Paul and Politics

Call For Papers: The Paul and Politics Section proposes four sessions at the 2019 Annual Meeting in San Diego. All four sessions are open for paper proposals. The FIRST SESSION invites papers that interrogate the Pauline texts, surrogacy, sexuality, and reproductive justice in ancient and contemporary politics, recognizing that reproductive justice is an issue in today’s society. We welcome proposals for papers that engage Pauline exploration of the biblical mothering figures and the inherent ideas of survival and defiance that may (or may not) have resided in the Pauline communities while imaging theological constructions for contemporary communities. The SECOND SESSION, co-sponsored with the Archaeology of Religion in the Roman World Section, will present a session on “Religion, Slavery, and Material Culture.” We seek papers that address religion, slavery, manumission, and material culture in the Roman world with a special interest in the material culture of enslaved and freed persons in the contexts of early Jewish and Christian communities. Michael Flexsenhar, author of Christians in Caesar’s Household (forthcoming, 2019), will respond to the panel. The THIRD SESSION will be an open call session on the theme of Paul and Diaspora. This session welcomes papers that explore the ways in which Paul, Paul’s letters, and/or Paul’s communities were ‘diasporic.’ How did the experience of migrating or of being dispersed from an established homeland shape Paul’s rhetoric, theology, and his teaching? Additionally, papers might also examine how the Pauline material could speak to current issues of transnational identity, migration/ border crossing, and ethnic enclaves. The FOURTH SESSION is an open session inviting proposals for papers on any element of research related to the relationship(s) between "Paul" and "politics" (in the broadest sense of both of these terms).

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