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2007 Annual Meeting
Meeting Begins: 11/17/2007
Meeting Ends: 11/20/2007
Call for Papers Opens: 11/15/2006
Call for Papers Closes: 2/28/2007
Requirements for Participation
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Program Units
Academic Teaching and Biblical Studies
Description: Pedagogy and the classroom each provides a hermeneutical and heuristic frame of reference for the reading and interpretation of the Bible. Each classroom is also part of a larger institutional context has its own mission statement and culture. These provide concrete interpretive communities in which reading and interpretation take place. The exploration of the dynamics of teaching within the context of pedagogical concerns, institutional goals and cultures, and specific classroom communities is the goal of the group's agenda.
Call for papers: The Academic Teaching and Biblical Studies program unit invites proposals for the following types of presentations: "Teaching Tip" is a brief (10-15 minute) presentation devoted to a very specific classroom activity the presenter has found successful in the classroom. Proposals should include a description of the activity and the format of the presentation. An individual "Paper" (25-35 minutes) should develop models for teaching and learning, discuss theoretical issues, explore broad themes, and/or investigate values affecting the teaching of the bible in higher education. The proposal should include an abstract. "Workshops" (45-60 minutes) are teaching sessions and should actively engage participants in learning new skills and activities. Proposals should include a description of the activity, the format of the presentation, and an overview of the learning goals for the session’s participants. "Roundtables" (60 – 75 minutes) are meant to encourage discussion among all who are in attendance at the session. Two or three presenters introduce a topic, briefly contribute their expertise and/or perspective, and then frame a series of discussion questions to focus audience participation. Presenters should limit their initial contribution to 7-10 minutes each, so that the majority of the time is spent in conversation. Since these sorts of discussions should model speaking across boundaries and experiences, presenters should introduce multiple viewpoints and diverse voices. Proposals should identify the topic, give the reasons for choosing this topic, include the names of the presenters, and offer a general description of the viewpoints offered by the presenters. A "Panel" (2 1/2 hours) consists of four or five papers organized around a theme. Proposals should identify the theme, the person who will preside at the session, and the four or five participants - as well as include the title and abstract of each paper to be presented.
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African Biblical Hermeneutics
Description: This section is devoted to the study of the Bible from African perspectives, and focuses on African issues. A diversity of methods reflecting the social-cultural diversity of Africa is used in reading the Bible. The emphasis is on encouraging readings of the Bible that are shaped by African perspectives and issues, and giving voice to African biblical scholars as they contribute to global biblical scholarship. The unit expects to publish essays from its sessions.
Call for papers: Session 1, 2007 SBL
THE POLITICS OF BIBLE TRANSLATIONS IN THE AFRICAN BIBLES
Papers that investigate the history and ideology of Bible translations in various times
are invited. Papers may focus on colonial times, struggles for independence, post independence or postcolonial periods. Papers that investigate theories of translations, power relations between source text and receptor languages, gender, race, class and political issues are also welcome. Papers may also focus on particular passages and languages to highlight the subject of their investigations.
SESSION 2 SBL 2007 CALL FOR PAPERS
AFRICAN WOMEN’S BIBLICAL HERMENEUTICS
Since 1989, when the Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians was launched
to counteract the lack of published voices of African women in religion, impressive publications are now available. What characterizes African women’s biblical hermeneutics? How are they different or similar to African males, Western feminists or other Two-Thirds World women? What are the main contributions of African Women’s hermeneutics to the scholarship? This session invites papers that will highlight African Women’s ways of reading the Bible. Comparative papers and papers that focus on particular scholars are also welcome.
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African-American Biblical Hermeneutics
Description: The purpose of the African American Biblical Hermeneutics Section (AABHS) is to engage in the interdisciplinary and holistic study of the Bible and its place in a multi-faceted and complex African-American cultural Weltanschauung. The section provides a forum for scholarly discussion of any aspect of engagement with the bible from the perspective of African American culture, history, literature, or politics. It encourages interdisciplinary discussions about hermeneutics and culture and strives to encourage emerging scholars in publishing scholarly work in the field and advancing the study of African American hermeneutics.
Call for papers: Given that we will be in San Diego, the open call for papers would consider papers that address issues of borders/boundaries/transgressions of boundaries. In addition we are sponsoring a closed panel with Paul & Politics section, as well as a session with Biblical Hebrew Poetry.
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Ancient Fiction and Early Christian and Jewish Narrative
Description: The Section on Ancient Fiction and Early Jewish and Christian Narrative fosters methodologically diverse analyses of these ancient narratives, including: their interplay and interconnections; socio-cultural contexts; representations of reality, including religion; and narrative form, including plot, character, style, voice, etc.
Call for papers:
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Anglican Association of Biblical Scholars
Description: The Anglican Association of Biblical Scholars is an international association of biblical scholars who are affiliated with the churches of the Anglican Communion, including the Episcopal Church in the U.S., the Anglican Church of Canada, and the Church of England. Its purpose is to support biblical scholarship at all levels in the Anglican Communion. AABS is dedicated to fostering greater involvement of biblical scholars in the life of Anglican churches, and to promoting the development of resources for biblical studies in Anglican theological education.
Call for papers: The Anglican Association of Biblical Scholars is an international association of biblical scholars who are affiliated with the churches of the Anglican Communion, including the Episcopal Church in the U.S., the Anglican Church of Canada, and the Church of England. Its purpose is to support biblical scholarship at all levels in the Anglican Communion. AABS is dedicated to fostering greater involvement of biblical scholars in the life of Anglican churches, and to promoting the development of resources for biblical studies in Anglican theological education.
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Aramaic Studies
Description: The Aramaic studies section is intended to provide a forum for scholars interested in various aspects of Aramaic language. Previous paper topics have included aspects of the Targumim, Qumran Aramaic, Peshitta, Samaritan papyri, and Elephantine Aramaic.
Call for papers: The Aramaic studies section is intended to provide a forum for scholars interested in various aspects of Aramaic language. Previous paper topics have included aspects of the Targumim, Qumran Aramaic, Peshitta, Samaritan papyri, and Elephantine Aramaic.
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Archaeological Excavations and Discoveries: Illuminating the Biblical World
Description: This unit will present the results and insights of archaeological excavations and important discoveries in the Ancient Near East. It will provide access to and reflection on the realia that gave rise to the texts and religions of the biblical world.
Call for papers: This unit will present the results and insights of archaeological excavations and important discoveries pertaining to the religious communities of the Ancient Near East. General contexts, realia, and texts illuminate the cultures and communities that gave rise to and were shaped by their religious practices and beliefs. For the meeting in San Diego, this unit has an open call for proposals on the archaeology of Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls. For a second session, we also invite paper proposals that provide reports on recent excavations related to the biblical world.
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Archaeology of Religion in the Roman World
Description: The goal of this unit is to promote the study of material culture associated with religious activity in the Hellenistic and Roman periods and to showcase new theoretical approaches to this evidence. Presentations related to Second Temple Judaism, early Christianity, and Greco-Roman religion, broadly defined, are all welcome.
Call for papers: The Archaeology and Religion in the Roman World Section invites proposals in the following areas: 1) Consecrations, Dedications, Asylum, and Gifts for the Gods; and 2) an open call for papers.
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Archaeology of the Biblical World
Description: This interdisciplinary unit is dedicated to the archaeology associated with the geographies,
people groups, and time periods related to biblical literature, with special attention to the
contributions of material and textual evidence. This unit adheres to ASOR’s Policy on Preservation and Protection of Archaeological Resources (http://www.asor.org/excavations/policy.pdf). As a unit we are committed to upholding the highest ethical standards relating to provenance. The unit will not be a venue that supports the analysis or authentication of illicit materials.
Call for papers: This unit is designed to encourage conversation and collaboration between collaboration between archaeologists and biblical scholars. Our definition of “archaeology” is broad, so we also include papers that present historical reconstructions using archaeological and textual data. Our stated goal is for all of the participants to address how their focused research in archaeology or biblical studies relates to the work of specialists in other areas. To date our sessions have included approximately an equal number of field archaeologists and textual specialists. The sessions thus promote dialogue between the presenters and the participants in the audience. The dialogue include hermeneutical and historical discussions. In 2007 we will devote one session to the Phoenicians in Text, Bible and Archaeology. Other session(s) will be open.
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Art and Religions of Antiquity
Description: This consultation examines the visual and material evidence of the religions of the Mediterranean basin in antiquity (Judaism, Christianity, and Greco-Roman "paganism") as well as the methods by which scholars study these materials alongside textual or documentary evidence.
Call for papers: This consultation examines the visual and material evidence of the religions of the Mediterranean basin in antiquity (Judaism, Christianity, and Greco-Roman "paganism") as well as the methods by which scholars study these materials alongside textual or documentary evidence.
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Asian and Asian-American Hermeneutics
Description: The unit promotes Asian and Asian American biblical scholarship, highlighting the broad range of diversity that makes up the different Asian and Asian American communities. It also aims to contribute to diversifying biblical scholarship and expanding biblical studies in terms of topics, approaches and discourses.
Call for papers: The unit promotes Asian and Asian American biblical scholarship, highlighting the broad range of diversity that makes up the different Asian and Asian American communities. It also aims to contribute to diversifying biblical scholarship and expanding biblical studies in terms of topics, approaches and discourses.
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Association for Case Teaching
Description: Teachers of biblical studies and related disciplines face the challenge of helping students enter the ancient world and the texts that come from it imaginatively, in order to connect them imaginatively with contemporary life. Case teaching offers both a method and a set of dispositions for doing just that. The Association for Case Teaching has partnered with seminaries and colleges for more than thirty years to improve teaching and learning in all theological disciplines. This workshop will continue that tradition by leading participants through two or more cases and sessions of modeling and reflecting upon the nature of case teaching and its usefulness for teaching.
Call for papers: Teachers of biblical studies and related disciplines face the challenge of helping students enter the ancient world and the texts that come from it imaginatively, in order to connect them imaginatively with contemporary life. Case teaching offers both a method and a set of dispositions for doing just that. The Association for Case Teaching has partnered with seminaries and colleges for more than thirty years to improve teaching and learning in all theological disciplines. This workshop will continue that tradition by leading participants through two or more cases and sessions of modeling and reflecting upon the nature of case teaching and its usefulness for teaching.
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Assyriology and the Bible
Description: Assyriology and the Bible section provides the focused context for papers dealing with various Mesopotamian-related topics. It seeks to generate strong integrative research between the disciplines of Assyriology and Biblical Studies by encouraging adept historiographic, philological, literary and/or iconographic work.
Call for papers: In the Wake of the Goddesses (1992): The Legacy of Tikva Frymer-Kensky.
In the Wake of the Goddesses: Women, Culture and the Biblical Transformation of Pagan Myth was among the first sustained attempts to negotiate the manifold roles of Sumerian and Assyro-Babylonian goddesses and their (non)counterparts in the biblical tradition; it continues to be widely cited to this day. Papers in two sessions (one open, one by invitation) will address gender and divinity in Mesopotamia and the Bible in conversation with the work of the late Tikva Frymer-Kensky (1943–2006), including such topics as mother-goddesses, sex-goddesses, goddesses and state-sponsored cultus, Yahwism and gender, gender-equality in the Bible, Asherah, the arts of civilization as mediated by women and goddesses, woman as metaphor in the Bible, and sexuality as the unfinished task of monotheism.
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Bakhtin and the Biblical Imagination
Description: The aim of this unit is to explore (utilize, expand, challenge and critique), the insights of Mikhail Bakhtin for use in biblical studies, with the hope that consequent readings will be fresh and appropriate.
Call for papers: There will be one open session, welcoming papers on any aspect of Bakhtin and the Biblical Imagination. And a second section will feature Bakhtin and the Hero, or biblical heroes and Bakhtin.
Those offering proposals must be willing to post the full copy of an accepted paper at the Bakhtin website by November 1 and present a summary of it at the actual session, so as to leave time for interaction with other participants.
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Best Practices in Teaching
Description: Most faculty positions in higher education involve a triad of responsibilities: (1) teaching, (2) research/publication, and (3) service (to the institution and to wider publics). The largest single component of most academic positions is teaching. The “Best Practices” program unit will assist scholars in acquiring and sharpening pedagogical skills in specific subject areas and with reference to particular classroom dynamics.
Call for papers: For the 2007 Annual Meeting there will be an invited panel of presenters on the topic of "Teaching the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible Introduction." Experienced teachers will share syllabi, handouts, and teaching tips. Packets of material will be distributed.
N. Clayton Croy, Trinity Lutheran Seminary, 2199 East Main Street, Columbus, OH 43209, ccroy@trinitylutheranseminary.edu
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Bible and Cultural Studies
Description: This interdisciplinary Section encourages comparative analyses of the Bible as artefact and icon in word, image, and sound. We offer a forum for pursuing cultural analyses of gender, race, and class both within the social world of ancient Mediterranean cultures and in dialogue with modern cultural representations.
Call for papers: Proposals are welcome for an open session focused on the theme of Borderlands. We are interested in cultural critical papers that explore biblical interpretation as it relates to diasporic communities, borders (territorial and otherwise), hybridity, and immigration. A second, invited, panel will be organized in conjunction with the LGBT/Queer Hermeneutics Consultation around the theme of Queer Theory, Race, Ethnicity, Gender, Class and Scripture.
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Bible and Popular Culture
Description: This unit explores and analyzes the relationship between the Bible and popular culture. It focuses on materials designed for everyday life—comic strips, advertisements, theme parks, popular music, etc. Drawing from a variety of disciplines and analyzing both the printed and visual media, presenters will explore the interaction between biblical text and popular culture.
Call for papers:
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Bible and Visual Art
Description: The purpose of the section is to provide a forum at the national SBL to explore historical, hermeneutical, theological, iconographic, and/or theoretical aspects related to the interpretation of the Jewish and Christian Scriptures in visual art through the centuries.
Call for papers: The purpose of the section is to provide a forum at the national SBL to explore historical, hermeneutical, theological, iconographic, and/or theoretical aspects related to the interpretation of the Jewish and Christian Scriptures in visual art through the centuries.
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Bible in Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Traditions
Description: This program unit will offer a forum for biblical professors and scholars from the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox traditions (the latter including Aramaic, Syriac, Armenian, Arabic, Georgian, Coptic, among others) to engage in critical study of the role of the Bible in eastern Christianity, past and present. A particular aim of this section will be to engage participating scholars in dealing with issues raised by contemporary and critical biblical scholarship. The committee invites presentation and discussion of papers from a variety of approaches and methodologies, including (but not limited to) theological, historiographic, philological, and literary studies.
Call for papers: The theme chosen as the focus area of discussion for the 2008 Annual meeting in Boston, MA, is: “The Old Testament as Authoritative Scripture in the Early Churches of the East.”
The committee invites the presentation of papers from a variety of approaches and methodologies to discuss the authority of the Old Testament (Hebrew Bible) in the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox churches. Critical examination of the writings of the churches in the East, preserved in the Arabic, Aramaic, Armenian, Coptic, Georgian, Syriac and other languages, will help develop a clearer understanding of the role of the Old Testament as an authoritative source in the biblical scholarship of these Christian communities.
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Bible Translation
Description: The Bible Translation Section provides a special opportunity for bringing together academic and practical perspectives on Bible Translation. It focuses on current trends in Bible Translation and on the implications that developments in Translation and Biblical Studies have for Bible Translation.
Call for papers: Papers in the following areas are welcome: current trends in Bible translation methodology; implications of biblical studies for Bible translation; the impact of the Dead Sea Scrolls on Bible translation; history of Bible translations (ancient as well as more recent).
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Bible, Myth, and Myth Theory
Description: This section (a) provides a forum for sustained and focused attention on the concept of myth and its place in biblical studies and (b) encourages the development and refinement of multi- and interdisciplinary approaches to this area of inquiry.
Call for papers: The consultation (a) provides a forum for sustained and focused attention on the concept of myth and its place in biblical studies and (b) encourages the development and refinement of multi- and interdisciplinary approaches to this area of inquiry.
Proposals are welcome for an open session that will include invited papers. Papers addressing the relationship of history to myth are especially encouraged.
A second, invited, panel will be organized around the theme of Theories of Myth and Biblical Studies and will feature a paper given by Robert Segal.
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Biblical Criticism and Literary Criticism
Description: The Biblical Criticism and Literary Criticism Section provides an opportunity for scholars doing literary criticism of biblical texts to describe and illustrate their approaches and to enter into a dialogue with each other, and promotes scholarly awareness of the presuppositions, methodologies, and contributions of biblical literary criticism.
Call for papers: The Biblical Criticism and Literary Criticism Section anticipates presenting two "open" sessions. Proposals for papers from the spectrum of literary critical perspectives and all biblical literature are welcome.
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Biblical Greek Language and Linguistics
Description: This section aims to promote and discuss ongoing research into biblical Greek language and
linguistics, covering the Septuagint and particularly the New Testament. While traditional
language studies are welcome, methods derived from modern linguistic theories and their
applications are encouraged.
Call for papers:
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Biblical Hebrew Poetry
Description: This section focuses on all aspects of Hebrew poetry in the biblical canon: archaic poetry, the role of oral tradition, poetic meter, parallelism, structural and nonstructural poetic devices, imagery, metaphor, and figurative language. Papers dealing with any portion of poetry in the Hebrew Bible are welcome.
Call for papers: The Biblical Hebrew Poetry Section will have two sessions for 2007, one general and one thematic, entitled: The Poetics of Israel's Cry to the Lord. The thematic session is geared toward the poetics of laments and lamentation as found throughout the Hebrew Bible.
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Biblical Law
Description: The purpose of the Biblical Law Section is to promote interdisciplinary research on ancient Near Eastern, biblical, and post-biblical law. Methodological perspectives include historical-critical, literary, legal-historical, feminist, and social-scientific approaches.
Call for papers: We invite proposals for two open sessions on any aspect of biblical law (including cuneiform documents, Dead Sea Scrolls and other Second Temple Literature, questions of pentateuchal criticism, legal history, gender analysis, social scientific, and newer methodologies). For one of these open sessions, we especially encourage proposals on the topic of "Ethnicity and Biblical Law," though the session will not necessarily be restricted to that topic. Papers for both sessions will be read in part or in whole. Copies of papers are distributed in advance through the Section's website. They should be available by October 15, 2007 at: http://www.law2.byu.edu/biblicallaw.
We will also convene an invited panel session on the work of Tikva Frymer-Kensky held in memory and honor of her, co-sponsored with the Women in the Biblical World Section of the SBL.
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Book of Acts
Description: This Section (1) explores new strategies for reading Acts; (2) proposes solutions to existing exegetical, literary, text critical and historical problems associated with Acts; (3) highlights new areas of inquiry regarding Acts; and (4) assesses the significance of the history of Acts scholarship.
Call for papers: The section on Acts invites proposals for two sessions. One session will be dedicated to the topic of intertextuality in Acts. We invite papers which both speak to the theoretical issues associated with identifying and interpreting intertextuality and which examine specific examples of intertextuality through direct citation, allusion or shared imagery from Biblical and other texts. The second session invites papers on any topic related to the study of Acts. For more information, contact Tom Phillips (enctom@yahoo.com).
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Book of Ezekiel
Description: This Section has two aims. First, it seeks to bring together scholars working on the book of Ezekiel to share research and conclusions about the book. Second, it encourages an expressly theological approach to the book.
Call for papers: This section seeks to bring together scholars working on the book of Ezekiel to share research and insights about the book. The section encourages an expressly theological approach to the book. One of the two sessions at the 2007 Annual Meeting will be devoted to a range of papers selected from those offered through the call for papers. These may be on any aspect of the study of Ezekiel.
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Book of Isaiah
Description: The Book of Isaiah unit provides an international forum for discussion of issues related to the formation, growth and unity of the Isaiah scroll as well as questions of poetic imagery, intertextuality, history of interpretation and reader response criticism.
Call for papers: The Formation of the Book of Isaiah Group will have two sessions for 2008: (1) a session on "The Place and Function of Isaiah 40-55 in the Scroll of Isaiah: A New Look at Hugh Williamson, THE BOOK CALLED ISAIAH." (invited papers) and (2) an "open" session in which papers may be on any topic concerned with the book of Isaiah.
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Book of Psalms
Description: It is the aim of the Book of Psalms unit to promote all aspects of and approaches to the study of the Psalms, with a major focus on the issue of how the Psalter as a collection has an integrity, history, and purpose of its own.
Call for papers: The Psalms Section invites proposals for papers related to the study of the Psalter, individual psalms, or the reception of the Psalms. In addition the Psalms Section invites proposals related to the visual and literary afterlives of the Psalms (for a possible co-sponsored session with AAR’s Arts, Literature and Religion section). Please send proposals to both program units when responding to a joint call for papers.
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Book of the Twelve Prophets
Description: The Book of the Twelve Prophets Section provides a forum for research
into textual, literary, historical, religious, and ideological aspects of the
Book of the Twelve Prophets. The section is interested in understanding
individual passages as well as all phases of the development of this book.
Call for papers: The Book of the Twelve Prophets Section provides a forum for research
into textual, literary, historical, religious, and ideological aspects of the
Book of the Twelve Prophets. The section is interested in understanding
individual passages as well as all phases of the development of this book.
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Character Ethics and Biblical Interpretation
Description: This group is devoted to the study of biblical hermeneutics and texts from a character ethics perspective. This discipline highlights the importance of moral formation, identity, and perception, as well as the active role of community in shaping moral identity.
Call for papers: At the 2007 annual meeting there will be two sessions.
The FIRST SESSION will be a panel discussion of Character Ethics and the Old Testament: Moral Dimensions of Scripture (eds. Carroll R. and Lapsley) and Character Ethics and the New Testament (ed. Brawley), both published by WJK in 2007. The panelists for this session have been invited. Papers are thus not being accepted.
The SECOND SESSION will focus on the question, “Whither the Bible and Ethics?” What directions should the conversation between ethics and the Bible take in the future? PAPERS ARE BEING ACCEPTED FOR THIS SESSION.
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Christian Apocrypha
Description: The Section fosters ongoing study of extra-canonical texts, as subjects of literary and philological investigation; as evidence for the history of religion, theology, and cult practice; and as documents of the socio-symbolic construction of Christianity along lines of class and gender.
Call for papers:
This Section pursues the latest research on aspects of the Passion/Resurrection narratives in extracanonical texts as, e.g., the Gospel of Peter, the Acta Pilati (Gospel of Nicodemus), or the Gospel of the Savior. This focus includes interest in the genesis and development of passion traditions or themes, the communities that produced them, and their place on the map of Christian origins. Another session is open to all issues pertaining to the apocrypha and encourages submissions for the Seminar Papers.
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Christian Theological Research Fellowship
Description: The CTRF is an Annual Meeting Program Partner. Please contact Alan Padgett, at apadgett@luthersem.edu, for further information on the CTRF's program.
Call for papers: Members of the Christian Theological Research Fellowship or SBL may submit paper proposals for the Christian Theology Group (SBL session). Our theme in 2007 is Christology, Violence and Resurrection. You may also submit proposals on the broad theme of Resurrection (for the Additional Meeting session) to Vincent.E.Bacote@wheaton.edu (see www.ctrf.info)
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Christian Theology and the Bible
Description: This unit invites a conversation between the disciplines of Christian Theology and Biblical Studies. We are interested in questions, categories, or hypotheses drawn from the broad tradition of Christian theology which inform readings of the biblical texts, and we aim to foster constructive theological work with biblical texts.
Call for papers: This unit invites a conversation between the disciplines of Christian Theology and Biblical Studies. We are interested in questions, categories, or hypotheses drawn from the broad tradition of Christian theology which inform readings of the biblical texts, and we aim to foster constructive theological work with biblical texts.
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Chronicles-Ezra-Nehemiah
Description: Our section provides a collegial forum for graduate students and scholars in which papers can be read, projects initiated, questions explored, new approaches attempted and broader discussions held relating to the research and scholarship of these biblical books.
Call for papers: The Chronicles-Ezra-Nehemiah section will have at least one open session in 2007. Proposals on any aspect of Chronicles and Ezra-Nehemiah research are welcome; presentations will be 20 minutes long, followed by time for discussion. The section will also be having a book review panel with invited panelists. There will also be a session held jointly with the Literature and History of the Persian Period Group, with invited presenters.
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Cognitive Linguistics in Biblical Interpretation
Description: The field of cognitive science has reshaped longstanding philosophical assumptions about how people use and process language. This section applies cognitive linguistics to biblical studies, with a focus on the ways cognitive approaches help scholars understand and interact with ancient texts.
Call for papers: Session 1: Cognitive Construals of Reading and the Construction of Authority.
The consultation invites papers deploying cognitive theories and methods for understanding reading and interpretive processes. We have particular interest in work that focuses on a discrete passage (HB or NT) and attends to how authority is asserted or generated via conceptual / cognitive dynamics.
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Committee on Underrepresented Racial and Ethnic Minorities in the Profession
Description: *
Call for papers: *
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Computer Assisted Research
Description: The Computer Assisted Research section's primary mission is to encourage the application of ever changing information technology to biblical research and pedagogy. Its focus is upon well-established technologies as well as the emerging and experimental. It is truly multi-disciplinary, spanning the entire range of the Society's interests.
Call for papers: The Computer Assisted Research section's primary mission is to encourage the application of ever changing information technology to biblical research and pedagogy. Its focus is upon well-established technologies as well as the emerging and experimental. It is truly multi-disciplinary, spanning the entire range of the Society's interests.
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Construction of Christian Identities
Description: This unit focuses on interdisciplinary study of the making of Christianity, which is understood as a complex phenomenon. The making of Christianity takes place within conflicting intercultural relations among Mediterranean/Near-Eastern religious groups, which contributed to a diversified evolution within early groups of Jesus followers. The unit seeks primarily to describe groups and their religious practices rather than their theological ideas.
Call for papers: General Description of this Section: Interdisciplinary study of the making of Christianity as a complex phenomenon (“Early Christianities”), and of conflicting intercultural relations among Mediterranean/Near-Eastern religious groups as contributing to diversified evolution inside early Christianities. Identifying different early Christian groups as matrix of different early Christian writings.
For the Annual Meeting of San Diego 2007, this Unit plans to invite the speakers for one of its sessions and to accept papers for the other. The open session will have as a subject: "Non Canonical Texts and the Birth of Christianity." Please, feel free to send any proposal for papers, the content of which corresponds to the lines established in the General Description of the Section and to the specific subject of the open session.
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Contextual Biblical Interpretation
Description: The goal of this consultation is to explore the interest in developing a SBL seminar or section on *Contextual Biblical Interpretation,* its different strategies (including “inculturation,” inter(con)textualization, and reading with “ordinary” readers) and its methodological justifications, and the extent to which all interpretations are contextual.
Call for papers: In line with the goal of this consultation and of the book series of Contextual Bible Studies (Fortress Press) which emerges out of it, we seek papers on
"contextual" biblical interpretations; that is, readings of the Bible that take the reader’s context into account in some way. Particularly we are interested in contextual readings of the books of the Pentateuch/Torah; Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical texts (especially early Jewish novels, such as Judith, Susannah, Tobit), the gospels, and Paul’s letters. These papers need to make explicit their "contextual" strategies (including inculturation, inter(con)textualization, and reading with “ordinary” readers) and methodologies. For general format see http://www.vanderbilt.edu/AnS/religious_studies/GBC/outline_comm.html
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Corpus Hellenisticum Novi Testamenti
Description: This consultation will 1) read and discuss ancient Greek materials that provide insight into the literary and religious worlds of early Christianity and 2) read and discuss papers that analyze early Christian texts in dialogue with Hellenistic materials.
Call for papers: This consultation will 1) read and discuss ancient Greek materials that provide insight into the literary and religious worlds of early Christianity and 2) read and discuss papers that analyze early Christian texts in dialogue with Hellenistic materials.
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Deuteronomistic History
Description: This unit is a forum for scholarship pertaining to the books of Deuteronomy and the Former Prophets (Joshua–Kings). Papers may treat material in one or more of these books or in the collection as a whole. Relevant foci include literary history and compositional techniques; theological trends exemplified in the texts; the social and historical milieu or milieus in which they were produced; as well as connections among one or more of these books, whether topical, chronological, or linguistic.
Call for papers: This unit is a forum for scholarship pertaining to the books of Deuteronomy and the Former Prophets (Joshua–Kings). Papers may treat material in one or more of these books or in the collection as a whole. Relevant foci include literary history and compositional techniques; theological trends exemplified in the texts; the social and historical milieu or milieus in which they were produced; as well as connections among one or more of these books, whether topical, chronological, or linguistic.
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Didache in Context
Description: The object of this consultation will be to explore the Didache as a unified document reflecting the faith, hope, and life of Christian sometime between 50-90 CE. Accordingly, papers will concern themselves with the following: (a) the oral/written origins of the Didache; (b) the authorship and use
of the Didache; (c) aspects of the faith, the practice, or the end-time expectations of the Didache communities as seen from the internal logic of the text; from its religious, social, and historical context; or in contrast to other early communities (Jewish, Christian, Roman).
Call for papers: DIDACHE: TEXT AND COMPOSITION IN A CHANGING COMMUNITY
Papers in one session will be devoted to papers on the text and composition history of the Didache, with a particular interest in what they reveal of the social history of the community. There will be a special focus on the new book by Nancy Pardee, The Genre and Development of the Didache. A Text-Linguistic Analysis, Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament, ser. 2, 2006.
Papers in the second session will be open.
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Disputed Paulines
Description: The Disputed Paulines Consultation seeks to explore historical, literary (including rhetorical), and theological matters which bear upon the interpretation of the letters of the Pauline Corpus that many argue are not genuinely or immediately authored by Paul. It is hoped that careful study of these letters will help us better understand both these documents and early Christianity more broadly.
Call for papers: The Disputed Paulines Consultation invites papers that explore historical, literary (including rhetorical), and theological matters which bear upon the interpretation of these letters. The steering committee may identify a theme for one of our sessions for next year. If so, this informatio will be posted in this call soon after the San Diego meeting. If you have suggestions for a theme, please forward that suggestion to a member of the steering committee.
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Early Christian Families
Description: *Expired*
The Group will focus on a broad and multidisciplinary study of Early Christian families, both with a view to their social functions and transformations, and their role in ideological representations of Christian communities within their Greco-Roman (and Jewish) contexts from 1st - 5th centuries.
Call for papers: There will be two sessions at the 2007 meeting. The Group requests paper proposals for an open session, on any topic examining ancient family life relating to early Christianity. Topics may include, for example, the structures, rituals, or relations of families in Greco-Roman, including Jewish, contexts from the 1st-5th centuries.
A second session will be an invited panel on children in Greco-Roman families.
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Early Jewish Christian Relations
Description: The Early Jewish Christian Relations Group deals with the relationships of Christians and Jews as Christians emerged as groups distinct from Jews, and how these groups continued to affect one another in the following centuries. It considers approximately the first four centuries.
Call for papers: The Early Jewish Christian Relations Group invites paper proposals on the following topics: 1. Genres and Literary Forms. Proposals should address any or all of the following questions: How did genres (dialogue, letter, novel, apocalypse, and so forth) function in the ongoing relations between Jews and Christians in antiquity? Were some literary forms more useful in these contexts? Were some genres actually refined in the crucible of Jewish-Christian relations? Does the lens of genre give us particular insight into the broader sociocultural and rhetorical contexts of Jewish-Christian relations?
2. Jewish-Christian Relations in Syria. Paper proposals are invited on the relations between Jews and Christians in the Syrian context, particularly drawing on East Syrian (Syriac) sources. Proposals for this session should also be sent to the panel organizer, Tina Shepardson (cshepard@utk.edu).
3. Open session. Proposals are welcome on any topic dealing with Jewish-Christian Relations in the first four centuries.
In addition, panelists will be invited to participate in a panel reviewing the forthcoming book by Paula Fredriksen, Augustine and the Jews: The Story of Christianity's Great Theologian and His Defense of Judaism (Doubleday, 2008).
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Ecological Hermeneutics
Description: This Section will focus on hermeneutical principles and models for ecological readings of the biblical text and tradition. Attention would be paid to the anthropocentric bias of texts and readers as well as to discerning alternative traditions sympathetic to ecology, Earth and the Earth community. The aim is to explore the art of reading the text with empathy for the natural world.
Call for papers: Session one will have theme "Ecojustice and Exodus" and contain invited papers with responses and discussion on the way Earth and members of the Earth community experience the events associated with the acts of God in the exodus of Israel from Egypt, as presented in the Book of Exodus and other writings. The second session is open and paper proposals are welcomed. Participants are encouraged to take into account the principles of ecological hermeneutics - suspicion, identification and retrieval.
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Egyptology and Ancient Israel
Description: The principal goal of the Egyptology and Ancient Israel Section is to promote collaboration between biblical scholars and Egyptologists in their comparative examination and analysis of historical and literary connections between ancient Israel, the Hebrew Bible, and the history and literature of ancient Egypt. Where appropriate, the section joins with other related program units to foster interdisciplinary conversation across the wider ancient Near East.
Call for papers: Session One: This session will be a joint session with the Wisdom in Israelite and Cognate Traditions Section and will comprise invited papers on the topic Ancient Egyptian and Israelite Instructional and Wisdom Literature.
Session Two: Paper proposals are welcome on topics related to connections between Egypt and ancient Israel. Priority will be given to papers exploring Instructional and Wisdom Literature.
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Feminist Hermeneutics of the Bible
Description: The aim of this unit is to provide a forum for research in issues and questions relating to feminist methods of interpretation. While specifically focused on methodological concerns, we are also concerned to ground that reflection in the reality of engagement with specific texts.
Call for papers: For the meetings in San Diego, we invite papers for a session addressing the theme of “Crossing Boundaries” with a special focus on multi-locational hermeneutics and wider hybridity (hyphenated identities, etc.) as they integrate or explicate feminist readings of biblical texts.
A second session is planned with an invited panel reviewing the Festschrift for Katharine Doob Sakenfeld, Engaging the Bible in a Gendered World, edited by Linda Day and Carolyn Pressler (WJKP 2006).
Further, there is as usual, an open call for papers under the rubric of the section to provide a forum for research in issues and questions relating to feminist methods of interpretation. While specifically focused on methodological concerns, we are also concerned to ground that reflection in the reality of engagement with specific texts.
For 2008, the Section is working on the theme “Crossing Borders: Migrants, Meanings, Movements.”
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Formation of Luke and Acts
Description: Recent Lukan studies indicate the formative role of diverse verifiable sources including the Septuagint (e.g., Deuteronomy; the Elijah-Elisha narrative), Greco-Roman writings (e.g., historiography; epic, particularly Homer), and some epistles. The Section aims to check and synthesize such use of sources, thus clarifying the formation of Luke and Acts, and facilitating discussion of broader NT issues.
Call for papers: Recent Lukan studies indicate the formative role that the transformation of extant and verifiable sources played in the composition of Luke-Acts, including the Septuagint, Jesus material, Epistles, and contemporary and ancient literature. For the 2007 Annual Meeting this Section aims to check and synthesize the use of such extant and verifiable sources as well as to address the narrative-rhetorical techniques and conventions prevalent in the first-century Greco-Roman world. The goal is to clarify the formation of Luke-Acts and facilitate discussion of broader NT issues.
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Function of Apocryphal and Pseudepigraphal Writings in Early Judaism and Early Christianity
Description: This unit is focused broadly on questions related to canon, namely: What is the biblical canon? How did it take shape? How did the so-called noncanonical works function in the early Jewish and Christian communities? How do these noncanonical works help us comprehend the shaping of the canon and by whom? What is the relation between a closed canon and the notion of a God who speaks in every generation? With considerable media interest in this subject in recent times, it is important to raise and address some of these important questions.
Call for papers: This unit is focused broadly on questions related to canon, namely: What is the biblical canon? How did it take shape? How did the so-called noncanonical works function in the early Jewish and Christian communities? How do these noncanonical works help us comprehend the shaping of the canon and by whom? What is the relation between a closed canon and the notion of a God who speaks in every generation? With considerable media interest in this subject in recent times, it is important to raise and address some of these important questions.
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Future of the Past: Biblical and Cognate Studies for the Twenty-First Century
Description: To engage productive dialogue through the cooperative relationship between the SBL and the Institute for Antiquity and Christianity for the purpose of modeling and promoting international collaborative and interdisciplinary research on a wide variety of topics germane to Jewish and Christian origins.
Call for papers: This program unit does not accept unsolicited papers.
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Gender, Sexuality, and the Bible
Description: This group engages in critical discussion with research on sexuality and gender in disciplines such as critical theory, philosophy, literature, cultural studies and the social sciences. It explores the implications of this research for biblical and postbiblical studies.
Call for papers: We seek papers that explore the transitions between species in and through biblical texts at a number of levels. Papers may address inter-species sex, other relations between non-human animals and humans, and the framing of human matters of sex, gender and generation through non-human animals. Papers are also welcome that engage the fragility of human subjectivity in relation to animals and the construction of animals by humans. Inquiries may be directed to the Chair, Roland Boer, at Roland.Boer@arts.monash.edu.au.
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Gospel of Mark
Description: The Gospel of Mark Section is a venue for research on the text and themes of the Gospel of Mark and its various contexts.
Call for papers: The Mark Group invites papers on the topic of “Textual Variants and the Interpretation of Mark.” Papers may address any aspect of the topic including but not limited to: focus on particular variants of significance and their exegetical consequences, places of conspicuous variation among manuscripts, or Markan variants in particular manuscripts. Papers should probe the effects of variants upon the interpretation of Mark, and/or what the variation/variants may reflect of the transmission and reception-history of Mark in early Christianity. Send proposals in MS Word format to: toshephe@ucollege.edu, OR submit through the Society of Biblical Literature website at http://www.sbl-site.org
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Graduate Biblical Studies: Ethos and Discipline
Description: This seminar will identify the shifts in graduate biblical studies; the research needed to better understand the changes in the discipline, the strategic decisions required to meet the critical problems and the implications of these shifts for the socialization of future biblical scholars.
Call for papers: This seminar will identify the shifts in graduate biblical studies; the research needed to better understand the changes in the discipline, the strategic decisions required to meet the critical problems and the implications of these shifts for the socialization of future biblical scholars.
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Greco-Roman Religions
Description: This unit is highly interdisciplinary and comparative, a forum regularly bringing together historians of religion, specialists in Christian origins, classicists, archaeologists, and social scientists from across the world to pursue questions that foster new cooperative research initiatives.
Call for papers: For 2007 the Greco-Roman Religions Section invites papers that address encounters of new customs and cultic practices within the cultures of Classical antiquity: Greek, Roman, and Greco-Roman. Cultic practices functioned within a complex and fluid socio-cultural environment; the resulting changes in cultic practices and religious ideas suggest that Greece and Rome were the sites of shifting and malleable subcultures rather than monolithic unitary cultures. Contemporary scholars increasingly describe the encounters among various groups – and the resulting negotiations – in terms of hybridization and creoloization. We welcome papers that approach these phenomena on the basis of literary, epigraphical, or archaeological evidence, and from the full range of methodological perspectives.
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Greek Bible
Description: The Greek Bible section focuses on the use of the Greek versions (the Septuagint or other Greek versions) in biblical exegesis by Hellenistic Jewish authors, the New Testament writers, the Church Fathers, Greek historians or philosophers, and medieval Jewish scholiasts, as well as on the methodologies they employ.
Call for papers: The Greek Bible Consultation invites papers on “The Greek Books of the Prophets in Later Jewish and Christian Writings” for its session in 2007. This theme will include papers on the book of Daniel. The Greek Bible Consultation provides a forum for papers on reception history, manuscript traditions, linguistic issues, biblical theology, and hermeneutics that involve the use of the Greek Prophets in later writings. Papers must demonstrate the use of the Greek text of the Prophets in distinction from the Hebrew Bible.
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Healthcare and Disability in the Ancient World
Description: This unit, titled Disability Studies and Healthcare in the Bible and the Ancient World, seeks to foster scholarship related to disability, illness, medicine, and healthcare in the biblical world and text. Major areas of interest include: the religious, legal, and cultural status of persons with disabilities or illness in the biblical and formative Jewish and Christian periods; the representation of disability and illness in biblical and cognate texts; the theology of such texts; the history and archeology of medicine and healthcare in the ancient Near East and Greco-Roman worlds; and the subjects of disability, illness, medicine and healthcare in the history of biblical interpretation.
Call for papers: The Unit plans to have three sessions at the 2008 meeting.
The FIRST SESSION will be a discussion by invited panelists
of Saul Olyan's Disability in the Hebrew Bible published by
Cambridge University Press. The SECOND SESSION will be an
open session for which submissions exploring biblical
theology (broadly defined)as it relates to disability,
healthcare, and the body are encouraged. The THIRD SESSION
will be an open session for which all submissions on
disability, illness, medicine, and healthcare and biblical
studies or cognate literature are welcome. All methods are
invited. Inquiries about the sessions should be addressed to
either R. Magdalene or J. Schipper.
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Hebrew Bible and Political Theory
Description: Politics was as central to the life of ancient Israel as it is in our modern world. It is found
throughout the Hebrew Bible and cognate literature. This unit attempts to study political
phenomena in this corpus with methodological rigor.
Call for papers: This unit seeks papers that examine biblical texts through the prism of political theory, broadly conceived. As other program units already explore feminist ideology and African-American hermeneutics, this unit seeks interdisciplinary papers that employ theoretical models concerning, for example, notions of nationhood, citizenship, law, class and hierarchy, economic distribution, kingship, and the like. Alternatively, papers may analyze the biblical text through the political thought of the great thinkers, classical, medieval or modern.
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Hebrew Bible, History, and Archaeology
Description: This program unit exists to foster discussion of the relationship between archaeology in all its aspects (including survey, excavation, and epigraphic data) and the history of the ancient Israelite kingdoms and/or the Hebrew Bible.
Call for papers:
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Hebrew Scriptures and Cognate Literature
Description: The Hebrew Scriptures and Cognate Literature Section provides a major forum for research on specific points of contact between the Bible and the literatures of Israel's neighbors, to better elucidate the Bible as a collection of ancient Israelite writings.
Call for papers: The Hebrew Scriptures and Cognate Literature Section provides a major forum for research on specific points of contact between the Bible and the literatures of Israel's neighbors, to better elucidate the Bible as a collection of ancient Israelite writings.
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Hebrews
Description: The famous and almost proverbial saying that Hebrews appears to its viewer as a “melchisedekitisches Wesen ohne Stammbaum” was uttered by Franz Overbeck in the year 1880, during the high noon of historicism. The missing genealogy that Overbeck lamented meant peculiarly to him a lack of historical context. This perceived “lack” was the consequence of flawed presuppositions originating in ideological frameworks, and consequently led New Testament scholarship to view Hebrews as the “enigmatic,” the “other” one, and furthermore led to the neglect of its historical context by Hebrews scholarship. Consequently, the context was judged as “irrelevant” for Hebrews interpretation. Recent scholarship on the contrary has developed a particular interest in Hebrews’ context. Therefore, while maintaining the distinctiveness of Hebrews it is the aim of this Group to explore extensively and facilitate scholarly research on Hebrews’ relations to other early traditions and texts (Jewish, Hellenistic and Roman), so that Hebrews’ historical, cultural, and religious identity may be mapped in greater detail.
Call for papers: The famous and almost proverbial saying that Hebrews appears to its viewer as a “melchisedekitisches Wesen ohne Stammbaum” was uttered by Franz Overbeck in the year 1880, during the high noon of historicism. The missing genealogy that Overbeck lamented meant peculiarly to him a lack of historical context. This perceived “lack” was the consequence of flawed presuppositions originating in ideological frameworks, and consequently led New Testament scholarship to view Hebrews as the “enigmatic,” the “other” one, and furthermore led to the neglect of its historical context by Hebrews scholarship. Consequently, the context was judged as “irrelevant” for Hebrews interpretation. Recent scholarship on the contrary has developed a particular interest in Hebrews’ context. Therefore, while maintaining the distinctiveness of Hebrews it is the aim of this Group to explore extensively and facilitate scholarly research on Hebrews’ relations to other early traditions and texts (Jewish, Hellenistic and Roman), so that Hebrews’ historical, cultural, and religious identity may be mapped in greater detail.
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Hellenistic Judaism
Description: This section is devoted to the history of (a) Judaism of the Hellenistic period (that is, "Hellenistic" understood chronologically from Alexander the Great to Augustus), (b) Greek-speaking Judaism in antiquity (that is, "Hellenistic" understood linguistically), and (c) the interaction between Judaism and its host cultures in antiquity ("Hellenistic understood culturally and socially).
Call for papers: Paper proposals are invited for an open session devoted to any topic related to Hellenistic Judaism. Proposals from junior scholars are especially encouraged for this open session. Papers already have been arranged for a separate session devoted to models of moral perfection in Hellenistic Judaism. Proposals for the open session should be submitted directly into the SBL computer system when possible, but proposals and questions may be sent to either one of the program unit's co-chairs.
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Hellenistic Moral Philosophy and Early Christianity
Description: The unit was formed with the goal of providing a forum for discussing ancient texts from the Hellenistic and Roman worlds and relating them to the study of the New Testament world (including early Jewish and early Christian materials outside the New Testament per se).
Call for papers: One of the sessions of the 2008 Annual Meeting will be devoted to the current state of editing papyri containing Philodemus' works. Papers for this session are by invitation only. The topic for the second session will be finalized during the 2007 Annual Meeting. Details will be posted during or immediately after the meeting.
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Historical Jesus
Description: Historical Jesus research is one of the oldest and most debated areas in Biblical Studies. We encourage critical analyses of historical methods, recent trends and contemporary reception, and we give scholars and students opportunities to present their latest Jesus research.
Call for papers: Historical Jesus research is one of the oldest and most debated areas in Biblical Studies. We encourage critical analyses of historical methods, recent trends and contemporary reception, and we give scholars and students opportunities to present their latest Jesus research.
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History and Literature of Early Rabbinic Judaism
Description: This section is devoted to both historical and literary study of the Rabbis of Late Antiquity (ca. 70 CE - 640 CE). We encourage studies that are interdisciplinary and comparative, and that take into account the wider social and cultural environments in which the Rabbis worked.
Call for papers: We invite proposals for on any subject relating to the interests of the Section for one open session. We will also hold a session on "Anthropological Approaches to the Rabbis and their Literature.” We welcome paper proposals that use or discuss anthropological approaches to the study of Jews in late antiquity.
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History of Interpretation
Description: The purpose of the section is: (1) To encourage the investigation of the history of biblical interpretation, especially with respect to the socio-historical context of the interpreters; (2) To support scholars by providing a forum for presentation and critical discussion of their works at the annual meeting; and (3) To encourage conversation among scholars investigating different time periods and geographical areas for their mutual benefit.
Call for papers: The purpose of the section is: (1) To encourage the investigation of the history of biblical interpretation, especially with respect to the socio-historical context of the interpreters; (2) To support scholars by providing a forum for presentation and critical discussion of their works at the annual meeting; and (3) To encourage conversation among scholars investigating different time periods and geographical areas for their mutual benefit.
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Ideological Criticism
Description: This Section approaches the Bible through critical philosophical perspectives and explores how power shapes and is shaped by the Bible and its reception. We embrace various definitions of ideology and approaches to uncovering the political stakes of the Bible and of its uses and influences.
Call for papers: SESSION ONE: Ideology, Activism, and Biblical Interpretation II
We invite papers for this session on the use of the
Bible to support or oppose activism on issues of social
justice, war, the ‘isms’ (including racism, classism,
sexism), economic justice, etc. Papers on any aspect
of the use of the Bible to address human rights
issues and issues of concern to indigenous communities
are especially encouraged.
SESSION TWO: The Bible and the Ideology of Violence after 9/11:
Papers are invited for this session that reflect on the appropriation of biblical scripture in both the rationalization of and the resistance to the use of violence to defend national, religious, or ethnic communities from what they perceive to be threats to their existence.
Papers by graduate students and members of communities
historically under-represented in the SBL would be
particularly welcome for these these sessions.
SESSION THREE: Documentary: "Trading the Future" is a video essay or hybrid documentary by b.h. Yael that questions the inevitability of apocalypse and its repercussions on environmental urgencies. Starting with a personal account addressing the Christian narrative for the end of times, the video draws connections to Jewish and secular apocalypticism and questions our ready acceptance of a cataclysmic end. The video also challenges the philosophical and practical underpinnings of science and progress, the market place, and the symbolic of death while proposing possible alternatives in activism, biodiversity, and the idea of natality: valuing the fact that we are born more than the fact that we die, and forming our social, economic, and ultimately our resource policies around that core value. Trading the Future combines the director’s personal confrontation with Jewish, Christian, and secular apocalypticism and documentary interviews with Vandana Shiva, Tony Clarke, Lee Quinby, Grace Janzen and many others.
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Ideology, Culture, and Translation
Description: This Group explores theoretical dimensions and implications of translations and translation practice. Critical engagements with the translation, translation practices, or translation history of any texts relevant to the study of Bible and Christianity (ancient and modern) are welcome.
Call for papers: The 2007 program for the Ideology, Culture, and Translation consultation will continue to explore the rich but often problematic intersections of these three overlapping areas of discourse by looking at the history of Spanish Bible translation in Central and South America, particularly as such translational activity relates to the construction and contestation of national identities, to religious and political discourse(s), and to the role(s) of "the Church" in culture. The 2007 annual meeting will feature a plenary address from Professor Anthony Pym of the Universitat Rovira i Virgili (http://www.tinet.org/~apym/). The Ideology, Culture, and Translation session will follow-up Professor Pym's lecture, and he will participate in the session. The session will also include four additional presentations, some of which will be invited, along with others drawn from an open Call for Papers. Anyone working in any aspect of the aforementioned subject areas is invited to submit an abstract. Proposals that reflect an historical perspective and clear interest in localized encounters within these geographic regions will be given first priority.
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International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies
Description: The IOSCS is an Affiliate of the SBL. For further information on the IOSCS, please contact the program unit chair.
Call for papers: The IOSCS is an Affiliate of the SBL. For further information on the IOSCS, please contact the program unit chair.
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Israelite Prophetic Literature
Description: This section aims to provide an open forum for scholars to present papers on a variety of topics germane to the study of ancient Israelite prophecy and prophetic literature.
Call for papers: We invite proposals for three sessions: Session 1. Post-colonial Readings of the Prophets--Papers that explore Israelite prophetic literature using Post-colonial approaches with specific attention to constructions of empire and/or identity (including, resistance, struggle, and/or conformity). Session 2. Relative Efficacy of Divine Punishment and Restraint--Papers that examine representations of the efficacy of divine punishment and divine restraint within prophetic discourse. Of particular interest are papers that examine this theme in light of diverse issues such as: the multivalent presentation of covenant as motivation for salvation and cause for destruction, the distinctiveness (or commonality) of Israel's election, and the operation of divine mercy. Session 3. Open session--Papers on any aspect of the study of Israelite prophecy and prophetic literature
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Israelite Religion in its Ancient Context
Description: A forum for the study of religion in Israel and Judea within their larger Southwest Asian and East Mediterranean contexts. Aims to bring together a wide variety of questions, perspectives, periods, disciplines, theories, methods, and kinds of data, e.g., verbal text (literary and pragmatic), visual art, artifacts and architecture; philology (broadly), art-history, sociology and anthropology, and history; theology, ritual, gender, and ethnicity. Above all, the forum seeks to facilitate the systematic framing of questions and analysis of religion in theoretical terms, with theoretical scholarship.
Call for papers: For 2008, Israelite Religion in Its West Asian Environment seeks papers dealing with the religions of Israel and neighboring lands, as expressed through myriad disciplinary studies. These include textual and archaeological studies, gender studies, art historical analysis, comparative religious studies, ethnographic studies and more. Abstracts from graduate students must include the name of a faculty adviser.
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Jesus Traditions, Gospels, and Negotiating the Roman Imperial World
Description: The section aims to encourage the exploration of the diverse ways (accommodation; cooption, ambivalence; self-protective protest; challenge; alternative communities and contestive practices; exposure of imperial strategies etc.) in which Jesus traditions and gospels negotiate the Roman imperial world.
Call for papers: This section encourages the exploration of the diverse ways (accommodation; cooption, ambivalence; self-protective protest; challenge; alternative communities and contestive practices; exposure of imperial strategies etc.) in which Jesus traditions and gospels negotiate the Roman imperial world. ONE SESSION will include papers that focus on healings and exorcisms - including those attributed to Jesus - as threats to the Roman system since they represent exercises of power but are not under Roman control.
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Jewish Christianity / Christian Judaism
Description: The broad aim of this research unit is to clarify the religion, history, and sociology of the ancient groups traditionally called, collectively, “Jewish Christianity,” but increasingly “Christian” or “Jesus-believing Judaism.” The group also seeks to clarify the issues involved in conceptualizing such groups as a distinct category of religion in antiquity.
Call for papers: The broad aim of this research group is to clarify the religion, history, and sociology of the ancient groups traditionally called, collectively, "Jewish Christianity." The ongoing goal of the Consultation is to clarify the issues involved in conceptualizing "Jewish Christianity"/"Christian Judaism"/etc. as a distinct sub-class of religion in antiquity. For 2007 Annual Meeting we are particularly interested in papers that deal with questions of ethnicity, or the role of the Jew/Gentile distinction in groups or texts that have been traditionally classified as "Jewish Christian."
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Johannine Literature
Description: Our mission is to address issues and concerns having to do with the analysis and interpretation of the Johannine literature--a major component of the Christian Scriptures, encompassing for our purposes the Gospel of John and the three Johannine letters. The section has historically been committed to highlighting new voices and issues in the field.
Call for papers: We invite submission of papers on any topic related to Johannine literature for our open session at the 2007 meeting. For the second session, we seek papers that move beyond the Jewish vs. Greco-Roman dichotomy in examining the context out of which the Johannine Literature emerged. Proposals dealing with the Gospel's complex imperial context, or the ancient reception of John in the broader Mediterranean milieu are encouraged.
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John's Apocalypse and Cultural Contexts Ancient and Modern
Description: This section provides an interdisciplinary forum for nontraditional and traditional methods to interact in the exploration of the meaning and significance of the Apocalypse of John and related literature in both their ancient and modern cultural contexts.
Call for papers: The "John's Apocalypse and Cultural Contexts Ancient and Modern" section welcomes submissions for the following.
1) A panel on "Reading and Responding to Revelation's Violence." We invite papers that specifically address how interpreters from a variety historical and cultural contexts have understood and addressed Revelation's violent imagery and language.
2) A session on topics in recent research. Specialists in Revelation, apocalyptic literature, and/or apocalypticism are encouraged to make proposals.
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John, Jesus, and History
Description: The John, Jesus, and History Group will highlight issues related to the Johannine tradition and the composition-history of the Fourth Gospel and the Johannine Epistles, with special emphasis on the place of these documents in contemporary study of Christian origins. Dialogue on these issues will be encouraged through the group’s annual meetings and through other venues throughout the year.
Call for papers: The John, Jesus, and History Group will host one open session at the 2007 meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature. Proposals should explore issues of historicity related to John 13-21,including discussion of the Last Supper/Farewell Address; Jesus' arrest; Jesus' Jewish trials; the trial before Pilate; the crucifixion account; and, John's resurrection stories. Topics of interest to the group that fall outside the scope of these chapters will also be considered. Papers may reflect a variety of methodological perspectives, but preference will be given to proposals that interact directly with questions of John's historicity (either in favor of John's historicity or against John's presentation). Please include a detailed abstract, and feel free to contact Tom Thatcher with questions or comments at tom.thatcher@ccuniversity.edu
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Josephus
Description: The Josephus Group will support the Brill Josephus Project, which is publishing all of his works with translation and commentary. We shall reach out collaboratively to the SBL community with a wide variety of topics related to the study of Josephus.
Call for papers: Josephus, the Scrolls and the Dead Sea Region: We invite papers related to Josephus as a key literary source for knowledge about the Dead Sea region; its general geography and topography; its towns and fortresses, including Engedi, Masada, and Machaerus; the people who lived there, including the residents of the site at Qumran; and the Dead Sea Scrolls. Papers using any methodology or approach are welcome.
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Lament in Sacred Texts and Cultures
Description: This unit engages scholars to bring various methodologies to bear on critical issues of the biblical book of Lamentations and other 'laments' from ancient and contemporary contexts.
Call for papers: Paper proposals that bring various methodologies to bear on critical issues of the biblical books and poetry of Lamentations, Job, Psalms and other 'laments' from ancient and contemporary cultures are welcome.
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Latter-day Saints and the Bible
Description: This unit examines the interpretation and use of the Bible by Latter-day Saints beginning with Joseph Smith down to the present. Papers draw on tools used in biblical studies and address topics of broad interest to the academy of biblical scholars.
Call for papers: This unit examines the interpretation and use of the Bible by Latter-day Saints. Our session in San Diego will focus on pivotal passages in the pentateuch. Papers are invited that wrestle with the translation or scholarly interpretation of passages in the Pentateuch that are of key interest to Latter-day Saints. Well focused papers are especially desired. Presenters may wish to make use of materials from the Dead Sea Scrolls.
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LGBTI/Queer Hermeneutics
Description: Sexual orientation and kinship continues to be contested in public, ecclesial and academic communities across the globe and Biblical interpretation underpins much that is oppressive in these efforts. This section provides a forum for interrogating issues related to these interpretations and for formulating interpretive methods that emerge from the diversity of LGBTI/Q experience and thought.
Call for papers: This consultation will be sponsoring 3 paper sessions. One of these welcomes proposals on any aspect of LGBT/Q Hermeneutics of the Bible. Another session will include invited papers only to review/discuss the new _Queer Bible Commentary_. A third session will be co-sponsored with the Bible and Cultural Studies Section and will include both invited and submitted papers on the intersections between Queer Theory, Race, Ethnicity, Gender, Class, and Scripture.
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Linguistics and Biblical Hebrew
Description: The goals of the unit: to provide a forum where scholars can share the
results of their research on different aspects of Biblical Hebrew; advocate
the advantages of linguistic methods for biblical studies; build a platform for
interdisciplinary partnership with other disciplines and units.
Call for papers: The Linguistics and Biblical Hebrew section solicits papers for two sessions. The first session is open to any paper that analyzes biblical Hebrew grammar from a typological framework with attention to cross-linguistic data. The other session is more general and is open to any paper that applies a well-articulated modern linguistic theory to some aspect of biblical Hebrew.
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Literature and History of the Persian Period
Description: The Literature and History of the Persian Period Group emphasizes an interdisciplinary approach to biblical texts and related literature of the 6th-4th centuries BCE by bringing together archaeologists, Assyriologists, classicists, Egyptologists, and sociologists, to name but a few, with biblical scholars specializing in various facets and texts pertinent to this era.
Call for papers: The Literature and History of the Persian Period Group will have one session with papers designed to illuminate the political, social, and religious experiences of Judeans in diaspora communities. A second session of invited papers will be held jointly with the Chronicles-Ezra-Nehemiah section.
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Mapping Memory: Tradition, Texts, and Identity
Description: Memory theory deals with the way communities reconstruct and commemorate their pasts. Its methods bear on critical issues such as orality and literacy, the history of tradition, textual artifacts, ritual, and historical Jesus research. Through a series of invited, open, and joint sessions, the Group will showcase applications of memory theory to new and classic research problems in biblical studies and related fields.
Call for papers: The Mapping Memory Consultation welcomes proposals for the 2007 meeting that apply some aspect of memory theory to research problems in Biblical Studies, Christian Origins, or Ancient Judaism. Preference will be given to proposals (1) that explore memory and/in the Hebrew Bible or (2) cognitive memory approaches to text, tradition, and ritual.
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Masoretic Studies
Description: The purpose for this section is to discuss, research and promote the field of Masoretic Studies among Hebrew Bible Scholars. Masoretic Studies seeks to clarify the translation and interpretation of the Hebrew Bible text through the use of the Masorah, to further our understanding of the history of the Masorah, and to explore related fields (e.g. grammar, Rabbinic Studies).
Call for papers: IOMS will hold an Open Session at the 2007 Annual Meeting. Papers pertaining to Masoretic Studies or related topics are welcome. Anyone interested in presenting should contact Daniel Mynatt at DMynatt@andersonuniversity.edu.
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Matthew
Description: The Matthew Section sponsors invited and submitted papers, panels, reviews and welcomes submission on any topic related to Matthean scholarship.
Call for papers: The Matthew Section will hold two sessions in 2007. One of these will be an open session for proposals on any Matthean topic. The other will be an invited session on "The Gospel of Matthew and the Dead Sea Scrolls," a session honoring the 60th anniversary of the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls. We welcome and will consider all proposals for either session.
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Meals in the Greco-Roman World
Description: The Greco-Roman banquet, which was a complex and highly influential
Hellenistic institution, will be explored as a lens into Greco-Roman social bonding and
boundaries and as a pivotal consideration in reconstructing the history of
early Christianity and Judaism.
Call for papers:
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Methodological Reassessments of the Letters of James, Peter, and Jude
Description: This unit will focus on an examination of the impact of recent methodological developments to the letters of James, Peter, and Jude, including, for example, rhetorical, social-scientific, socio-rhetorical, ideo-logical and hermeneutical methods, as they contribute to understanding these letters and their social contexts.
Call for papers: In 2007 the focus is on the letters of Jude and Second Peter (note: these letters are being considered separately in separate sessions). In light of the theme of this consultation (i.e., "methodological developments..."), all papers must follow the following three-fold structure: (1) A description of the methodological approach; (2) The application of the methodological approach to either Jude or Second Peter (bulk of the paper); (3) A conclusion identifying how the methodological approach contributes to a fresh/new understanding the letter. Note: the final form of the paper must be submitted in advance (deadline: Oct 15) so that they can be distributed in advance. Papers will not be read but will be discussed by the panel of contributors, the chair, and the audience.
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Midrash
Description: The Midrash Section is a scholarly forum for the comprehensive, interdisciplinary study and analysis of the particular mode of interpreting the Bible developed and utilized by the rabbis of late antiquity.
Call for papers: A first session will be open to paper proposals in any area of critical midrash scholarship, but we especially encourage papers dealing with the relation between Qumran texts and midrash. A second session will be dedicated to the renewed exploration of Rabbinic midrash and Qur'an as well as Islamic Hadith. For example, it has been noted by J. Gutman that the Qur'an and Byzantine traditions best explain the details of the aggadic story of Miriam's well.
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Mysticism, Esotericism, and Gnosticism in Antiquity
Description: This unit is dedicated to the critical investigation of religious currents of secrecy (esotericism), knowledge (gnosticism), and/or their revelation through religious praxis (mysticism) as they developed during the formative periods of Judaism and Christianity (500 BCE-500 CE). This unit is committed to the examination of texts and artifacts created and used in early Jewish, Christian, Greco-Roman, Egyptian, Persian, and Babylonian contexts. We are open to the application of a wide range of historical, comparative, and critical methodologies, including reception history for those who wish to study the effects of these texts and artifacts in later historical periods.
Call for papers: The Early Jewish and Christian Mysticism group is launching a new multi-year project to determine possible provenances of early mysticism in Judaism and Christianity. We are operating in rough chronological order beginning with the Ancient Near East. We wish to create a forum to discuss how, why, and in what forms mysticism emerges at various times, locations, and communities prior to 500 CE. Papers from the sessions will be collected for inclusion in series of volumes called After Paradise Now: Essays Exploring the Provenances of Mysticism in Early Judaism and Christianity.
For the coming session in San Diego, 2007, we wish to invite papers from scholars with expertise in the Ancient Near East, examining forms of mysticism that emerge in this particular provenance. In 2008, we will look for papers in Hebrew Bible and Enochic literature.
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Nag Hammadi and Gnosticism
Description: The Nag Hammadi and Gnosticism Section provides a forum for current international research on the Coptic codices discovered at Nag Hammadi, Egypt, in 1945. Research areas include issues of text, interpretation, social and religio-historical contexts, codicology, and translation.
Call for papers: The Nag Hammadi and Gnosticism Section seeks proposals for three themed sessions: 1) The Gospel of Judas; 2) Codex Tchacos; 3) an open session inviting papers on a variety of themes which might include "mongrels" of Nag Hammadi; martyrdom, resurrection and "Gnosticism"; ethics, passions and the emotions; Powers and Authorities; and "Gnostic" Moral Philosophy: Instruction and Practice.
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National Association of Professors of Hebrew
Description: The NAPH is an Affiliate of the SBL. For additional information on the NAPH, please contact the program unit chair.
Call for papers: 2007 Annual Meeting
The NAPH is an Affiliate of the SBL. For additional information on the NAPH, please contact the program unit chair.The National Association of Professors of Hebrew, 2007 Annual Meeting, is sponsoring five sessions. Session One Meeting of Officers and Membership - Annual Meeting. Session Two Theme:"Assessing Proficiency in Biblical Hebrew." The panel will present standards and methods for evaluating proficiency in Biblical Hebrew at the end of a one-semester course, a one-year course, or a complete program of study (e.g., MA in Biblical Studies, MA in Judaic Studies, MDIV, Ph.D). Panel members will address issues related to 'vocabulary memorization', 'fluency in reading', 'application of syntactical features', 'reading comprehension' and other related topics.Session Three, the methodology session of NAPH, welcomes proposals for papers on the subject of the Hebrew verb and/or teaching verbs and verbal sentences to students in elementary Hebrew courses.Sessions Four and Five: No Theme.
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New Historicism and the Hebrew Bible
Description: The group will pursue New Historicist research in Hebrew Bible studies with the aim of publishing a volume of essays provisionally titled New Historicist Readings of the Hebrew Bible.
Call for papers: We invite New Historicist readings of Biblical texts that wrestle with the fragmentary, plural, contradictory, and heterogeneous character of these writings, particularly though not exclusively in regard to issues of Gender, Violence, Identity Construction, Culture, and the Self. We also welcome studies of how critical biblical histories as well as the tools that produced those histories have been ideologically embedded.
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New Testament Mysticism Project
Description: Seminar members plan to collectively write a commentary covering mysticism in the New Testament. The Seminar will progress systematically through each New Testament text, writing overviews of each text as well as commentaries on relevant pericopes. Each entry will include the original language passage, a new translation, a line-by-line commentary, an interpretative history of the pericope through the Ante-Nicene period, literature parallels, and select bibliography. Entries will be discussed at the meetings, revised, and edited by April D. DeConick, Andrei Orlov and Kevin Sullivan into a three-volume commentary called New Testament Mysticism. Volume 1: The Synoptic Gospels, Luke-Acts, Johannine Literature, and the Catholic Epistles. Volume 2: The Pauline and Deutro-Pauline Epistles. Volume 3: Hebrews and Revelation.
Call for papers: Seminar members plan to collectively write a commentary covering mysticism in the New Testament. The Seminar will progress systematically through each New Testament text, writing overviews of each text as well as commentaries on relevant pericopes. Each entry will include the original language passage, a new translation, a line-by-line commentary, an interpretative history of the pericope through the Ante-Nicene period, literature parallels, and select bibliography. Entries will be discussed at the meetings, revised, and edited by April D. DeConick, Andrei Orlov and Kevin Sullivan into a three-volume commentary called New Testament Mysticism. Volume 1: The Synoptic Gospels, Luke-Acts, Johannine Literature, and the Catholic Epistles. Volume 2: The Pauline and Deutro-Pauline Epistles. Volume 3: Hebrews and Revelation.
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New Testament Textual Criticism
Description: The New Testament Textual Criticism Section seeks to foster the study and criticism of the text of the New Testament—including examination of manuscripts and other sources, evaluation of their textual variation, restorations of texts, and the investigation of the history of its transmission—in its cultural and historical contexts. SBL has had a group dedicated to this topic as far back as 1946.
Call for papers: The New Testament Textual Criticism Section seeks to foster the study and criticism of the text of the New Testament—including examination of manuscripts and other sources, evaluation of their textual variation, restorations of texts, and the investigation of the history of its transmission—in its cultural and historical contexts. SBL has had a group dedicated to this topic as far back as 1946.
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Novum Testamentum Graecum: Editio Critica Maior
Description: The unit presents the on-going work on the Editio Critica Maior (ECM), a comprehensive text-critical edition of the Greek New Testament that exhibits the history of the Greek text through its first millennium as documented in manuscripts from the second century until the invention of letterpress printing. It provides scholars engaged in the tasks of exegesis and textual criticism with all the relevant materials found in Greek manuscripts, patristic citations, and early translations. The selection of Greek manuscripts rests on an evaluation of all known primary witnesses, and each of the manuscripts selected is cited completely with all its variants. This opens the way for a new understanding of the history of the text, the more so because all relevant evidence is stored on databases. The primary line of the ECM presents a text based on a careful application of internal and external criteria, streamlined by the Coherence-Based Genealogical Method.
Call for papers: The unit presents the on-going work on the Editio Critica Maior (ECM), a comprehensive text-critical edition of the Greek New Testament that exhibits the history of the Greek text through its first millennium as documented in manuscripts from the second century until the invention of letterpress printing. It provides scholars engaged in the tasks of exegesis and textual criticism with all the relevant materials found in Greek manuscripts, patristic citations, and early translations. The selection of Greek manuscripts rests on an evaluation of all known primary witnesses, and each of the manuscripts selected is cited completely with all its variants. This opens the way for a new understanding of the history of the text, the more so because all relevant evidence is stored on databases. The primary line of the ECM presents a text based on a careful application of internal and external criteria, streamlined by the Coherence-Based Genealogical Method.
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Orality, Textuality, and the Formation of the Hebrew Bible
Description: This section is a context for exploration of how recent research on orality and textuality might inform study of the use and formation of the Hebrew Bible. A focus of this group is dialogue of Biblical studies with research in other disciplines on orality, textuality and their interaction.
Call for papers: We invite paper proposals for the 2007 meeting that engage in a sustained way research on orality and/or textuality in relation to the formation of the Hebrew Bible. Ideally, we would like papers with programatic elements that show ways in which scholarship on the Hebrew Bible can and should be done differently in the light of such research.
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Paleographical Studies in the Ancient Near East
Description: This section addresses paleographical problems in ancient Near Eastern epigraphy. It concentrates primarily on the Northwest Semitic alphabetic scripts, but also includes studies of Ugaritic and cuneiform. Participants should connect chronological conclusions of paleography with historical issues within the Bible.
Call for papers: This section addresses paleographical problems in ancient Near Eastern epigraphy. It concentrates primarily on the Northwest Semitic alphabetic scripts, but also includes studies of Ugaritic and cuneiform. Participants should connect chronological conclusions of paleography with historical issues within the Bible.
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Papyrology and Early Christian Backgrounds
Description: The Papyrology and Early Christian Backgrounds Group explores how the ancient papyri illumine the world of early Christianity and will appeal to scholars interested in paleographic, linguistic, and textual questions, as well as those who specialize in the social and cultural history of early Christianity.
Call for papers: The Papyrology and Early Christian Backgrounds Group explores how the ancient papyri illumine the world of early Christianity and will appeal to scholars interested in paleographic, linguistic, and textual questions, as well as those who specialize in the social and cultural history of early Christianity.
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Paul and Politics
Description: The purposes of the Paul and Politics Group are to bring together several currently separate but often overlapping lines of investigation and interpretation of the apostle Paul, his mission, his letters, and his longer-range impact. Those lines of investigation include "Paul and the politics of the churches," "Paul and the politics of Israel," "Paul and the politics of the Roman Empire" and "Paul and politics of Interpretation."
Call for papers: The purposes of the Paul and Politics Group are to problematize, interrogate, and re-vision Pauline texts and interpretations, to identify oppressive formulations as well as potentially liberative visions and values in order to recover their unfulfilled historical possibilities. Investigation and dialogue focuses on four overlapping areas of "Paul and the politics of the churches," "Paul and the politics of Israel," "Paul and the politics of the Roman Empire," and "Paul and the Politics of Interpretation."
This year’s open session invites papers dealing with poverty which are in direct critical engagement with two of the group’s areas of focus.
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Paul and Scripture
Description: This seminar will provide a forum for a group of Pauline scholars to examine, debate, and work toward the resolution of a series of questions that have arisen in recent years concerning the way the apostle Paul interpreted and applied the Jewish Scriptures. The Seminar maintains a bibliography of related materials at http://paulandscripture.westmont.edu/wikindx
Call for papers: Papers for the first session are by invitation only. For the second session, we are looking for two to four papers that use non-traditional methods and perspectives to examine or critique the use of the Jewish Scriptures in Paul's letters. Proposals are welcome from any methodological perspective, including feminist, postcolonial, deconstructive, ideological, rhetorical, ethnic, semiotic, social scientific, political, philosophical, and other approaches. Proposals should include a brief description of the method to be used and how this method might help us to understand or critique the use of Scripture in Paul's letters.
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Pauline Epistles
Description: The Pauline Epistles section aims to stimulate critical analysis of the letters of Paul by offering a platform for new research. The section maintains a historical orientation and typically focuses on situating the undisputed Pauline letters in their immediate social, political, religious, and intellectual contexts.
Call for papers: Proposals are invited for three open sessions on any topic relating to the 13 letters in the Pauline corpus. These proposals should be 350-400 words in length stating the thesis to be argued, an outline of the argument, and its relationship to previous or current research on the topic. Accepted papers will be allowed no more than 25 minutes to be read.
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Pauline Theology
Description: The unit has been set up in order to explore central issues in Pauline theology. No single understanding of "Pauline theology," or of how it is to be delimited from other aspects of Pauline discourse, is assumed at the outset. A complementary goal is the introduction of Pauline textual and theological insights into conversations with other fields, for example, with brain research, ecology, and race.
Call for papers: The Pauline Soteriology Group has been set up to explore central issues in Pauline theology. Because our program topics are pre-planned and specific scholars are invited to address them, we are not accepting paper proposals at this time. We hope you will attend our sessions and we thank you for your interest. Ross Wagner and Susan Eastman
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Pentateuch
Description: The Pentateuch Section provides a forum within the SBL for presentation and discussion of research on the Pentateuch, with a particular focus on transmission-historical issues and linkage of that area of inquiry with other more synchronic methodologies.
Call for papers: 2007 Annual Meeting
The Pentateuch Section will sponsor two sessions: The first is an open call for papers on any topic related to the composition and tranmission of pentateuchal literature. The second is a joint session with the Deuteronomistic Section on the composition and literary design of the Enneateuch. The papers for the second session are invited.
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Performance Criticism of the Bible and Other Ancient Texts
Description: This interdisciplinary unit is intended to foster discussion about how the creation and interpretation of biblical and other ancient texts has been shaped by their oral transmission and aural reception by ancient communities, using the methods associated with performance criticism.
Call for papers: This consultation is interdisciplinary, accepting papers from scholars from biblical studies, classics, and theatre arts who are interested in employing the methods of performance criticism to determine how ancient texts may have been shaped by their authors’ awareness that the texts would be performed for an audience. There will also be one session of invited papers.
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Philo of Alexandria
Description: Philo’s works are invaluable sources about not only his own thought and exegesis but also such related fields as Judaica, philosophy, history, Classics, New Testament, and early Christianity. This Seminar focuses on these topics and on commentaries-in-preparation on Philonic treatises.
Call for papers: Philo’s works are invaluable sources about not only his own thought and exegesis but also such related fields as Judaica, philosophy, history, Classics, New Testament, and early Christianity. This Seminar focuses on these topics and on commentaries-in-preparation on Philonic treatises.
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Poster Session
Description: By emphasizing dialogue, posters provide an effective vehicle for exchanging information and ideas with other scholars and for making some of the latest research available to a wider audience within the SBL.
Call for papers: By emphasizing dialogue, posters provide an effective vehicle for exchanging information and ideas with other scholars and for making some of the latest research available to a wider audience within the SBL.
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Prophetic Texts and Their Ancient Contexts
Description: The objectives of this group are: (1) to foster as much discussion as possible among participants in the sessions without limiting the number of participants; (2) to involve a wide variety of viewpoints from the international academy interested in "prophetic texts and their ancient contexts"; and (3) to encourage creativity and diversity among those interested in this field by inviting proposals for papers within the described parameters.
Call for papers: We invite papers that study the prophetic texts in a way informed by their ancient contexts.
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Pseudepigrapha
Description: The goals of this section include: to provide a forum for scholarly discussion of Jewish and Christian pseudepigrapha; to encourage the broader study of pseudepigrapha for its relevance in understanding early Judaism and Christianity; to facilitate both cross-disciplinary interaction and further integration of the study of pseudepigrapha within biblical studies.
Call for papers: There will be three sessions devoted to the study of Jewish pseudepigraphic parascriptural literature. Two of these are panels exploring thematic concerns which have pre-arranged rosters of presenters. One will be open, for which new paper proposals on any aspect of the study of Jewish pseudepigrapha are welcome.
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Psychology and Biblical Studies
Description: The objectives of the Psychology and Biblical Studies Seminar are (i) to provide a forum for developing the future agenda of "psychological criticism" within Biblical Studies; (ii) to assess the significance of these approaches for ongoing Biblical research, exegesis, and interpretation, and (iii) from time to time to to present an historical-critical overview of "psychological" approaches to scripture. As always, we request that reference to the biblical languages be included where relevant.
Call for papers: We invite any proposals for papers that address Biblical texts, themes, and figures using the concepts and interpretive tools of any field of psychology.
Additionally, we are inviting papers on the following themes:
THEME 1) Psychology and the Use of the Bible in New Religious Movements
In alternative, countercultural, or simply "new" religious movements, the Bible's interpretation and use as a connector to or break from established religious traditions is often a mirror for how individuals see themselves as beings transformed by inclusion within the group. We invite papers that address the psychological significance of the use of the Bible in such groups as the Latter-day Saints, the Jehovah's Witnesses, the Rastafaris, the Branch Davidians, and others.
THEME 2) Psychology and the Bible in Practice: Classroom, Clinic, Congregation, Community
Many of us have professional responsibilities wherein we talk about or teach the Bible to students, or treat clients with a Biblical faith background, or work the Bible in a religious setting, or engage with non-academics in some other fashion. We invite papers that address the ways in which having a psychological approach to Biblical literature and figures help us to do these jobs better and connect with people who may not share our interests or assumptions about these scriptures.
THEME 3) The Aha! of a Ha!: Psychological Insights into Biblical Humor
For most, the Bible is forthright and solemn, but a close yet humorous reading of a variety of scriptural passages and episodes yields a treasure trove of absurdist situations, double entendres, dark comedy, cutting satire, and deadpan putdowns. We invite papers that examine how the humor of the Bible -- both overt and veiled -- reveals the meaning of the psychological dynamics within the text and the psychological effect of the text on its readers.
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Q
Description: The Q Section offers a forum for research on the “Sayings Gospel” Q. Since Q provides access to earliest Jesus tradition and to the theology and social history of Jewish Christianity, the Q Section integrates a broad variety of issues and methods. The Q Section website is http://neues-testament.uni-graz.at/de/forschen/internationales-q-projekt/sbl-q-section.
Call for papers: For the 2007 meeting proposed papers should address one of the following three themes:
1. Q, the Synoptic Problem, and Compositional Issues.
The session discusses issues related to the use of documentary sources in the composition of the gospels.
2. Polemics in Q and in Ancient Christian Literature
The session invites papers dealing with Jewish-Christian and Gentile-Christian as well as intra-Christian polemics that have as their focus the canonical gospels and Q.
3. The Mark-Q Overlaps
Four colleagues are invited to read position papers on the topic that will then be discussed with the panel and in plenary session.
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Qumran
Description: The Qumran Section of the SBL provides an equal-opportunity forum for presentation and discussion of views relating to the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Qumran settlement, and the people of that place and of those documents. The Qumran Section has three goals: (1) It provides a forum for scholarly discussion of any aspect of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the material culture of Qumran, and the history, literature, and worldviews of the people associated with them. (2) It encourages new discussions and new approaches in the field of Dead Sea Scrolls studies. (3) It strives for integrating the study of the Dead Sea Scrolls with other fields of biblical and related studies.
Call for papers: The Qumran Section of the SBL provides an equal-opportunity forum for presentation and discussion of views relating to the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Qumran settlement, and the people of that place and of those documents. The Qumran Section has three goals: (1) It provides a forum for scholarly discussion of any aspect of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the material culture of Qumran, and the history, literature, and worldviews of the people associated with them. (2) It encourages new discussions and new approaches in the field of Dead Sea Scrolls studies. (3) It strives for integrating the study of the Dead Sea Scrolls with other fields of biblical and related studies.
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Qur'an and Biblical Literature
Description: Recent scholarship recognizes the need for dialogue and cooperation in understanding the relationship of the Bible and biblical literature to the Qur'an and Muslim exegesis. The aim of this unit is to encourage scholars to consider the importance of the Qur'an and Muslim exegesis for understanding the Bible and its interpretation, and vice-versa.
Call for papers: Recent scholarship recognizes the need for dialogue and cooperation in understanding the relationship of the Bible and biblical literature to the Qur'an and Muslim exegesis. The aim of this unit is to encourage scholars to consider the importance of the Qur'an and Muslim exegesis for understanding the Bible and its interpretation, and vice-versa.
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Reading, Theory, and the Bible
Description: The Reading, Theory, and the Bible Section provides a forum to encourage innovative and experimental approaches to biblical studies, to facilitate critical reflection on the role of theory in reading, and to support biblical scholarship informed by cross-disciplinary conversation.
Call for papers: Reading, Theory and the Bible plans to sponsor two sessions for the 2007 Annual Meeting. One session is open and proposals are welcome for papers that engage contemporary theory for purposes of biblical interpretation. A second session will include both invited and submitted papers that address the topic, “Biblical Studies and ‘the End of Theory.’” For the latter session, we especially encourage papers that engage contemporary arguments that the dominance of “high theory” has ended in the field of literary studies, so that the field is now in an “after theory” phase. What are the implications of this debate for the interface of biblical studies and literary studies?
Reading, Theory and the Bible sponsors innovative, experimental work on Bible (Bible being interpreted in the broadest sense to include all commentaries and intertexts). We exist to accommodate work that pushes the boundaries of scholarship, and we work on the assumption that questions of provenance, philology, and history are amply accomodated by other groups in the SBL. We also encourage innovative presentation.
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Recovering Female Interpreters of the Bible
Description: This unit focuses on the recovery of work by female biblical interpreters before the twentieth century who wrote from various faith and ideological standpoints. These female interpreters will be considered in their cultural and historical contexts, with the intention of analyzing their neglected contributions to the study of biblical literature.
Call for papers: Paper proposals are welcome on women writers who interpreted the Bible for either popular or academic audiences previous to the twentieth century. The woman addressed should be considered against the background of her ideological, cultural and historical contexts.
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Redescribing Christian Origins
Description: The Seminar contributes to the study of Christian origins by problematizing current consensus
views, unexamined assumptions, and categories. It recontextualizes and redescribes key data
through comparative analysis. It accounts for (i.e., explains) the production and continued
function of cultural artefacts (mainly texts but not entirely) in terms of social theory.
Call for papers: The Seminar contributes to the study of Christian origins by problematizing current consensus
views, unexamined assumptions, and categories. It recontextualizes and redescribes key data
through comparative analysis. It accounts for (i.e., explains) the production and continued
function of cultural artefacts (mainly texts but not entirely) in terms of social theory.
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Religious Experience in Antiquity
Description: This section investigates the experiential elements of religions from the ancient near east to late antiquity, with a particular interest in examining (1) the relationship between texts and experience, (2) religious practices in the context of ritual, prayer, ecstasy, dreams and visions, 3) the role of embodied experiences (cognitive, neurological, and sensory) in the generation of religious ideas and commitment.
Call for papers: The Religious Experience in Early Judaism and Early Christianity Consultation invites papers on ancient articulations of religious experience (broadly defined), especially those focusing on group expressions of religious experience, including but not limited to the following: texts from Qumran, Pauline communities, Gnosticism, liturgy and/or ritual, and socially constructed identities.
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Religious World of Late Antiquity
Description: A forum for scholars working comparatively and thematically in the period and regions in which Christianity, Judaism, Manichaeism, and Islam formed within a rich environment of other religious traditions, where norms of authority, belief, practice, and identity were contested and settled.
Call for papers: EMLA will hold two sessions in 2007: (1) Ceremonies and Their Spaces in late antiquity, covering landscape, city, cemetery/necropolis, shrines, and courts; and (2) The Craft of Memory in Late Antique Religions, looking at the way communal narratives presented at initiation, regular ceremony, or iconography allow individuals to embrace collective memory. EMLA sessions usually include respondents and emphasize thematic discussion involving the audience.
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Rethinking Plato's Parmenides and Its Platonic, Gnostic, and Patristic Reception
Description: The major object of this seminar is to assemble a multidisciplinary group of scholars for a deep and thorough study in a new way of the problematic reception of a major Platonic dialogue in biblically and non-biblically informed texts from the 4th cent. BC to the 5th cent. AD.
Call for papers: The final 2007 annual session of the SBL Seminar on "Rethinking Plato's Parmenides and its Platonic, Gnostic and Patristic Reception" will attempt to draw together the major issues dealt with by the 29 papers during the previous five sessions. In particular we seek papers summarizing the status quaestionis concerning the reception of Plato’s Parmenides in Middle and Neoplatonic (including the anonymous Parmenides commentary), Gnostic, and Patristic works. We also seek additional papers on the position of the Parmenides especially in the thought of Philo of Alexandria and the Church Fathers through the fourth century, as well as in the thought of post-Plotinian Neoplatonists. While the main papers are expected to be contributed by members of the Seminar, any interested persons are invited to present submit inquiries concerning membership in the seminar as well as paper proposals for the 2004 session to John Turner (jturner2@unl.edu) or Kevin Corrigan (kcorrig@emory.edu).
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Rethinking the Concept and Categories of 'Bible' in Antiquity
Description: This section is devoted to critical scrutiny of terminology and categories used in biblical studies for texts, such as ‘Bible,’ ‘rewritten Bible,’ ‘and canonical.’ We encourage (1) historical and ideological explorations into how texts were thought of in Israelite, Second Temple, and Early Christian periods, and (2) proposals for improving current conceptions and nomenclature.
Call for papers: This section is devoted to critical scrutiny of terminology and categories used in biblical studies for texts, such as ‘Bible,’ ‘rewritten Bible,’ ‘and canonical.’ We encourage (1) historical and ideological explorations into how texts were thought of in Israelite, Second Temple, and Early Christian periods, and (2) proposals for improving current conceptions and nomenclature.
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Rhetoric and Early Christianity
Description: This section has historically explored the continuously-evolving field of
rhetorical criticism of the New Testament in all its diversity. Marking a slight
shift in focus, 'Rhetoric and Early Christianity' will extend RNT's refined
critical lens to address a broader spectrum of source material.
Call for papers: In 2007 the Rhetoric and NT Section will hold 4 sessions. For the General Session, the Section invites proposals for papers that will use rhetorical criticism to interpret a New Testament text or to address broader issues pertaining to rhetorical criticism and the interpretation of the New Testament. (In addition to this Session, the Section will host 3 additional Sessions with previously solicited papers: (1) A session on the contribution of Wayne Booth's rhetorical analysis to the study of the Biblical text, with special attention to the New Testament and early Christian literature, (2) A discussion of Lynn Huber's “Like a Bride Adorned:” Reading Metaphor in John’s Apocalypse (Emory Studies in Early Christianity), and (3) a special session on the rhetoric of New Testament commentary.) For further information please contact the chair of the Rhetoric and New Testament Section: Prof. L. Gregory Bloomquist, Faculty of Theology, Saint Paul University, 223 Main St., Ottawa, ON K1S 1C4 CANADA. (p) 613-782-3027, (F) 772-365-4684, (E) gbloomquist@ustpaul.ca.
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Rhetoric of Religious Antiquity
Description: The Rhetoric of Religious Antiquity Seminar provides a forum for collegial work on the Rhetoric of Religious Antiquity Commentary Series, and for the public exploration of facets of sociorhetorical interpretation that promise to contribute to the work of biblical scholars not directly associated with the project.
Call for papers: The Rhetoric of Religious Antiquity Seminar provides a forum for collegial work on the Rhetoric of Religious Antiquity Commentary Series, and for the public exploration of facets of sociorhetorical interpretation that promise to contribute to the work of biblical scholars not directly associated with the project.
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Ritual in the Biblical World
Description: The Ritual in the Biblical World Section focuses on the nature, meaning and function of ritual found in textual sources (HB, NT, non-canonical) in the larger context of the material culture of the ancient world, employing insights and methods of the field of ritual theory and enthnography.
Call for papers: The Ritual in the Biblical World Section focuses on the nature, meaning and function of ritual found in textual sources (HB, NT, non-canonical) in the larger context of the material culture of the ancient world, employing insights and methods of the field of ritual theory and enthnography.
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Romans through History and Cultures
Description: Reception of Romans throughout the history of the church and today, in the East and the West, in the "first" and in the "two-thirds" world, by religious and secular readers. Special attention to the interface of these diverse readings and of contemporary critical interpretations.
Call for papers: The group invites paper proposals which focus on a) Orthodox Readings of Romans particularly in light of the Greek Fathers and b) Readings of Romans 'From Baur to Barth and Beyond'.
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Sacrifice, Cult, and Atonement
Description: The Sacrifice, Cult, and Atonement section is a forum for studying the practices, interpretations and reception history of sacrifice and cult in the Hebrew Bible, Ancient Judaism, Christianity, and their larger cultural contexts (ANE, Greco-Roman religion). Methodological perspectives include – but are not limited to – historical criticism, tradition history, comparative and literary approaches, ritual theory, and sociological analysis.
Call for papers: At the 2008 Annual Conference the Sacrifice, Cult, and Atonement consultation will offer two sessions. The first is entitled: "Sacrificial Discourse in Ancient Texts and Cultures," the second: "Sacrificial Concepts in Judaism and Early Christianity." Four papers will be presented for each session followed by a five-minute discussion each, and a general discussion panel is to conclude each session.
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Scripture as Artifact
Description: Scriptures are not simply texts: their artifactual qualities, most obvious in ritual contexts, permeate
the more “mundane” reading, handling, and storage of scripture. The role of scripture as artifact
might even considerably influence what people think of scripture as text. This consultation provides
a forum in which scholars can compare uses of scripture as artifact and text in various religious traditions
for the purpose of working out an empirically based theory of the social and psychological
processes underlying scriptural practice.
Call for papers: Theme: Patterns in the use of texts as artifacts.
Books are not only texts, but objects, and sometimes their use turns more on their artifactual than their textual properties. In this session we invite papers that examine patterns in the use of texts as artifacts, with an eye toward developing one or more theories of such use. Comparative, empirical papers are particularly welcome.
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Scripture in Early Judaism and Christianity
Description: The purpose of the Scripture in Early Judaism and Christianity Section is to provide a context in which new scholarship on intertextuality and early biblical interpretation can be presented and critically evaluated. Specifically, the section is devoted to examining how the Hebrew Bible was used and interpreted in the literature of early Judaism (including rabbinic literature) and early Christianity (to ca. 400 CE) and to considering methodological issues associated with this task.
Call for papers: At least one session will be a joint session with the Book of Psalms Section, devoted to papers addressing the function or interpretation of a Psalm or set of Psalms in early Jewish or Christian literature.
Proposals for papers on other aspects of the interpretation and intertextual usage of Hebrew scripture in early Judaism and Christianity are also welcome.
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Semiotics and Exegesis
Description: This section offers a forum (1) for exploring the nature and significance of semiotic theories for the reading and interpretation of biblical texts (Hebrew and Christian scriptures) and (2) for examining the ways various methods dependent upon such theories of meaning production and communication contribute, in conjunction with other critical approaches, to the critical conversation about biblical hermeneutics, textual interpretation and contextual understanding.
Call for papers: This section offers a forum (1) for exploring the nature and significance of semiotic theories for the reading and interpretation of biblical texts (Hebrew and Christian scriptures) and (2) for examining the ways various methods dependent upon such theories of meaning production and communication contribute, in conjunction with other critical approaches, to the critical conversation about biblical hermeneutics, textual interpretation and contextual understanding. This is an open call for papers on any topic which relates the discipline of semiotics (broadly and pluralistically conceived) and scripture studies, biblical exegesis, artistic presentations of biblical stories or themes, or texts as cultural signs. Please send an abstract (100 words) and a 2-3 page description/summary of the proposed paper.
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Signifying (on) Scriptures
Description: In connection with the Claremont Graduate University-based Institute for Signifying Scriptures, this program unit aims to facilitate multi-field and multi-disciplinary conversation about and collaborative research into “scriptures” as a complex comparative social-cultural phenomenon. Shorthand for much more than “text,” “scriptures” here refers to social-cultural practices, rituals, performances and ideologies that have to do with the making and engagement of “texts” (and other objects and artifacts) that are accorded status in society and culture. Although encompassing many if not all of the critical-interpretive practices of the arts, humanities and social sciences, “signifying” here reflects modes of engagement and criticism associated with the margins, that is, historically dominated peoples, and so necessarily involves the excavation and analysis of the social psychology and power dynamics having to do with “scriptures.”
Call for papers:
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Social History of Formative Christianity and Judaism
Description: This section is dedicated to a study of formative Christianity and formative Judaism utilizing a broad methodological perspective that places an emphasis on interpreting the data within specific social, cultural, and linguistic contexts. We function as a clearinghouse for developments in social historical methodology and perspectives for our period. (previously Social History of Early Christianity)
Call for papers: We invite proposals for: 1) Strategies for engaging global fundamentalisms; 2) Perspectives on torture; 3) Constructions of masculinity; 4)Vows, oaths, contracts, and curses; 5)open call:
1) For a session on “Engaging Global Fundamentalisms” we invite presentations by scholars actively grappling with questions of social responsibility in teaching and scholarship on formative Christianity and Judaism. Issues might include: who decides how religious subjects are taught in public and private institutions? What role(s) should academic religious studies play in civil society? How can our work effectively address the challenges of religious fundamentalisms? Comparative perspectives or presentations that model strategies of engagement are especially welcome.
2) For a joint session with the “Violence and Representations of Violence” Section, we invite papers that explore early Jewish and Christian perspectives on torture. Papers may investigate such topics as martyrdom, corporal or capital punishment, war and the treatment of prisoners, rape, or visions of eternal torment. We especially seek papers that consider ancient texts in connection with: a) present-day global politics, b) the relationship between literary accounts and material culture and practices, and/or c) methodological challenges of treating the topic of torture.
3) For a joint session with AAR “Men’s Studies in Religion” Group, we invite papers that investigate the social constructions of men, masculinity, and maleness in the context of formative Christianity and Judaism. We are particularly interested in papers that consider these concepts in intersection with analysis of race, ethnicity, class, social status, and religion.
4) For a joint session with AAR “Study of Judaism” Section we invite papers that examine the formulations and functions of vows, oaths, contracts, and/or curses (especially as involved in negotiation of identities) in the period of formative Judaism and Christianity.
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Social Sciences and the Interpretation of the Hebrew Scriptures
Description: This quintessentially interdisciplinary unit combines the skills that are unique to classic biblical scholarship with exciting and vibrant conversations and developments from disciplines in the social sciences, including anthropology, sociology, psychology, and political science.
Call for papers: This quintessentially interdisciplinary unit combines the skills that are unique to classic biblical scholarship with exciting and vibrant conversations and developments from disciplines in the social sciences, including anthropology, sociology, psychology, and political science.
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Social Scientific Criticism of the New Testament
Description: The Social Scientific Criticism of the New Testament Section program encourages the self-conscious employment of recognized models, methods, or theories of the social sciences in order to contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of the texts and social world of the New Testament.
Call for papers: The Social Scientific Criticism of the New Testament Section program encourages the self-conscious employment of recognized models, methods, or theories of the social sciences in order to contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of the texts and social world of the New Testament. One session, consisting of invited papers and responses, will be devoted to reexamining the honor/shame interpretive model. The other session is open and invites papers that examine the texts and social world of the New Testament and early Christianity from a social-scientific perspective.
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Society for Pentecostal Studies
Description: The Society for Pentecostal Studies began in 1970 and is an organization of scholars dedicated to providing a forum of discussion for all academic disciplines as a spiritual service to the kingdom of God. The purpose of the society is to stimulate, encourage, recognize, and publicize the work of Pentecostal and charismatic scholars; to study the implications of Pentecostal theology in relation to other academic disciplines, seeking a Pentecostal world-and-life view; and to support fully, to the extent appropriate for an academic society, the statement of purposes of the World Pentecostal Fellowship. http://www.sps-usa.org/
Call for papers: The Society for Pentecostal Studies began in 1970 and is an organization of scholars dedicated to providing a forum of discussion for all academic disciplines as a spiritual service to the kingdom of God. The purpose of the society is to stimulate, encourage, recognize, and publicize the work of Pentecostal and charismatic scholars; to study the implications of Pentecostal theology in relation to other academic disciplines, seeking a Pentecostal world-and-life view; and to support fully, to the extent appropriate for an academic society, the statement of purposes of the World Pentecostal Fellowship. http://www.sps-usa.org/
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Space, Place, and Lived Experience in Antiquity
Description: This unit seeks to engage diverse methodological and theoretical perspectives on social practices in antiquity as mediated through place or larger spatial frameworks. Presentations exploring the creation, use, or understanding of space or place through material remains and/or texts are welcome.
Call for papers: Two sessions are planned for 2007. One session is being organized with Jonathan Z. Smith. The second session is an open session, for which we welcome all proposals addressing the topics of this unit.
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Synoptic Gospels
Description: The Synoptic Gospels as a unit plays an important role in modern scholarship, including, but not limited to, generating debate about the relationships among the gospels. This section provides a forum for the discussion of papers from a variety of theoretical perspectives and critical methods on the content and formation of the Synoptic Gospels and what they reveal about the contexts of their composition.
Call for papers: The Synoptic Gospels Section invites paper proposals for one open session. In addition, the Section will devote a second open session to the topic, "Disputed Characters in the Synoptic Tradition." We invite papers devoted to the analysis of characters who have evoked diverse and conflicting interpretations. The Section welcomes a variety of methodological and theoretical approaches. Proposals should include consideration of what is at stake in the conflicting interpretations of the character(s) in question.
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Teaching Biblical Studies in an Undergraduate Liberal Arts Context
Description: This unit addresses the unique opportunities and challenges of teaching
biblical studies in undergraduate liberal arts institutions. Sessions promote
the sharing and evaluation of pedagogical objectives, strategies, and
assessment tools, cultivate professional networks, and lead to published
results.
Call for papers: This consultation is planning to have two sessions in 2007: One on Liberal Arts goals and one on the millennial generation. Please identify the session for which you are applying.
Session 1: According to Carol M. Barker in “Liberal Arts Education for a Global Society,” the search for coherence and meaning should not be purchased at the price of continuing inquiry. New knowledge and understanding starts with the questioning of old truths and assumptions, not only in science but in all fields. A new vision must include new perspectives and voices, even if they are disturbing ones.” (http://www.carnegie.org/sub/pubs/libarts.pdf) Teachers of Biblical Studies in Liberal Arts Colleges are not strangers to questioning old truths and looking for new perspectives. We invite paper proposals that analyze, reflect on, and exemplify these (and possibly other) liberal arts goals in regard to the teaching of biblical studies in the LA context. In the session, we will have three 15-minute “discussion-starter” papers and follow with a collective sharing of ideas.
Session 2: As we get older, our students get younger.(sigh) We now face a whole new group, called the Millennial Generation (http://www.uwsp.edu/education/facets/links_resources/Millennial%20Specifics.pdf), who have a very different way of approaching the world than their older cohorts. They present new challenges for teachers of Biblical Literature in the Undergraduate Liberal Arts College. We invite paper proposals that critically discuss the notion of “generational” needs, learning styles, and teaching styles as it relates to biblical studies in LA undergraduate education. In the session, we will have three 15-minute “discussion-starter” papers and follow with a collective sharing of ideas.
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Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible
Description: The Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible section concerns itself with the origin and nature of all forms of the biblical text. The discipline involves the comparison of data from the various witnesses to the biblical text (Masoretic text, Septuagint, Dead Sea Scrolls, etc.), and the evaluation of that data.
Call for papers: The Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible section concerns itself with the origin and nature of all forms of the biblical text. The discipline involves the comparison of data from the various witnesses to the biblical text (Masoretic text, Septuagint, Dead Sea Scrolls, etc.), and the evaluation of that data.
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The Bible in Ancient (and Modern) Media
Description: The Bible in Ancient (and Modern) Media Section provides opportunities to analyze the relationship between the original media world of Jewish and Christian communities and the functions and interpretations of biblical (and related) texts. Approaches using modern media must emphasize how the approach significantly influences the understanding of biblical literature in its ancient context.
Call for papers: The Bible in Ancient and Modern Media Section invites papers that explore biblical material in media other than silent print, including oral, electronic, and various multimedia performances. This may include the original media world of the Scriptures, the Bible in electronic media, the history of the Bible in various media, or consideration of the interpretive gains and losses that come with translation from medium to medium.
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Theological Interpretation of Scripture
Description: This seminar explores the hermeneutical innovations and theological implications that ensue when critical biblical interpretation is conducted within diverse confessional communities, especially, but not only, those of the Christian tradition. It is this complex exploration itself that amounts to what may be called theological interpretation, an approach to biblical interpretation that gives particular attention to (1) the relationship between theological and other approaches to biblical studies, including historical criticism; (2) the significance and the challenges of expanding the contexts of biblical interpretation to include canon, creed, community, and constructive theology; (3) the relationship between biblical studies and systematic theology, practical theology, and philosophical theology; (4) the impact of theological convictions and religious practices (both traditional and contemporary) on biblical interpretation, and of theological interpretation on religious and academic communities; and (5) the actual theological interpretation of biblical texts. (Formerly Theological Hermeneutics of Christian Scripture)
Call for papers: Proposals for papers on the theme "Reading the Book of Genesis Theologically as Christian Scripture" are welcome -- particularly those that engage theologically a particular text in Genesis, address the book as a whole from the perspective of theological hermeneutics, or explore the use of Genesis or Genesis texts by early Christian writers.
Papers are being invited for sessions on "Theological Interpretation and the Canon of Scripture" and "Christ in/and the Old Testament."
Persons interested in announcements regarding the work of the Group should contact the program unit chair (joel_green@asburyseminary.edu).
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Theology of the Hebrew Scriptures
Description: The purpose of the Theology of Hebrew Scriptures section is to promote sustained reflection, dialogue, and research on the various theological ideas, themes, and motifs that are found throughout the Hebrew Bible. It seeks to facilitate Jewish-Christian dialogue, creating a venue where Jewish and Christian interpreters can reflect together on a theological interpretation of the Hebrew Scriptures.
Call for papers: We will be running three sessions in 2007. We invite papers to the open session of Theology of Hebrew Scriptures on the theme of Liberation Theology: How Far Have We Come? We would like to
consider the following questions: What is currently the status of liberation theology in the overall field of Theology of Hebrew Scriptures? Are there new instances in which liberation theology is particularly called for? The second session is on the topic: Theology and Trauma. Participants for this session are by invitation only. A third session will present a review panel on Dr. Joel Kaminsky's new book entitled "Yet I loved Jacob: Reclaiming the biblical concept of election" (Abingdon, 2007).
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Transmission of Traditions in the Second Temple Period
Description: The unit will concentrate on the transmission of traditions particularly in the Second Temple period. It will focus on both transmission processes themselves and the practical mechanics employed in such processes. While literary evidence is central to this investigation, physical manuscripts, other material artefacts, iconography, and traces of oral transmission processes will be factored into the discussion whenever possible. In the textual evidence particular emphasis will be placed on texts in which two or more empirically attested versions of the same story (or book) differ considerably. All such cases in the different available corpora from the general time period will be taken into consideration.
Call for papers: We are not accepting papers for the 2008 session, but are accepting proposals for 2009.
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Ugaritic Studies and Northwest Semitic Epigraphy
Description: Our purpose is to foster the academic study of ancient Ugarit, the associated cuneiform alphabetic texts, and ancient Northwest Semitic epigraphic texts, especially in order to explore areas of commonality between these fields of study and Biblical literature.
Call for papers: Our purpose is to foster the academic study of ancient Ugarit, the associated cuneiform alphabetic texts, and ancient Northwest Semitic epigraphic texts, especially in order to explore areas of commonality between these fields of study and Biblical literature.
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Use, Influence, and Impact of the Bible
Description: This program unit explores how the Bible has been used and/or influential in the way it has been received in society. The focus is upon the reception of the text in contexts other than a narrow critical-academic one.
Call for papers: This consultation explores the use and impact of biblical texts. We seek papers that show, either by specific example or wider-ranging theory, how the biblical text has either been influential in bringing about certain actions and/or beliefs or else how the text has been used retrospectively to explain actions and/or beliefs that have been adopted for other reasons. Papers should be concerned with the reception of the text in contexts other than a narrowly academic one. For 2007 papers that explore the use of texts in shaping public policy would be particularly welcome as would papers that explore the use and/or influence of the Bible in Middle Eastern politics. However, all papers that relate very specifically to the biblical text's use and influence (rather than simple reception) will be considered very carefully.
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Violence and Representations of Violence in Antiquity
Description: This section promotes a robust discussion of violence and its representations in the ancient world. Papers utilize a variety of approaches and theoretical tools to consider what constitutes violence, seeking to advance knowledge about power and its effects in antiquity while also providing analogical materials for thinking about contemporary manifestations of religiously inflected violence.
Call for papers: 1) Open call 2) Joint session with the Social History of Formative Christianity and Judaism Section on "Early Jewish and Christian Perspectives on Torture." We invite papers that explore early Jewish and Christian perspectives on torture. Papers may explore such topics as martyrdom, corporal or
capital punishment, war and the treatment of prisoners, rape, or visions of eternal torment. We especially seek papers that consider ancient texts in connection with one or more of the following: a) present-day global politics, b) the relationship between literary accounts and material culture and practices, and c) the methodological challenges of treating the topic of torture. Please submit proposals to chairs of both sections.
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Warfare in Ancient Israel
Description: This section will 1) explore and develop new and ongoing areas of inquiry regarding texts, practices, experiences, and ideology concerning warfare in ancient Israel and the ancient Near East; 2) offer analyses of specific issues associated with warfare in ancient Israel and sketches of programmatic approaches to the study of warfare in general; 3) assess the significance of the history of scholarship on warfare in ancient Israel; and 4) establish a collaborative and incremental investigation of various dimensions of warfare in ancient Israel and the Hebrew Bible that moves toward the production of a comprehensive reference work.
Call for papers: The Warfare in Ancient Israel section will sponsor two sessions in 2007: 1) an open session (accepting papers), and 2) a session of invited papers (not accepting papers). For the open session: The Warfare in Ancient Israel Section invites twenty-five minute papers. Papers may explore any topic related to the study of warfare in ancient Israel, the biblical literature, or other relevant traditions. A variety of methodological and theological approaches are welcome, and papers that make use of interdisciplinary perspectives from outside biblical studies are especially desirable. Those interested in the production of a volume on the study of warfare are invited to stay for a fifteen-minute business meeting at the close of the open session. For more information, contact Brad E. Kelle (bradkelle@pointloma.edu).
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Wisdom and Apocalypticism
Description: We support work on Jewish & Christian sapiential & apocalyptic texts,
ideas, and their interplay, committed to inquiry into both production &
circulation and to grounding analysis in social-historical locations, as
relates to knowledge production, economy, gender & sexuality, and race &
ethnicity.
Call for papers: We support work on Jewish & Christian sapiential & apocalyptic texts,
ideas, and their interplay, committed to inquiry into both production &
circulation and to grounding analysis in social-historical locations, as
relates to knowledge production, economy, gender & sexuality, and race &
ethnicity.
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Wisdom in Israelite and Cognate Traditions
Description: The Wisdom Section seeks to provide a forum for the exploration of new ideas in the study of Israelite and cognate conceptions of wisdom, focusing on wisdom in the Hebrew Bible and Deuterocanon along with related literature from elsewhere in the ancient Near East.
Call for papers: The Wisdom unit seeks to provide a forum for the exploration of new ideas in the study of Wisdom Literature. The primary focus is on Biblical wisdom - Proverbs, Job, Qoheleth, and the Wisdom Psalms, as well as Ben Sira and Wisdom of Solomon. Secondary focus is on wisdom literature from elsewhere in the Ancient Near East, insofar as these bear on biblical wisdom.
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Women in the Biblical World
Description: This section explores the multifaceted lives of women in the biblical period. It is a forum for inquiry into literary and material culture, including biblical and extra-biblical texts, the history of their interpretation, and the relevant cultural milieu.
Call for papers: 1. Open Session: The Women in the Biblical World Section invites proposals for an open session.
2. An Invited Panel on the work of Tikva Frymer-Kensky held jointly with the Biblical Law Section.
3. Papers are invited for a session devoted to female biblical prophets and the history of interpretation of female prophets.
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Writing/Reading Jeremiah
Description: The Writing/Reading Jeremiah group invites new readings and constructions of meaning with the book of Jeremiah "this side" of historicist paradigms and postmodernism. We welcome all strategies of reading Jeremiah that seek to reconfigure, redeploy, and move beyond conventional readings of Jeremiah. Our manifesto: not by compositional history alone, nor biographical portrayal alone, nor their accompanying theological superstructures; rather, we seek interpretation from new spaces opened for reading Jeremiah by the postmodern turn.
Call for papers: The Writing/Reading Jeremiah group invites new readings and constructions of meaning with the book of Jeremiah "this side" of historicist paradigms and postmodernism. We welcome all strategies of reading Jeremiah that seek to reconfigure, redeploy, and move beyond conventional readings of Jeremiah. Our manifesto: not by compositional history alone, nor biographical portrayal alone, nor their accompanying theological superstructures; rather, we seek interpretation from new spaces opened for reading Jeremiah by the postmodern turn.
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Call for papers: This is an example call for papers so you can see where it would appear.
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