Awash in the Academy
It is the week before Thanksgiving and
that means that I am at the American Academy of Religion and Society of Biblical
Literature conference. It is in the upper 60's and sunny here in San
Diego.
It is that time of year when the American
Academy of Religion and the Society of Biblical LIterature hold their
conference. If you are new to AAR/SBL imagine all your college professors or
seminary professors that taught religion in one place for five days. When the
academy gets together they read papers on their latest research in a topic area,
a respondent listens and responds; and the audience for the paper has an
opportunity for Q & A as well. Thus far I made small talk with Walter
Brueggemann in the Atlanta airport, spoke with John Dominic Crossan while
waiting in a coffee line, and have had a chance to visit with some of my
seminary professors who are always surprised to see me at this event.(1)
Needless to say, I count this time as continuing education in my staff
log.
So, since Friday and continuing until
Wednesday morning I am in San Diego awash in the academy for which my companion,
Lisa, is a member and I get to be the supportive, curious spouse. The problem
though is there are too many choices of sections and papers for me to possibly
attend. I go through the program book and mark those I want to hear, and then
make a choice day of. Each day this event is divided into blocks: a morning
session from 9:00-11:30, an afternoon session from 1:00-3:30, a late afternoon
from 4:00-6:30, and evening either 7:30-9:00 or attend a film and discussion at
8:30.
As a regional minister, a middle
judicatory representative for those reading that are not Disciple, I wish
Kentucky ministers had the opportunity or made time for this kind of experience.
Some of the papers and discussions are challenging. Some are theory and have
little to do with practical ministry, but it would do most ministers good to be
stretched by the academy. Sometimes, what passes for continuing education can
be characterized as self help, soul soothing, or the new old phrase, spiritual
renewal. I want to believe, I remember a time when Disciples believed that
rigorous academic study was good for the soul and spiritually
renewing.
To give you a glimpse of the
possibilities, I will list all the sections and papers that I marked as
interesting, and in a later post I will discuss those I attended. Due to length
this post will only note Saturday and Sunday. A later post will cover Monday
to Wednesday.
Saturday
1. Religion and Popular Culture Group and Religion,
Media, and Culture
Group
Theme:
Born Digital and Born Again Digital: Religion in Virtual Gaming
Worlds
2. Childhood Studies and Religion
Consultation
Theme:
Children and Sacred Texts
3. Rethinking the Field
Consultation
Theme:
Religion, Theology, and the
Arts
Part 1: A
Dynamic Method in Religious and Theological
Aesthetics
Part
2: Theology and Film: Challenging the Sacred/Secular Divide
4. Emergent Church Forum
5. Person, Culture, and Religion Group
6. Christian Systematic Theology
Section
Theme:
Cross Examinations: Interrogating the Cross and Atonement for Their Meaning
Today
7. Religion, Media, and Culture
Group
Theme:
Sleeper Cell: Viewing Religion, Race, and Terrorism in a Post 9/11
World
8. Christian Theology and the
Bible
Theme:
Forgive Us Our Debts: Sin and Redemption
9. The Use, Influence, and Impact of the
Bible
Theme:
Americans Reading the Bible in War and Politics
10. Christian Spirituality Group
10. Theme: Christian Spirituality and Multiple
Religious Belonging
12. Kierkegaard, Religion, and Culture
Group
Theme:
Sources of Religious Pluralism in Kierkegaard’s Writings
13. Men’s Studies in Religion
Group
Theme:
Competing Models of Men in Religion and Describing and Defining Men’s
Studies in Religion
14. Open and Relational Theologies
Consultation
Theme: What God Does, Chooses Not to Do, or Cannot Do
15. Religion and Sexuality
Consultation
Theme: Sexual Purity, Danger, and Taboo: Current Debates about Children,
Marriage, and the Family Across Multiple Cultures
16. Israelite Prophetic
Literature
Theme: The Success and Failure of Prophecy
17. John, Jesus, and
History
Theme: Jesus and John 13-21
18. Pauline
Epistles
Theme: A light to the Gentiles and a Gatherer of Israel: Tradition and Symbiosis
in Galations
19. Teaching the Bible in Public Schools: An Update
on the
Issues
Sunday
1. Religion, Film, and Visual Culture
Group
Theme:
Engaging the Affective: Music, the Senses, and Subjectivity in Film
Experiences
2. Religion, Media, and Culture
Group
Theme:
Using (and Not Using) Media Technologies to Shape Religious Purposes and
Practices
3. Religion in Europe
Consultation
Theme:
Liberal Thought and the Challenge of Pluralism
4. The Use, Influence, and Impact of the
Bible
Theme:
The Bible in Politics and Fiction
5. Ethics
Section
Theme:
Out of the Shadows, into the Light: The Church and Homosexuality
6. Religion and Popular Culture
Group
Theme:
Playing the Game: An Interactive Exploration of Religious Games and
Toys
7. Religion, Politics, and the State
Group
Theme:
Religion and the Politics of the Common Good
8. Congregation Based Biblical
Scholarship
Part
1: Bridging the Great Divide Between Academy and
Congregations
Part
2: In Other Words: Incarnational Translation as a Hermeneutic
9. Educating Religious Leaders for a Multi-Religious
World: A Proposal for Action
10. Historical Jesus Group
11. God in Public?
12. Bible, Theology, and Postmodernity
Group
Theme:
Dangerous Crossings: Borders, Cultures, and
Identities
Note
1.
If you know me then you also know that I was not a student that worked for the A
on a paper or exam. I may or may not have had the ability, but the social side
of college and seminary were as important to me as the extra study time to make
the A. Grades in the B range were most often sought, even with professors I
liked, mostly because I was lazy and didn’t want to do the extra work.
What the profs from college and seminary don’t realize is that they
planted the seed of curiosity in me those years ago that is part of who I am.
This event fuels that curiosity for knowledge in my search for
Truth.
Filed Mon - November 19, 2007, 01:18 AM in
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