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Meeting Program Units

2017 Annual Meeting

Boston, MA

Meeting Begins11/18/2017
Meeting Ends11/21/2017

Call for Papers Opens: 12/19/2016
Call for Papers Closes: 3/7/2017

Requirements for Participation

Minoritized Criticism and Biblical Interpretation


Program Unit Type: Seminar
Accepting Papers? Yes

Call For Papers: Under the Trump era, the deployment of political hate rhetoric has found support in various conservative Christian circles throughout the United States. In many ways, this pervasive rhetoric has biblical overtones, which imply a mode of interpretation. Indeed, a retooling of the biblical interpretive enterprise with an activist impulse comes to fore not only as a viable response to the current political climate but also as an ethical imperative for the discipline. (1) The Scriptures of Freedom Movements: The first session on activist hermeneutics of liberation aims to reread the Scriptures that gave rise to radical freedom movements in places like Africa, Middle East, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Here the notion of Scriptures has in view any religious or non-religious texts, oral traditions, symbols, or artistic expressions that were used to give impetus to a revolution, a political uprising, a decolonization movement, or any other mass freedom movement by an oppressed group. This open session invites papers that interrogate and harness liberating tactics or hermeneutical strategies inscribed in past freedom movements in effort to reinvigorate activist engagement. (2) Social Activist Hermeneutics: The aim for the second session is to forge a lasting dialogue between minoritized biblical scholars and present day sociopolitical activists. Among the topics of discussion is the Bible and the Public Square as well as the ethics of socially and politically engaged biblical scholars. Participants will include an array of individuals that range from minoritized biblical scholars who are engaged in activism or who read biblical texts through an activist movement (i.e. Black Lives Matter, etc.) to local leaders of an activist movement. This session will be an invited panel.

Program Unit Chairs

Gregory L. Cuéllar
Jin Young Choi

Propose a Paper for this Program Unit

If you are a SBL member, you must login before you can propose a paper for this or any other session. Please login by entering your SBL member number on the left in the Login box.

For all other persons wanting to propose a paper, you must communicate directly with the chair of the program unit to which you want to propose. Chairs have the responsibility to make waiver requests, and their email addresses are available above. SBL provides membership and meeting registration waivers only for scholars who are outside the disciplines covered by the SBL program, specifically most aspects of archaeological, biblical, religious, and theological studies.

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