological resources she used to pursue a life of “real faith” in a rich and despairing world. I will argue that Sölle offers us living in the American empire of full spectrum dominance a theology of resistance that chooses life in face of the death-dealing dominating powers.

"Bound into the Web of Life": Remembering Dorothee Sölle’s Mystical-Political Vision of God through the World
Dianne L. Oliver, University of Evansville

To read Dorothee Sölle’s theology is to recognize that for Sölle all theology is done in the shadow of Auschwitz, the event that forced her to question the traditional understandings of God that contributed to such a horrific event. The result for Sölle was a revisioning of God through the world. This vision begins with a radical critique of authoritarian religion that lifts up power-over and obedience as key ideals because such values created the environment where Nazism and Auschwitz could occur without enough opposition to stop them. This paper highlights the results of this critique, showing how Sölle embraced a mystical-political vision with its move away from an otherworldly transcendence. Rather than an authority external to the world controlling the world, Sölle offered a vision in which 'transcendence is radical immanence,' connecting us to God through our experiences in the world, through our politics.

Confronting, Consoling, Contemplating: Dorothee Sölle's Theology of Suffering
Denise Starkey, Loyola University, Chicago

In her classic 1975 work, Suffering, Dorothee Sölle delivered a prophetic critique of masochistic Christian theologies of suffering that privilege the suffering of Jesus as unique and that portray suffering as a sadistic form of Divine retribution. A significant resource in Sölle’s revisioning of suffering was the contemplative tradition of Christianity and other religions. Sölle’s theology, grounded as it is in the contemplative tradition, brings to the foreground the “sinned-against” who too often find their questions and their lived experience met with a deafening silence which does further violence. Sölle’s contribution to political and feminist theology offers a consoling demonstration of solidarity for women survivors of childhood violence. A luminous aspect of Sölle’s theology of suffering is a theological and ethical progression from muteness to lament to expression embodied as resistance which is committed to the “abolition of conditions” under which the senseless suffering of women and children endures.

Dorothee Sölle Retrospective: Significance of Theology of Suffering for Women’s Spirituality
Sumi Jeung, University of Toronto

The purpose of this presentation is to explore the significance of Sölle’s theology of suffering for the spirituality of women. Sölle sees only spirituality rooted in a mystical vision of suffering has the power to correct the detrimental effects of patriarchal theologies. We will begin by exploring the personal roots of Sölle’s theology within her personal biography, then, move to consider her criticisms of traditional theologies of suffering. From there, we will investigate her core theological account of suffering as a developmental movement: from alienation toward relationship, from absence of God toward presence of God, and from apathy toward solidarity in action. It is suggested that Sölle’s theology of suffering may elicit both a paradigm shift for spiritual theology and a profound experience of renewal for the spirituality of women.

Becoming a Drop in the Sea of God's Love: The Radical Christianity of Dorothee Sölle
Krishana Suckau, Boston University

Dorothee Sölle was a theologian, mystic, feminist, poet, and peace activist. In this paper I will focus on formative experiences in her theological development as well as highlight the major tenets of her theology. I will then examine her thoughts about death, primarily drawing on her unfinished book, Mystik des Todes. In conclusion, I will point to ways in which her theology has on-going significance.

    A18-17

Afro-American Religious History Group

Theme: Variegated Faces: Non-traditional Histories of Black Islam

Fashioning a Religion: Domestic Workers and the Lost Found Nation of Islam (1933-1942)
Malachi Crawford, University of Missouri, Columbia

How did women in the early Nation of Islam (1933-1942) experience their religion on an everyday basis? Until very recently, much of the literature on the meaning of religious experience in the Lost Found Nation of Islam (NOI) had focused almost exclusively on the often male experiences of pimps, hustlers, gamblers, and drug addicts. This study seeks to illuminate the religious experience of another group of NOI converts—female domestic workers—by looking at the propagation efforts of women in the NOI. Female converts to the Nation of Islam constructed a cultural apparatus centered on bake sales and Islamic dress to transmit core ideas and values of their religious community to African American society. Specifically, this study argues that prior to the well-established tradition of newspaper salesmen in the NOI, the uniforms of women in the NOI served as an essential means by which the NOI propagated its version of Islam.

Moorish Magic and Noble Drew Ali’s Temple of Hip Hop: Hip Hop Music and the Legacy of Black Nationalism in America
Paul Easterling, Rice Universtiy

What is the religious force that drives Hip Hop music? Some argue it is Islam, some argue for Christianity and some claim it is humanism; I argue that it is more. The religious traditions of the Moorish Science Temple, founded by Noble Drew Ali are a key element of the religious expression in Hip Hop music. Hip Hop lyrics are a method of conjuration used to speak to the spiritual needs of African people in America and to engage in spiritual warfare against European domination. These spiritual understandings come from the religious understandings and practices of the Moorish Science Temple. Hip Hop lyrics, like Noble Drew Ali's spiritual messages, are a powerful weapon as well as a spiritual healing agent in hip hop music, which conjures the spirit of Noble Drew Ali through lyrics that reflect the legacy of his teachings.

Death-Angels and Muslim Sons: The Question of White Five Percenters
Michael Muhammad Knight, Phelps, NY

The Nation of Gods and Earths (Five Percenters) is a New Religious Movement that began with a small cluster of exiles from the Nation of Islam in 1960s Harlem. The NGE retains an intellectual dependance on the teachings of Elijah Muhammad, most importantly the Supreme Wisdom Lessons which claim that the white race was created by an evil scientist named Yacub. Five Percenters follow the NOI doctrine that all black men are gods and all white men are devils. However, Allah, the founder of the NGE, taught NOI Lessons to a white youth that he named “Azreal,” and there have been scattered instances of white Five Percenters throughout the NGE’s 40-year history. Through the history of the Nation of Gods and Earths and the specific experiences of white Five Percenters, I will discuss how dynamic modes of authority have created flexibility in determining the role of whites through the Lessons.

    A18-18

Confucian Traditions Group

Theme: The Religious Status of Confucianism

The religious status of Confucianism has been controversial at least since the work of James Legge in the 19th century. The forerunners of the field of religious studies (e.g. Max Muller) included Confucianism in their concept of "world religions," but through most of the 20th century the predominant view was that Confucianism was "not really" a religion. Most North American scholars in Confucian studies today take it for granted that the religious dimensions of Confucianism are abundantly evident. Yet, despite the growing sophistication of non-Eurocentric theoretical understandings of religion since the late 20th century, there is still widespread disagreement on the issue in the field of religious studies at large, and even more so in other academic fields. This panel will examine the theoretical aspects of this problem and the religious status of Confucianism in premodern and contemporary China, Korea, and Japan.

Confucianism as Religion/ Religious Tradition/ Neither: Still Hazy after All These Years
Joseph Adler, Kenyon College

The religious status of Confucianism has been controversial arguably since the Chinese Rites Controversy of the 17th century, and certainly since the 19th century work of James Legge. Despite the growing sophistication of non-Eurocentric theoretical understandings of religion in the late 20th century, there is still widespread disagreement on this question. The numerous theoretical problems raised by the issue include the definitions of both 'Confucianism' and 'religion,' the distinction between 'institutional' and 'diffused' religion, problems introduced by the cross-cultural application of such concepts as transcendence and immanence, and other problems introduced by the Sino-Japanese translation of the Anglo-European words for 'religion' (zongjiao/shukyo). This paper will survey the history of this debate and will offer some concrete suggestions for its resolution.

Confucian Li and Family Spirituality: Reflections on the Contemporary Korean Tradition of Ancestral Rites
Edward Y. J. Chung, University of Prince Edward Island

In South Korea, Confucian rituals (ye; or li in Chinese) influence family values, moral education, and religious thinking. This paper presents the Korean family tradition of ancestral rites, especially its modern meaning and trends. My approach engages some practical experience and comparative perspectives after discussing the relevant textual sources of the topic. This tradition embodies Confucian li understood as a source of cosmic-moral truth, personal cultivation, and family spirituality; i.e., the secular and the sacred are believed to meet through ritual practice. Its vital religious nature reveals a distinctive heritage of Confucian ethics and spirituality, which should not be confused with the old shamanistic pattern of “ancestor worship.” Does this have any implications for our teaching of Confucianism as religion? What about the Korean phenomenon of Confucian-Christian assimilation or dialogue? These kinds of questions are indeed important for a better and deeper understanding of Confucian religiosity.

The Metaphysics of Ancestor Worship in Early-Modern Japan
John Tucker, East Carolina University

'Ancestor worship' is the Western term for various family-based forms of reverence offered to deceased family members, most typically the family’s male line. Studies of Japanese religion often explain ancestor worship in relation to Shintō or Buddhism. When discussed as a Confucian phenomena, it is typically linked to teachings of filial piety, respect for elder brothers, and the overall family-centered perspective characteristic of Confucianism. This paper, however, explores the metaphysical foundations of ancestor worship in an effort to clarify some of the more distinct yet often neglected Neo-Confucian nuances of that form of religious practice in early-modern Japan. Textually, the paper analyzes philosophical discussions of 'Ghosts and Spirits' (kishin) in writings by Hayashi Razan (1583-1657), Yamaga Sokō (1622-85), Itō Jinsai (1627-1705), Ogyū Sorai (1666-1728), and Arai Hakuseki (1657-1725) to reveal how various Confucians understood the metaphysical relationship between family members and their ancestors.

The Latest Development of the Controversy on Confucian Religiosity
Yong Chen, Vanderbilt University

The question of whether Confucianism is a religion is one of the most controversial issues in the scholarships of Confucianism and Sinology. As an integral part of the more general concern about the vitality of Chinese culture in modern times, it has carved a deep but irritating mark on the intellectual landscape of modern China. W. C. Smith has once claimed that it is a question the West has never been able to answer, and China never able to ask. Smith’s concern reveals the very challenge of applying the Western concept of religion to Confucianism that is intrinsically defiant of generalizations derived from Western experiences. This presentation introduces the latest development of the controversy in Chinese academic communities during the past several decades, and reflects on its significance to the understanding of Chinese tradition and modernity in post-Confucian times.

Is Confucianism a Religion in China? Intellectual Controversies and a Preliminary Ethnographic Study
Anna Xiao Dong Sun, Kenyon College

Is Confucianism a religion? This question has been debated for centuries by historians, philosophers, religious studies scholars, and social scientists, both in China and in the West. However, since the debates have mainly centered on historical and theoretical arguments, they become intellectual disagreements about the categories of religion, or even the very definition of religion. In this project, I first discuss two intellectual controversies (one taking place in the late 19th century, the other in the beginning of the 21st century) over the classification of Confucianism as a religion; I then focus on locating and understanding Confucian ritual practice in contemporary Chinese society based on my recent ethnographic work in China.

    A18-19

Feminist Theory and Religious Reflection Group

Theme: Beyond Binaries: New Feminist Perspectives on Christian Themes

Sexual Ethics beyond Sexual Difference
Wesley Barker, Emory University

Sexual ethics demands a discussion of bodies, and bodies cannot be addressed or, for that matter dressed, without the tools of signification. Christian sexual ethics must ask how the discursive limits of sex have unethically delimited bodies through a silencing of their pleasures. Highlighting this relationship between bodies and Christian discourse on sex, this paper reads the body of Christ as a textual body in order to deconstruct sexual difference and dislodge it from its generative role in sexual ethics—erupting into an ethics of bodies as sites of the endless play of erotic excess beyond the material-discursive divide.

The Hairball We Cannot Swallow: Religious Readings of "Feeling Dirty" in Victimization
Amy Carr, Western Illinois University

Although androcentric assumptions about the relative purity of men and the relative impurity of women abound in religious discourse, eliminating androcentric purity rhetoric will not in itself prevent feelings of impurity or defilement from arising in victims of rape or sexual abuse. The spiritual dynamics of victimization are persistent and intense enough to warrant our developing a more nuanced analysis of the rhetoric of purity and pollution in connection with religious concepts of sin and salvation—a way that challenges androcentric connotations of purity language, while articulating the theological and anthropological purchase of purity language with respect to experiences of sinning and of being “sinned against.” Mary Douglas’ anthropological study of purity and pollution distinctions, Julia Kristeva’s psychoanalytic depiction of abjection, and Simone Weil’s meditations on affliction and liturgical purification all yield resources for clarifying distinctions among androcentric purity associations, pollution feelings amid victimization, and senses of stain in sinners.

Power Plays: Victimization, Innocence, and Agency in Christian Narratives of Redemption
Flora A. Keshgegian, Brown University

This paper will explore the ways in which traditional Christian narratives of redemption construct the relationship of victimization and innocence. It will argue that, in their insistence on the innocence of victims, these narratives complicate the dynamics of agency for the victimized and so undermine resources for transformation and empowerment. Although the paper will pursue the line of argumentation offered by feminist theologians who are critical of atonement theologies for the ways in which they valorize suffering and sacrifice and contribute to violence against women, it will also draw upon trauma theory, feminist theory and victim studies to probe deeper into the logic of atonement theologies, especially to reveal the ways in which connections are drawn between innocence, victimization and agency. The intent of this study is to reveal how the dynamics and logic of Christian theological ideas function and what practices and claims they make possible and/or preclude.

On the Altar: The Vagina Monologues as a Site for Ritualized Liberatory Narrative
Elizabeth Gish and Sarah Peck, Harvard University

This paper explores two lines of religious and theological thought related to Eve Ensler's play, The Vagina Monologues. We critically analyze the context and impact of three sold-out performances of The Vagina Monologues in the sanctuary and on altar of a divinity school chapel. What does it mean, and how did it impact those involved, to bring stories of orgasms, menstrual blood, systematic sexualized violence, and non-virginal birth to the altar through voices of women themselves? The second part of the paper situates the annual, worldwide, and widespread performances of the Monologues in the context of Catherine Bell’s work on ritual as a strategy for the negotiation of power. We suggest that this ritualized performing of the Monologues has developed in response to the need for a feminist intervention into the dominant kyriarchal narratives about women, their bodies, and their sexuality.

    A18-20

Japanese Religions Group

Theme: Japanese Religiosity from Tokugawa to the Present

This session focuses on the wide-ranging expressions of Japanese religiosity from the seventeenth century to the present. Although Japanese culture is often portrayed as homogenous, a closer examination invariably reveals extraordinary diversity in religious practices particularly within different social and institutional settings. The papers in this session will explore religious expressions such as Buddhist mortification rites, healing rites, and manga, while also touching on internal debates concerning magic, superstition, and the very definition of religion itself.

Mortification Practices in the Japanese Ōbaku School
James Baskind, Yale University

With some notable exceptions, mortification practices never substantially took root in Japanese Buddhism. In the mid-seventeenth century, however, a group of Chinese monks arrived in Japan and established the basis of what was to become the Ōbaku school. These monks brought with them contemporaneous Ming Buddhist models that included such mortification practices as: burning off a finger as an offering to the Buddha, copying out sutras in blood, the practice of absolute confinement for a period of three years, and in the most extreme case, self-immolation by fire. For a period these practices were part of the landscape of Ōbaku Zen, although they faded out as the flow of Chinese masters came to a halt, suggesting that such practices were perhaps incompatible with Japanese religious sensibilities.

A Japanese Nativist Healing Debate: Magic vs. Medicine
Wilburn Hansen, Stanford University

Hirata Atsutane’s medical text Shizu no iwaya written in 1810 showed his medical theory was highly dependent on Japanese mythology. He held the conviction that healing depended on faith in the Japanese kami. Ten years later in his Senkyo ibun, Atsutane played the recording ethnographer role with a mysterious young boy called Tengu Boy Torakichi as his supernatural informant from the Other World. Among the many fantastic tales and fascinating facts about the Other World revealed by Torakichi are serious and detailed instructions for healing a number of troubling human ailments. Most importantly, a great many of his cures are reliant upon Chinese herbal medical practices. Even though Atsutane considered Torakichi’s healing techniques to be inferior in quality, his own attitudes toward healing were evolving toward a Daoist understanding of diseases and their cures.

The Revival of Nikko Shugendo
Gaynor Sekimori, University of Tokyo

Shugendo has twice disappeared from Nikko, and twice been revived. Each time the revival has been hampered by loss of records, and so new traditions have emerged or been created, and absorbed into its identity. Early Meiji religious policy ensured that the traditional institutional and economic basis was no longer in place when the second revival happened in 1995. Moreover, questions of validity have occurred, which were not previously an issue, and this is an issue which applies to all contemporary Shugendo groups. Justification has been stated largely in ecological terms: Shugendo has a special relationship with nature that makes it a fitting practice for a world beset by environmental problems. This paper is based on a two-year study of the revived Nikko Shugendo and utilises themes of reidentification/ re-labelling, absorption of non-traditional elements, and recreation of purpose.

Manga as Living Visual Narratives in Kōfuku no Kagaku
Mark Wheeler MacWilliams, St. Lawrence University

This paper explores how Ōkawa Ryūhō’s Kōfuku no Kagaku, one of the more prominent Japanese new religions, uses manga to express its spiritual vision as a “world religion.” Like other Japanese new religious movements, Kōfuku no Kagaku has its own publishing house which produces numerous comic books designed to explain key doctrines and teachings of the group. This paper examines some of these texts (e.g. Manga de aru “Kōfuku no Kagaku,” Komikku enzeru, etc) to reveal how, through story telling and the graphic imagery of manga, they articulates a powerful new mythological vision that seeks to be universal and global. What new “textures of meaning” can be found here, and what makes these visual narratives different from traditional forms of mythology? How are these tales emblematic of some of the religious trends of new religious movements cross-culturally?

    A18-21

Korean Religions Group

Theme: Aesthetics and Social Context in Korean Religions Today

In modern globalized South Korea, visual rather than text culture has emerged as a primary means for the communication of meaning, identity, and value. No less than the text culture that it challenges, visual culture can be paradoxical and dangerous. It can reify and reduce meaning, identity, and value to the static immediacy of the image and its context-laden form or it can liberate meaning, identity, and value from the tyranny of local history, tradition, and social function by juxtaposing new images of deliberate ambiguity into social discourse. How religions in South Korea are affected by and address the challenges of modern visual culture is the focus of this panel.

Iconoclasm, Cultural Space, and Aesthetics: From Fear to Celebration, Focusing on Contemporary Cases in Korea

Iconoclasm, Cultural Space, and Aesthetics: From Fear to Celebration, Focusing on Contemporary Cases in Korea
Jung Myung Won Raymond, Graduate Theological Union

My paper, then, has a dual aim: to shed light on the cause of iconoclasm as related to its context in the history of Korean Protestant Christianity and to explore reconciliation from the perspective of aesthetics. In an era of visual culture, iconoclasm is a locus in which religious and cultural geography is embodied. Iconoclasm is not an isolated phenomenon, but rather a relational phenomenon in which the dynamic multiplicity of socio-cultural and religious dimensions play an ongoing role. It has become a sizzling socio-cultural issue in contemporary Korean society. In exploring the recent patterns of iconoclasm in the context of Korea, this paper will be limited to a consideration of the visual aspects of this issue, from the physical violence of iconoclasm as fear to visual aesthetic dialogue as celebration. Also, I will limit myself to outlining cases in contemporary Korea and Korean Protestant Christianity.

Buddhism, Orientalism, and Zen Ethnography in Korean Cinema
Hyangsoon Yi, University of Georgia

This paper concerns a new subgenre of Buddhist films in Korean cinema which I call “Zen ethnography.” Represented by Chu Kyǒng-jung’s A Little Monk (2003) and Kim Ki-dǔk’s Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter, and Spring (2003), films of this category present a “slice” of Korean Buddhist monasticism in an exquisite visual language. While their focus on beautiful cinematography and time-honored monastic customs enrich the cinematic texts, these films tend to erase the historical dimension of the local religious tradition for a global appeal. Using Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter, and Spring as a prime example, I will examine various critical issues raised by the “secondary Orientalism” of these films.

Minjung Theology Revisited: Christian Religion in the Context of Socio-cultural Changes in South Korea
Volker Kuester, Kampen Theological University

In the 1970s South Koreas minjung movement spoke up for the observance of human rights, social justice and democratization, and regarding the division of the country for national self-determination and re-unification. In the minjung, the oppressed people, the activists had discovered the subjects of Korean history. Subsequently, a hermeneutical struggle on Korean history and culture was waged between the dissidents and the military and administrative elite. With the democratization process and the rise of globalization in the 1990s the South Korean society underwent deep changes. The paper will re/construct these developments by bringing into dialogue works of leading minjung artists like Hong Song-Dam, Lee Chul-Soo and Kim Bong-Chun with the contributions of Christian Minjung theologians. It will not only demonstrate the artists view on the role of Korean religions but also put forward the implicit challenges for the theologians.

What Do Unbelievers Believe?
Michael Ralston, Fort Meade, MD

Most analyses of data that tracks changes in religious belief in Korea over the last twenty years focuses on Protestants, Catholics, or Buddhists and the changes between or within these groups. Examining the characteristics of a fourth group, unbelievers, will shed light on an aspect of the religious landscape that is usually ignored in studies of religion in Korea. Specifically, examining the changes and interaction of unbelievers with Protestants, Catholics, and Buddhists and comparing their respective motivations and characterizations of religion will give us a better understanding of the role of religion in contemporary Korean society.

    A18-22

New Religious Movements Group

Theme: Theorizing New Religions: Looking Backward, Looking Forward

The academic study of new religious movements is at a crucial juncture in its development. The significant work that has been done by the first generation of new religions scholars laid an impressive foundation on which the next generation may build. Drawing on a variety of theoretical perspectives, this session will highlight the shifts that have (and are) taking place within the field.

Discourses of Difference: Examining the Unity School of Christianity as a New Religious Movement
Jeremy Rapport, Indiana University, Bloomington

This paper uses a case study of the religious group known as the Unity School of Christianity in order to analyze two recent typologies of New Religious Movements presented by J. Gordon Melton and Eileen Barker in their respective articles in the July, 2004 issue of Nova Religio. Using important moments in the development of Unity as examples, the paper analyzes and compares the major elements of the two typologies in order to identify the explanatory power and utility of each typology when it is used to examine a particular religious movement. The paper also seeks to make clear what aspects of Unity each typology emphasizes or deemphasizes. Thus the paper also demonstrates how each typology might work to clarify or to mask certain aspects of a specific religious movement. The paper argues that neither typology alone is adequate to explain a particular religious movement.

Resistance to Charismatic Authority
David Bromley and Rachel Bobbitt, Virginia Commonwealth University

Max Weber identified three types of authority: traditional authority, rational-legal authority, and charismatic authority. Charismatic authority refers to certain quality of individual personalities by virtue of which individuals are set apart from ordinary people and treated as endowed with extraordinary or supernatural qualities. Various qualities typically associated with charisma indicate that charismatic authority might be quite resistant to challenge; others suggest that resistance is possible or likely. However, there has been no systematic investigation of the nature, source, and consequences of resistance to charismatic authority. Based on an examination of case studies of contemporary new religious movements, this paper identifies the most likely sources, characteristics, and consequences of three major sources of resistance: inner circle coup, bureaucratic insurgency, and grassroots resistance.

The Problem of Ideal Typologies for the Study of Liminal Religious Groups
Marie W. Dallam, Temple University

This paper examines a problem raised by the use of ideal typologies in the study of NRMs: the academic consequences of taxonomies that divide religions into sociological groupings, such as “churches” “cults,” and “storefronts.” I will examine this issue theoretically by sketching out the state of the field and the nature of the problem, including discussion of related concepts that may be useful for evaluating social change within religions. I will then use the particular example of the United House of Prayer for All People to demonstrate the effects of ideal typologies. This religious group has spent the majority of its existence in an academic interstice somewhere between hard and fast categories. I will explore the consequences of this interstitial existence on scholarship about the church, past and present, as well as its effect on the church’s self-perception, in order to elucidate the larger problem within Religious Studies.

New Religion Studies — Whither and Why?
Lorne Dawson, University of Waterloo

The contemporary study of new religions is reaching a cross-roads. It is facing some serious challenges as a transition is made beyond the first wave of significant scholars who shaped the field. Interest in the questions that galvanized their attention has waned, yet significant gaps remain in our knowledge. This papers schematically summarizes the significant advances in our understanding of key aspects of the study of new religious movements (e.g., who joins them, how and why?), while demonstrating the need to establish a more systematic agenda of empirical and theoretical tasks for the next generation of scholars. At this juncture, meaningful development of the field depends on the effective consolidation of knowledge and the more precise specification of research tasks.

    A18-23

Nineteenth-Century Theology Group

Theme: Contributions of Samuel Taylor Coleridge to Major Concerns of the Nineteenth Century

Coleridge's Dynamic Construction of Consciousness as the Promotion of a Philosophical Position and a Moral Disposition
Liberty Stewart, Emory University

The theological and philosophical writings of Samuel Taylor Coleridge often made consciousness a central theme. Coleridge’s musings on the faculties of reason and understanding explored, in particular, the dynamic potential of human consciousness. By focusing on the productivity issuing from the dynamic synthesis of and tension between the faculties of reason, faith, and will, Coleridge bridged the divide that debates between faith-centered and reason-centered thinkers of his time had enhanced. Coleridge argued that human flourishing issues not from the stagnant use one faculty, but from the activity between faculties. This paper argues that Coleridge’s portrayals of the multivalent interaction of human mental faculties became a means for him to stress the dynamism of consciousness both as a subject and a prescriptive object of his writing. That is, Coleridge viewed his meditations on consciousness not as mere philosophical ramblings, but as practical motivational tools for the spiritual formation of his readers.

Defending Spirit: Symbol and History in Coleridge’s Theological Hermeneutics
Joel Harter, University of Chicago

This paper will engage Coleridge’s symbol within the context of his theory of history and his theological idealism. Symbol is often approached as an aesthetic or literary concept, but Coleridge’s most famous definition of symbol occurs in the context of a discussion of history and its interpretation. Coleridge formulates symbol in direct response to the Lockean materialism of modern historiography and political economy. Coleridge defends the moral and spiritual significance of history. He argues that we need to read modern history the way we read biblical history — as symbolic of deeper meaning — and modern attempts to de-mythologize scripture, history, or nature diminish our ethical and spiritual nature as human beings. His idealism finally defends spirit and redefines reason to include faith and imagination. The importance of history and hermeneutics distinguishes Coleridge’s idealism — and his symbol — from that of Kant and Schelling.

Coleridge, Christology, and the Language of Redemption
Jeffrey W. Barbeau, Oral Roberts University

One of Coleridge’s most important contributions to nineteenth-century theology was his critical study of the Bible. Among some of his contemporaries, however, Coleridge’s unique combination of literary criticism, speculative metaphysics, and German biblical criticism proved problematic at best, especially with respect to his treatment of Christology. As Coleridge explained in the Biographia Literaria, one of his earliest religious difficulties came in the attempt to reconcile personality with infinity: though his “head” was with Spinoza, it was the biblical wisdom of Paul and John that ruled his “heart.” In this paper, I suggest that an examination of Coleridge’s Christology in his notebook commentaries on the Gospel of John and the Epistles of Paul provides an important means of conceptualizing his understanding of Christian redemption.

An English Church for a British Nation: Coleridge’s Ideas of Common Law, Customary Right, and Cultural Memory
Pamela Edwards, Syracuse University

The paper will consider Coleridge’s mature writings on the constitution and the common law as providing an institutional structure for the advancement British identity. It will set Coleridge’s historicist jurisprudence within the framework of his conception of the English Church. The Church, in Coleridge’s account, remained an essentially English vessel containing a fluid and increasingly hybrid British identity: if you will, new British Wine in old English bottles. I will argue that Coleridge’s constitutional writings on Church and State were profoundly historicist and idealist and yet, anchored in active institutions and events, rooted in an empirical understanding of history and progress.

    A18-24

Religion and Disability Studies Group

Theme: Deaf Culture and Religion

This session spotlights papers that focus on Deaf churches and Deaf culture, particularly those that highlight the significance of the Washington, DC area.

Sacred Signs: Religion among America's Founding Deaf Community
Meredith Filiatreault, Gallaudet University

From its inception, the American Deaf community has identified closely with churches, and missionaries have strongly shaped its outlook and strategies for uplifting individuals. Between 1817 and 1917 religious people played a central and varied role in deaf cultural history. They did so through establishing deaf education, deaf churches, and deaf social networks. Religious people and a missionary spirit literally provided the resources and means by which a cultural deaf community came into existence in America.

A Journey to the Promised Land: Examining Quasi-Religious Metaphors in Deaf Cultures in Relation to Gallaudet University
Kirk VanGilder, Boston University

This paper examines the unique social location of Gallaudet University as the only four year liberal arts University in the world specifically designed to meet the needs of Deaf and hard of hearing students. Historically, Gallaudet has been held in high reverence as a ‘promised land’ of hope and education at the center of the Deaf world. This reverence takes on a quasi-religious tone at times that echoes a similar mytho-historical understanding of the origins and journey of Deaf communities in America. Paddy Ladd has proposed the possibility that this sort of understanding may constitute a “Deaf spirituality” that transcends the particularities of Deaf communities worldwide. This paper seeks to examine that possibility from a theological vantage point to determine its commensurability with Christian theological narrative as a potential area for Deaf theological development.

Christianity and Deaf Culture: Philosophical and Social Issues — A Consideration of the Apparent Conflict between Christianity and Deaf Culture
Elizabeth Parish, Baylor University

There is a prevailing perspective within Deaf studies regarding Christianity and Deaf Culture that they are ideologically in conflict. Little to no research has been done attempting to analyze this idea of a contradiction between Deaf culture and Christianity. This presentation will discuss my thesis, which has both a research and ethnographic component. I will present, using American Sign Language, justification for the research and explanation of its importance, the key arguments that comprise this apparent contradiction, and an investigation of several concepts that shed light on these arguments. This investigation includes a word-level analysis of ‘deaf’ in the Bible, the writings of St. Augustine and their relevance to the topic, the character of Jesus and his interactions with oppressed people groups of his time, an explanation of the ethnographic portion of the study and what these interviews yielded and contributed to the paper, and recommendations for further research.

    A18-25

Religion in Latin America and the Caribbean Group

Theme: Africa in Latin America and the Caribbean

Africa has a long standing presence in what we typically refer to as Latin America--the very name of which plays a role in how non-Latin groups, languages, and cultures are perceived in the region. This panel explores different expressions of the spirituality and religion of Afro-descendent populations in Latin America and the Caribbean. The panelists explore Christian revivalism and the "marvelous realism" of Vodou. They also seek to understand uses and misuses of African spirituality in colonial contexts and the role of the African presence in the formation of national identities. The contexts explored include Cuba, Jamaica, Haiti, Peru and the United States.

Understanding Haitian Vodou through Marvelous Realism: Avoiding Postcolonial Eurocentrism
Shelley Wiley, Morningside College

In September 1956, at the first Congress of Negro Writers and Artists, Haitian intellectual Jacques Stephen Alexis presented a paper entitled “On the Marvelous Realism of the Haitians.” His use of Marvelous Realism was based on Cuban novelist Alejo Carpentier’s 1943 description of Haiti as a place where one encounters the marvelous in the real; Alexis theorizes Marvelous Realism as a critique of the relationship between oppressors and the oppressed and as a source of strength in which Haitians can draw on their American, African, and European heritage. Drawing on Alexis’ work, and others such as Caribbean scholars Michael Dash and Shalini Puri who have developed it, this paper argues that Marvelous Realism can be an explanatory paradigm for understanding Haitian Vodou, and that using it allows scholars to avoid Colonial and Christianized readings of the Vodou tradition. The worldview, rituals, and history of Haitian Vodou will provide examples.

Race, Religion, and Identity: The Afro-Cuban Contribution
Michelle A. Gonzalez, University of Miami

This paper examines the intersection of Latin American, Black, and Latino/a culture and religiosity through the study of Afro-Cuban religion. Cuban/Cuban-American culture is characterized by an Afro-Cuban component, in its history and religiosity. My presentation brings forth the challenges that Afro-Cuban identity and religiosity pose to contemporary contextual theology and Christian communities, especially regarding the paradigms of Black, Latin American, and Latino/a constructions of race and ethnicity in religious and theological studies. One cannot understand what it means to be Cuban, regardless of one’s race, without addressing the Afro-Cuban. The contemporary era is one where the Afro-Cuban has become so engrained in the broader culture that it is part of the dominant Cuban culture. However, Cubans and Cuban-Americans have an ambiguous relationship with their Afro-Cuban identity, ranging from glorification to vilification. A study of Afro-Cuban religiosity reveals the intersection of race, religion, and identity-formation.

Misunderstanding African Healing Practices in the Dominican Infirmary: A New Look at St. Martin de Porres
Alice Wood, Bethune-Cookman College

Bernardo Medina’s Vida de Fray Martin (1663) is the only seventeenth century life of Martin de Porres, a mulatto Creole who became a Dominican tertiary in colonial Lima. It includes details omitted from later biographies and these details point to Martin’s conscious use of West African rituals and healing practices. The combination of African ritual elements with Christian symbols and prayers not only demonstrates religious hybridity within convent walls but also contributes to an ongoing misinterpretation of these African elements. The St. Martin held up to North American blacks coming to Washington D.C. in 1866 was no longer a healer but only an obedient, humble, and self-effacing black man holding a broom.

Religious Transition in the Periphery: The Case of Revivalism in Fort Charles, a Rural Community in Jamaica
Ennis B. Edmonds, Kenyon College

Revivalism, a folk religious tradition in Jamaica, is currently undergoing a transition in which its African elements are being eliminated, and in which its character is becoming more Pentecostal. The changes taking place in two Revival congregations in Fort Charles, a remote community in rural Jamaica, illustrate this transition. My research identifies at least four factors contributing to this transition: media exposure to a type religiosity that proves to be attractive, especially to their younger members; pressures for change brought by the institutional affiliation of one of the congregations with the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church; educational/class mobility of some younger members, leading to a desire to leave behind those elements of Revivalism considered backward or primitive; and an attempt to repudiate the questionable legacy of a former leader. Further research on a wide cross-section of Revival congregations will be necessary to detemine the breath and depth of the current transition.

    A18-26

Religions, Medicines, and Healing Group

Theme: Healing Movement: Techniques, Philosophies, and Implications for Healing and Religion

Avoiding and Inviting Madness in Hindu Traditions
Marcy Braverman-Goldstein, University of Judaism

This paper will first explore the concept of madness (unmåda) in the Indian Āyurvedic medical treatises (ca. 3rd-7th centuries C.E.), where it is an undesirable condition. Next, the paper will look at the later nondual Śaiva yoga traditions of Kashmir (ca. 10th-11th centuries C.E.), wherein the state of intoxicated devotion (bhaktimada) became a goal of practice (sådhana). Thereafter, the paper will explore various physical practices used to achieve the desired religious experience. In the 10th century, meditation involving breath control was used as a means to achieve healing. In the 20th-21st centuries, Śaiva devotees who date their lineage back to the 10th century Kashmiri traditions, have incorporated singing and chanting into their meditation practice as additional ways of seeking the intoxicated devotion of their gurus.

Adjusting Body and Spirit: The Science, Art, and Philosophy of Chiropractic Manipulations
Candy Gunther Brown, Saint Louis University

This paper analyzes chiropractics’ philosophical framework for how physical movements of the spine produce illness or healing. I argue that the religious assumptions that inform chiropractic philosophy are essential to understanding healing practices that most interpreters have framed in terms of mechanical techniques and physiological effects. Chiropractics’ “discoverer,” Daniel David Palmer (1845-1913), embraced a vitalistic understanding of the cosmos that presumes the existence of a force Palmer termed Innate Intelligence thought to govern the human body through the nervous system. Palmer intended chiropractic adjustments to remove subluxations of vertebrae that alter nerve tension, thereby restoring harmony between the individual and Innate. Drawing upon the writings of chiropractors and historians, clinical studies of chiropractics’ effectiveness, and religious critiques of chiropractics, this paper suggests that chiropractic philosophy is inextricable from its science and art of healing movements, making chiropractics one of the most widely practiced physical religions of healing.

Spiritual Healing through Physical Practice, Physical Healing through Spiritual Practice: Native American Canoe Traditions and Community Health
Dennis Kelley, Iowa State University

In Indian Country, many cultural practices carry with them the assumption of both balance production and health maintenance, at times as epiphenomenal to their overt meaning, and contemporary Native communities have often turned to these traditions in the overall process of healing the people. This paper will articulate a meaningful analysis of the practice issues surrounding the American Indian religious revitalization phenomenon using an example from my research with the maritime traditions of the Chumash Indians of central California and the Makah of Northwest Washington State, and argue for the understanding of the return to cultural traditions in the contemporary Native American context as a functioning paradigm for the analysis of healing through spiritual identity construction and maintenance generally. This mode of theorizing can provide insight into what I believe forms the basis of modern religious behavior: ritual and its continuing centrality in the realm of religio-cultural practice.

Taiji in America: From Healing Technique to Religious Practice and Back Again
Elijah Siegler, College of Charleston

Taiji is a body practice originating in China that is growing in popularity in the U.S. It is said to have Daoist origins and to result in health and vitality. This paper argues that, in the U.S., taiji’s image as a Daoist practice originates from a particular moment in the history of the counterculture: the birth of the human potential movement. Then, this paper will analyze the relationship between taiji, healing, and religion to American practitioners. In China, Taiji’s origins do not lie in Daoism but in the 18th century Chinese military. In the U.S. taiji became associated with Daoism after it began to be taught at Esalen, the center associated with the human potential movement. Today, Taiji is taught in nursing homes and community centers by teachers uncomfortable speaking about religion at all. But Daoism continues to make implicit promises about the healing power of taiji.

Falun Gong: Exercises for Perfect Health and Enlightenment
John T. Adams, University of California, Santa Barbara

My paper will examine the “technologies of the self” found in the new Chinese “religious” movement Falun Gong that aim at individual transformation as taught by the group’s founder, Li Hongzhi. Through a process of “cultivation practice” that incorporates the regular performance of five physical qigong-esque exercises, Li claims that practitioners will not only be cured of all illness but will, more significantly, transform their “human flesh-bodies” into an immortal “Buddha-body.” My paper will consider the ways in which Li claims for his Falun Gong an ancient heritage that includes teachings and methods of practice derived from Chinese Buddhism, Daoism and qigong movements. Moreover, I will also examine how Li attempts to present his Falun Gong as a superior form of transformational practice to those with which he links his “cultivation practice.”

    A18-27

Roman Catholic Studies Group

Theme: Catholicism and Sex

Is Abortion the New Hubris? Recent Catholic Anthropology, Gender, and Public Policy
Nancy Dallavalle, Fairfield University

While acknowledging some interconnection among ethical issues such as abortion, capital punishment, poverty and euthanasia, recent statements by Roman Catholic bishops have privileged the opposition to abortion -- the 'right to life' -- as a foundational commitment grounding other ethical claims. At the same time, numerous statements by Pope John Paul II gave new theological and doctrinal emphasis to 1) the notion that humanity (men and women) before God is best understood as female, as the spouse of Christ the bridegroom; and 2) that the deepest story about being female is, as with the Marian fiat, a story about maternity. This paper will ask about the emerging emphasis on abortion as the 'foundational sin,' exploring the extent to which John Paul II's theological innovations re-shaped (and 'gendered') a variety of theological concepts and contributed a powerful but problematic subtext to the current public re-consideration of abortion policy in the U.S.

Intrinsically Homosexual: The Vatican’s New Instruction on Gays in the Priesthood in the Context of a Living Tradition
Gerard Jacobitz, St. Joseph's University, Philadelphia

The author takes the recent Vatican instruction on gays in the seminary as an invitation for input from gay Catholics, and to that end proposes six areas most in need of further discussion: reception and interpretation of the instruction; problems with “intrinsically disordered acts” and “objectively disordered desire” as coherent terms in the magisterium’s wider teaching on homosexuality; natural law versus interpersonal criteria for sexual ethics; inauthenticity and self-deception as obstacles to the instruction’s implementation; increasingly widespread cultural and clinical acceptance of the evils of silence and the closet; and evidence for a development of doctrine in the area of sexuality and love culminating in Benedict XVI’s Deus Caritas Est.

Celluloid Sex: Filmic Contributions to a Theological Discourse on Sexuality
Stefanie Knauss, Karl-Franzens University

Recently, a number of films have explored the theme of sexuality in an explicitness never before seen outside of porn cinemas. Yet, I suggest in my analysis of the films Romance, Intimacy and 9 Songs that there is more to the films than a pornographic depiction of sexuality: far from being 'immoral' or degrading, all three of them are reflections on the need for human relationships, the part that sexuality plays in them, and the importance of an integration of all dimensions of the human person in a relationship. In a dialogue between these films and Catholic teaching and theology, the filmic language can help to understand and put into words what sexuality means for human beings, thus renewing theological thinking about it and assisting in the development of a theological language of sexuality beyond the traditional discourses of power and restriction.

Grief and Sexual Symbolism in Early Twentieth Century French Catholic Thought
Brenna Moore, Harvard University

Using the works of Raïssa Maritain as a test case, this paper explores how devotions to the Virgin Mary, saints and mystics were revitalized in highly sexualized and emotive terms among French Catholic intellectuals in the years surrounding World War I. Raïssa Martian describes that this renaissance catholique looked to an erotic, affective Catholic past in order to imagine a new present in the face of the grief and tragedies of the early 20th century. Analysis of the gendered and sexualized dimensions of this ‘Catholic renewal’ points to aspects of this movement often overlooked, and ultimately, I argue that it cannot be simply dismissed as a chiefly masculine desire to reconcile itself with alterity, but is connected to a tradition of writings by both men and women who retrieve from a mystical golden age in emotive, erotic terms as an impetus for theological and philosophical creativity.

    A18-28

Science, Technology, and Religion Group

Theme: Stem Cells: The Scientific Frontier and the Ethical Debate

The theological and ethical debate over research on human embryonic stem cells (hES cells) follows the frontier of a rapidly developing science. In this session, we explore the ways that theological and philosophical understandings of human dignity and wellbeing are challenged by and challenge the science and practice of stem cell research. This session will begin with an overview of the history, the science, and the competing religious positions in the stem cell debate, led by Mr. Bennet and Drs. Lebacqz and Hewlett. This will be followed by a panel addressing the various theological positions , which will include a theological and ethical analysis from Roman Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, and Jewish perspectives. Ted Peters, Karen Lebacqz, and Gaymon Bennett are co-authoring a new book summarizing the stem cell debate tentatively titled, Immortal Lines: Theologians Say “Yes” to Stem Cells.

    A18-29

Biblical/Contextual Ethics Consultation

Theme: Scriptural/Ethical Reflections on the Use of Political Power

Revealing a New World: Power According to Biblical Apocalyptic
Ted Grimsrud, Eastern Mennonite University

In face of problems of global poverty and other crises, Christian theology is challenged to re-examine its understandings of power. Present political values reflect assumptions that power is best used to benefit the already powerful - a dynamic that likely will continue to exacerbate these large problems. A fruitful, though heretofore little utilized, theological resource for articulating an alternative approach to power may be found in biblical apocalyptic. In contrast to two recent construals of biblical apocalyptic, the 'future-prophetic' view of pop-theology and the 'failed-expectation' view of critical biblical scholarship, a careful examination of biblical writings such as the Book of Revelation may actually reveal a this-worldly transformative understanding of apocalyptic. This transformation is best understood more in terms of the formation and sustenance of counter-cultural communities that embody the nonviolent power of the Lamb than the catastrophic mega-violence usually associated with apocalyptic.

The Arrest of Jesus and the Use of the Sword: Critiques of Power Used By and Against Authorities
Betsy Perabo, Western Illinois University

Ethical analyses of the arrest of Jesus have traditionally highlighted Jesus’ statement in Matthew that “all who take the sword will perish by the sword.” Yet the four gospel accounts of the arrest present a far more complex portrait of the relationship between Jesus, his followers, and the authorities than this statement might suggest. In these accounts, Jesus raises a number of other issues pertaining to political power. He critiques the way in which the authorities themselves use their power; he talks about God's capacity to use power against the authorities; and he explains the importance of allowing the authorities to use their power so that prophecy can be fulfilled. This paper will examine these accounts, as well as the contexts in which they were written, in order to bring to light the complexity and diversity of early Christian views of power.

Blast with Both Barrels: Dualism and Essentialism in the Use of Scriptural Warrants for Political Ends
Tam Parker, University of the South

One reason for the vociferous debate around scriptural use in the poltical realm is what Freud rightly called religion's 'cultural currency.' This paper addresses how holy texts are used as assets in the formation and enacting of religious and political identities, and within intra-religious discourses regarding religiously-motivated or condoned violence. The poltical cash-value of appealing to scriptural warrants for human doings finds much of its buying power in essentialist readings of texts; in appealing to a core, a canon within a canon, the tradition is reduced to a pungent yet easily digestable formula that can be extracted and applied. In addition to hermeneutical strategies, this paper addresses issues of textual authority and the seemingly unadvoidable recourse to dualistic thought and interpretation as a tactical resource in the political realm. Analysis focuses on issues of torture, kidnapping, assassination and the non/state sanctioned uses of violence in Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

Ban(herem), Genocide, and Tribalism: A Historical and Socio-Cultural Investigation of Amalek in the Old Testament
Pong Im, Graduate Theological Union

Amalek is the archetypal enemy of Israel, ultimately becoming the symbol of anti-Semitism as the “longest hatred.” In Jewish tradition, Amalek became the typus of the irreconcilable enemy of the Israelites, to be wiped out from the world. All the great persecutors of the Jewish people across the centuries are regarded as descendants of Amalek, including Antiochus, Titus, Hitler, and recently Sadam Hussein. The question is, why are the Amalekites singled out when so many nations attacked and oppressed Israel? It is surprising that there is no divine command to eradicate any nation except Amalek, regarding as irreconcilable evil. However, the logic that the other is wrong or evil could be used for legitimating of any hostile action against others. Tribal conflicts caused by social-cultural differences were common phenomenon in the ancient period so that they cannot be the same as the genocide hostility of the modern concept of the anti-Semitism.

    A18-30

Contemporary Islam Consultation

Theme: Islamist Discourses and Issues

Abdullah Azzam on Sura 9: From Tafsir to Takfir to Tirade
Rosalind Gwynne, University of Tennessee, Knoxville

Abdullah Azzam was bin Ladin's teacher in Saudi Arabia and collaborator in Pakistan supporting the Afghan jihad; he was killed by unknown assassins in Peshawar in 1989. With two degrees from al-Azhar, Azzam was both a fighter and a scholar. Azzam's exegesis of Sura 9, among the most militant in the Qur'an, comes from a series of transcribed lectures, of which this paper examines three elements: (1) his knowledge of classical tafsir (exegesis), both philological and legal; (2) his lack of hesitation in calling other Muslims infidels (takfir) and thus legitimate targets for Islamists; (3) his long and colorful tirades against everyone from Qadhdhafi and Sadat to Pope John Paul II.

Does Islam Value or Reject Innovation? Qaradāwī’s “Modern” Interpretation of Bid‘ah
Raquel Ukeles, Fairfield University

This paper juxtaposes two radically different Muslim perspectives on the concept of bid‘ah in the shadow of a 1983 Qatar court case. Bid‘ah, translated either as innovation or as deviation from the Prophet’s normative practice, has become symbolic of the ills of Muslim society in contemporary Salafī writings. Husayn Ahmad Amīn, a noted Muslim liberal thinker, wrote an article criticizing the rejection of bid‘ah as a pre-Islamic principle and asserting that the Prophet himself was a great innovator. Amīn’s radical reinterpretation of bid‘ah led to the entire journal being banned and so infuriated Yūsuf Qaradāwī, the leading Sunnī jurist in Qatar, that he devoted a lecture to refuting this approach. By analyzing Qaradāwī’s own treatment of bid‘ah in light of Amīn’s challenge, I aim to show that Qaradāwī reinterprets the sources both to retain an Islamic rejection of religious innovations and simultaneously to assert that Islam is innovative and progressive.

Good Hejab, Bad Hejab: Khomeini and Women’s Imperfect Obedience in Iran
Elizabeth Bucar, University of Chicago

Drawing on fieldwork and a series of essays published in Zanan magazine, I argue that the legal obligation of Hejab in Iran created new possibilities for the construction of gender by women. I focus on two distinct veiling practices. First, through performing “Bad Hejab,” women have brought western conceptions of beauty and sexuality into traditional practices of religious dress. They have thereby shifted both the parameters of local femininity and the criteria sufficient to fulfill the particular gendered moral duties of modesty and political obedience. Second, with “Good Hejab,” women have materially marked themselves as religiously pious, allowing them to participate in new ways in the political debate about women’s proper roles in the Islamic Republic. I argue that the practice of Hejab in contemporary Iran both enacts an imperfect obedience to the local gender norms and simultaneously acts to shift those norms.

Hanifi Traditionalism: An Alternative to Salafism in Chechnya
Mark J. Sedgwick, American University, Cairo

Hanifism or “Hanifi Traditionalism” was developed by Khodj-Ahmed Nukhaev, a Chechen resistance leader and intellectual, as a radical alternative to Salafism. It contends that the proper Islamic society should be based on the Constitution of Medina, and that the state–in any form–is bid’a. A truly Islamic society must instead be tribal. The paper examines the diverse origins of Hanifism, which range from Nuhkaev’s own experiences of Chechen society and politics to the work of a French Muslim philosopher and a Polish Muslim theologian from Oxford. It then argues that Hanifism shows how surprising alternatives to Salafism and Wahhabism may be developed, how globalization can impact the development of Islamic thought in unexpected ways, and how politics can interact with religious doctrine.

The Role of Islamist Rhetoric in the Perpetuation of Violence against Muslims: The Case of Hassan al-Turabi and Genocide in Sudan
Jacquelene Brinton, University of Virginia

The Islamist transformation of traditional religious concepts into terms of modern political functioning plays a major role in their perpetuation of violence. To understand this role it is crucial to examine how traditional religious concepts have been transformed in the modern era, and then to grasp how they are used currently in their particular ideological setting. This will illustrate how religious ideology has come to be used as a tool for violence and destruction in the present context. This comes from the reification of Islam, conceiving of it as a unity under which is formed a derived concept of what it means to belong to this notion, and out of which comes something akin to the invention of “imagined communities” or “identities”. It is this switch, from a diverse interpretation to a unified identity that ultimately allows violence to be perpetuated by Islamists like Hassan al-Turabi against Muslims in Sudan.

    A18-31

Religion, Media, and Culture Consultation

Theme: Wrestling with Method: Case Studies in Religion, Media, and Culture

The study of religion and media is best described as an interdisciplinary endeavor—pursued by historians, ethnographers, religion scholars and communication scholars. With religion and media as the focus of their inquiry, these papers approach their materials from different methodological angles: history, cultural studies, rhetorical analysis, and qualitative reception research. Each focuses on a different medium—from print culture to documentary film—and each illuminates a different aspect of the relationships between religion, media and culture. The respondents will focus both on the contents of the papers, and on the authors' methodological and theoretical choices.

A New Mediation of an Old Art: Documentary Film as Memento Mori
Benjamin Bennett-Carpenter, Catholic University of America

Memento mori (L. 'remember that you must die') pictures are images that instruct, sometimes vex, and ultimately move viewers toward a new course of action in the face of mortality. That new course involves a conversion, religious or otherwise, toward an alternative way of life. While previously the concerns of memento mori were taken up primarily in painting, today they are employed in other media. I take instances from film--the genre of documentary film in particular. Drawing upon the work of Bill Nichols, Allan Casebier, and Vivian Sobchack, I suggest that documentary film is a new form of memento mori picturing designed to offer a transformative experience for the viewer-as-mortal.

Media and Religion in the Making of Identities of Masculinity, Fatherhood, and Vocation
Curtis Coats, University of Colorado, Boulder

This paper will present an ongoing investigation into the ways in which men negotiate mediated public scripts and symbols about manhood into constructions of masculine identity. It will evaluate the interplay among religious i