Contextual Biblical Interpretation

Call For Papers: We welcome papers that examine biblical texts or methodology while explicitly engaging a reader’s contemporary context. (1) An open session invites papers that explore how LGBTQIA+ contextualized readings are being used to foster community engagement and activism. This includes LGBTQIA+ bible studies and community textual readings, activist engagements with texts, uses of contextualized readings to respond to violence and trauma experienced by LGBTQIA+ communities, the use of texts in broader activist contexts, etc. (2) A joint session with Ecological Hermeneutics, “Land and Home as Threatened,” welcomes proposals on ecologically oriented, contextually informed interpretations rooted in the impact on human, plant and animal habitat (“home”) of matters such as residence, migration/immigration (broader than occupation), along with the structures, human and natural, that drive these movements, and contemporary threats, such as “climate change,” “natural” disasters, or power/economic interests.  Of particular interest are the ways texts are used to resist or validate destruction and violence against parts of creation, both human and non-human. (3) An open session exploring “unexamined contexts” - those contexts taken for granted even when readers try to make explicit their contemporary contexts. We are particularly interested in intersectional aspects of interpreter’s contexts and how they navigate them in interpretations. How are gender expression, sexuality, race/ethnicity, white privilege, socio-economic status, geographic location, political position, etc. present in interpretations and where are certain contexts erased? Why is there resistance to contextualizing these contexts? What are the pitfalls of doing intersectional contextuality? How might our (lack of) response to hidden contexts expand/limit scholarship? (4) We join other program units in a "Talk with the President” session. See Asian and Asian American Hermeneutics Call for Papers for more information.

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