#PTN@AARSBL2019

For the sixth year in a row, we are hosting a party in conjunction with the American Academy of Religion and Society of Biblical Literature joint meetings. This year’s event will be held on Saturday, November 23rd at Marriott Marquis San Diego Marina Grand Ballroom 8 (Lobby Level). We are hosting a pre-reception for underrepresented groups at 7:00 PM, and all are welcome to join us from 8-10:00 PM. This year we are featuring seven books, and the authors will be available for conversation from 8-9:00 PM. 

An, Yountae. The Decolonial Abyss: Mysticism and Cosmopolitics from the Ruins.

Ayubi, Zahra. Gendered Morality: Classical Islamic Ethics of the Self, Family, and Society.

Choi, Ki Joo. Disciplined by Race: Theological Ethics and the Problem of Asian American Identity.

Farneth, Molly. Hegel’s Social Ethics: Religion, Conflict, and Rituals of Reconciliation.

Omer, Atalia. Days of Awe: Reimagining Jewishness in Solidarity with Palestinians.

Sanchez, Michelle Chaplin. Calvin and the Resignification of the World: Creation, Incarnation, and the Problem of Political Theology in the 1559 “Institutes.”

Tonstad, Linn Marie. Queer Theology: Beyond Apologetics.

You can check out the Facebook event here. Special thanks to Princeton University Press and Wipf and Stock for supporting the reception.

Political Theology Units:

A23-328 : Political Theology and Decolonialism

Saturday, 3:30 PM–5:00 PM Convention Center-17B (Mezzanine Level)

Inese Radzins, Pacific School of Religion, Presiding

Rafael Vizcaino, Rutgers University Decolonizing the Postsecular Aseel Najib, Columbia University The Sunni Imamate: Politics, Religion, or Neither?

Joi Orr, Emory University The Peculiarity of Black Sovereign Citizens: Martyrs, Saints, and the Brazenly Criminal

J. Barton Scott, University of Toronto Policing “Secular Heresy”: Religion and the Law of Sedition in Colonial India

Business Meeting: David Newheiser, Australian Catholic University, and Inese Radzins, Pacific School of Religion, Presiding

A24-118 Political Theology Unit and Theology and Religious Reflection Unit

Theme: Catherine Keller’s Political Theology of the Earth (Columbia University Press, 2018)

Sunday, 9:00 AM–11:30 AM Convention Center-20A (Upper Level East)

Inese Radzins, Pacific School of Religion, Presiding

Panelists: Andrea C. White, Union Theological Seminary Clayton Crockett, University of Central Arkansas Mary-Jane Rubenstein, Wesleyan University Laurel C. Schneider, Vanderbilt University Filipe Maia, Pacific School of Religion

Responding: Catherine Keller, Drew University

A24-422 : Political Theology and Patriarchy

Sunday, 5:30 PM–7:00 PM Hilton Bayfront-Sapphire 410A (Fourth Level)

David Newheiser, Australian Catholic University, Presiding

Panelists: Rachel Sophia Baard, Union Presbyterian Seminary Larisa Reznik, Goucher College Linn Tonstad, Yale University Ludger Viefhues-Bailey, Le Moyne College Kris Trujillo, University of Chicago

Other units of interest for political theology:

A23-110 Hinduism Unit and Religion and Economy Unit

Theme: Economies of Modern Hinduism: Markets of Discipline and Critique Saturday, 9:00 AM–11:30 AM Hilton Bayfront-Aqua 300A (Third Level)

Deonnie Moodie, University of Oklahoma, Presiding

Vijaya Nagarajan, University of San Francisco Hinduism and Climate: Economies of Energy, Equity, and Ethics

Cassie Adcock, Washington University, St. Louis The Sacred Cow of British India: Free Trade and the Politics of Cow Protection

Carter Higgins, Cornell University Saintly Investments: Seva and the Development of Pilgrimage Routes in Contemporary Rajasthan

Drew Thomases, San Diego State University The Price Tag of Enlightenment: Murtis as Spiritual Investments on the Margins of Hindu and Hippie

Responding: Brian K. Pennington, Elon University

A23-220 Ethics Unit and Latina/o Religion, Culture, and Society Unit and Liberation Theologies Unit and Transformative Scholarship and Pedagogy Unit

Theme: Teaching in Times of Crisis: Practices and Promises of Liberative Pedagogies Saturday, 1:00 PM–3:00 PM Convention Center-6F (Upper Level West)

Jennifer Owens-Jofré, Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Presiding

Panelists: Kyle Brooks, Vanderbilt University Kyle Lambelet, Emory University Jennifer Quigley, Drew University Michael A. Walker, North Park Theological Seminary Salih Sayilgan, Wesley Theological Seminary Mary Emily Duba, University of Chicago Jaisy Joseph, Seattle University

A23-232 Theology and Religious Reflection Unit

Theme: Anger: Leashed and Unleashed

Saturday, 1:00 PM–3:00 PM Convention Center-24B (Upper Level East)

Linn Tonstad, Yale University, Presiding

Panelists: Vincent Lloyd, Villanova University Dana Lloyd, Washington University, St. Louis Elizabeth Antus, Boston College Andrew Prevot, Boston College Responding: Anne Joh, Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary

A23-412 C Class, Religion, and Theology Unit

Theme: Labor of Race, Labor of Life

Saturday, 5:30 PM–7:00 PM Convention Center-28A (Upper Level East)

Rosetta E. Ross, Spelman College, Presiding

Gabriel Raeburn, University of Pennsylvania “The Color Line Was Washed Away in the Blood”: The Pentecostal Healing Revivals and the Barriers to Interracial Working-Class Solidarity, 1940s-1960s

Benjamin Robinson, Southern Methodist University White Dis-Possession: Making Estranged Subjects

Laura Lysen, Baylor University To Starve or to Devour? A Theological Reckoning with Contemporary Food Labor

Business Meeting: Jeremy Posadas, Austin College, and Ken Estey, Brooklyn College, Presiding

A23-428 C Religion and Economy Unit

Theme: Religious Affects of Capital

Saturday, 5:30 PM–7:00 PM Hilton Bayfront-Sapphire L (Fourth Level)

George Gonzalez, City University of New York, Presiding

Isaac Arten, Saint Louis University “A Matter of Profit and Loss Belonging to Another World”: Reality as Marketplace in Nineteenth-Century British Protestant Theological Anthropology

Timothy Burnside, Florida State University Angel Economies: Neoliberal Religion and the User-Generated Ordinary

Rebecca Faulkner, Princeton University Economic Thought of Muhammad Iqbal

Esra Tunc, University of California, Santa Barbara Translation of Giving into Islamic Entrepreneurship in Corporate America

Matthew King, University of California, Riverside Śrī Śrī Homo Economicus: Claiming Desire in the Tantric Frontiers of Capital

Responding: Devin Singh, Dartmouth College

Business Meeting: Daniel Vaca, Brown University, Presiding

A23-122 C Religions, Social Conflict, and Peace Unit

Theme: Maternal Activism in Contexts of Violence

Saturday, 9:00 AM–11:30 AM Hilton Bayfront-Indigo 202B (Second Level)

Joseph Wiinikka-Lydon, University of Pardubice, Presiding

Ellen Ott Marshall, Emory University Maternal Thinking and Gun Reform in the Contemporary U.S.

Wonchul Shin, Columbia Theological Seminary Salimi in Action: South Korean Mothers’ Transformative Protest against Political and Cultural Violence, 1970–1986

Cara Curtis, Emory University Caring as Counter-Logic: Everyday, Implicit Practices of Maternal Non-Violence among Incarcerated Theological Students in a U.S. Women’s Prison

Nichole Phillips, Emory University Mourning and Black Motherhood: How Tears Birth Social Movements

Responding: Annie Hardison-Moody, North Carolina State University

Business Meeting: Atalia Omer, University of Notre Dame, Presiding

A23-224 Law, Religion, and Culture Unit

Theme: Religion, Law, USA: Key Terms in the Study of Law, Religion, and Culture Saturday, 1:00 PM–3:00 PM Convention Center-23C (Upper Level East)

Isaac Weiner, Ohio State University, Presiding

Shari Rabin, Oberlin College Time

Zareena Grewal, Yale University Scripture

Benjamin Schonthal, University of Otago Law

Anna Bialek, Washington University, St. Louis Justice

Responding: Joshua Dubler, University of Rochester

Business Meeting: Jenna Gray-Hildenbrand, Middle Tennessee State University, and Richard Amesbury, Arizona State University, Presiding

A23-225 Philosophy of Religion Unit and Theology and Continental Philosophy Unit

Theme: Bataille, Blackness, and the Tumultuous Sacred

Saturday, 1:00 PM–3:00 PM Convention Center-4 (Upper Level West)

Amy M. Hollywood, Harvard University, Presiding

Kent Brintnall, University of North Carolina, Charlotte The Obscenity of Recognition: Bataille among the Afropessimists

J. Kameron Carter, Indiana University Bataille in Black Feminism’s Wake (Towards a Poetics of the Sacred)

Danube Johnson, Harvard University An Ecclesiasticall Pessimism

Joseph Winters, Duke University Between Ecstasy and Anguish: Black Studies and the Excessive Sacred

A23-317 Death, Dying, and Beyond Unit and Religion and Ecology Unit

Theme: Death, Dying, and Climate Change

Saturday, 3:30 PM–5:00 PM Convention Center-15A (Mezzanine Level)

Amy Defibaugh, Temple University, Presiding

Kristen Daley Mosier, Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary Just as the Son of Man Must be Lifted Up, So Too the Orca: A Cosmic Salvation Story

Sarah Stewart-Kroeker, University of Geneva Sacrifice in the Face of Climate Devastation

Frederick Simmons, Princeton Theological Seminary From Alarm to Autopsy: Climate Change and the Role of Death in Contemporary Christian Hope

A23-405 African Religions Unit

Theme: Studying Religion with Achille Mbembe

Saturday, 5:30 PM–7:00 PM Convention Center-15A (Mezzanine Level)

Devaka Premawardhana, Emory University, Presiding

Emmanuel Buteau, Haitian Institute of Atlanta Black Reason within the Bounds of Religion: Achille Mbembe and Haitian Religion

David Ngong, Stillman College Honor and Bondage in African Politics: Rethinking Contemporary African Political Theology

Laura Grillo, Georgetown University Mbembe’s Matrix and the Matri-Archive: The “Little Secret” to Conjuring Away the Postcolonial Spell

A24-117 Philosophy of Religion Unit Theme: Sylvia Wynter and Philosophy of Religion

Sunday, 9:00 AM–11:30 AM Convention Center-17A (Mezzanine Level)

Danube Johnson, Harvard University, Presiding

David Kline, University of Tennessee Autopoiesis and Auto-Religion: Sylvia Wynter’s Philosophy of Religion

Marika Rose, University of Winchester Black Magic: Wynter, Modernity, and Disenchantment

Anthony Paul Smith, La Salle University Genres of Theodicy after God and Man

Michael Jimenez, Fuller Theological Seminary Wynter and the Latinx Decolonial Project

Jared Rodriguez, Northwestern University The Quantum of Wynter’s Religion: From Exegetics to Decoherence in the Philosophy of Religion

Responding: Amaryah Armstrong, Vanderbilt University

Business Meeting: Thomas A. Lewis, Brown University, and Jonathon Kahn, Vassar College, Presiding

A24-129 Economics and Capitalism in the Study of Buddhism Seminar

Theme: Authenticity and Merit: Institutions and Economic Actors

Sunday, 9:00 AM–11:30 AM Hilton Bayfront-Sapphire L (Fourth Level)

Richard K. Payne, Graduate Theological Union, Presiding

Brenton Sullivan, Colgate University Buddhist Bureaucrats and the Making of a Buddhist Empire

Matthew Milligan, Georgia College and State University “Monastic Landlordism” as Institutionalization in Early Buddhism: Evidence from Sri Lanka, c. 200 BCE to 200 CE

Kendall Marchman, University of Georgia Perceiving Authenticity: Online Travel Reviews of Buddhist Tourist Sites in China

Responding: Kin Cheung, Moravian College

Business Meeting: Fabio Rambelli, University of California, Santa Barbara, Presiding

A24-143 Liberation Theologies Unit

Theme: Landscapes of Liberation: Building New Horizons of Bodies, Borders, and Belonging

Sunday, 9:00 AM–11:30 AM Convention Center-4 (Upper Level West)

Maria T. Davila, Presiding

Nixon Shabalom Cleophat, Bloomfield College Vodou, an Inclusive Epistemology: Toward A Queer Eco-Theology of Liberation

Rebecca David-Hensley, Denver University, Iliff School of Theology Gendering Immigration: A Liberative Feminist Hermeneutic for Crossing the US/Mexico Border

Daniel Hauge, Boston University The Comforts of “Home”: White Comfort as Boundary Marker

Sunder John Boopalan, Princeton Theological Seminary Borders, Bodies, Power, and Affect

Sylvia Marcos, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México Crossing Borders: Between Theologies and Feminisms in the Contemporary Mexican Political Context

Business Meeting: Santiago H. Slabodsky, Hofstra University, Presiding

A24-208 Black Theology Unit

Theme: The 50th Anniversary of Black Theology and Black Power (Orbis, 1969): Looking Back, Moving Forward

Sunday, 1:00 PM–3:00 PM Convention Center-20A (Upper Level East)

Adam Clark, Xavier University, Presiding

Panelists: Eddie S. Glaude, Princeton University Gary Dorrien, Columbia University, Union Theological Seminary Eboni Marshall Turman, Yale University

Business Meeting: Adam Clark, Xavier University, Presiding

A24-218 Indigenous Religious Traditions Unit and Native Traditions in the Americas Unit

Theme: Privileging Indigenous Women: Strategies of Resistance and Survival

Sunday, 1:00 PM–3:00 PM Hilton Bayfront-Cobalt 520 (Fifth Level)

Amy Foss, Independent Scholar, Presiding

Ines M. Talamantez, University of California, Santa Barbara Privileging Indigenous Women: Rematriation Strategies of Resistance and Survival

Delores Mondragon, University of California, Santa Barbara Moral Injury as It Applies to and Is Relevant to Indigenous Women Rematriation

Emily Grace Brolaski, University of California, Santa Barbara Resistance as Ceremony: 21st Century Indigenous Resistance and Activism in North America

Nancy Morales, University of California, Santa Barbara Un Llanto Colectivo: A Collective Project to Remember and Embody Indigenous Values and Traditions

Felicia Lopez, University of California, Davis Women, Gender, and Sexuality in the Central Mexican Codices: Challenging Conceptions of an Aztec Patriarchy

Andrea McComb Sanchez, University of Arizona Being an Ally in the Academy

Responding: Mary Churchill, Sonoma State University

A25-304 Anthropology of Religion Unit

Theme: Global Pessimisms: Ethnographic Perspectives on Hope, Skepticism, and Negotiating Authority

Monday, 3:30 PM–5:00 PM Hilton Bayfront-Aqua 300A (Third Level)

James Bielo, Miami University, Presiding

Cora Gaebel, University of Cologne Millions for the Deities: The Infrastructure of Two Hindu Festivals

Katherine Dugan, Springfield College Natural Family Planning, Social Media, and the Ethnographic Method Online

Sarah Riccardi-Swartz, New York University Palace of Putin: Political Ideologies in Orthodox Appalachia

Candace Lukasik, University of California, Berkeley “Ecumenism of Blood”: Globalatinization and the Geopolitics of Middle Eastern Christians

Responding: Marc Loustau, College of the Holy Cross

A25-322 Philosophy of Religion Unit

Theme: A Book Panel on Religion, Ethics, and the Practice of Modern Politics under Conditions of Injustice

Monday, 3:30 PM–5:00 PM Marriott Marquis-Vista (South Tower – First Level)

Alda Balthrop-Lewis, Australian Catholic University, Presiding

Panelists: Molly Farneth, Haverford College Joseph Winters, Duke University Randi Rashkover, George Mason University

A25-330 Religion, Colonialism, and Postcolonialism Unit

Theme: Labor, Law, and the Power of Language: Postcolonial Perspectives

Monday, 3:30 PM–5:00 PM Convention Center-28A (Upper Level East)

Syed Adnan Hussain, Saint Mary’s University, Halifax, Presiding

Yasmine Flodin-Ali, University of North Carolina The Politics of Enumeration and the Casteification of Shi’ism in Colonial India

Whitney Wilkinson Arreche, Duke University MasterClass: Performative Mastery in Academy, Economy, and Church

Alexander Rocklin, College of Idaho Religion before the Law: Labor, Colonial Secularism, and the Politics of Freedom in Colonial Trinidad

Business Meeting: Adrian Hermann, University of Bonn, and Prea Persaud, University of North Carolina, Charlotte, Presiding

A25-337 Theology and Continental Philosophy Unit

Theme: The Jew, the Christian, and the Ends of the World

Monday, 3:30 PM–5:00 PM Hilton Bayfront-Sapphire 411A (Fourth Level)

Timothy Snediker, University of California, Santa Barbara, Presiding

Sarah Pessin, University of Denver Hypostasis, Home…Host? Inhabiting Economic v. Created v. Eucharistic Worlds in Levinas

Josiah Solis, Claremont Graduate University Cosmological Play: Derrida and the World

Benjamin Steele-Fisher, University of California, Davis Messianic Illusions: Taubes on Bloch and Benjamin

Tal-Hi Bitton, University of Oregon Friendships Derived from Enmities: Understanding the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict as Christian Theogeopolitical Colonization

Responding: Oona Eisenstadt, Pomona College

A25-411 Comparative Approaches to Religion and Violence Unit and Feminist Theory and Religious Reflection Unit

Theme: Religion and Gendered Racial Violence in the Contemporary United States Monday, 5:30 PM–7:00 PM Hilton Bayfront-Sapphire 410B (Fourth Level)

Diane Fruchtman, Rutgers University, Presiding

Hilda Koster, Concordia College, Moorhead Fractured Lands/Fractured Bodies: Petroculture, Religion, and Violence against Native Women in the Dakotas

Hilary Scarsella, Vanderbilt University Blessed Are Those Who Have Believed but Not Seen: The Theo-Logics of Misogyn(oir)istic Incredulity in Women’s Testimonies of Harm

Rosemary Kellison, University of West Georgia Empathy and Anger as Democratic Virtues, Vices, or Violence

Brandy Daniels, University of Virginia Sexual Violence, the Social/Symbolic Order, and the “End” of Sexual Subjectivity: A Negative Queer-Feminist Political Theological Proposal

What other papers, panels, or events are you looking forward to in San Diego? Share your tips in the comments below.