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Meeting Program Units

2023 Annual Meeting

San Antonio, Texas

Meeting Begins11/18/2023
Meeting Ends11/21/2023

Call for Papers Opens: 1/23/2023
Call for Papers Closes: 3/14/2023

Requirements for Participation

Contextual Biblical Interpretation


Program Unit Type: Section
Accepting Papers? Yes

Call For Papers: We welcome papers that examine biblical texts or methodology while explicitly engaging a reader’s contemporary context. (1) For the first session, we welcome papers focused on the theme of LGBTQIA+ Activism and the Bible. Papers should examine the ways in which contextualized biblical interpretation can address increasing global trans/homophobia and offer spaces for promoting queer rights. (2) The second session invites papers exploring the global rise of religious nationalism. Papers may examine the use of the bible or biblical interpretations used to promote religious nationalism or efforts to address nationalism in a particular context or community. (3) The third session, a co-sponsored panel is in honor of the life and work of Delores Williams as we discuss the issues of surrogacy, whether sexual, political, or theological, in any aspect of the study of communities in the biblical text. In the papers, special attention will be given to contemporary communities. Recognizing that reproductive justice is an issue in today’s society, this session invites papers that interrogate biblical texts, surrogacy, sexuality, and reproductive justice in ancient and contemporary politics. We welcome proposals for papers that engage exploration of the biblical mothering figures and the inherent ideas of survival and defiance that may (or may not) have resided in biblical communities while imaging theological constructions for contemporary communities. (4) We invite abstracts for panelists for a co-sponsored panel on the topic of reproductive justice and its intersection with the Bible in light of Dobbs v. Jackson and global conversations. Each panelist will present a 12-15 minute paper followed by a roundtable discussion. Papers should address an aspect of reproductive justice from perspectives such as critical race theory, activism, contextual location, etc. and its intersection with the Bible. Papers that discuss specific texts balanced with societal application are preferred.

Program Unit Chairs

Karri Whipple Alldredge
Laura Jean Torgerson

Propose a Paper for this Program Unit

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

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

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