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2010 Annual Meeting
Meeting Begins: 11/20/2010
Meeting Ends: 11/23/2010
Call for Papers Opens: 12/15/2009
Call for Papers Closes: 3/1/2010
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 Section is interested in papers and presentations in two areas:
1) A Workshop on Interactive Teaching and Learning Technologies
Web 2.0 is the label applied to a raft of new technologies that encourage user-generated content and collaboration. If Web 1.0 was akin to a lecture (with one person addressing their audience), web 2.0 is akin to a discussion. This session will be a workshop exploring how these technologies (wikis, discussion boards, Blackboard/Moodle, Skype, etc.) can be used to facilitate student learning. Rather than formal papers, this workshop will allow those experienced in web 2.0 technologies to help other SBL members explore them. Everyone will BYOL (Bring your own Laptop) and facilitators will lead small group discussions and hands-on training.
If you would be interested in presenting / facilitating discussion of a particular piece of technology, please explain how you use some Web 2.0 technology to enhance student learning in your classes.
2) We are soliciting papers or presentations on the theme “Applications of Teaching and Learning Philosophies.” Please consider answering in your paper or presentation the following questions: What is your philosophy of teaching (what is the role of the teacher)? What is your philosophy of learning (what is the role of the learner)? How have your applied your philosophy of teaching and learning in the classroom (or other teaching and learning settings)? What were the results? What are the best practices you have discovered for applying your philosophy of teaching and learning? How has your philosophy of teaching and learning evolved over your career?
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Academy of Homiletics
Description: The Academy of Homiletics, founded in 1965, is a professional guild for teachers of preaching. Our mission is to further the academic discipline of homiletics and to promote scholarship and pedagogy in the field. The Academy brings together professors and teachers of homiletics for research and study of preaching in theological education, for critical reflection on methods and innovations, and for fostering interdisciplinary research with other related areas and disciplines.
Membership in the Academy is open to teachers and doctoral students of homiletics. The
Academy has a membership of approximately 400 colleagues. Although we originated and meet primarily in North America, our membership is international. In addition to our annual meeting, in which we present papers (generated by an annual call for papers on the respective conference theme) in nine work groups organized around particular streams of study in the field, conduct plenary sessions with keynote lectures/addresses/panels, and gather for worship services, the Academy also sponsors the juried, peer-reviewed academic journal, Homiletic. For a full overview of our Academy, we invite you to review our website, www.homiletics.org.
Call for papers: The “Call to Preach” is riddled by Scripture, riddled with theology, and to be sure riddles our preaching. One’s theology of preaching is often expressed through a theology of call. Divine inspiration and divine sanction raise critical questions about call narratives in Scripture. The voice of the pulpit claims authority in the Church for devotional lives of personal faith and public lives of moral action or social justice. At times, distorted notions of call mark tragic theological and social barriers to pulpit access. Who is allowed to preach? What is allowed in preaching? How? Homiletic methodology and pedagogy wrestle no less with these same dynamics from The Call to Preach. Both our students’ embrace and passive resistance to the tasks of learning homiletics in our classrooms revolve often around sacred appeals to call. The anguish over sermon critique consistently reveals distress to call narratives and divine activity. And yet the in-breaking mystery of revelation in preaching, even with all of our inadequacies, abuses, or frailty, is somehow illumined by the mystery of call. This year’s conference theme and “call” for papers offer no fewer challenges and opportunities to learn, explore, and press our scholarship. We welcome your paper submission to one of the nine available workgroups.
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Adventist Society for Religious Studies
Description: The Adventist Society for Religious Studies (ASRS) is a Seventh-day Adventist academic society of Bible and religion scholars whose purpose is “to provide intellectual and social fellowship among its members and encourage scholarly pursuits in all religious studies disciplines, particularly with reference to the Seventh-day Adventist tradition.” It was formally organized in New York City in 1979. The Society organizes an annual meeting in conjunction with the American Academy of Religion (AAR) and Society of Biblical Literature (SBL) professional meetings held in different cities throughout the United States each year. It also publishes (currently via CD-ROM, and in due course on-line) the proceedings and papers from such meetings.
Call for papers: The theme for the 2010 meeting of the Adventist Society for Religious Studies will be: “The Rest is Easy: The Sabbath in Adventist Theology and Practice.” This meeting will convene in Atlanta, Georgia on November 18-20, 2010. The Society invites proposals for brief scholarly papers which will be presented at the meeting. Priority will be given to those papers which discuss any aspect of Sabbath theology or observance in the Seventh-day Adventist context. Topic may include (but are not limited to) consideration of the historical development of Sabbath observance among Adventists, Adventist apologetics and polemics relative to the Sabbath, Adventist views on Sunday-keeping and eschatological views related to the Sabbath, as well as discussion of the varied practice of Sabbath observance in the Adventist community. Papers from all disciplines are elicited. The format allows for a 15-minute oral presentation with additional time for questions and discussion. A 200-word abstract should accompany the proposals. Proposals and abstracts should be submitted in WordPerfect or MS Word format to Donn Leatherman at by February 15, 2010. For further information, please contact Donn Leatherman at the email address given above, or at:
The School of Religion
Southern Adventist University
Post Office Box 370
Collegedale, TN, 37315
423-236-2979
423-236-1976
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African Association for the Study of Religions
Description: The African Association for the Study of Religions is an academic association of the scholars of religions posted in universities in Africa, and of scholars of the religions of Africa posted in universities outside Africa. It was founded at an IAHR (International Association for the History of Religions) conference in Harare, Zimbabwe, in September 1992 for the purpose of promoting the academic study of the religions of Africa more generally through the international collaboration of all scholars whose research has a bearing on the subject. The AASR seeks to stimulate the academic study of religions of Africa in a variety of ways: providing a forum for multilateral communications between scholars of African religions; facilitating the exchange of resources and information; encouraging the development of linkages and research contacts between scholars and institutions in Africa, and between scholars in Africa and those overseas. The AASR also endeavors to assist scholars to publish their work and travel to professional meetings. The AASR is an affiliate of the IAHR since 1995. It meets at the IAHR quinquennial congress and organizes conferences in Africa. Its members participate in panels at conferences outside of Africa. The AASR publishes the bi-annual AASR Bulletin and maintains a web site: www.a-asr.org. AASR plans for an online journal are at an advanced stage.
Call for papers: Information on the call for papers for the African Association for the Study of Religion will appear early January 2010.
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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: 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.
Session 1
Any paper on topics related to African Biblical Hermeneutics are welcome for this session. Papers dealing with cultural, colonial, post-colonial, liberationist, feminist, and other readings are welcome.
Session 2
This session, co-sponsored by Wabash Center, will be focused on the findings from a Wabash Grant project entitled Teaching Exegesis in Historically Black Theological Schools (HBTS) awarded to Shaw University in 2007.
Select panelists made up of the participants in the Grant, will make presentations reflecting on their teaching practices and how they may have been affected by the grant findings. The principle grantees, James Ashmore and Andrew Mbuvi will respond.
Session 3
Following the publication of The Africana Bible (Fortress, 2009), and The African Bible Commentary (Zondervan, 2006), this session is interested in papers that either critically interact with the content of the two books, or explore their impact in teaching Bible in colleges, and Seminaries in Africa and the African Diaspora, or how the landscape of biblical hermeneutics is expected to be shaped by such publications, etc. And given the interest in joint and collaborative efforts between Africana biblical scholars, where do we go from here?
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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: The African American Biblical Hermeneutics Program Unit issues an open invitation for any papers that address the objectives of this unit, i.e. to engage in interdisciplinary and holistic study of the Bible and its place in a multi-faceted and complex African American cultural worldview. Such papers should interpret biblical texts in light of various Africana reading strategies and/or explore the biblical texts through lenses of Africana art, music, poetry, literature, etc.
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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: The section will be celebrating its 20th anniversary at the 2010 Annual Meeting with a session, entitled "Past and Future," that seeks to understand the significance of the work associated with the group and looks forward to questions and challenges that lie ahead. A second session will be devoted to a panel discussion of the recent books by Richard Pervo and Judith Perkins. We welcome proposals for third, open session.
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Ancient Near Eastern Iconography and the Bible
Description: This section examines the ways that ancient pictorial material informs interpretations of biblical texts. We welcome papers that explore the relationships between iconographic and textual materials as well as papers that deal exclusively with iconographic issues.
Call for papers: For our first session, we welcome papers on the full range of iconographic exegesis.
The second session will focus on the theme "Communicating and Educating through Ancient Near Eastern Images." For this session, we encourage papers that treat technical and pedagogical issues regarding the use of images, as well as the hermeneutics of images. Papers that include case studies are particularly appropriate.
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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 directly or indirectly with the churches of the Anglican Communion, including the Episcopal Church in the U.S., the Anglican Church of Canada, the Church of England, The Anglican Church of Australia, and The Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand & Polynesia, The Church of the Province of Central Africa, and others. The association's purpose is to foster greater involvement of biblical scholars in the life of Anglican churches, and to promote the development of resources for biblical studies in Anglican theological education.
The 2010 annual meeting in Atlanta, GA, USA, will focus on Anglican Traditions of Biblical Interpretation across the globe and through history. We will have some invited presenters, but we are also seeking proposals that explore particular figures, trends, or themes in the biblical interpretation across the Anglican Communion. There is no expectation of uniformity among the papers, and so we encourage papers that reflect the diversity of Anglican interpretation as well as those that explore consistency. Authors who have not presented at conferences in the past may be asked to submit a full manuscript.
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Applied Linguistics for Biblical Languages
Description: The Applied Linguistics for Biblical Languages Group seeks to explore and address the many issues involved in adding oral-aural considerations to the study of the biblical languages. These issues include listening-speaking pedagogy, developing second-language internalized proficiency amongst scholars, affirmative impact on the students, teacher training, distance education, measuring the efficiency of training programs, and stimulating auxiliary projects that arise like improving dictionaries and grammars for new pedagogical contexts.
Call for papers: The Applied Linguistics for Biblical Languages Group seeks to explore and address the many issues involved in adding oral-aural considerations to the study of the biblical languages. These issues include listening-speaking pedagogy, developing second-language internalized proficiency amongst scholars, affirmative impact on the students, teacher training, distance education, measuring the efficiency of training programs, and stimulating auxiliary projects that arise like improving dictionaries and grammars for new pedagogical contexts.
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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: This is an open call for papers on any of the various aspects of Aramaic language, including but not limited to aspects of the Targumim, Qumran Aramaic, Peshitta, Samaritan papyri, and Elephantine Aramaic. Papers may address linguistic, textual, and/or exegetical concerns.
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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 excavated material culture 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 one session we invite paper proposals that provide reports on recent excavations related to the biblical world. For our second session, we invite papers that explore the intersection of texts and artifacts from the Iron Age through the Roman period.
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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 of Religion in the Roman World Section invites paper proposals on the following topics.
1) Reading Sacred Landscapes. A joint session with the Space, Place, and Lived Experience in Antiquity Section that initiates a series of meetings exploring the intersection of realia and theory. This year's themes include the discovery and/or articulation of the sacred in natural settings, the physical bearings and religious experiences of rural sanctuaries, and the creation and recreation of sacred landscapes in other contexts.
2) The Way We Think Now: Reassessment of Known Monuments. Our interpretation of artifacts and complexes often shifts when new data comes to light, when accepted arguments are disproven, and when new methods are brought into play. We solicit papers on the reconsideration of archaeological materials that lead to a reinterpretation of religious institutions and practices.
3) Open call for papers on the interpretation of archaeological materials related to religious phenomena in the Mediterranean region during the Hellenistic and Roman periods.
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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: Because of the success of our 2009 sessions and the need for more information on this topic, the topic of “Ancient Cities in Text and Archaeology” in 2010 is again “Solomonic cities.” It includes the four “royal cities” traditionally associated with Solomon in the biblical account and settlements attributed to the Solomonic period. We encourage papers that integrate textual sources and archaeology, present new findings and/or analyses, and employ innovative methodologies and/or approaches.
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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: The Art and Religions in Antiquity program unit is sponsoring three sessions at the 2010 annual meeting: two themed sessions and an open session. We are accepting paper proposals for all three.
The first themed session, "Angels and/as Messengers," will include papers on intermediate divine beings in the religious art of antiquity; for the second themed session, "Images of the Female Divine," we are seeking papers that analyze feminine and female representations of divine beings. We welcome papers about the art of any ancient religious tradition and especially encourage papers that address the role of art and material culture in religious contexts.
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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 Asian and Asian American Hermeneutics group invites all papers relating to reading the Bible and other sacred texts in, from, as well as to Asian and Asian American contexts and communities. We welcome papers that examine methodological issues involved in interpretation and hermeneutics, as well as papers that offer readings of specific texts and passages. For 2010, we are considering special sessions focused on appropriating Baktin's work, a session that focuses on South Asian and South Asian American readings, or development of post-colonial hermeneutics based on models from indigenous communities. We invite proposals for these possible thematic sessions as well as for a general session. Both veteran and first-time presenters are encouraged to submit proposals.
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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:
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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: 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.
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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: In conjunction with the Biblical Criticism and Literary Criticism section, we are planning for one or two panels on the intersection of "Economy, Ecology, Empire" in literary, cultural and political formations. Some panelists will be invited, but submissions are also welcome. We encourage presenters to address specific biblical texts.
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Bible and Film
Description: This unit focuses on the critical analysis and interpretation of the multiple intersections between Bible and Cinema. Our focus is broad, giving attention to “Bible films” (“Bible on Film”), the use and treatment of biblical texts in films (“Bible in Film”), how films and biblical texts can function in analogous ways (“Bible as Film” / “Film as Bible”), and how Bible and Film can be placed into mutually critical dialogue. We explore how biblical texts can enhance our understanding of cinema, and how films can offer lenses for helping us (re)interpret biblical texts. In short, we welcome papers that seek to illuminate our understanding of Bible, Film, or both. (This unit was titled Scripture and Film through 2013).
Call for papers: Session 1: We invite papers that relate specific film theories or theorists to biblical studies of film.
Session 2: We invite papers that fall within our broad purpose: The critical analysis and interpretation of Bible/Jesus films and other films incorporating biblical themes or motifs in terms of the films’ biblical and extra-biblical content, cultural and historical significance, and ideology. These papers can be forty-minute presentations, where up to 15 minutes can be used to accommodate the showing of longer, illustrative film clips. Please be as explicit as you can in describing what films you will use and the lengths of the film clips.
If you are proposing a paper that deals with pedagogical issues related to Bible and film, we suggest you send the proposal to our jointly sponsored session listed under the Synoptic Gospels Section "Using Visual Media in Teaching the Synoptic Gospels."
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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: This unit explores and analyzes the relationship between the Bible and American popular culture. It focuses on materials designed for the everyday life of Americans—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 text and culture in the United States. We would especially invite papers dealing with any aspect of Satan/the Devil/Lucifer in popular culture for our "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" session.
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Bible and Practical Theology
Description: This section aims to promote the development of integrative knowledge centered upon the intersections between biblical interpretation and practical theology. We want to challenge both doctrinal reductionism and the distancing inherent in the historical-critical method, as well as encourage relational and interactive readings of both human situations and biblical texts in order to reveal their multivalence.
Call for papers: We plan three sessions around the theme: “Biblical Text and Human Text: The Bible and Pastoral Care.”
Session 1) Book review panel on Grounded in the Living Word: The Old Testament and Pastoral Care Practices by Denise Dombkowski Hopkins and Michael Koppel (Eerdmans, 2010).
Session 2) Problematic Biblical and Human Texts. An open call for papers that wrestle with troubling human texts (lived experience) and biblical texts in historical or contemporary perspective. We welcome papers that focus upon the struggle for civil right in the U.S. and around the globe.
Session 3) Rediscovering Connections between the Bible and Pastoral Care. An open call for papers that explore the pinch points and possibilities in the relationship between the Bible and pastoral care in local settings, both individual and communal. Bi-vocational religious leaders are especially encouraged to submit paper proposals.
Each proposal should include three sample questions that encourage audience participation. Send proposals to: Denise Dombkowski Hopkins at ddhopkins@wesleyseminary.edu and Michael Koppel at mkoppel@wesleyseminary.edu
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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: For an open session, we invite proposals that fall within our broad purpose: 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. For a session jointly sponsored with the Synoptic Gospels Section and the Bible and Film Consultation, we invite presentations on "Using Visual Media in Teaching the Synoptic Gospels"; media may range from manuscript illumination to painting to sculpture to movies. For a session jointly sponsored with the Ideology, Culture, and Translation Group, we invite responses to the recently-published Bible Illuminated (2008); papers may engage this fascinating and highly provocative publication in terms of its technical production, visual interpretation, translational technique, cultural representation, effect on the reader-viewer, or any other aspect relevant to the concerns of critical theory. Additional information and a sample chapter are available at http://illuminatedworld.com or http://new.bibleilluminated.com.
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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 for the “Bible in Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Traditions” unit for the 2010 National Conference in Atlanta is “Bible reception and interpretation in Orthodox Liturgy.” Scholars are invited to submit proposals for papers that examine the critical study of all the major aspects of incorporating the Bible in the liturgy of the various Orthodox churches. Among the various aspects we mention: the Biblical character of the liturgical year; the various interpretive methods used in Orthodox hymnology; the development of the liturgical theme through the various scriptural readings assigned; biblical practices as foundational elements in the liturgical expressions, and other subjects related to the incorporation of the Bible in the Orthodox liturgy celebrated in Arabic, Armenian, Serbian, Romanian, Slavonic and all other languages used in the various churches within the Orthodox family.
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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: Special notice: This year the Bible Translation Unit is organizing a symposium on "Orality and Bible Translation", featuring different presenters and respondents. More details will be posted at a later date.
Because of this theme the unit invites those who have done specific work on "Orality and Bible Translation" to submit papers for the more general session, although for the latter, papers treating other topics of interest in the wider field of Bible translation theory and praxis will also be considered.
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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: This year the section will organize two sessions emphasizing the theory and practice of comparison in studies invoking myth. One session will be organized around the theme “The Theory of Comparison.” Proposals are also welcome for a second open session for which papers addressing the theme “The Practice of Comparison” are especially encouraged.
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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:
In conjunction with the Bible and Cultural Studies section, we are are planning for one or two panels on the intersection of "Economy, Ecology, Empire" in literary, cultural and political formations. Some panelists will be invited, but submissions are also welcome. We encourage presenters to address specific biblical texts.
A second session will be on the topic of situating lamentation. We are interested in how lament as genre and mode (and its related ideas of complaint, suffering, grief and the pursuit of justice), is expressed multi-directionally, via political, cultural, social and literary discourses. Papers that make links between textual past and global present are especially sought.
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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: The Biblical Greek Language and Linguistics Section will host two sessions at the 2011 Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature. We are sponsoring a thematic session on “Discourse Markers," with invited papers. The other session is open to any presentation dealing broadly with the application of linguistics to the biblical Greek language, consistent with the description of the Section. All submissions are welcome.
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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: Three sessions are planned. Papers are being accepted for 2 joint sessions: 1 with Theology of the Hebrew Scriptures, and 1 with Syriac Literature, 1 thematic session, and 1 general session.
1. Joint Session with Theology of Hebrew Scriptures: This is an invited session.
2. Joint Session with Syriac Literature: This is an invited session that will deal with Syriac Reception of Biblical poetry.
3. Thematic Session: Submissions are welcome on the topic/theme of "The Poetics of the Song of Songs."
4. General Session: Submissions on any topic related to Biblical Hebrew Poetry are welcome.
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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 biblical laws that provide protections for the marginalized. 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, 2010 at: http://www.biblicallaw.net.
We will also convene one special book review session of invited papers reviewing the new introduction to biblical law: Raymond Westbrook and Bruce Wells, Everyday Law in Biblical Israel: An Introduction (Westminster John Knox, 2009).
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Biblical Lexicography
Description: The Section brings together those working on lexicography and lexicology of ancient biblical languages. The discussions seek to bring the theoretical to bear on the practical task of dictionary making and encourage research in the area of historical lexical analysis.
Call for papers: The Biblical Lexicography Section is planning to hold one session dedicated to the new lexicon, T. Muraoka, A Greek-English Lexicon of the Septuagint (Peeters,2009). For the other sessions, proposals are welcome on distinctive types of vocabulary in biblical literature, be they loan-words, genre-specific words, or technical terms. For more about the Lexicography Section, visit http://www.biblex.org
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Blogger and Online Publication
Description: Originally organized under the aegis of the 'biblioblogging' community, this unit has been renamed. 'Biblioblogging' refers to a diverse community of nearly every point of view that communicates new ideas or insights, debates, and discusses exegetical and historical subjects. The Blogger and Online Publication Section supports the publication of articles, commentary, and items of interest relating to the Bible and biblical studies online using blogs, social media sites, online journals, and other Internet or web-related vehicles, and promotes communication between bloggers and the SBL.
Call for papers: The 2010 Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature will be held November 20-23, 2010 in Atlanta, Georgia. Members wishing to present papers should submit proposals on the SBL website at http://www.sbl-site.org/meetings/AnnualMeeting.aspx by March 1, 2010. First-time presenters and graduate students are encouraged to submit completed papers. Papers from established scholars are particularly encouraged. /// The SBL Blogger and Online Publication section invites proposals for papers in two sections for the 2010 annual meeting. Session 1 will be an invited session exploring the history of blogging, the rise of the Internet and its use by biblical scholars, and the future of blogging. Session 2 will be an open session calling for papers focusing on any area of biblical studies, theology, archaeology of the Levant, and the use of blogging in these fields. The second session also invites 60-second profiles of individual blogs, which will be included in a highlight of blog sites. Contributors are welcome to present papers for presentation or 60-second summaries of their blogs for inclusion in a single, 20-minute survey of the top biblical studies related blogs in the web. /// For more information, or if you have any questions, please contact Dr. Robert R. Cargill, Center for Digital Humanities, UCLA, 1020 Public Affairs Building, Los Angeles, CA, 90095-1499, or email cargill@humnet.ucla.edu.
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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 Book of Acts Section seeks to (1) explore new strategies for reading Acts; (2) propose solutions to existing exegetical, literary, text critical and historical problems associated with Acts; (3) highlight new areas of inquiry regarding Acts, and (4) assess the significance of the history of Acts scholarship. For the open session, proposals on any of these topics are welcomed.
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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: One session is open for papers dealing with any aspect of the book of Ezekiel; proposals are
invited for this session. All papers will be required in electronic form for circulation one month before the Annual Meeting.
***The closed session for Atlanta is on the theme "The God Ezekiel Creates". At this point we find ourselves with a gap in the programme for this thematic (hitherto closed) session. And so, with the permission of SBL, we are modifying this call for papers to indicate that any offers of papers specifically on the theme of "The God Ezekiel Creates" will also be welcome for consideration***
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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: We will have 3 sessions for 2010: (1) a joint session with Writing/Reading Jeremiah entitled "First-Person Figurations of Servant and Suffering in Isaiah and Jeremiah"; invited speakers. (2) An open call for papers dealing with any aspect of Isaiah 13-23, Oracles concerning Nations, and (3)an open call for papers dealing with 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 Book of Psalms Section invites proposal for papers related to the study of the Psalter as a collection, to individual psalms, or to themes related to the interpretation of the Psalms. The Psalms Section particularly invites papers for the 2010 Annual Meeting related to the theme of the Psalms and Ethics: character ethics or virtue ethics or how the liturgy, prayer, and practice of the Psalms influence ethical formation.
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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 unit invites papers that address the role of the nations and Israel within the Book of the Twelve. In addition, the steering committee also plans an open session and invites papers that address topics and texts found within the corpus of the Twelve Prophets.
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Children in the Biblical World
Description: This section explores the child characters in the Bible, investigates the lives of children in the ancient world, and evaluates how biblical texts affect children in the post-biblical world. We invite traditional research in biblical studies, as well as interdisciplinary approaches to the topic.
Call for papers: We will host two sessions. The first focuses on children and pedagogy -
"Teach the Children Well: Pedagogical Methods, Metaphors, and Rhetoric in
the Bible and its Social Worlds."
This session explores historical practices, narrative constructions, and
rhetorical tropes of pedagogy in the literature and cultural context of
the Bible.
The second is an open call and we invite a wide range of papers related to children in the biblical world.
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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: The Christian Apocrypha section will be exploring (A) Apocrypha and Art, and (B and C) offering two joint sessions in collaboration with the Jewish Christianity and Syriac Apocryphal sections.
--------- (A) Apocryphal Literature and Art -------- In an open session, we are inviting presentations highlighting the relevance of Art for understanding early Christian Apocryphal traditions. We are particularly interested in interpretative aspects of scenes, primary figures, and symbolic representations concerning these apocryphal narratives.
---------- (B) Jewish Christian Gospels ------ A new edition of the classic German "Hennecke-Schneemelcher" collection is scheduled to appear in 2010. In a joint session together with the “Jewish Christianity/Christian Judaism” section, we will be offering a discussion of this new collection, specifically highlighting Jewish Christian Gospels, and including responses from other scholars to some of the latest research in this new edition.
-------- (C) Syriac Apocryphal Texts -------- In an open session offered jointly with “Syriac Literature and Interpretations of Sacred Texts,” we will be investigating the intersection of Apocryphal texts and Syriac traditions. This session will provide an open forum for the presentation and discussion of interpretations of these texts .
The Christian Apocrypha section encourages submissions to 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: Planning three sections again for 2010, we invite paper proposals for 2 of 3 sessions.
1) Identity and Difference in Theological Discourse: Race, Justice, and American Politics. Papers might offer theological reflections on the nature and meanings of “race” and/or “ethnicity”, from the angles of American politics, justice and biblical descriptions of neighbor, including generational differences in discussion of the so-called post-racial context and its implications for evangelical Christian practices.
2) Book Review - participants have already been solicited for this section.
3) Popular Music and Theology Papers should offer an appreciative theological criticism of compositions, performances, oeuvres, personae, or practices in the broad cultural sphere of popular music (rock, soul, hip-hop, folk, punk, pop, etc.). The most welcome papers will go beyond allusion-hunting and autobiographical fandom, moving toward probing the theological significance (and problems) of musical expression in these styles; cf. the problems suggested in this link from last year's program: http://akma.disseminary.org/?p=2318). Submissions will be considered for publication in a collection of essays on this theme.
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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: We invite paper proposals for SBL 2010 on theological interpretation of the Acts of the Apostles. The successful proposal will interpret theologically a specific text of Acts. What is theological interpretation? What would theological exegesis look like with regards to Acts? Does theological exegesis of Acts deal with the Old Testament? If so, how?
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Christianity in Egypt: Scripture, Tradition, and Reception
Description: The aim of this program is to engage scholars with interests relevant to Christianity in Egypt, with a special focus on scripture. This would include, but not be limited to, the study of scriptural texts and commentaries and the interpretation of scripture in theology, monastic literature, art, archaeology, and culture. Social and political themes may also be studied as evidence of the reception of scripture throughout history. Discussions may include sources in Greek, Coptic, Arabic, Ethiopic, Syriac, Armenian, Georgian, or Latin that are relevant to the program's interests. The program is interdisciplinary and encourages a variety of approaches and methodologies.
Call for papers: First topic: The Christianity in Egypt Consultation invites proposals for papers on “Shenoute of Atripe” that explore significant emerging problems in the historical, philological, exegetical, and theological study of Shenoute’s writings. Papers may explore Shenoute’s context within the social and intellectual milieu of both the Panopolitan region and Coptic Egypt as a whole, his roles as monastic administrator and theologian, and issues of biography and chronology. Particularly welcome are studies that utilize recent advances in the reconstruction of Shenoute’s literary corpus either to provide new insights into individual works within Shenoute’s corpus or to draw exegetical, historical, theological, literary, and philological connections between works in his Canons, Discourses, and Letters.
Second topic: We are seeking papers on the theme of Biblical interpretation as it relates to Christianity in Egypt. Papers may address a genre of interpretation, text, or theme. Proposals that address the history of reception of a particular text or theme are encouraged. Studies of sources in Greek, Coptic, Arabic, Ethiopic, Syriac, Armenian, Georgian, or Latin that are relevant to the program's focus on Biblical interpretation are welcomed.
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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: 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.
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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: Cognitive Linguistics and Biblical Interpretation Section
Please Note: From the pool of proposal submissions, six scholars will be invited to present in Atlanta. Prepared papers will be due by 9/15. We are seeking two kinds of papers.
1) Theme-Focused Session: Performatives.
We seek papers demonstrating how cognitive linguistic approaches to performatives can be used to illuminate our understanding of a specific biblical passage. Choose a text in which an apparent description of a speech act “counts as” a performance of the relevant speech act.
For an introduction to the linguistic and philosophical issues performatives raise (and plenty of examples), see Eve Sweetser’s essay, “Blended Spaces and Performativity,” Cognitive Linguistics 11:3/4, 2000 (Special issue on Mental Spaces and Blending, edited by Seana Coulson and Todd Oakley). This essay is available on Dr. Sweeter's web page on the University of California, Berkeley, Department of Linguistics site, http://linguistics.berkeley.edu/people/person_detail.php?person=30
2) Open Session.
We seek papers demonstrating how a cognitive linguistic model could be used to aid or illuminate an interpretation of a specific biblical passage.
We will also co-sponsor - with Linguistics and Biblical Hebrew - a book review session on Ellen Van Wolde's new work, Reframing Biblical Studies: When Language and Text Meet Culture, Cognition and Context. Winona Lake, Indiana: Eisenbrauns, 2009.
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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 is looking for proposals on using mobile technology for research and in the classroom. Proposals are also welcome in our twin areas of interest: computer-assisted research and pedagogy.
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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: This year our Section will have three sub-themes and will be organized in four sessions, two "by invitation only" and two open. The two "by invitation only" will have the structure of a panel discussion. These are the sessions we have planned: A) "The Birth of Christianity: Ideas, Models, Proposals" - Two sessions: one panel session (invitation only) and one open session; [These sessions want to give space to new attempts of interpreting the birth of Christianity (when, where, how, why Christianity was born?) as well as to discuss recent explanations.] B) "Jews Worshiping Jesus: The Study Case of Ephesus" - One panel session discussing newly published works (invitation only); C) "Forms of Contact with the Supernatural in the Construction of Christianity" (visions, revelations, ecstasies, dreams, heavenly journeys…)- One open session; [One of the most impressing elements of Early Christianity was a series of practices of contact with the supernatural. This session wants to analyze the function of these practices in the construction of the new religion.]. Please, feel free to send any proposal for papers, the content of which corresponds to the specific subject of the open sessions and to the lines established in the General Description of the Section.
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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: Continuing to develop the book series TEXTS@CONTEXTS (Fortress Press; volumes on GENESIS and THE GOSPEL OF MARK, forthcoming, 2010), we seek papers on *contextual* biblical interpretations (readings of the Bible that take the present-day readers’ contexts into account in some way) in preparation for new volumes. Particularly (but not exclusively) we are interested in contextual readings of the following biblical books (focused on possible themes): EXODUS –DEUTERONOMY and LEVITICUS-NUMBERS (territory and identity, “law” and praxis, divine names, ritual and magic, taboos, gender and family), JOSHUA-JUDGES (conquest and liberation: whose side are you on?); the Gospels of JOHN (identity, honor and shame, hybridity, community); MATTHEW (land/landowners/laborers and empire, children/parents/family, disabilities/miracles, border-crossing, community) and 1 & 2 CORINTHIANS (unity, diversity, identity, cross, holiness, Lord’s Supper). These papers need to make explicit their "contextual" strategies (e.g. inculturation, inter[con]textualization, reading with others, liberation) and methodologies. For general format see http://www.vanderbilt.edu/AnS/religious_studies/GBC/outline_comm.html Steering committee: Daniel Patte, Athalya Brenner, Archie Lee, Nicole Duran, Teresa Okure, James Grimshaw, Yung Suk Kim
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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 section will 1) read and discuss ancient Greek and Latin texts 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 and Roman Period texts/contexts. For 2010 we are particularly interested in papers that (1) engage the Gospel of John in relation to its Hellenistic and Jewish backgrounds or that (2) take up theme: the New Testament in the second century. Papers on other topics relevant to the general interests of the Corpus Hellenisticum Novi Testamenti will also be considered.
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Covenant in the Persian Period
Description: The goal of this unit is to explore the various perspectives on covenant that emerged in the Persian period and establish the importance of each within its religious and historical context. Focal issues include Jewish identity and developments within Yahwism.
Call for papers: For the upcoming annual meeting, one session will focus on prophecy; we invite paper proposals that address covenant in prophetic texts from the Persian period. A second session with invited participants will deliberate upon the status questionis of covenant in the Persian period.
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Cultic Personnel in the Biblical World
Description: This section comprises a forum for the investigation of the social and historical roles of cultic personnel in the biblical world broadly conceived, including ancient Israel, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, Rome, and Asia Minor. Sessions will cover textual, iconographic, and archaeological evidence and may take a variety of methodological approaches.
Call for papers: **2010 Call for papers accidentally lost** — JMH, 12.8.10
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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: Papers dealing with any aspect of the Deuteronomistic History are welcome.
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Development of Early Christian Theology
Description: This unit explores the close connections among the construction of the Christian scriptures, early Christian practices of biblical interpretation, and the theological and ecclesiastical debates that occurred from the apostolic period through the seventh century.
Call for papers:
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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 AND THE NEW TESTAMENT: Papers in one session will explore links, echoes, comparisons and relationships between the Didache and any New Testament writings. While proposals on Didache and Matthew are not excluded, studies examining new avenues of research will be favourably received. Papers in the second session will be open on any issue related to the Didache and its community..
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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 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. This year, we particularly invite papers that use recent methodologies (e.g., feminist or post-colonial analysis) to study the Pastoral Epistles. We will devote a session to papers that make use of these methods. We intend careful study of these letters to help us better understand both these documents and early Christianity more broadly.
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Early Christianity and the Ancient Economy
Description: The Early Christianity and the Ancient Economy Consultation is the foundational component of an international, interdisciplinary project that seeks to delineate the relationship between early Christianity and the ancient economy in the period from Jesus to Justinian, demonstrating both similarities and differences in attitudes, approaches to problems, and attempted solutions.
Call for papers: The Early Christianity and Ancient Economy unit sponsors three sub-projects: The first sub-project involves a study of all the major aspects of the economy in the ancient world, especially the Roman Empire. The second sub-project examines first-century early Christianity both in relationship to the ancient economy and in regard to its own economic aspects. The third sub-project does the same for Christianity in the second to the fifth centuries. Both synchronic and diachronic studies are encouraged, as are contributions focused on specific issues (such as money), texts, authors, themes, and events. Paper proposals for all three sub-projects are welcomed, especially those that make use of papyri, inscriptions, and other realia. Those submitting a proposal should designate in the Abstract the sub-project for which the paper should be considered.
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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 proposals for two sessions at the 2010 annual meeting in Atlanta. For both of these sessions we extend an open call for papers on any topic of Early Jewish Christian Relations in the first four centuries of the Common Era.
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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: The first session will focus on empire, justice, ecology and the Bible. Proposals are invited that explore the connections between human and non-human elements of creation embedded in a matrix of imperial interests in the light of the biblical material. Attention may be given to the motif of "mastery." The second session is open, and proposals are invited on any biblical text. Participants are encouraged to take into account the principles of ecological hermeneutics - suspicion, identification and retrieval - developed by the Section in recent years.
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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: Proposals are welcome on topics related to connections between Egypt and ancient Israel. Priority will be give to papers exploring the interaction between Egyptian and biblical narrative and textual traditions.
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Ethics and Biblical Interpretation
Description: The aim of the Ethics and Biblical Interpretation section is to study the way the various projects of biblical interpretation and hermeneutics intersect with the concerns of ethics. This consultation will engage ethicists, theologians, and biblical scholars in interdisciplinary conversations.
Call for papers: The “Ethics and Biblical Interpretation” consultation will host two sessions in Atlanta in 2010. The first is an invited session on “Evil, Power, and the Bible.” The second is on the theme “The Bible and Rights.” Topics here could include precursors of claims about human rights found in scripture; the use of the Bible in rights-movements, especially the civil rights movement; tensions between political rhetoric in the Bible and contemporary uses of rights-language, etc. This session is OPEN, and we invite paper proposals that address this theme.
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Ethics, Love, and the Other in Early Christianity
Description: This consultation focuses upon ethics within early Christianity, particularly how various early Christian thinkers and groups conceived of their ethical obligation to practice love inside and outside of their group. Investigations of canonical and non-canonical documents are welcome.
Call for papers: This consultation is seeking proposals which explore the character of early Christian relationships to one another and/or to other people groups. Presenters are encouraged to employ a variety of approaches and methods. Investigations into and comparisons with a variety of early Christian texts will be welcomed.
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Ethiopic Bible and Literature
Description: This unit studies the sacred texts and literature of the ancient and rich Ethiopic tradition. It seeks, through critical study, to understand the ideology, sociology and the process of literary formation, of the Ethiopic tradition, in particular the Bible, and also discusses its manuscript tradition.
Call for papers: This unit studies the sacred texts and literature of the ancient and rich Ethiopic tradition. It seeks, through critical study, to understand the ideology, sociology and the process of literary formation, of the Ethiopic tradition, in particular the Bible, and also discusses its manuscript tradition.
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Ethnic Chinese Biblical Colloquium
Description: The Ethnic Chinese Biblical Colloquium (ECBC) emerged with the rise of the awareness of contextualization and cross-cultural awareness in biblical interpretation. A group of scholars who are of ethnic Chinese origin created ECBC as a forum to address issues relevant to this concern within SBL in the 1990s. Prominent founding members of this group are Dr. Seow Choon-Leong, Dr. Wan Sze-Kar, Dr. Gale Yee, Dr. Mary Foskett, Dr. Jeffrey Kuan, and Dr. John Yieh. The group invites scholars to participate in the forum held annually within the SBL Annual Meeting.
Call for papers: The Ethnic Chinese Biblical Colloquium (ECBC) emerged with the rise of the awareness of contextualization and cross-cultural awareness in biblical interpretation. A group of scholars who are of ethnic Chinese origin created ECBC as a forum to address issues relevant to this concern within SBL in the 1990s. Prominent founding members of this group are Dr. Seow Choon-Leong, Dr. Wan Sze-Kar, Dr. Gale Yee, Dr. Mary Foskett, Dr. Jeffrey Kuan, and Dr. John Yieh. The group invites scholars to participate in the forum held annually within the SBL Annual Meeting.
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Eusebius and the Construction of a Christian Culture
Description: This consultation aims to provide an interdisciplinary platform for research on Eusebius of Caesarea, a multi-faceted author who was simultaneously a biblical scholar, apologist, historian, philologist and theologian. The consultation will deepen and nuance our knowledge of this major author.
Call for papers:
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Evangelical Philosophical Society
Description: Founded in 1974, the Evangelical Philosophical Society (EPS) is an organization of professional scholars devoted to pursuing philosophical excellence in both the church and the academy. Interested laypersons can join as full, associate, or student members.
The EPS holds a national meeting each year in conjunction with the conference held by the Evangelical Theological Society and the American Academy of Religion/Society of Biblical Literature.
The EPS journal, Philosophia Christi, is a scholarly publication containing discussion of a variety of topics that are of interest to the philosopher and to the philosopher of religion.
Contact information (besides what is given above): http://www.epsociety.org/about/contact.asp.
Call for papers: Founded in 1974, the Evangelical Philosophical Society (EPS) is an organization of professional scholars devoted to pursuing philosophical excellence in both the church and the academy. Interested laypersons can join as full, associate, or student members.
The EPS holds a national meeting each year in conjunction with the conference held by the Evangelical Theological Society and the American Academy of Religion/Society of Biblical Literature.
The EPS journal, Philosophia Christi, is a scholarly publication containing discussion of a variety of topics that are of interest to the philosopher and to the philosopher of religion.
Contact information (besides what is given above): http://www.epsociety.org/about/contact.asp.
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Exile (Forced Migrations) in Biblical Literature
Description: This section examines exile, displacement, and migration (forced or involuntary) in biblical literature—its history, associated literature, and conceptualization from a wide range of methodological perspectives.
Call for papers: Our topic for 2011 (San Francisco) is canonical consciousness, inner-biblical exegesis, or scripturalization! We seek papers that deal with inner-biblical exegesis or in short, biblical passages or tropes (themes) that are being re-worked, re-applied, or reinterpreted in a new (biblical) text or context. We seek papers from various studies and periods of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, New Testament, and the Dead Sea Scrolls.
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Extent of Theological Diversity in Earliest Christianity
Description: Focusing on the evidence for Jesus' death and resurrection as a narrative used to shape the identity of emergent communities, and on the alternatives to this narrative preserved in early Christian sources, this Consultation explores the origin, nature and extent of theological diversity in earliest Christianity from the beginnings until approximately 180 CE. By fostering a conversation involving the testing of various reconstructions of early Christian history against the range of relevant evidence, the unit seeks to bring greater precision to the study of "orthodoxy and heresy in early Christianity."
Call for papers: The Cross, Resurrection, and Diversity in Earliest Christianity Consultation invites proposals on the extent of theological diversity in the period before ca. 100 CE, especially papers which focus on the evidence of the Pauline letters (undisputed or disputed) for convictions about Jesus' death and resurrection in this period.
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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: In 2010, the Feminist Hermeneutics of the Bible Section is exploring the concept and praxis of “multivoiced bible commentary,” thus engaging complex notions of textuality, reading, interpretation, and multisensory reception. Our initial “text” is the Hagar-Sarah scriptures (Gen. 16 & 21; Gal. 4; etc.). In Atlanta, our first session will present the experiment and offer initial evaluative reflections. A second session of invited papers will theorize and problematize already existing feminist and womanist bible commentaries, including the form of commentary writing itself. The third session will be an open call for papers.
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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: The Formation Luke-Acts Section is interested in the relationship between Luke-Acts and the Septuagint, Greco-Roman writings, and some New Testament texts. During the 2010 Annual Meeting the Section will focus on two kinds of connections, viz. the dynamic relationship between Luke-Acts and other NT texts, on the one hand, and the possible progymnasmatic influence from Greco-Roman education on the rhetorical composition of Luke-Acts, on the other.
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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: The Steering Committee invites papers for two sessions. The first session is open to any papers that address the overall purpose of the section, which is to explore the ways in which particular texts, later deemed non-canonical by the Jewish or some portion of the Christian faith community, functioned within the life of those communities. A second session specifically invites papers that explore the function of 1 Enoch in either an early Jewish or Christian community, preferably through a close examination of its imprint upon a specific text or author participating in the community. Of special interest would be any implications of such functioning for discussions of 1 Enoch’s status within the community.
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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 are planning three sessions for Atlanta.
For the first session, co-sponsored with the LGBT/Queer Hermeneutics Section, we invite submissions for papers that explore the prefixes of "inter-" and "trans-" in relation to bodies, genders, sexualities, and biblical texts and traditions. We encourage proposals to think broadly about these prefixes, exploring issues of intersex and transgender experiences and dynamics alongside of or in relation to broad themes of intersection, transformation, transnationalism, etc.
For the second session, we invite submissions for papers which reflect upon how "the biblical" permeates contemporary concepts, concerns, arguments and practices of the body, gender, and sexuality.
The third session is an open session, welcoming proposals for papers on any element of research related to gender, sexuality, and the body in the study of the bible and/or antiquity, including their various afterlives and influences.
Questions or further inquiries may be directed to the chair, Joseph Marchal at jamarchal@hotmail.com
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GOCN Forum on Missional Hermeneutics
Description: What would it mean, and what might it look like to read the Bible self-consciously from, and with an explicit methodological starting point in, an ecclesial location that is construed as fundamentally missional in cast and character? How might such an attempt both inform and critique contemporary missiological assumptions? What discoveries about the biblical text might be opened up through the adoption of such a social location and interpretive aim?
The Forum on Missional Hermeneutics of the GOCN draws together biblical scholars, theologians, graduate students, and ministry practitioners from a range of disciplines and ecclesiological contexts at the Annual Meetings of the Society of Biblical Literature. The Forum explores the intersections of missiology, ecclesiology, and biblical scholarship in the interpretation of the Bible as it serves the missional vocation of the church. Website: http://www.gocn.org/
Call for papers: The Gospel and Our Culture Network Forum on Missional Hermeneutics extends a call for papers to be presented at the 2010 Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature in Atlanta, November 21-24, 2009. The Forum explores the intersections of missiology, ecclesiology, and biblical interpretation, focusing on hermeneutical issues that arise in view of the Church’s missional character.
In particular, presenters and participants at the Forum explore how faithful interpretation of Scripture needs to pay attention to a number of interlocking realities in the text: (1) the ways in which the biblical text renders the identity of the missio Dei, the God who is engaged in mission to the whole creation; (2) the ways in which the biblical text is shaped for the purpose of forming a people of God who are called to participate in God’s mission to the creation; (3) the ways in which the biblical text evokes and challenges a missionally located community's interpretive readings and questions; and (4) the ways in which the biblical text relates the received tradition to a particular context in light of the good news of the reign of God in Jesus Christ.
The theme for the session this year is “Exile, Identity, and Mission: Interpreting Biblical Texts.” Proposals for papers are invited (in the form of one-page abstracts) which engage a specific text or texts in relation to this theme—in view of the hermeneutical framework identified above—and which test the extent to which such a missional approach to the biblical text illumines and opens the text to faithful understanding and ecclesial practice. For further information, please contact Michael Barram, Saint Mary's College of California (mbarram@stmarys-ca.edu). For to access some of the papers presented in previous sessions of the Forum, go to http://gocn.org
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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 for two sessions, the first dealing with the Presence and Portrayal of God in the Second Gospel, and the second, the Law in the Second Gospel. Papers may address any aspect of the topic and may choose to focus on a particular method or employ a range thereof. Send proposals in MS Word or Mac Pages format to: rkewatts@regent-college.edu (preferred method), OR, mail or fax to Prof. Rikk Watts, Regent College, 5800 University Boulevard, Vancouver, BC, V6T 2E4. Fax number 604-224-3097, including the name Rikk Watts on faxed materials. Proposals may also be submitted through the Society of Biblical Literature website at http://www.sbl-site.org/. If using the latter please include a contact email.
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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: The Section’s open session, “Thinking While Doing: To What Do Greco-Roman Religious Actors Assent?,” invites papers on belief in Greco-Roman religions dealing with questions such as: how we should study the beliefs of religious actors in cults with no formal doctrinal writing? What did these actors assume about the divine world and their interaction with it? How should we assess theoretical categories like “myth,” or “authoritiy” in the description of Greco-Roman religions? This session seeks papers that will serve as prolegomena to further study of this topic. The Section’s closed "Redescribing Greco-Roman Antiquity: Theorizing Cult Migrations in Late Antiquity” session will problematize categories to be used in a re-description of cult migration, focusing on explorative explanatory theorizing, using a variety of contemporary critical perspectives to explore religious production or practice. Our joint open session with the Society for Ancient Mediterranean Religions, “Civil Strife and the Religions of the Ancient Mediterranean,” invites papers exploring the relationship between civil strife and the religions of the ancient Mediterranean. The 2011 four-year commemoration of the American Civil War reminds us that a full understanding of such conflicts requires attention to the central role of religious expression, to both side’s invocation of grand religious principles, and to the combatants’ personal displays of piety, inspiring a fresh look at the relationship between religion and civil strife in the ancient Mediterranean world. Potential examples range from the religious propaganda deployed by Darius of Persia to justify his kingship, to the competition and violence among the Sadducees and Pharisees, to the Roman general Sulla's reliance on omens and divination. This session seeks papers addressing this theme with reference to ancient texts, art, or material culture, or that consider modern appropriation of ancient world precedents.
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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 section provides a forum for papers on reception history, translation theory, manuscript traditions, linguistic issues, biblical theology, and hermeneutics that involve the use of the Greek versions in later writings. For the 2010 meeting in Atlanta, the section invites proposals for three sessions. 1) A themed session entitled, “The Greek Bible in Early Judaism and Early Christianity.” This program will include papers on the exegesis of the Greek biblical text (the Septuagint or other Greek versions) by Jewish and Christian authors prior to 300 CE. 2) A themed session entitled, “The Greek Bible and Hermeneutics.” This program will feature papers addressing the relation of hermeneutic theory to the exegesis of Greek biblical versions. 3) An open session. For this program we invite proposals dealing with any aspect of the reception of the Greek Bible. All papers accepted must demonstrate the use of the Greek text 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 Disability Studies and Healthcare in the Bible and Near East section plans to have three sessions at the 2010 meeting. The FIRST SESSION will be an open session (accepting papers) on any topic on biblical scholarship related to disability and healthcare (broadly defined). All methods are invited. The SECOND SESSION will also be an open session (accepting papers). In this session, we encourage papers that deal with purity/impurity (broadly defined). The THIRD SESSION will include papers by invitation only. This session will also focus on matters of purity/impurity (broadly defined). This session will be co-sponsored with the "Levites and Priests in History and Tradition" session. Inquiries about these sessions should be addressed to either Sarah Melcher (melcher@xavier.edu) or Jeremy Schipper (schipper@temple.edu).
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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. Our FIRST OPEN SESSION will accept papers pertaining to any text of the Hebrew Bible. We are also co-sponsoring a SECOND OPEN SESSION with the EZRA-NEHEMIAH-CHRONICLES Section and invite papers that elucidate the narratives of Ezra-Nehemiah or Chronicles from the perspective of political theory,
broadly conceived. Presenters are invited to submit papers drawing from
colonial theory, theory of identity formation, theory of class
formation, theory of conflict managment, or any other analysis of a given
text that draws from a theoretical base.
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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: 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.
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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 steering committee invites proposals for papers on any topic that examines texts or aspects of the Hebrew Bible in light of writing from the larger region. Papers should give attention to both the biblical and the non-biblical evidence, take seriously all relevant contexts, and consider the historical basis for treating all the evidence as part of some larger whole.
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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 "Book of Hebrews in Context Group” wishes to sponsor two sessions in 2010: (1) The first session contains papers by invited speakers on the topic “The literary, philosophical, and theological content and context of the Book of Hebrews.” (2) The second session invites proposals either on the topic mentioned above or any other topic concerned with the Book of Hebrews. For questions contact Gabriella Gelardini; our website: www.hebrews.unibas.ch.
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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: For the 2010 meeting, we invite paper proposals on the theme of "Jewish Sacred Space in the Greco-Roman World" for a joint panel with the Space, Place, and Lived Experience in Antiquity Section. What constitutes Jewish space and material practice in cities and urban centers in the Greco-Roman world? We welcome papers on any aspect of this theme, which might include such things as city planning and the arrangements of neighborhoods within them, or architecture or architectural decoration of spaces or places that are part of lived experience. The Hellenistic Judaism section also invites proposals for a panel on Jews in Italy. In addition, the section is planning a book-review panel on Tessa Rajak's Translation and Survival: The Greek Bible and the Ancient Jewish Diaspora.
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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: We are seeking papers on any aspect of Hellenistic moral philosophy and early Christianity. Preference will be given to papers 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). For the 2010 Annual Meeting we encourage proposals for papers dealing with proverbial material.
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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: The Historical Jesus Section is devoted to the task of the historical reconstruction of Jesus of Nazareth. We have one planned session with invited papers and one open session. We welcome proposals on all aspects of the historical Jesus for the open session from scholars at all stages of their careers.
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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: Proposals for papers in all aspects of the history and literature of early rabbinic Judaism are welcome. Topics of particular interest for the 2010 Annual Meeting are the Tannaitic midrashim, Christianity in the late antique rabbinic compilations, and rabbis and the synagogue, with particular emphasis on bringing the literary evidence into dialogue with archaeological findings.
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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: This year the section especially invites proposals on the interpretation of Galatians 3:28 for a session on the history of reading this particular text. Consideration will also be given to other proposals.
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Homiletics and Biblical Studies
Description: The Homiletics and Biblical Studies Section encourages dialogue among scholars in both fields who share an interest in critical exegesis, its various methods, and the unique hermeneutical and theological problems inherent to the relationship between biblical interpretation and proclamation.
Call for papers: 1) Preaching and the Personal: Prophecy, Witness and Testimony - Invited Panel 2) Preaching from Mark - Invited Panel 3) Open Session - Papers invited by all dealing with aspects of Homiletics and Biblical Studies
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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: The Ideological Criticism Section seeks proposals for paper presentations for two sessions. The first session is on "Marxism and the Bible: Retrospect and Prospect". Papers are solicited for this session that deal with the various ways Marxism has been or could be applied to the Biblical text. Papers may be historical (either of the discipline or of the text), theoretical or exegetical in nature.
Our second session will be titled "Ideology and the Bible in the Year 1 A.B. (After Barack)". Papers for this session are requested that deal with the various ways politics, ideology and the Bible have interacted since the election of Barack Obama. Papers may deal with particular issues (health care, the wars, climate change, etc) or may address rhetorical and cultural changes (or the lack thereof). The Ideological Criticism Section particularly encourages the submission of papers from historically underrepresented groups at the SBL.
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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: For a session jointly sponsored with the Bible and Visual Art Section, our program will feature the recently published Bible Illuminated (2008). We invite papers that engage this fascinating and highly provocative publication in terms of its technical production, visual interpretation, translational technique, cultural representation, effect on the reader-viewer, or any other aspect relevant to the concerns of critical theory. Additional information and a sample chapter are available at http://illuminatedworld.com or http://new.bibleilluminated.com/.
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Institute for Biblical Research
Description: The historical goals of the Institute for Biblical Research include fostering the study of Scripture within an evangelical context, establishing facilities for the furtherance of biblical studies, and encouraging university and college students toward a vocation of biblical scholarship. Website: www.ibr-bbr.org
Call for papers:
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Institute on Religion and Civic Values
Description: The IRCV is a non-advocacy research center interested in religious liberty, public literacy about world religions, and the role of religious communities in the public square and in policymaking circles. IRCV works with institutional partners to produce and facilitate policy analyses, educational materials, leadership exchanges, and resources that enable citizens, domestic and global, to engage questions of faith, citizenship, and pluralism. More information at www.ircv.org. Our office address is 10055 Slater Avenue, Suite 250, Fountain Valley, CA 92708. Our mailing address is P.O. Box 20186, Fountain Valley, CA 92728-0186. Reach us by telephone at 714-839-2929.
Call for papers: The IRCV is a non-advocacy research center interested in religious liberty, public literacy about world religions, and the role of religious communities in the public square and in policymaking circles. IRCV works with institutional partners to produce and facilitate policy analyses, educational materials, leadership exchanges, and resources that enable citizens, domestic and global, to engage questions of faith, citizenship, and pluralism. More information at www.ircv.org. Our office address is 10055 Slater Avenue, Suite 250, Fountain Valley, CA 92708. Our mailing address is P.O. Box 20186, Fountain Valley, CA 92728-0186. Reach us by telephone at 714-839-2929.
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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 International Organization for Septuagint and Cognate Studies is soliciting papers for its annual meeting in Atlanta, to be held in conjunction with the SBL. Proposals should be presented through the SBL Annual Meetings website. Please direct any queries to Leonard Greenspoon at ljgrn@creighton.edu.
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International Syriac Language Project
Description: All papers are presented as contributions to the International Syriac Language Project (ISLP), the aim of which is to redefine ancient-language lexicography for the 21st century, and to lay the foundations for a new comprehensive Syriac-English lexicon. The group and its invited contributors is interdisciplinary and collaborative, and therefore includes specialists in related fields.
Call for papers: All papers are presented as contributions to the International Syriac Language Project (ISLP), the aim of which is to redefine ancient-language lexicography for the 21st century, and to lay the foundations for a new comprehensive Syriac-English lexicon. The group and its invited contributors is interdisciplinary and collaborative, and therefore includes specialists in related fields.
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Intertextuality in the New Testament
Description: The purpose of this unit is to provide a forum for presentation and discussion on intertexual interpretations of New Testament passages. This unit focuses on ways in which the language of texts are recited, echoed, reconfigured, or recontextualized by other texts from the LXX, Greco-Roman philosophers, orators, decrees, Second Temple sources, Hebrew Scriptures, or another ancient source.
Call for papers: For our 2010 sessions in November, we will be exploring two different subjects: Methods of interpretation and the Gospel of Matthew. (1) For our session on methods, we welcome papers that address the use of a particular interpretative method (or methods) related to intertextuality and a sampling of how the method is used on a relevant text or passages anywhere in the New Testament. (2) For our session on the Gospel of Matthew, we welcome papers related to intertextual interpretation of a select passage (or passages) in the Gospel of Matthew.
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Islands, Islanders, and Scriptures
Description: This section is a platform for island and islander views, languages, peoples, swaggers, rhythms and more. It engages interests and realities of islanders from and between the Caribbean and Oceania, and how those condition the reception, translation and interpretation of scriptures.
Call for papers: We are planning for an invited session and an open session.
For the open session, we invite presentations that address how island ways, realities and/or imaginations [should] shape the reading of the Bible. For instance, from the Caribbean, calypso and reggae hold an intrinsic social critique of power (empire, in the case of reggae), suspicion of grand narrative, and the mimicry of the postcolonial condition. These can form the basis of some hermeneutical dig (or, approach).
Further, the art form of limbo (quintessential image of the island holiday) is a statement of survival and triumph when things are at their lowest point, raising another set of hermeneutical lenses for reading texts and realities formed and deformed by the Bible.
Proposals along those lines will be welcomed, and presenters are encouraged to engage particular scriptural (biblical and/or otherwise) texts.
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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 will offer three sessions at the 2010 meeting. Session 1. Invited panel. This is a joint session with Deuteronomistic History Section. The papers will address one or both of the following questions: (a) How does the portrayal of prophets in the Deuteronomistic History relate to the reality of prophecy in ancient Israelite society? (b) Given the role of prophetic figures and tropes within the Deuteronomistic History, what can be said of the prophets' role (or their support groups) in the formation process(es) of the History? Panelists have been selected.
Session 2. Continuity and Discontinuity in Israel's Existence: Invites papers that explore the dynamics of Israel's existence and identity as indicated in the "remnant," election, and rejection of persons, groups, and the nation (including existence in and apart from the land).
Session 3. Open Session. Invites papers on topics dealing with Israelite 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: Formerly the Israelite and Canaanite Religion Section, the Israelite Religion in
its West Asian Environment Section provides a forum for advanced discussion of
topics pertinent to the study of religion in ancient Israel and its immediate
environment. This program unit encourages research that utilizes a wide variety
of methodologies. For 2010, "Israelite Religion in Its West Asian Environment"
seeks papers dealing with the religions of Israel and neighboring lands, as
expressed through multiple disciplinary studies. These include textual,
epigraphic and archaeological studies, gender studies, iconographic and art
historical analyses, studies in comparative religions, ethnographic comparanda
and more. Attention can be paid to the religion of the home and family, city
and state, and royal and priestly elites. Abstracts from graduate students must
include name of program, name of faculty advisor and degree being sought.
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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: 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. We welcome papers on any aspect of this topic. For 2011, for at least part of one of the two sessions, we especially invite papers that briefly explore aspects of teaching Jesus traditions/Gospels as acts of imperial negotiation in relation to imperial contexts. Inquiries can be sent to warren.carter@tcu.edu.
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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: In 2010 we will be focusing on two themes. We will continue investigating the construction of categories like "Jewish Christianity" in the context of the beginnings of the critical study of the New Testament. In 2010, we will cover the time period from John Toland to Ferdinand Christian Baur. Second, we will summarize and assess the latest developments in the study of early Jewish-Christian gospels. A new edition of the classic German "Hennecke-Schneemelcher" collection is scheduled to appear in 2010. We will organize together with the Christian Apocrypha section a joint session where we will offer a discussion of this new collection. The two themes for the year 2010 will be discussed in session(s) based on invited papers but we are also welcoming proposals on both these themes and on any topic related to the goals and general subject of the program unit.
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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 2010 meeting.
For our other session, we are particularly interested in papers that explore the influence of the Johannine literature on later cultural phenomena, including theology, philosophy, material culture, and literature.
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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 myriad images of Revelation have inspired countless artists
across centuries, geographic boundaries and interpretive contexts. Through
a range of artistic media Revelation has been made relevant in various
cultural contexts and used to interpret diverse cultural realities. In
light of this, the Section on John's Apocalypse and Cultural Contexts,
Ancient and Modern invites papers related to the theme of "Revelation in the
Visual, Performing and Liturgical Arts."
The Section on John's Apocalypse and Cultural Contexts, Ancient and
Modern also invites paper proposals on a range of topics exploring the intersection between
Revelation and particular cultural contexts for an open session. We are especially interested
in papers exploring the connections between the Apocalypse and modern
cultural topics such as climate change, the civil rights movements and
animals. We also welcome papers examining Revelation in relation to
cross-cultural apocalyptic expectation. Papers offering new perspectives on
the relation between Revelation and ancient contexts will also be
considered, especially those that consider the Apocalypse from the
standpoints of new methodologies and reading strategies.
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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 launches the third year in the third phase of its program: “Glimpses of Jesus through the Johannine Lens,” focusing on the words of Jesus as presented in the Fourth Gospel. Its two invited sessions will involve a joint session with the Historical Jesus Section addressing the use of the Fourth Gospel in Jesus research and a session of invited papers on “Glimpses of the Words of Jesus through the Johannine Lens.” An open session on that topic will also be offered, and proposals are welcome on the Words of Jesus in John. A second open session will feature “Archaeology and the Fourth Gospel,” and papers are especially welcome on such topics as: the stone pavement in Jerusalem, Gabbatha, stone water jars, Bethsaida, Cana, Ephraim, the Sheep Gate, the treasury in the Temple, houses in Capernaum, the rebuilt Synagogue in Capernaum, Magdala, Bethsaida, Aenon near Salim, Bethany, the garden across the Kidron valley, Pilate’s praetorium, Jewish burial customs, the courtyard of the high priest, Jewish festivals (Booths, Dedication, Passover), etc. Inquiries on particular topics are welcome, and encouraged.
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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: There will be two meetings of the Josephus Group at the 2010 annual meeting. One of the sessions will be devoted to the Brill Commentary on Josephus, and presentations for this session will be by special invitation. The other session will be open to proposals, and we would particularly welcome papers dealing with aspects of narrative/narratology in the works of Josephus.
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Joshua-Judges
Description: The Joshua-Judges Section will seek to reach a synthesis of all genuinely pertinent information and insight needed to interpret Joshua and Judges responsibly and competently. Specialists will contribute to understanding contents, background, text, structure, and interpretation of these books.
Call for papers: The Joshua-Judges Consultation will be organizing two sessions for the 2010 Annual Meeting; papers will be invited.
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Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion
Description: The JFSR is the oldest interdisciplinary, interreligious feminist academic journal in religious studies. Founded in 1985, it is published twice annually, in the spring and fall. Located at the intersection of feminist theory and studies in religion, it welcomes contributions that explore a diversity of feminist theories, practices, cultures, and religions. Its editors are committed to rigorous thinking and analysis in the service of the transformation of religious studies as a discipline and the feminist transformation of religious and cultural institutions. Website: http://www.fsrinc.org/jfsr/
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Karl Barth Society of North America
Description: The purpose of the Society shall be to encourage a critical and constructive theology in continuity with the work of Karl Barth by such means as 1) the provision of whatever assistance is possible to the Karl Barth Foundation of Switzerland especially in its purpose "to collect and preserve the entire writings of Karl Barth and literature about him, including letters, and to prepare and publish a complete edition of the writings of Karl Barth"; 2) the establishment on the North American continent of a collection as complete as possible of Karl Barth's writings and works about Karl Barth in order to facilitate research projects; and 3) the organization of various types of conference to explore the resources of Karl Barth's work for theology.
Call for papers: The purpose of the Society shall be to encourage a critical and constructive theology in continuity with the work of Karl Barth by such means as 1) the provision of whatever assistance is possible to the Karl Barth Foundation of Switzerland especially in its purpose "to collect and preserve the entire writings of Karl Barth and literature about him, including letters, and to prepare and publish a complete edition of the writings of Karl Barth"; 2) the establishment on the North American continent of a collection as complete as possible of Karl Barth's writings and works about Karl Barth in order to facilitate research projects; and 3) the organization of various types of conference to explore the resources of Karl Barth's work for theology.
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Korean Biblical Colloquium
Description: The purpose of this organization is to promote Korean scholarship in biblical studies and related fields and to facilitate fellowship and networking among Korean scholars in those fields. Members of KBC include Koreans and others who are engaged in biblical studies and related fields and who are interested in developing Korean perspectives in those fields and sharing their scholarly experiences with fellow Korean scholars.
Call for papers: KBC has two calls for 2010. First, KBC seeks papers that address "biblical and its related studies" for our Annual Meeting held on Sunday (Nov 21) from 4 to 6:30 PM. Presenters and papers for our first call will be listed in the SBL Annual Meeting Book. The Second is for a special, pre-KBC Meeting, a "Symposium of the Korean Biblical Colloquium." The KBC Symposium will take place on "Thursday and Friday" (Nov 18-19) before the start of the regular Annual SBL Meeting in Atlanta, GA (Nov 20-23). Presenters for the Symposium will have their room (lodging), meals, and transportation from the airport to the Symposium site (either a local church or hotel) fully covered. Airfare is not covered. Outside the scope of two keynote speakers in the main plenary session, we call for papers that address: "The Bible and Korean (-American) Churches in the United States." Please indicate "Symposium" should you wish to present a paper in this session. As for the presentation in the Symposium, the paper may be in given in English or Korean, with an understanding that the audience in attendance will be a gathering of scholars, Ph.D. students, pastors, elders, and others from the greater Atlanta Korean-American and Korean communities.
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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: We invite proposals from scholars, poets, or creative artists such as
liturgists, on methodology or content related to the book of
Lamentations, lament in biblical or other sacred texts, or analogous
forms and expressions in ancient, traditional, or contemporary cultures.
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Latino/a/e and Latin American Biblical Interpretation
Description: The issue of contextualization at the level of reception or interpretation, involving not only location but also perspective, has become paramount in Biblical Studies in recent years. For some time now, a good and growing number of Latino/a American and Latin American biblical scholars have been addressing the problematic of reading the Bible explicitly from their particular placements and optics in society and culture. This proposed Consultation seeks to pursue such work in sustained and systematic fashion by bringing together scholars—Latino/a and Latin American as well as others with an interest in such discussions—from across the spectrum of biblical criticism. Its scope is conceived as broad: first, the biblical texts as such, both testaments; second, readings and readers of these texts in modern and postmodern biblical criticism; lastly, traditions of reading the Bible outside academic criticism. Its approach is also envisioned as wide-ranging: open to a variety of methodological approaches and theoretical perspectives, from the more traditional to the more recent.
Call for papers: 2010 Annual Meeting
This consultation will organize two invited sessions on the following topics: (1) The Bible and Liberation Hermeneutics; (2) Popular Readings of the Bible.
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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: In light of the 100th birthday of Hugh Nibley, papers are especially invited that examine or develop any themes related in any way to the topic of Hugh Nibley and the Bible. All other biblical studies of particular relevance to LDS scriptures, teachings, or practices are also welcome.
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Letters of James, Peter, and Jude
Description: The Letters of James, Peter, and Jude Section considers research on these letters that contribute to understanding them and their social contexts. It encourages the use of rhetorical, social-scientific, sociorhetorical, ideological, and hermeneutical methods, as well as other cross-disciplinary approaches in addition to the historical-critical method.
Call for papers: The Letters of James, Peter, and Jude is issuing a call for papers with two distinct foci: (1) We are beginning a multi-year research program examining "The Relationship between Q and the Early Jesus Tradition and the Letters of James Peter and Jude." The focus for our 2010 meeting is on the relationship between Q and James, and paper proposals with this focus are encouraged. (2) Open Session(s): Papers on any aspect related to the study of the letters of James, Peter and Jude (see the general description of this section).
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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: Apocalyptic Literature under a Queer Lens.
The LGBT/ Queer Hermeneutics Sections invites papers exploring intersections between apocalyptic texts and LGBT/ Queer Hermeneutics. We welcome papers that offer queer readings of apocalyptic texts from across and around the canon, including Revelation, Daniel, Ezekiel, Enoch, Apocalypse of Peter, Dead Sea Scrolls, etc, as well as papers that engage more general themes of biblical apocalypticism (e.g. dualism, hybridity, eschatology) through an LGBT/ Queer lens.
For our second session, co-sponsored with the Program Unit on Gender, Sexuality, and the Bible, we invite submissions for papers that explore the prefixes of ‘inter-’ and ‘trans-’ in relation to bodies, gender, sexualities and the biblical texts and traditions. We encourage proposals to think broadly about these prefixes, exploring issues of intersex and transgender experiences alongside of or in relation to broad themes of intersection, transformation, transnational, etc.
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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: This section will have two meetings, as in the past. One meeting will be topical, focusing this year on semantics and Biblical Hebrew (e.g., lexicography, semantic roles, the semantics of the stem system, etc.). The other meeting will be open to any presentation in Biblical Hebrew and the modern study of linguistics. All submissions are welcome.
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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 be holding two sessions. The first will be a panel of invited speakers continuing our theme regarding Diaspora Judaism. The second will be in conjunction with the Chronicles-Ezra-Nehemiah section...we invite proposals for a session on the topic of Economics. Proposals may deal with any aspect of economics in Persian-period Yehud and/or the communities of the Diaspora in the Persian period; as well, proposals that deal with the Persian, Mesopotamian or Egyptian contexts are welcome.
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Markan Literary Sources
Description: This Seminar on Markan Literary Sources will explore Mark's literary dependence on extant literature, especially Jewish, Christian, and Greco-Roman—a topic that has long been neglected. The method will include awareness of: (a) ancient methods of reshaping texts; (b) recently-developed criteria for judging literary dependence.
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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: Masoretic Studies will hold an Open Session at the 2010 Annual Meeting. Papers pertaining to Masoretic Studies or related topics are welcome. Anyone interested in presenting should contact Daniel Mynatt at DMynatt@andersonuniversity.edu.
The Masoretic Studies Section is affiliated with the International Organization for Masoretic Studies, which is an affiliate organization of the SBL.
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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 is seeking proposals on Matthean topics for the 2010 Annual Meeting. We will hold three sessions in 2010. Two of these will be open sessions for papers on any Matthean topic. The other session will be an invited session on the theme "Matthew’s Gospel and Early Christianity: Studies in Memory of Professor Graham Stanton". In 2009 New Testament studies lost one of its most respected senior members in the person of Professor Graham Stanton. Prof Stanton's influence on the field of Matthew and Early Christianity was significant and deserves to be celebrated. This session’s purpose is to engage with the general areas of Prof Stanton’s research: the Gospel of Matthew and Early Christianity. A select group of scholars will be invited to offer papers that engage a research question related to Matthew and Early Christianity in memory of Graham Stanton.
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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: We propose three sessions for our final deliberations as a seminar: 1) Rethinking Eucharistic Origins, 2) Rethinking Last Suppper/Lord's Supper, 3) Rethinking Passover and Other Jewish Meals. Papers will be assigned to members of the seminar.
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Memory Perspectives on Early Christianity and Its Greco-Roman Context
Description: With a focus on memory, the Consultation extends the ongoing SBL programs on the interaction of Greco-Roman culture and Christianity. This interdisciplinary and international dialogue brings together leading scholars from classics, ancient history and archaeology, and religious studies on memory formation.
Call for papers: With a focus on memory, the Consultation extends the ongoing SBL programs on the interaction of Greco-Roman culture and Christianity. This interdisciplinary and international dialogue brings together leading scholars from classics, ancient history and archaeology, and religious studies on memory formation.
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Metaphor Theory and the Hebrew Bible
Description: This section aims to advance the understanding of how metaphor operates in the Hebrew Bible, with a focus on how applied metaphor theory can enhance our work as Bible scholars; it also aims to deepen our knowledge of the diverse metaphorical language used in the Hebrew Bible.
Call for papers: This section aims to advance the understanding of how metaphor operates in the Hebrew Bible, with a focus on how applied metaphor theory can enhance our work as Bible scholars; it also aims to deepen our knowledge of the diverse metaphorical language used in the Hebrew Bible.
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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: One session ("Current Issues in Midrash Halakha") will be open to paper proposals that address current scholarly issues and methodological approaches pertaining to the study of Midrash Halakha. A second session ("Midrash and Creation") will be open to paper proposals that address midrashic interpretation of creation. An additional session will be open to paper proposals that address any area of critical midrash research.
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Minoritized Criticism and Biblical Interpretation
Description: The issue of contextualization at the level of reception and interpretation, involving not only social-cultural location but also ideological perspective, has become paramount in Biblical Studies in recent years. For some time now, a substantial and ever-growing number of African American, Asian American, and Latino/a American biblical scholars have been addressing the problematic of reading the biblical texts explicitly from their respective placements and optics in society and culture. This proposed Consultation seeks to expand such work by bringing together scholars from these and other population groups, both national and international, that have traditionally been classified as “minority” groups but who today classify themselves as “minoritized” groups.
A word about the term “minoritized” is in order. Such groups have undergone what in Racial-Ethnic Studies is known as a process of racialization or ethnicization, grounded in real or perceived biological or cultural features, respectively. The process itself is dialectical as well as differential. It is dialectical insofar as it entails a construction of a racial or ethnic Other by a Self, which in the process constructs itself as separate. It is differential insofar as such a construction involves an unequal relation of power between Self and Other, one of domination and subordination, respectively. When such a process takes place at the level of a political unit or state, then one can speak of such groups as “minoritized” by a “dominantized” group formation.
The proposed Consultation thus seeks to bring together critics from such groups not only within the United States but also globally, in order to work together as critics on the problematic of minoritization-dominantization at all levels of the discipline as conceived and practiced today. Its scope is thus quite broad: (1) the ancient texts as such, canonical as well as extracanonical; (2) readings and readers of these texts in modern and postmodern
Call for papers: The issue of contextualization at the level of reception and interpretation, involving not only social-cultural location but also ideological perspective, has become paramount in Biblical Studies in recent years. For some time now, a substantial and ever-growing number of African American, Asian American, and Latino/a American biblical scholars have been addressing the problematic of reading the biblical texts explicitly from their respective placements and optics in society and culture. This proposed Consultation seeks to expand such work by bringing together scholars from these and other population groups, both national and international, that have traditionally been classified as “minority” groups but who today classify themselves as “minoritized” groups.
A word about the term “minoritized” is in order. Such groups have undergone what in Racial-Ethnic Studies is known as a process of racialization or ethnicization, grounded in real or perceived biological or cultural features, respectively. The process itself is dialectical as well as differential. It is dialectical insofar as it entails a construction of a racial or ethnic Other by a Self, which in the process constructs itself as separate. It is differential insofar as such a construction involves an unequal relation of power between Self and Other, one of domination and subordination, respectively. When such a process takes place at the level of a political unit or state, then one can speak of such groups as “minoritized” by a “dominantized” group formation.
The proposed Consultation thus seeks to bring together critics from such groups not only within the United States but also globally, in order to work together as critics on the problematic of minoritization-dominantization at all levels of the discipline as conceived and practiced today. Its scope is thus quite broad: (1) the ancient texts as such, canonical as well as extracanonical; (2) readings and readers of these texts in modern and postmodern
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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's agenda for the next several years is to explore "Possible Provenances of Merkavah Mysticism." For the meeting in Atlanta, we will have at least one paper session. Thus, we invite papers that examine texts from the second Temple period (and beyond) and that seek to explain how the text under examination could represent a provenance or line of tradition that informed later Merkavah Mysticism.
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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 two or three open sessions on a variety of themes. Those which particularly interest the steering committee include a focus on myth, ritual, Gnosticism and Empire; the fall of the angels; mysticism (particularly with Jewish precedents) and the New Valentinianism. We particularly encourage "interdisciplinary" papers that think across the margins of subfields in Early Christianity, including papers that treat subjects within Gnosticism and Neoplatonist thought, or that focus on Nag Nammadi and/or other early Christian apocryphal writings.
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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: The National Association of Professors of Hebrew (NAPH), 2010 Annual Meeting, is sponsoring seven sessions. Session One, Annual Meeting of Officers and Membership. Session Two, Theme, "The Exodus, Then and Now." Papers exploring sources from the Bible, rabbinics, liturgy, and contemporary thought are especially welcomed. Session Three, the NAPH Methodology session is interested in recently published grammars. Authors and reviewers are invited to participate in a panel examining Hebrew grammars published in the last five years. Sessions Four, Five, and Six are devoted to “Diachrony in Biblical Hebrew,” and will consist of some invited and some proposed papers. Scholars interested in proposing papers for the sessions are requested to contact one of the two chairs, Cynthia Miller or Ziony Zevit, in order to receive details about the specific objectives of the 2010 sessions. Finally, Session Seven, theme, "The Future of Biblical Studies." This panel will highlight the work of young scholars in forging new directions for the study of the Bible in order to explore where the field is heading over the coming generation.
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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.
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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 invites proposals for two sessions: 1) The first session will be devoted to the history of the textual transmission of the New Testament, especially the social-history of early Christian textual transmission and the history and practice of textual criticism. 2) The second session is an open session for which proposals are welcome on any aspect of New Testament textual criticism. Papers should be submitted via the online system. For questions, please contact AnneMarie Luijendijk at aluijend@princeton.edu.
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Nida Institute
Description: For information please contact: Kent Richards at kent.richards@strategypoints.org.
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North American Association for the Study of Religion
Description: The North American Association for the Study of Religion (NAASR) was initially formed in 1985 by E. Thomas Lawson, Luther H. Martin, and Donald Wiebe, to encourage the historical, comparative, structural, theoretical, and cognitive approaches to the study of religion among North American scholars; to represent North American scholars of religion at the international level; and to sustain communication between North American scholars and their international colleagues engaged in the study of religion.
Call for papers: The North American Association for the Study of Religion (NAASR) was initially formed in 1985 by E. Thomas Lawson, Luther H. Martin, and Donald Wiebe, to encourage the historical, comparative, structural, theoretical, and cognitive approaches to the study of religion among North American scholars; to represent North American scholars of religion at the international level; and to sustain communication between North American scholars and their international colleagues engaged in the study of religion.
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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 will have one open session at the 2010 Annual meeting and are open to proposals on any topic related to the overall focus of the group. Slight preference may be given to proposals that link with our focus in 2010 on interrogating the idea that some sort of "scripturalization" occurred in the Second Temple period. In a session of invited papers and (perhaps) additional papers in the open section of 2010, we aim to explore what we mean when we talk about "scripturalization," what change it implies in the relationship of written traditions to oral traditions, and what was the relationship of scripturalization to the fixing of texts and to the process of canonization? In addition, we are interested in other periods that have been proposed as key moments of scripturalization (e.g. the Neo-Assyrian period).
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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 focuses primarily on the subject of palaeography, within the broader context of ancient Near Eastern epigraphy. It concentrates predominantly on the Northwest Semitic linear alphabetic scripts, but also on analyses of Ugaritic cuneiform, Mesopotamian cuneiform, Egyptian, Hittite, Greek. Papers on recent discoveries of new inscriptions or reanalyses of previously known inscriptions are particularly welcome.
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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 invites papers from biblical scholars, classicists, and papyrologists interested in how the papyri illuminate the language, thought, and social context of early Christianity. Papers on paleographic, linguistic, textual, or historical questions are welcome.
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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 steering committee has planned two sessions of invited
papers on “Paul and the Politics of Introduction,” but invites papers for an
open session. We are especially interested in receiving papers that address the intersection of politics and theology in the interpretation of Paul and/or the politics of Pauline theology.
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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: Some of the papers for both sessions will be invited, but the steering committee is also open to proposals on the topics indicated. Papers should attend to methodological problems in the study of Paul's use of Scripture, not just offer a particular reading of a single passage. Since this is a seminar, papers are normally longer than a regular SBL paper and need to be completed by November 1 so that the members of the seminar can read them prior to the meeting.
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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: For the 2010 meeting we invite offers of 25 minute papers on any Pauline subject for three open sessions; the fourth session will be of invited papers on the subject of Cosmology in Paul's Letters. First time submitters (only) for the open session papers should present both an abstract and a completed manuscript.
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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.
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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: 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 the links between transmission history and synchronic methodologies. In 2011 the Pentateuch Section will have one or two session open to all topics. Proposals that take a source-critical approach or that engage with current scholarly debate on the composition of the Pentateuch are particularly encouraged.
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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 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.
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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: For 2010 we plan to hold two sessions on Philo and the Roman World, which will include a mix of invited speakers and selected presenters in response to this call for papers. We are seeking papers on such topics as Philo and Roman culture, religion, and/or philosophy (including Philo and such figures as Cicero or Plutarch); traces of Rome in Philo's exegesis; Philo's attitude toward Rome; the meaning of "Roman" Alexandria; the role of Rome in the Alexandrian uprising of 38 C.E.; Philo's embassy to Gaius in Rome; Philo's family (e.g., his brother Alexander and/or his nephew Tiberius Julius Alexander) and Rome; possible links between Rome and Philo's audience; Rome and the Jews' Alexandrian adversaries; and Philo's portrayal of Roman personages (e.g., Gaius, Flaccus, and/or others).
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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 and art, 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.
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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: The Pseudepigrapha Section will have three sessions at the Atlanta meeting. The first is a closed, invited panel presentation and open discussion on “Inspiration in Antiquity: the Production and Interpretation of Texts, Part II” a follow-up to the popular session held in New Orleans. The second session is also a closed, invited session that will involve a discussion of The Eerdmans Dictionary of Early Judaism, edited by John J. Collins and Daniel Harlow.
Papers are invited for the third, open session of the Pseudepigrapha Section with a preference for papers that address issues related to time or space. Papers ought not necessarily to be limited to texts traditionally identified as Old Testament Pseudepigrapha but may include other texts from Judaism during the Second Temple period, such as the “Apocrypha” of the Bible, the Dead Sea Scrolls, Philo, Josephus, etc. Paper proposals should argue a clear thesis and give a concrete sense of the texts that will be subject to analysis. Discussion of method will also be 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, characters, and/or readers using the concepts and interpretive tools of any field of psychology. We would particularly welcome proposals in two areas: the biblical concept of "soul" and its relationship to psychology, including recent studies in neuro-psychology; and practical applications of a psychological approach to scripture and biblical texts in academic, religious, or community contexts. See our website at www.psybibs.org for more details, or contact the Chair, D. Andrew Kille, at psybibs@psybibs.org.
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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 2010 meeting the Q section will organise three sessions: 1. An invited session discussing whether the double tradition material came to Matthew and Luke orally or in written form, and with what degree of coherence. 2. Q Open session. This session allows for the presentation of papers on any aspect of the Q document. 3. Q Open session. This session allows for the presentation of papers on any aspect of the Q document.
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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: We are inviting proposals for papers on two special topics as well as for an open session. The first special session, which will include some invited speakers also, is entitled Challenging Modern Scholarly Categories. We would like this session to address the question to what extent modern scholarly categories (such as biblical/non-biblical and sectarian/non-sectarian) have exercised undue influence on the way scholars have read new and old primary texts. The second special session, which will also include some invited speakers, is entitled The Relationship of the Dead Sea Scrolls to the Literature, History, Social Structures, and Religious Thought of Early Christianity. It is planned to hold this session in honor of Prof. Joseph A. Fitzmyer, one of the pioneers in this field. The Open Session will be devoted to any aspect of the study the Dead Sea Scrolls and Qumran including studies of texts, material culture, history, literature, or recent advances in the field.
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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: 2010 Call for Papers:
Suggested topics include, but are not limited to, critical
approaches to the study/analysis of the Qur'an (from both Muslim and
non-Muslim perspectives), pedagogy (the Qur'an in the classroom);
comparative hermeneutics (ancient, medieval, or contemporary); interfaith
dialog; sectarian polemics; gender/sexuality in comparative perspective; Qur'an in the context of late antiquity. Both prearranged panels and individual submissions are welcome.
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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 invites proposals for two sessions this year. One session will explore the limits of the human. The biblical corpus is populated by gods, animals, monsters, fantastical and supernatural beasts, angels, and specters -- each interacting with and defining the human in different ways -- and so we especially encourage proposals that draw on recent theories in animal studies, as well as those dealing with the intersections of the human with political and economic systems (possibly in conversation with Derrida's The Beast and the Sovereign, for example). Since many of the key biblical texts making explicit claims about the status of the human are poetic (Ps 8) or apocalyptic, we also hope to receive proposals that engage non-narrative texts, in the broadest meaning of the term. A second session is open and proposals are welcome for papers that engage contemporary theory for purposes of biblical interpretation. 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 accommodated 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: This unit focuses on the recovery of work by female interpreters of the Bible before the twentieth century who wrote from a variety of faith and ideological standpoints. These women will be considered in the cultural and historical contexts in which they wrote, with the intention of analyzing their neglected contributions to the study of biblical literature. For our open session, entitled "Villainesses, Harlots, and 'Bad' Women of the Bible," we welcome papers about female interpreters who wrote about "problematic" biblical women (e.g., Rahab, Jezebel, Herodias and her daughter, Judah's daughter-in-law Tamar, etc.) prior to 1900. A closed session, co-sponsored by the African-American Biblical Hermeneutics Section, will include invited papers and a response, dealing with nineteenth-century African American female interpreters of scripture.
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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 Redescribing Early Christianity Group evisions two sessions. The first, jointly sponsored with the Greo-Roman Religions Section, is on the theme of "The Nineteenth-Century Making of Ancient Religion," and features only invited papers. Theoretical redescription entails, among other things, reconceptualization of the categories by means of which the object of study is described, analyzed, and theorized. Cultural upheavals and redefinitions in early 19th-century Europe created the scholarly framework for describing and interpreting both Christian origins as well as ancient Mediterranean religions. The political emancipation of Jews from the end of the 18th-century onwards and the rearrangement of social and economic relations through the industrial revolution had long-enduring effects on both of these areas of study. While the rediscovery of the importance of Judaism underlay the development of a historical-critical reconstruction of the development of the Christian tradition, Romanticism as a counter-cultural movement to industrialization created the propensity to portray Mediterranean religions as nature religions and as in decline in late antiquity. In both cases the subsequent history of the discipline of History of Religions (as focused on both Christian origins and ancient Mediterranean religions), including its conceptual apparatus and typical depictions of religious phenomena, was profoundly shaped by cultural events in early 19th-century Europe. In fact, it can be asked whether the History of Religions is less about history than it is a mirror of 19th-century European cultural self-definitions.
This jointly sponsored session will explore issues such as these and focus in particular on the manufacturing of our picture of the past as well as on the important question of overcoming this historical legacy.
The second session, which is accepting papers, is on the theme of "Rectification of Categories for the Study of Early Christianity."
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Religious Competition in Late Antiquity
Description: This unit analyzes the competition between diverse socioreligious and philosophical groups of the ancient Mediterranean basin through the development of broadly comparative approaches and methodologies. It delineates the ways in which competitive interaction reshaped cultural and religious landscapes.
Call for papers: For the 2010 Annual Meeting in Atlanta, this unit will be organizing an invited session around the theme “Assessing Religious Competition in the Third Century: Methods and Approaches.”
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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: This year we especially welcome proposals in one of two following areas:
1) We are sponsoring a joint session with the Ritual in the Biblical World Section on ritual transformation. Papers that explore examples of ritual actions (including magical rituals) that effect changes in status, affiliation, social identity and boundaries or ontology would be welcome. Abstracts should indicate how the paper will address the ways in which ritual actions operate and influence actors' and participants' experience. This might include stimulation of emotion (negative or positive), use of the body, evocation of memories, or establishment of communal solidarity.
2) Religious experience in the Gospel and letters of John. Papers might focus on aspects of the text that stimulate experience (e.g. evocation of memory, the senses, or emotions) or on the experience of Johannine community (e.g., suffering, sectarianism, identity formation). As always we invite papers that explore social and embodied contributions to meaning.
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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: The Religious World of Late Antiquity Group seeks paper proposals for panels on the two following themes:
(1) "Corpses that Matter": What societies do with dead bodies expresses more about the living than the dead. In this session we seek papers exploring how religious communities of late antiquity expressed, negotiated, and/or contested religious identities through the rituals and discourses surrounding the treatment of human corpses.
(2) "Angels and Demons Among Us": Though it is often the judgment of the observer whether it is angelic or demonic in origin, the experience of an indwelling visitor is often reported in the worlds religions. Such visitations may have dramatic effects not only on the medium of the visitation but on his or her larger society, depending on how widely the visitation is accepted as legitimate. In this session we seek papers dealing with the personal and/or political consequences of such claims in the religious worlds of Late Antiquity.
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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: The Section invites proposals pertaining to all aspects of the rhetorical interpretation of the New Testement, including methodological proposals, rhetorical interpretation of ancient and early Christian texts, investigations of the history and practice of rhetoric, and interrogations of the discipline of biblical scholarship.
In 2011 the Section will also feature invited papers for two sessions: (1) The Rhetoric of Nationalism in Biblical Interpretation and (2) Genealogies of Rhetorical Criticism.
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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 Group plans to hold two sessions. The first, “Writing Socio-Rhetorical Commentary: Is There Anything New Under the Sun?,” is a pre-planned session that will feature the presentation of sections of socio-rhetorical commentary (from work in progress) with invited responses by scholars writing commentary on the same text from another methodological paradigm. The main papers will be distributed prior to the meeting and will be summarized rather than read. The second session will be sponsored jointly with the Rhetoric and New Testament Section, and will focus on “Rhetorical Criticisms and the Speeches of Acts.” The steering committees solicit papers on one of two speeches in Acts (Peter's speech in Acts 2; Paul's speech in Acts 17) written from a clearly defined methodological location within the broader umbrella of rhetorical criticism as a means of fostering dialogue concerning the contributions and limitations of each rhetorical approach.
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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 section plans three sessions in Atlanta.
1st Session: Joint Session with the Religious Experience in Early Judaism and Early Christianity Section.
The Ritual in the Biblical World Section and the Religious Experience in Early Judaism and Christianity Section are sponsoring a joint session on ritual transformation. Papers that explore examples of ritual actions (including magical rituals) that effect changes in status, affiliation, social identity and boundaries or ontology would be welcome. Abstracts should indicate how the paper will address the ways in which ritual actions operate and influence actors' and participants' experience. This might include stimulation of emotion (negative or positive), use of the body, evocation of memories or establishment of communal solidarity.
2nd Session: Ritual and Gender. Papers for this session should address issues of gender on any level of ritual practice and symbolism. This could refer to the ritual providers or conductors, as well as to the participants, the material used – such as animals of a certain sex, or use of colors indicating gender, or the use of gendered language in ritual descriptions.
We also invite proposals on all areas of ritual in the biblical world for an open session.
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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 will focus on two aspects this year: 1. Reconciliation and Peace in Romans, 2. Historical Perspectives from the Radical Reformation. We accept proposals for papers in both of these areas.
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Sabbath in Text and Tradition
Description: This unit brings together scholars of biblical and post-biblical texts and traditions for sustained, cross-disciplinary conversation about the Sabbath’s origins, development and meaning; provides constructive venues for papers, reviews, presentations, critique and feedback; and promotes collaboration in producing publications on the Sabbath.
Call for papers: The Sabbath in Text, Tradition, and Theology Consultation invites papers on the topic of The Sabbath in Judaism and/or Christianity, 70-325 CE. Papers may discuss any topic within this time period including but not limited to the Sabbath in Rabbinic Judaism, the change of the Sabbath to Sunday for Christians, the continuation of Sabbath observance by some Christians and reaction to them, the Talmudic view of prohibiting Gentiles to observe the Sabbath, and conversations between Jews and Christians regarding the Sabbath. Papers may approach the topic from any perspective – historical, religio-cultural, textual, tradition history or other theoretical models. Send proposals in MS Word format to: Tom Shepherd, trs@andrews.edu, OR submit through the Society of Biblical Literature website at http://www.sbl-site.org.
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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: The Sacrifice, Cult, and Atonement section invites papers for three open sessions: two sessions on its own and one joint session with the Space, Place, and Lived Experience in Antiquity section and the Hebrews section. The first session is entitled “Ancient Near Eastern and Mediterranean Expulsion Rituals;” the second “Atonement Concepts: Babylonian, Hebrew, Jewish, Christian.” The joint session with the Space, Place, and Lived Experience in Antiquity section and the Hebrews section is entitled “Simultaneous Cults: The Intersection of Sacred Space, Time, and Practice.” Four papers will be presented in each session followed by a five-minute discussion each; a general discussion panel concludes each session.
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SBL Forum
Description: *
Call for papers: The SBL Forum invites proposals for a special session on Jewish Reception History. Reception History is generally understood as an investigation of the way(s) in which biblical literature has been received, engaged, exegeted, rendered, and utilized by flesh-and-blood interpreters, sometimes within but often outside of faith communities. Papers are welcome on all aspects of Jewish biblical interpretation in art, literature (especially comics and graphic novels), music (especially modern), dance, material culture (such as tchotchkes, board games, dolls, etc.), ritual practice, television, and/or film. Papers that employ multimedia components are especially welcome, as are proposals by first-time presenters.
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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: The Scripture in Early Judaism and Christianity Section welcomes proposals in 2010 on the topic of the Jewish scriptures in the Gospel of Luke. One session will consist of invited papers on this topic, with an additional session planned consisting of papers proposed through this website. Proposals for papers on other topics will also be considered for a more general session.
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.
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Second Corinthians: Pauline Theology in the Making
Description: Existing Pauline Theologies are either based on the ripe fruit of Paul’s theologizing in Romans (e.g., J. Dunn) or give a synthesis of theological themes across the board of Paul’s letters. The focus of this Seminar is how Paul develops his theology in his second letter to the Corinthians. We shall trace aspects of his theology on a trajectory from their very beginning in concrete historical situations and compare them to their reuse in more abstract contexts. Attention will also be given to their potential pre-Christian or early Christian pre-history and their post-history in what has been called the Pauline school. The main focus will be on the way concrete historical circumstances shaped the genesis of certain theological themes and how they changed when new circumstances arose or when the link to concrete circumstances got lost. Each theological theme will therefore primarily be studied in its epistolary context of 2 Corinthians and in light of the historical situation in which it was developed. The comparison with other letters is not intended to create one unified Pauline theology, but rather, in the contrast with other instances, to understand better the specifics of the theme under study.
Call for papers: For this seminar there are two calls for papers:
1. an open call for papers along the lines of the goals of the seminar (see description).
2. a call for papers soliciting papers on 2 Corinthians 4 along the lines of the goals of the seminar (see description).
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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: Semiotics and Exegesis Section will host two sections at the 2010 Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature. Topics include the following:
1. Proposals concerned with semiotic theory and practice in the interpretation of biblical texts in relation to South Pacific and East Asian thought and cultures.
2. Proposals concerned with the interactions among semiotics and biblical exegesis in relation to the metaphors and concepts of “body.”
There is also an open call for papers for any proposal which addresses the general mission of the section as 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.
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Senses, Cultures, and Biblical Worlds
Description: This interdisciplinary unit investigates all aspects of sensory perception in the Bible and early Judaism and Christianity, including how various cultures thought about, used, and ascribed meaning to the senses. The unit embraces diverse approaches to the study of the senses, including philological, anthropological, psychological, linguistic, cognitive, literary, and phenomenological methods.
Call for papers: The unit Sensory Perception in the Bible, and Early Judaism and Christianity investigates how the various cultures associated with the Bible and early Judaism and Christianity thought about, used, and ascribed meaning to the human senses. The unit embraces diverse approaches to the study of the senses including textual study, anthropology, psychology, linguistics, and phenomenology. For the 2011 Annual meeting, we are looking for papers that deal with any or all of the senses. One session will be open and one session will be dedicated to literary investigation of the senses.
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Service-Learning and Biblical Studies
Description: This workshop will focus on ways service-learning can be incorporated into a biblical studies curriculum. This workshop will provide 1) an arena for service-learning practitioners to come together to share ideas and insights of successful projects and 2) to “brainstorm” new ways that service-learning can be utilized to enhance curriculum and serve local communities.
Call for papers: The workshop is accepting papers for the Atlanta 2010 SBL which demonstrate
'Best Practices' of incorporating Service-Learning/Community Engaged
Learning into biblical/theological/religious studies courses. Papers are
encouraged from diverse institution types. Presenters should be able to
articulate clearly how the project(s) was/were integrated with the
curriculum and helped meet the course's student learning outcomes.
Papers which present projects which have a high potential of being replicated by attendees are especially encouraged.
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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 are seeking proposals on four topics: 1) Religious formations and urban topography/landscape in Asia Minor; 2) Food production and communal identities; 3) Responses to/constructions of “the Pagan” in formative Christianity and Judaism; and 4) for a joint session with “Violence and Representations of Violence among Christians and Jews”: Violence and the household. Topics on this latter theme might include violence against women, slaves, and children; discussions of violent imagery on artifacts within the domus/oikos; and the like. The Social History Section is particularly interested in research that works with material culture in a methodologically sophisticated fashion – but all social history proposals on these or other topics are welcome.
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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: The section is a dynamic program segment of the SBL that provides a welcoming forum for investigation of the social world of ancient Israel. For an open panel, the section particularly encourages papers utilizing methods and theories from the social sciences for the interpretation of the Hebrew Scriptures. For other panels, we seek papers on "resistance" and "resistance literature" in the Hebrew Bible, and in particular welcome papers using post-colonial critiques in combination with social science methods on that topic.
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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 encourages the self-conscious use of models and methods from the social sciences to shed light on the texts and social world of the New Testament. Of two sessions, one will be devoted to a discussion of the problematic related to the term 'Mediterranean.' Papers for this session have already been invited. The other session is open and topics related to social scientific criticism of the New Testament are invited.
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Society for Ancient Mediterranean Religions
Description: This new group is devoted to the study of the religions of the ancient Mediterranean basin broadly conceived. The Society for Ancient Mediterranean Religions aims to focus particular attention on the polytheistic religious traditions of Greece, Rome and the Near East, their interaction with each other, and with the monotheistic religious traditions of the region. Please visit out website (www.samreligions.org) for further information.
Call for papers: This new group is devoted to the study of the religions of the ancient Mediterranean basin broadly conceived. The Society for Ancient Mediterranean Religions aims to focus particular attention on the polytheistic religious traditions of Greece, Rome and the Near East, their interaction with each other, and with the monotheistic religious traditions of the region. Please visit out website (www.samreligions.org) for further information.
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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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Society for the Arts in Religious and Theological Studies (SARTS)
Description: The Society was organized to provide a forum for scholars and artists interested in the intersections between theology, religion, and the arts, to share thoughts, challenge ideas, strategize approaches in the classroom, and to advance the discipline in theological and religious studies curricula. The goal of the Society is to attract consistent participation of a core group of artists and scholars of theology and religion in order to have dialogue about the theological and religious meaning of the arts, and the artistic/aesthetic dimension of theological and religious inquiry.
Call for papers: The Society was organized to provide a forum for scholars and artists interested in the intersections between theology, religion, and the arts, to share thoughts, challenge ideas, strategize approaches in the classroom, and to advance the discipline in theological and religious studies curricula. The goal of the Society is to attract consistent participation of a core group of artists and scholars of theology and religion in order to have dialogue about the theological and religious meaning of the arts, and the artistic/aesthetic dimension of theological and religious inquiry.
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Society of Christian Ethics
Description: The purpose of the Society is to promote scholarly work in Christian ethics and in the relation of Christian ethics to other traditions of ethics, and to social, economic, political and cultural problems; to encourage and improve the teaching of these fields in colleges, universities and theological schools; and to provide a community of discourse and debate for those engaged professionally within these general fields.
A non-denominational scholarly association, the Society of Christian Ethics draws its 950 members from the faculties of universities, colleges, and theological schools primarily from the United States, Canada, and Europe. The growth and vitality of the Society of Christian Ethics reflect the maturing of the academic discipline of Christian social ethics.
The SCE promotes research in the history of ethics and moral theology, theoretical issues relating to the interplay of theology and ethics, methodology in ethical reflection and investigation, and comparative religious ethics. At the same time, the Society addresses in national and global contexts problems in applied and professional ethics, and various human rights and social justice issues.
For more information, please visit: http://www.scethics.org
Call for papers: The purpose of the Society is to promote scholarly work in Christian ethics and in the relation of Christian ethics to other traditions of ethics, and to social, economic, political and cultural problems; to encourage and improve the teaching of these fields in colleges, universities and theological schools; and to provide a community of discourse and debate for those engaged professionally within these general fields.
A non-denominational scholarly association, the Society of Christian Ethics draws its 950 members from the faculties of universities, colleges, and theological schools primarily from the United States, Canada, and Europe. The growth and vitality of the Society of Christian Ethics reflect the maturing of the academic discipline of Christian social ethics.
The SCE promotes research in the history of ethics and moral theology, theoretical issues relating to the interplay of theology and ethics, methodology in ethical reflection and investigation, and comparative religious ethics. At the same time, the Society addresses in national and global contexts problems in applied and professional ethics, and various human rights and social justice issues.
For more information, please visit: http://www.scethics.org
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Søren Kierkegaard Society
Description: The purpose of Søren Kierkegaard Society (SKS) is to encourage study and discussion of the thought of Søren Kierkegaard in all its dimensions and ramifications, including its sources and influences. Affiliated with the American Academy of Religion (AAR), Society of Biblical Literature (SBL), and the American Philosophical Association (APA), the Society alternates its annual business meeting between AAR/SBL and APA conventions. The Society encourages scholarship on Kierkegaard at the national and regional meetings of the AAR/SBL and APA through an Executive Committee which includes members of both organizations.
Call for papers: The Søren Kierkegaard Society calls for papers dealing with Kierkegaard’s use of the Epistle of James. Papers are welcome concerning the interpretation of James in the nineteenth century that may have influenced Kierkegaard and also concerning more recent interpretations of James that have been influenced by Kierkegaard or could be put in a fruitful dialogue with Kierkegaard.
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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: We plan to hold three sessions in 2010. One session is open, and we invite proposals on any aspect of the unit’s themes. A second session is on the topic “Reading Sacred Landscapes.” This is a joint session with the Archaeology of Religion in the Roman World Section that initiates a series of meetings exploring the intersection of realia and theory. This year's themes include the discovery and/or articulation of the sacred in natural settings, the physical bearings and religious experiences of rural sanctuaries, and the creation and recreation of sacred landscapes in other contexts. Please submit proposals for this session through the Archaeology of Religion in the Roman World Call for Papers. A third session is planned with the Hellenistic Judaism Section. The theme of the session is, What constitutes Jewish space and practice in cities and urban centers in the Greco-Roman world? We welcome papers on any aspect of this theme, which might include such things as city planning and the arrangements of neighborhoods within them, or architecture or architectural decoration of spaces or places that are part of lived experience. Please submit proposals for this section through the Hellenistic Judaism Call for Papers.
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Speech and Talk in the Ancient Mediterranean World
Description: This section focuses on speech practices and discourse about speech. Of special interest
are the ways that gender, status, and ethnicity figure in ancient discussions of speech, and the way
that social realities are revealed—and shaped—by discourse about how to talk. Treatments of
specific ways of talking (e.g. gossip, loquacity) as well as more theoretical analyses of speech
are welcomed.
Call for papers: For the 2010 meeting: Invited papers. Call for papers open for the 2011 meeting in December 2010.
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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 offers three proposed sessions for which we invite paper proposals. Two of these sessions are open sessions, and for these we invite any proposals that deal with the synoptic gospels -- but especially studies that might involve comparative or thematic approaches that might encompass more than one synoptic gospel. For the third session, to be jointly sponsored with both the Bible and Visual Art Section and the Bible and Film Consultation, we invite presentations on "Using Visual Media in Teaching the Synoptic Gospels"; media may range from manuscript illumination to painting to sculpture to movies.
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Syriac Literature and Interpretations of Sacred Texts
Description: This unit offers a forum for scholars studying the Syriac interpretation of Biblical and related literatures and the intimate connections between Syriac biblical interpretation, historiography, hagiography, and para-scriptural traditions in Oriental Christianity, Judaism, and Islam.
Call for papers: This unit offers a forum for studying the Syriac interpretation of Biblical and extra-biblical literatures and the connections between Syriac biblical interpretation and historiography, hagiography, and para-scriptural traditions in Oriental Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. We invite submissions in all areas of research in the Syriac Bible, its versions, transmissions, exegesis, and relevance for understanding religion and its history in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages.
For 2010 we invite papers on the works of significant ancient Syriac authors (e.g., Jacob of Serugh); women and Syriac literature; the representation of apostolic and missionary figures in Syriac literature (e.g., Paul, Peter, Thomas); Biblical interpretation in the Syriac realm; and Syriac apocrypha and pseudepigrapha. We are again interested in papers on intersections between Syriac and early Islamic literature (Quran and commentary literature). We also welcome papers on Syriac literature and its role in the development of late antique religion and history.
For a joint session ("Syriac Reception of Biblical Poetry") with the Biblical Hebrew Poetry section we invite papers on aspects of Biblical Hebrew poetic texts in the Syriac Bible and literature. The goal is to provide insights into Biblical Hebrew poetry and its reception history in the Syriac realm in a collaborative atmosphere of reciprocal benefit for the fields of Syriac studies and poetry in the Hebrew Bible. Papers may deal, e.g., with the Syriac versions, comparison of Syriac and Biblical accents and chanting of the text as they relate to interpreting its meaning, interpretations, commentaries, theological use of poetic passages, and comparative poetics between Biblical Hebrew, Syriac and/or early piyyutim. (Presenters submit their papers by September 2, 2010, so that organized responses can be prepared.)
We are planning a joint session on Christian apocrypha in Syriac.
We plan to publish suitable papers following peer review.
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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: We invite papers on a wide variety of topics and particularly those that identify specific and significant student learning outcomes and describe how these outcomes have been achieved in actual teaching situations. What formative and summative assessments were used? What worked? What did not? Some examples of student learning outcomes might include (but are not limited to) the following: 1) “Students can explain how truth is constructed,” 2) “Students can make and break an argument” 3) “Students can identify critical questions in the biblical text and are able to draw conclusions based on research in secondary literature.” These papers will be considered for publication in a forthcoming volume of papers presented to the program unit.
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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 section solicits papers on all aspects of textual criticism of the Hebrew Bible for two (or more) open sessions. We are particularly interested in: (1) papers that might revisit, in the light of developments in textual criticism since Qumran, the theological significance of textual criticism--not simply with regard to specific variants but also (or rather) to the enterprise as a whole; and (2) papers that would consider the importance of variant traditions/manuscripts in and for their own right--that is, without primary reference to or interest in their stemmatic relationships to a possible original or Urtext (cf., e.g., B. Cerquiglilni, In Praise of the Variant [Johns Hopkins, 1999]). Related to the second category is a third, (3) study of "texts" vs. the study of specific manuscripts/codices and what difference that makes to the endeavor of textual criticism. If a sufficient number of proposals are geared toward these topics, the section will likely have a theme-based session (or two) as well as an open session. It is possible that some papers might be invited on these themes.
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Textual Criticism of the Historical Books
Description: This unit aims at enhancing cooperation and exchange of ideas between scholars working on the text of Samuel and Kings in various languages. (At the present, there is activity in editorial projects on critical editions of the Septuagint text, various projects on the daughter versions of the Septuagint, and projects around the Hebrew text aiming at commentaries,text-editions, or monographs on text-history.) Such cooperation is necessary, due to the very complicated nature of the textual history of these books, and promises good results, as it is the advantage of all parties to be informed of the progress of work by their colleagues.
Call for papers: Paper proposals are invited on the text of Samuel and Kings, as well as the other historical books in the Hebrew Bible, in various languages: Hebrew, Greek , Latin , Coptic, Ethiopic, Aramaic, Syriac etc. The Workshop wishes to concentrate on textual issues - no matter how small or large the text unit concerned - and to encourage exchange among researchers - both young and old - interested in textual criticism.
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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: BAMM invites papers that explore how media shape the content, performance, and reception of the biblical text, and the implications for interpretation. ‘Media’ is broadly conceived to include oral performance, scribal activity, film, visual arts, and especially electronic media. Proposals should indicate the particular medium to be explored in relation to a specific text or texts, indicate the direction of the paper in exploring the relationship between that medium, content, performance, and reception, and identify the consequences of such an investigation for biblical studies.
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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: For 2010, the Group has planned two sessions:
(1) Reading Isaiah as Christian Scripture.
We invite papers that seek to read particular texts in Isaiah as Christian Scripture. Preference will be given to papers that engage Isaianic texts other than those that typically invite christological exegesis (i.e., papers on texts other than, e.g., Isa 7, 9, 53).
(2) History, Historicisms, and Theological Interpretation.
Contemporary interest in theological interpretation of the Bible has had an uneasy relationship with historical-critical approaches to the biblical materials. Some historians and theologians urge that the two cannot coexist, while others find historical commitments inherent to theological exegesis. Still others argue that “history” must be reconceived theologically. In theological interpretation of Scripture, what is the role of history and historical inquiry? Papers for this session have already been invited.
Information about the Group is maintained at http://sites.google.com/site/theologicalinterpretation/SBLGroup. Persons interested in announcements regarding the work of the Group, or with ideas for future sessions should contact the program unit chair, Joel Green (jbgreen@fuller.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: The Theology of Hebrew Scriptures section will be running three sessions in 2010. We invite papers to an open session of Theology of Hebrew Scriptures. This session will give participants the opportunity to share new work of a distinctively theological nature on the Hebrew Scriptures.
The second session will be an invited panel on the theme of Sex(uality) in the Hebrew Bible.
The third will be a joint session with the Biblical Hebrew Poetry Section that builds on Patrick Miller’s article: “The Theological Significance of Biblical Poetry.” Pages 213-230 in Language, Theology, and the Bible (ed. Samuel E. Balentine and John Barton; Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994).
Questions about these sessions should be addressed to either Juliana Claassens or Esther Hamori.
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Thomas F. Torrance Theological Fellowship
Description: “This distinctively Christian research organization is devoted to the exploration, development, and dissemination of the theology of T. F. Torrance and other theologians contributing to this endeavor. The society exists to promote and sustain fellowship and truth-seeking (fides quaerens intellectum) in theological reflection upon the Christian faith, within the mainstream of the Christian Church and tradition in light of the theological legacy of Thomas F. Torrance. We are a Christian Fellowship serving the Christian faith and the renewal of the Church of Jesus Christ. Membership is open to all scholars, pastors and laypersons who are interested in research in Christian theology and related disciplines, and are in accord with the above mentioned mission statement. We support free inquiry and critical examination of the many facets of theology and religion especially as these relate to issues that concerned Torrance himself such as the relationship between science and religion, how to interpret specific Christian doctrines and their implications for today and how biblical theology relates with and informs doctrinal theology. We seek to bring T. F. Torrance’s important thinking into conversation with other significant theologians in an academic way so as to advance a better understanding of the nature of and meaning of contemporary Christian theology. Our website, www.tftorrance.org, contains information about membership, meetings, the Board of Directors and about T. F. Torrance himself. Please check our website for the most up-to-date information about our scheduled meetings.”
Call for papers: “This distinctively Christian research organization is devoted to the exploration, development, and dissemination of the theology of T. F. Torrance and other theologians contributing to this endeavor. The society exists to promote and sustain fellowship and truth-seeking (fides quaerens intellectum) in theological reflection upon the Christian faith, within the mainstream of the Christian Church and tradition in light of the theological legacy of Thomas F. Torrance. We are a Christian Fellowship serving the Christian faith and the renewal of the Church of Jesus Christ. Membership is open to all scholars, pastors and laypersons who are interested in research in Christian theology and related disciplines, and are in accord with the above mentioned mission statement. We support free inquiry and critical examination of the many facets of theology and religion especially as these relate to issues that concerned Torrance himself such as the relationship between science and religion, how to interpret specific Christian doctrines and their implications for today and how biblical theology relates with and informs doctrinal theology. We seek to bring T. F. Torrance’s important thinking into conversation with other significant theologians in an academic way so as to advance a better understanding of the nature of and meaning of contemporary Christian theology. Our website, www.tftorrance.org, contains information about membership, meetings, the Board of Directors and about T. F. Torrance himself. Please check our website for the most up-to-date information about our scheduled meetings.”
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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: 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.
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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: The Ugaritic Studies and Northwest Semitic Epigraphy section is issuing an open call for papers for 2010.
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Unity and Diversity in Early Jewish Monotheisms
Description: This unit examines the diverse forms of monotheistic belief and practice in the exilic, Persian and early Hellenistic period (c. 6th to 3rd centuries BCE). All aspects of monotheism in this period are of concern including religious practices, theological conceptualization and social implications.
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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 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 and there is a particular interest in discussion of the extent to which the biblical text can either be seen to have made an actual difference or to have been used retrospectively to support practices or beliefs that have already been adopted for perhaps quite other reasons. Papers are considered for publication in a themed volume with an academic publisher (contract already in place) and the steering committee is hence keen to collect papers that cohere around a particular theme. All paper proposals are, however, carefully considered on their individual merit. For 2010 papers that deal with the issue of the Bible and ecology are particularly encouraged as are papers focused issues of equality.
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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: Session 1: Violence and the Household. Topics can range broadly in terms of geography and time period, and might include discussions of violence against women and slaves, and/or discussions of what might be considered violent imagery (on domestic ware, frescoes, ceramics) within the domus/oikos. Held jointly with Social History of Formative Christianity and Judaism.
Session 2: First Martyrs. We welcome proposals about how stories of a community’s first martyr help to consolidate communities and affect their theological and political outlook toward violence.
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Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion
Description: The Wabash Center encourages excellent teaching in departments of religion and theological schools through careful attention to the issues that every faculty member faces including course design, assessment, student learning goals, understanding the institutional context and the broader purposes of teaching. We offer programs at the SBL Annual Meeting as well as workshops, colloquies, and conferences which are organized throughout the year. Fully funded by Lilly Endowment Inc. and located on the Wabash College campus in Crawfordsville, Indiana, we also offer grants for institutions or individuals who wish to propose projects or research relating to teaching and learning. Our consultants program can facilitate on-site faculty conversations about pedagogical issues through a brief application process available online. Teaching and learning resources (both books and those available through the Internet) are also available through our website. See our website for a full listing of programs, grant deadlines, and resources: www.wabashcenter.wabash.edu.
Call for papers:
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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 2010: 1) The FIRST session will be an open session for which we especially encourage proposals for 25-minute papers exploring archaeological evidence for or aspects of the experiences of exile, displacement, or deportation in ancient Israel or other areas. Appropriate topics may include specific case studies or broader patterns of material culture. Some slots will be reserved for invited contributions, and the session will include time for a panel discussion following the presentations. 2) The SECOND session will be an open session for which we invite 25-minute papers exploring psychological aspects of the experience of exile, displacement, and deportation in ancient or modern contexts. Papers using interdisciplinary perspectives, particularly those drawn from trauma theory or related approaches, are especially encouraged, and presenters may focus on the experiences of ancient or modern peoples. Some slots will be reserved for invited contributions, and the session will include time for a panel discussion following the presentations. 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: Wisdom and Apocalypticism in Early Judaism and Early Christianity is planning two sessions for 2010. One session, consisting of invited papers and responses, will focus on sapiential literature from Qumran, other than 4QInstruction. The second session, for which there is an open call, will focus on wisdom outside of wisdom texts and on apocalyptic motifs and traditions outside of apocalyptic literature in early Judaism and early Christianity, with examination of social location. We would be particularly interested in papers examining the Wisdom of
Solomon, 1QS, Tobit, Apocryphal Acts, martyr acts, and revelatory discourses from Nag Hammadi. We ask that your abstract contains your thesis statement, not only a description of your topic; if you have not had a paper accepted for an Annual Meeting before, please send a copy of your completed paper to the program unit chairs. Please contact the chairs for further information about this topic.
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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: In addition to an open call for papers related to the study of Wisdom Literature, we seek up to six papers on the topic of "Character Formation and Community Ethics in Israelite and Cognate Wisdom Literature".
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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. Book Review Session: Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, Democratizing Biblical Studies: Toward an Emancipatory Educational Space (Westminster John Knox, 2009). Invited panelists. Cosponsored with the African-American Biblical Hermeneutics Section.(2) We invite proposals for papers focusing on the figure of MARY MAGDALENE in the bible, tradition and culture. (3) Open session.
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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. Our group invites proposals on the following topics for 2010.
1) Papers treating any aspect of the oracles against the nations in Jeremiah. Preference will be given to papers that show a nuanced awareness of hermeneutical issues raised by postmodernism, for example engaging deconstruction, postcolonial critique, gender studies, or some other such dimension of reading.
2) For an open session: papers on any interpretive issue presented by the book of Jeremiah.
3) A third panel, co-sponsored with the Formation of the Book of Isaiah group, will explore first-person figurations of servant and suffering in Isaiah and Jeremiah. Papers for this panel have already been invited.
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Z 2012 Test PU
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