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2013 Annual Meeting
Meeting Begins: 11/23/2013
Meeting Ends: 11/26/2013
Call for Papers Opens: 12/15/2012
Call for Papers Closes: 2/28/2013
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: ATBS invites paper proposals two sessions; it will also sponsor a workshop.
Teaching the Bible: Practical Strategies for Blended Learning and Learning with Smart-Devices
This session will explore two related topics: (a) descriptions/demonstrations of best-practices for learning with smart devices; and (b) presentations on innovative uses of blended learning. Blended learning uses both face-to-face techniques and electronically mediated learning.
Assessing Learning in Biblical and Religious Studies: Linking Learning to Assessment
We invite presentations or demonstrations on using learning-outcomes based assessment.
Discussion / Workshop on Using Cognitive Science to Increase Student Learning
The final session will be a workshop to discuss how insights from cognitive science can be used to increase student learning.
For the full description of the call for papers and workshop, click
on this link.
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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 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.
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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: 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.
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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: The topics for the four sessions outlined for 2014 are as follows:
1. African Biblical Response to Global Crises of War and Mass Violence
2. Sexuality, Masculinity, HIV and AIDS, and the Bible in Africa
3. Methodology in African Biblical Interpretations and Related Methodologies in Africa.
4. Bible, Power and Wealth in Africa
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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: Inasmuch as 2013 marks the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, we will offer sessions for the Annual Meeting that will commemorate this milestone in various ways. One session will be a panel discussion co-sponsored with the Slavery Resistance and Freedom consultation devoted to a critical discussion of the subject of slavery and its ramifications the U.S. social context. Proposals may address biblical, early Christian, or rabbinic literature, or interpretations by enslaved or formerly enslaved persons, by their allies or descendants, or by their opponents, in any period of history. A second session will be an open call for papers that addresses any aspect of African American biblical research. In this session, authors can choose to respond to an optional theme that interrogates the prison-industrial complex, a social construct that arguably functions as a contemporary analogue of American slavery, through mass incarceration and control of black and brown bodies. Authors who choose to respond to this theme might address the specific ways in which biblical authority and values are articulated and manipulated to silence or mute protest against over-regulation of African Americans and others in the criminal justice system. In addition, we will offer a third student-run session that features the work of emerging African American biblical scholars wherein selected students will receive feedback on their papers from the AABH steering committee in preparation for the annual meeting. Please consult the call for proposals in January to learn if there will be opportunities to propose a paper for one of these panels.
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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 Ancient Fiction and Early Christian and Jewish Narrative section is planning two open sessions and invites papers on any topic relevant
to the group’s focus. We are particularly interested in proposals focused on (a) humor in ancient novelistic texts, (b) allegorical writing in ancient fiction and Jewish and Christian narrative, (c) narratives spun from sayings or brief texts, or (d) parables (interacting with the work of John Dominic Crossan).
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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: 1. Our first session is an open session, for which we welcome papers on the full range of iconographic exegesis.
2. One session will be organized together with the 'Metaphor Theory and Biblical Texts' program unit on the theme: 'God, Metaphor, and
Iconography'. This semi-open session will consist of both invited and proposed papers. We welcome papers dealing with representations of God/god both in literature and pictorial images, of special interest are papers which investigate similarities and differences between the two areas and how the two areas may be mutually enlightening. As this session will have two respondents, papers should be handed in beforehand.
3. In addition to our open session, and the co-organized, semi-open session, we will convene two special sessions on the topic of terracotta figurines attested in the Southern Levant from the Iron Age through the Persian Period (1200-333 BCE). We will deal with issues of iconography, typology, and find context of female, male, animal, and furniture figurines and thus discuss their production, appearance, and provenance, including their identification and practical functions. While giving priority to figurines originating from Phoenicia, Philistia, Jordan, and Israel/Palestine, we will explore the influences of Egyptian, Anatolian, Mesopotamian, and Mediterranean (particularly Cypriot) iconography on Levantine pictorial material. For comparative purposes other relevant materials and objects will be included in our discussions in addition to figurines from other regions. These special sessions present interdisciplinary research by speakers combining insights and methods from the fields of Archaeology, Art History, Ancient Near Eastern Culture and Religion, and Old Testament Studies. All speakers and respondents for these sessions are invited.
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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 invites proposals for papers to be delivered at its 2013 Annual Meeting in Baltimore, MD. This year's focus, chosen by members of the Association at its 2012 meeting, is on the Report of Anglican Communion Bible in the Life of the Church project, entitled "Deep Engagement; Fresh Discovery" (Available http://www.anglicancommunion.org/ministry/theological/bible/). Preference will be given to papers that engage this Report, or the resources and additional material for further reflection included in it, in a substantial manner. However, other topics relevant to this year's theme might include (but need not be limited to) context-specific readings of particular biblical passages; historical or constructive studies of the bible in liturgy and/or church music; and assessments of or proposals for the use of the bible in theological education.
Proposals must be no longer than 250 words. They should clearly state the paper's thesis or major contribution, outline its basic argument, and list major sources to be engaged. Accepted papers will each be allotted 20 minutes for presentation, to be followed by 5-10 minutes of discussion.
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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: For 2013, the committee is inviting proposals that treat issues of Applied Linguistics for biblical languages (Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic). Topics are not limited, and more than one paper on the same topic are acceptable. Suggested topics: (1) Successful pedagogies and classroom dynamics when teaching Ancient Languages; (2) How to develop reading proficiency in biblical languages? (3) What promotes or hinders vocabulary development? (4) What training may be beneficial for teachers of biblical languages who use SLA methods in the classroom? (5) How do comprehensible input and production/output affect internalization of a language? (6) How to measure competency in biblical languages? (7) From grammar-translation to SLA methods in biblical languages classroom: how to transition?
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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 for submissions in Aramaic studies. The Aramaic studies section provides a forum for scholars interested in various aspects of Aramaic language and literature. Previous paper topics have dealt with the Targumim, Qumran Aramaic, Syriac, Mandaic, Imperial Aramaic, Biblical Aramaic, and issues of language contact.
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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 requests paper proposals for the following three sessions:
1) The worship of Antinoos: This is a joint session sponsored with the program unit, Gender, Sexuality, and the Bible. It concerns textual and material evidence for this new religious movement in the second century CE.. Scholars working on topics related to Antinoos or ancient masculinities are invited to submit proposals
2) Borderlands in the Roman Empire: This is a joint session co-sponsored with the program unit, Space, Place and Lived Experience in Antiquity. We are calling for papers on the theme of borders and borderlands: geographic, political, cultural, or cognitive boundaries where the lack of dominance by any one group creates both a need to interact and negotiate differences, and a space for the emergence of new and hybrid cultural forms and identities, not just at the center of power, but especially at its margins.
3) An open session that includes focused analyses of various topics related to religion and archaeology of the Hellenistic, Roman, and/or Late Antique eras.
If your paper involves the interpretation or consideration of archaeological artifacts, please ascertain that they have been previously published in a peer-reviewed scholarly publication. If they have not, please submit documentation of their country of origin, and evidence of permission from the excavators or other relevant authorities to publish these items.
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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: The paper themes for our 2013 sessions include Canaanite, Philistine, Israelite, Ammonite, Moabite, and Edomite cult and religion in text and archaeology.
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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 2013 annual meeting: including 2 OPEN SESSIONS. We welcome paper proposals on the art and material culture of any ancient religious tradition and encourage papers that address the use of art and material culture in service of religion. For our two OPEN SESSIONS, the Art and Religions of Antiquity section especially seeks paper proposals that address the following topics--but all proposals will be considered:
1) "The Art of Pilgrimage in the Ancient World": For this session, we seek papers that address the practice and materiality of pilgrimage. The Art and Religions in Antiquity program unit is pleased to announce that Dr. Gary Vikan will respond to the contributions presented in this session. Dr. Vikan recently stepped down from the Directorship of the Walters Art Museum, which he held since 1994 after serving as the museum's Assistant Director for Curatorial Affairs and Curator of Medieval Art since 1985. Before coming to the Walters, Dr. Vikan was Senior Associate for Byzantine Art Studies at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, DC.
2) "Art and Religion at the Walters Museum, Baltimore MD (http://thewalters.org)": For this session, we seek papers that address the Walters Museum's permanent collections (with a particularly strong collection of illuminated manuscripts) or visiting exhibits (Jacob Lawrence's Genesis Series; Egypt's Mysterious Book of the Faiyum).
A third session will consist of invited papers to review the treatment of art and material culture in The Cambridge History of Religions in the Ancient World edited by Michele R. Salzman.
We will consider any proposal addressing art and religion in antiquity.
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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. Both veteran and first-time presenters are encouraged to submit proposals. While our open session(s) may deal with a variety of topics, we especially welcome papers that explore the theme of the Bible and Empire from Asian and/or Asian American perspectives.
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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: The Assyriology and the Bible Section shall host at least two sessions in Baltimore: an invited session on "The Afterlife of Nineveh," together with one or more open sessions in which we accept proposals on any subject related to the study of Assyriology and the Bible.
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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 a number of program units, Bible and Cultural Studies will host four shorter sessions on "Memory, Forgetting, and Orality." Papers and workshops will consider how the study of memory, forgetting, and orality have impacted biblical studies, both theoretically and practically. These sessions will explore how particular approaches to memory, forgetting, and orality have been employed within scriptures and as practices surrounding scriptures, and we will be especially attentive to how communities negotiate memory, forgetting, and orality across dynamics of power (e.g. historical, linguistic, racial, ethnic, cultural, gender, sexual, differently-abled, human/non-human dynamics). We will examine how memory, forgetting, and orality have framed and been understood, contextualized, theorized, and practiced in the Bible, in its interpretation, and in its political and religious uses. The sessions will comprise a panel on memory, forgetting, and orality, a "study together" session that will be open to everyone, a pedagogy session, and a mentoring session.
For our second session, we invite papers that address the theme of “(Fair) Trade in and of Scriptures.” Trade is a pervasive theme in many biblical texts, and trade has shaped biblical texts and scriptural traditions. We are requesting papers that examine the relationship between scriptures and trade, and especially papers that attend to relationships between scriptural texts and contemporary debates and discussions about fair trade. How have trade and practices of trade shaped biblical texts and the practices that surround them? In what ways have biblical texts and other scriptural traditions and practices been shaped by trade? How have biblical texts and other scriptural traditions shaped trade? What are the connections between trade and scriptures? What is “fair trade,” and what relationships exist between contemporary conceptualizations of fair trade and the bible?
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Bible and Emotion
Description: This section focuses on understanding the spectrum of emotions displayed throughout the Bible in their literary and cultural contexts, informed by the burgeoning cross-disciplinary study of emotion in contemporary philosophy, psychology, literary theory, linguistics, neuroscience, politics, economics and other fields.
Call for papers: The Bible and Emotion Consultation will host two sessions in 2013. One
session will be jointly held with the Bible and Visual Arts Section, with invited artists and scholars focusing on Art, Emotions, and Women's Experience in the Hebrew Bible. Our second session is open. We invite proposals related to critical study of the Bible (full range of biblical literature) and Emotion. We are particularly interested in papers that explore methodological questions, interpret particular texts, or examine the interface between divine and human emotions in the Bible.
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Bible and Ethics
Description: This unit explores ethical issues related to the biblical canon. It seeks to bring together exegetes of the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament in order to discuss similarities, differences, and intertextual connections between the various ethical traditions in biblical literature and their respective contexts.
Call for papers: In 2013 we have two sessions with invited papers. The first session will look at questions of methodology, and the second at central themes in biblical ethics.
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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: 1) This unit invites papers for two open sessions dealing with the critical analysis of films in dialogue with biblical texts. Presentations reflecting interactions with theory and/or dealing with non-Hollywood film are particularly desired, but proposals on popular Hollywood film will be entertained. 2) This unit invites papers for a third session utilizing affect/body theory (e.g. Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Vivian Sobchack, Laura Marks)in the critical analysis of film in dialogue with biblical texts. Papers might use affect theory to analyze film/bible, for example, in terms of fear, pain, suffering, and morality. Presenters are given 35 minutes to accommodate the use of film clips, which the unit encourages, in their presentations.
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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: 1) OPEN: This first session invites papers that explore and analyze 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 should explore the interaction between biblical text and popular culture.
2) THEMATIC: This second session invites papers that explore and analyze the how the Bible is imaged/used in popular television programming. Drawing from a variety of disciplines and analyzing various television genres (e.g., sitcoms, documentaries, soaps, cartoons, detective, espionage, drama, news, cookery, etc.) the presenters should explore the interaction between biblical text and popular culture as evidenced in television shows. Preference will be given to presentations that focus on genres other than religious programming (e.g., televangelists, etc.)
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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 invite papers on the following topics: 1. Interdisciplinary presentations (Bible and practical theology) on the SBL theme of borders and forced migrations focused on pedagogical and/or theological issues. Co-presentations (colleagues from different disciplines) are encouraged but not required; 2. Open call for papers on any issues emerging out of the intersections of biblical interpretation and practical theology (liturgy, formation, education, administration, pastoral care, and public theology).
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Bible and Visual Art
Description: The purpose of the section is to provide a forum at the national SBL to explore historical, hermeneutical, theological, iconographic, and/or theoretical aspects related to the interpretation of the Jewish and Christian Scriptures in visual art through the centuries.
Call for papers: The Bible and Visual Art Section is soliciting, for an open session, papers that fit its 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. In addition, we would welcome papers focused on biblical themes in visual art or architecture that can be viewed at sites in Baltimore, including the Genesis Series by African American painter Jacob Lawrence to be on exhibit at the Walters Art Museum (http://thewalters.org/exhibitions/future.aspx). With the Bible and Emotion Consultation, we will be co-sponsoring a joint session on “Art, Emotions, and Women’s Experience in the Hebrew Bible” with invited participants.
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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: This year the Bible Translation section will host three sessions:
1. A special seminar on the notion of valence patterns in translation:
Main presentation: "Deportation or Forgiveness in Hosea 1:6? Verb Valence Patterns and Translation Proposals" by Janet Dyke from the Vrije University.
Description: In order to render a verb within the syntactic pattern in which it occurs, it is necessary to take into account different features like: the presence of a direct object – one, multiple, or none, the possibility of an idiomatic expression involving the direct object involved and the presence and particular function of prepositions in relation to the verb. Specific existing translations will be compared and evaluated for the discussed cases and concrete recommendations will be given for translation praxis
Respondents: Lènart de Regt (United Bible Societies) and Bryan Harmlink (Summer Institute of Linguistics).
There will be ample time for interaction with the presenters. Further details on this session will be posted in due time.
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2. Two open sessions:
a. The unit invites papers related to the topic of valence patterns in concrete mother tongue translation cases, preferably based on a direct interaction with the relevant biblical language(s) as source text.
b. Furthermore, papers treating other topics of interest in the wider field of Biblical translation theory and praxis are also encouraged.
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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: We welcome proposals dealing with the New Testament as well as the Hebrew Bible, including their Greco-Roman and ancient Near Eastern contexts. This year, in addition to an open session, a second session will feature papers focussing on the relation between biblical law and myth: how the literary depiction of the gods is related to the legal traditions of Mesopotamia and the Bible; how legal texts incorporate mythological motifs; how myth is used to legitimize law, etc.
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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: This year we will be hosting three sessions. The first will be a jointly-sponsored session with “The Bible Theology and Post-Modernity” group (AAR) on “Reading Transfiguration.” For this session, we invite paper proposals that explore the significance of the "event" of Transfiguration in continental philosophy, biblical studies, and theology. There is the possibility of a non-traditional format for this session. The second will be a session looking specifically at “dreams” and “visions” in biblical literature. Proposals are invited that approach these texts from contemporary critical perspectives (e.g. memory theory, psychoanalytic approaches or psycho-literary methods) and/or through the lens of film, literature and media. The third session will be an open session and we invite papers on any topic where critical methods are employed to investigate biblical texts or their applications, interpretations and thematic extensions into non-biblical media (literature, film, etc.). Proposals should be submitted electronically on the SBL site. Questions may be directed to James Smith at jamie.smith@ccuniversity.edu or Andrew Wilson at awilson@mta.ca
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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 invites members who wish to present a paper that utilizes linguistics to study the biblical text to submit a proposal through the online system by the call for papers deadline, March 1, 2013. Proposals should consist of a 1-2 page description of the paper. In addition, proposers (both full and student members) who have not previously presented at the Annual Meeting must submit the full paper that will be read to the program unit chairs before March 1. Please note that unless otherwise indicated, papers must be of such a length as can be presented within 25 minutes, in order to allow at least 5 minutes for questions and discussion from those in attendance. Our theme session, "the Perfect Storm," will explore the Greek Perfect. Therefore, any papers that further contribute to this discussion may be of interest for the open session as well.
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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: Biblical Hebrew Poetry will have 4 sessions. **Papers are invited for 2 open sessions and one thematic session. **The thematic session is on: “The Personification of Nature in Biblical Hebrew Poetry.” The session invites papers that examine the personification of nature in biblical poetry (e.g., hills, stars, waters, plants, etc.). We define personification as the metaphorical portrayal of nonhuman, inanimates as persons. (Animals are excluded from the category of personified nature since they are animate.) We welcome papers that focus on one or more of the following: (1) how the personification in a given passage contributes to the passage’s meaning, (2) how personification is expressed through the linguistic medium of poetry, and (3) general observations on the nature and features of personification in biblical poetry. A respondent for the papers will be invited. **Session 4 is a joint session with Ethics and Biblical Interpretation. Invited participants will investigate the way in which various aspects of Biblical Hebrew poetry have impacted and can impact reflection on the ethics of Hebrew Scripture. The focus will not be on ethical themes that arise throughout Biblical Hebrew poetry but rather on the way the very form of Biblical Hebrew poetry impacts and communicates ethics in the Hebrew Bible, that is, in what way is the medium or should the medium be the message.
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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 one or more open sessions on any aspect of the study of biblical law (including work related to cuneiform documents, the Dead Sea Scrolls and other Second Temple Literature, questions of pentateuchal criticism, legal history, gender analysis, social scientific analysis, and newer methodologies). Copies of papers are distributed in advance through our section's website. They should be available by November 1, 2013 at: www.biblicallaw.net. We are also interested in a session on Ezekiel 40-48 and its relationship to pentateuchal legal texts and concepts and solicit proposals on this topic as well. In addition, we will be holding a joint session with the Hebrew Bible and Political Theory section. The theme will be "Legal and Political Theory and the Study of Biblical Law." For this session we will consider theoretically oriented proposals on issues such as legal authority, justice, jurisprudence, critical legal studies, and their application to the study of biblical law, broadly defined. Some examples of questions that would take advantage of the theoretical matrix this joint session provides include: To what degree may the biblical law corpora be construed as "constitutions"? In what ways is biblical law statutory law? Are there "rights" in biblical law? Can biblical law be termed "natural law"? Does biblical law have a theory of ownership or possession? Privilege will be given to those proposals that take seriously the contributions of political philosophers.
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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 will hold three sessions: 1) The first in celebration of the completion of David Clines' Dictionary of Classical Hebrew (Sheffield University Press). We are inviting contributors, but proposals are also welcome. (This session was originally listed for last year but was postponed.) 2) Papers are invited for a session in memory of Peter Burton, founding member of the Biblical Lexicography Section, and Frederick Danker, editor of the New Testament Lexicon (BDAG), both of whom passed away in 2012. Topics relating to their special interests are particularly welcome. 3)The third session is open to any proposals on subjects of relevance to the lexicography and semantics of Hebrew, Greek or other biblical languages.
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Biblical Literature and the Hermeneutics of Trauma
Description: This unit studies methods for employing various definitions of trauma to interpret particular sets of biblical and extra-canonical texts, giving attention to the relationship between personal and communal dimensions of trauma, and to applying biblical interpretation in other theological disciplines.
Call for papers: This unit studies methods for employing various definitions of trauma to interpret particular sets of biblical and extra-canonical texts, giving attention to the relationship between personal and communal dimensions of trauma, and to applying biblical interpretation in other theological disciplines.
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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 2013 Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature will be held November 23-26 in Baltimore, MD. Members wishing to present papers should submit proposals on the SBL website at http://www.sbl-site.org/meetings/AnnualMeeting.aspx by March 1, 2013. /// The SBL Blogger and Online Publication section invites proposals for papers for its 2013 annual meeting session. The open session calls for papers focusing on any area of blogging, online publication, and social media in relation to biblical studies, theology, and archaeology of the Levant. /// For more information, or if you have any questions, please contact Dr. Robert R. Cargill, Department of Classics, The University of Iowa, 210 Jefferson Building, Iowa City, IA, 52245, or email robert-cargill@uiowa.edu.
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Book History and Biblical Literatures
Description: This unit investigates how insights from Book History illuminate scriptural
literatures. We marshal scholars of various fields in a theoretical and
historical conversation about the culturally contingent concepts of text,
authorship, readership, publication, and materiality.
Call for papers: This unit investigates how insights from Book History illuminate scriptural
literatures. We marshal scholars of various fields in a theoretical and
historical conversation about the culturally contingent concepts of text,
authorship, readership, publication, and materiality.
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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: 2013 Annual Meeting
The Book of Acts Section is planning two sessions for the 2013 Annual Meeting on the theme "Acts and Gender." Session I is an invited session entitled: “'Warts and All'? Constructions of Masculinities in the Acts of the Apostles.” Session I will not accept proposals. Session II is an open session and encourages a wide range of proposals that suggest fresh approaches to existing problems or that explore new strategies for reading Acts. Proposals on the theme of gender in the Acts of the Apostles will be particularly welcome.
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Book of Daniel
Description: The Book of Daniel consultation seeks to promote new and inter-disciplinary scholarship on Daniel and Daniel-related literature (both canonical and pseudepigraphical literature). It welcomes a range of analytical approaches to Daniel, but especially encourages ideological, theological, and literary treatments.
Call for papers: The Book of Daniel Consultation will offer two sessions at the 2013 Annual Meeting in Baltimore. One session will be an open session on the topic of "the body/bodies/embodiment in Daniel." The steering committee solicits proposals dealing with aspects of the body and embodiment in connection with Daniel, including but not limited to the use of monster theory, disability studies, or theories regarding gender and sexuality to interpret Greek, Aramaic,or Hebrew Daniel. The second session will be a joint session with the Pseudepigrapha group consisting of invited papers on the topic of the early reception of Daniel's text.
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Book of Ezekiel
Description: This Section has two aims. First, it seeks to bring together scholars working on the book of Ezekiel to share research and conclusions about the book. Second, it encourages an expressly theological approach to the book.
Call for papers: This section seeks to bring together scholars working on the book of Ezekiel to share research and conclusions about the book. The section encourages an expressly theological approach to the book.
We will hold three sessions at the 2013 Annual Meeting in Baltimore: (1) An Open Session. We invite paper proposals on any aspect of the book of Ezekiel. (2-3) “Ezekiel 40-48 and Its Relationship to Pentateuchal-Legal Texts and Concepts” – a new two years project, with two sessions on this topic each year. One will be an invited session, the other is open for proposals and be co-ordinated with the Biblical Law section.
All papers will be required in electronic form for circulation one month before the Annual Meeting.
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Book of Isaiah
Description: The Book of Isaiah unit provides an international forum for discussion of issues related to the formation, growth and unity of the Isaiah scroll as well as questions of poetic imagery, intertextuality, history of interpretation and reader response criticism.
Call for papers: The Formation of the Book of Isaiah group will offer three sessions for 2013. Papers have been invited for two of these sessions. We welcome proposals for a third, open session addressing any of our emphases in the study of the Book of Isaiah, but preference will be given to proposals that explore connections between the Book of Isaiah and the Book of the Twelve.
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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: 2013 Annual Meeting
The Book of Palms Section invites proposals 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. In 2013, there will be a joint session with the Exile (Forced-Migrations) in Biblical Literature Group. The section also invites papers on the contribution of Bishop Robert Lowth to the study of the Psalms. There will also be an open session on the Psalms.
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Book of the Twelve Prophets
Description: The Book of the Twelve Prophets Section provides a forum for research
into textual, literary, historical, religious, and ideological aspects of the
Book of the Twelve Prophets. The section is interested in understanding
individual passages as well as all phases of the development of this book.
Call for papers: The Book of the Twelve Prophets Section invites papers investigating issues related to any text or texts within the Minor Prophets, with preference given to papers that address the formation or interrelatedness of the Minor Prophets as a literary corpus.
In addition, there will be two joint sessions, one together with the Isaiah section on "Isaiah and the Twelve" and one together with the Textual Growth group on "Textual Growth and the Twelve". The joint sessions will have invited papers only.
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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: Children in the Biblical World invites papers on children of Genesis in and beyond biblical literature (co-sponsored with the Genesis section). We also offer an open call for any papers related to our section, as described above.
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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: We welcome papers on recently published and/or translated texts (e.g. the Prayer and Apocalypse of Paul, the new Greek fragment of the Acts of Peter, the Revelation of the Magi), as well as contributions offering new perspectives on Christian apocryphal literature.
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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: In 2013 the Christian Theology and Bible Section will hold three sessions that will explore the tropological or moral sense of Scripture. One session of invited papers will review and discuss the forthcoming book by Gary Anderson entitled Charity. A second session of invited papers will explore the imprecatory Psalms read tropologically. For our open session, we solicit papers on the tropological (moral) sense of Scripture that will focus on (a) tropological readings of a particular text or set of texts; (b) the tropological readings of a specific author or theologian; or (c) tropological readings that stem from a particular movement or time period in the history of interpretation (e.g., patristic, medieval, reformation). An additional session, co-sponsored with the Theological Interpretation of Scripture Seminar will offer a panel discussion of Walter Moberly’s forthcoming Old Testament Theology: Reading the Hebrew Bible as Christian Scripture.
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Chronicles-Ezra-Nehemiah
Description: Our section provides a collegial forum for graduate students and scholars in which papers can be read, projects initiated, questions explored, new approaches attempted and broader discussions held relating to the research and scholarship of these biblical books.
Call for papers: The Chronicles-Ezra-Nehemiah section will run three sessions in 2013. The first session is an open session; we invite papers on any aspect of research on Chronicles and Ezra-Nehemiah. The second session will be a joint session with History and Literature of the Persian Period on Marriage in the Persian Period and Chronicles-Ezra-Nehemiah, with invited papers and respondents. The third session will be focused on the Chronicles, Ezra-Nehemiah, and Utopia, with invited papers and respondents.
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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: The Cognitive Linguistics in Biblical Interpretation section invites papers for 2 sessions at the 2013 meeting. The abstracts for these sessions should state the paper's thesis and outline the approach that will be taken. (1) "Open Session": The papers in this session will apply findings of cognitive linguistics to biblical studies with a particular focus on the ways cognitive approaches help scholars to grapple with how language makes meaning, how a text evokes authority, and/or how contemporary readers interact with ancient texts. (2) "Mnemonic Modalities": This panel, co-sponsored with "Senses and Culture in the Biblical World," will discuss the intersection between sensory experience and memory as they are represented in and prompted by texts from the biblical world. As cognitive science demonstrates, sensory cues often serve as mnemonic devices. This enables sensory vocabulary to evoke memory in a most efficient way. Papers presented in this panel are expected to discuss: (1) evidence for the use of linguistic sensory cues to evoke memory in ancient texts, and/or (2) ways in which sensory vocabulary is used to create, sustain, or otherwise manipulate memory.
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Cognitive Science Approaches to the Biblical World
Description: This program unit draws on scientific explanations of human thought and behavior to understand cognitive processes behind religious thought, experience, and practice, in order to explain religion in the biblical world and develop approaches integrating cultural and cognitive studies.
Call for papers: The program unit accepts paper proposals for two sessions at the 2013 annual meeting.
(1) The theme of the first session is "Magical thinking in the biblical world". The papers in this session will examine how the human mind deals with magic and apply insights from cognitive theories of magic to biblical and apocryphal texts as well as archeological evidence. Cognitive approaches apply the often contested category of “magic” as a non-pejorative, analytical category. We are interested in both subconscious, low-level mechanisms that underlie the mental construction of magical scenarios as well as the cognitive patterns that are used to reason about magic. Particular themes that we expect to discuss in this session include intuitions about agentive causation, ritual efficacy, contagion, intuitive explanations of how and why magic works, the connection between magic and miracle, as well as various emotional factors, such as disgust.
(2) For the second session we accept proposals that address the research foci stated in the description of the program unit.
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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: Under the general title: "When, Why, Where Christianity Was Born?" our Section this year will offer three sessions. Session 1: "Jesus and the Early Groups of His Followers." This is an open session with possibly one invited main paper. Contributors are invited to submit papers handling the following points: a) From Jesus' idea of Kingdom of God to the idea of resurrection and rebirth among early Jesus followers; b) Origin of the idea of the second coming of Jesus; c) Different trajectories in the transmission of the words of Jesus in the first two centuries. Session 2: "How Many Groups of Jesus Followers in the First Two Centuries?"
A session with invited papers only, centered on the following subjects: a) Are the Gospels evidence for a particular "Christian" community or mainly evidence of the theological ideas of their authors? b) How many Gnostic-Christian groups existed in the first two centuries and where? c) How many Jewish - Christian Groups existed in the first two centuries and where? d) Did Pauline communities survive after Paul's death? Session 3: A joint session with the Jewish Christianity / Christian Judaism Section; this session welcomes proposals dealing with names and archaeological evidence for Jewish Christians / Christian Jews in the first centuries (including possibility of construction of a historical-archeological map). A business meeting will follow, assessing developments of the Section, comparing the new outputs of Baltimore 2013 with the work done in Chicago 2012.
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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: We welcome papers that examine any biblical text from within a reader’s explicitly articulated context. Our HB sessions this year are seeking especially, but not only papers on texts of the so called "historical" books beyond Joshua and Judges; that is, Samuel, Kings, Ezra-Nehemiah and Chronicles. Our NT sessions are particularly interested in papers dealing with texts from Luke-Acts, John, Revelation, Paul's letters other than the Corinthian correspondance. Both the NT and HB parts of our group are also interested in papers that focus on the contextual method itself, its challenges, pitfalls, and payoffs, and its current position in the academy, and in particular this year we are interested in interpretations that factor "ordinary readers" into the conversation. Contributors will be asked for their drafts about a fortnight before the Annual Meeting. HB Drafts will be posted on Athalya Brenner's homepage, and NT drafts will be shared with dropbox. At the conference papers will be summarized, not read in full, to leave maximum time for discussion. Acceptance of papers for the consultation's SBL sessions is a first step toward, but does not guarantee, publication in the corresponding volume of the ongoing contextual series Texts@Contexts (Fortress Press).
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Contextualizing North African Christianity
Description: This consultation encourages interdisciplinary study of North African Christianity within its broader social, cultural, and historical contexts (ca. 180-650 CE). The goal is to explore how North African Christians cultivated religious identities and practices as inhabitants of an evolving society in late antiquity.
Call for papers: This consultation encourages interdisciplinary study of North African Christianity within its broader social, cultural, and historical contexts (ca. 180-650 CE). The goal is to explore how North African Christians cultivated religious identities and practices as inhabitants of an evolving society in late antiquity.
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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: The CHNT will hold a joint open session with the Wisdom and Apocalypticism in Early Judaism and Early Christianity section. We are soliciting papers that address paideia in early Jewish and early Christian texts with an eschatological orientation, against the background of instructional literature or other evidence pertaining to education in the broader Hellenistic context.
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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: The program unit invites abstracts for papers in at least one open-topic session. Successful paper proposals will deal with priests and Levites in biblical and related literature, written from a variety of methodological approaches. The section will also be running a book-review section, with invited speakers.
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Deuteronomistic History
Description: This unit is a forum for scholarship pertaining to the books of Deuteronomy and the Former Prophets (Joshua–Kings). Papers may treat material in one or more of these books or in the collection as a whole. Relevant foci include literary history and compositional techniques; theological trends exemplified in the texts; the social and historical milieu or milieus in which they were produced; as well as connections among one or more of these books, whether topical, chronological, or linguistic.
Call for papers: This unit discusses the books of Deuteronomy and the Former Prophets both as a whole and in its component parts. A special interest is given to the validity of Martin Noth's hypothesis, as well as to approaches which critically challenge that hypothesis and suggest new ways for understanding the relation between Deuteronomy and Joshua-Kings. The section is interested in all facets of this literature and in any scholarly methods used to analyze it; special attention is given to the compositional techniques involved in the production of that literature, as well as to the historical setting of the Deuteronomistic milieu. Representatives from the international academy as well as scholars approaching the Deuteronomistic History hypothesis from a fresh perspective are especially encouraged to participate. Papers proposed for the open session of this section should interact in some fashion with the idea of a “Deuteronomistic” history work, whether the concept is affirmed, rethought or rejected.
There will also be three invited sessions: Deuteronomistic Language in Jeremiah, 1 Sam 12 and Its Place in the Deuteronomistic History, and Kingship in the Deuteronomistic History through the Lens of Political Theory (joint-session with the Hebrew Bible and Political Theory unit)
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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: In addition to a planned session on the development of early Christian Christology, we are accepting papers for two sessions:
1. Biblical Theology in Early Christianity. For session one, we are seeking papers that examine how early Christians understood the task of interpreting the Bible theologically. We are not interested primarily in questions of exegetical method (i.e. literal. allegorical, figurative) or in the exegesis of specific biblical passages, though both may be examined as illustrations of the main theme. Instead, we are looking for presentations that consider how early Christians understood the correlation between exegesis and theology within the broader context of the formation of Christian doctrine, spiritual practice, and polity.
2. The Reception of Patristic Exegesis. For session two, we are interested in discussions of the reception of early Christian exegesis by modern theology and biblical studies. Sample topics might include the role of patristic exegesis in the Reformation, Nouvelle Theologie, reflection on the use and utility of recent Biblical commentaries that feature patristic exegesis, etc. Any theologian or theological movement is acceptable as long as the paper considers how patristic exegesis, as opposed to other theological categories, has played a role in the modern revival of patristics and early Christian studies and/or made an impact on modern theological or biblical exegesis.
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Digital Humanities in Biblical, Early Jewish, and Christian Studies
Description: This consultation explores the ongoing transformation of biblical studies, and early Jewish and Christian studies, within digital culture. Initiated in the 1940s, the "Digital Humanities" is now shaping all Humanities disciplines. Sessions will focus on its impact on manuscripts and editions; reading and exegesis; publishing and access; and innovative research methodologies more generally.
Call for papers: This consultation explores the ongoing transformation of biblical studies, and early Jewish and Christian studies, within digital culture. Initiated in the 1940s, the "Digital Humanities" is now shaping all Humanities disciplines. Sessions will focus on its impact on manuscripts and editions; reading and exegesis; publishing and access; and innovative research methodologies more generally.
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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 Section focuses on those letters of the Pauline Corpus that many argue are not genuinely or immediately authored by Paul, in hope that careful study will help us better understand both these documents and early Christianity more broadly. The section invites papers exploring historical, literary (including rhetorical), and theological matters that bear upon the interpretation of these letters.
For 2013, the section will also sponsor a joint session with the Feminist Hermeneutics of the Bible Section on the theme, "Contemporary Feminist Re-Readings of the Disputed Pauline Letters." Especially welcome would be papers connecting one or more of the Disputed Paulines with feminist readings, post-colonial interpretation, readings from minoritized communities, and other contemporary approaches to the text.
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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 program unit sponsors three projects: The first project involves a study of all the major aspects of the economy in the ancient world, especially the Roman Empire. The second project examines first-century early Christianity both in relationship to the ancient economy and in regard to its own economic aspects. The third 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 projects are welcomed, especially those that make use of papyri, inscriptions, and other realia. At least two sessions are planned for the meeting in Baltimore. Those submitting a proposal should designate in the Abstract the 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 papers for two open sessions at the 2013 SBL meeting. We will consider any relevant proposals, but have a particular interest in papers related to liturgy; polemical stereotypes; or paraenetic literature. All proposals must be submitted online. (We will also be hosting two invited sessions: one on the city of Antioch, and a joint session on "Greek Biblical Traditions and the Partition of Ancient Judeo-Christian Culture.")
All inquiries should be sent to Tina Shepardson (cshepard@utk.edu).
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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: Proposals are invited for two sessions: 1. The first session will have a special focus on the theme of Poverty, Ecology and the Bible. Proposals may consider the relationship between poverty as experienced by humans with ecological and environmental elements in the light of key biblical texts. 2. The second session is open and will consider proposals on any biblical text. For both sessions, we encourage proposals that have a strong methodological awareness, such as engaging with the principles of ecological hermeneneutics - suspicion, identification and retrieval (e.g., Habel and Trudinger, Exploring Ecological Hermeneutics, SBL 2008) and/or the methodology of the Exeter project (e.g., Horrell, Hunt and Southgate, Greening Paul, Baylor 2010). Proposals that include elements that link the biblical material with contemporary ecology and culture are welcomed.
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Economics in the Biblical World
Description: This program unit explores economics in the biblical world from a variety of approaches, including textual analysis, archaeological study, economic history, and much-needed theoretical engagement. We examine both larger economic structures and more local patterns (i.e., household and village).
Call for papers: The Economics in the Biblical World Consultation will sponsor two sessions at the 2013 Annual Meeting.
One session will consist of invited panelists to discuss the forthcoming book by Roland Boer, "The Sacred Economy" (WJK 2013).
The other session will focus on aspects and relations of “labor/ work in the biblical world.” The aspects and relations might include the division of labor in households and village communities (including the roles of women and children), the relations of production between households/families and the monarchy/temple-state (including debt-slavery and forced labor), or the observation of the Sabbath and sabbatical cancellation of debts. Our steering committee welcomes proposals focused on a key passage(s) and/or issue in biblical literature, whether from legal texts (such as Gen 41; 47; Exod 21-22; Deut 15), historical texts (such as 1 Kings 5; 12; Neh 5:1-13), prophetic texts (such as Isa 5; Jer 22; Hag 1), sapiential texts (such as Sir 38:24-34), or Gospel texts (such as Mark 10:17-22; or one of Jesus’ parables). Papers should include social and political-economic as well as literary analysis.
Insofar as this Consultation wants to foster cooperative investigation and reflection, those who wish to develop proposals are encouraged to contact Samuel L. Adams (sadams@upsem.edu) or Richard Horsley (richard.horsley@umb.edu), who will facilitate further communication with other colleagues as appropriate.
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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: 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.
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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 group will host two sessions in 2013 and co-host a third.
The FIRST of these is an OPEN session that will explore biblical texts that engage the concept of covenant as it intersects with moral life.
Description: The concept of covenant redounds from the early chapters of Genesis to the last chapters of Revelation, and has been central to both Old Testament and New Testament understandings of the relationships both between God and humanity and between human beings. Yet how do these covenants work? How do they shape these relationships? And what does the concept of covenant imply for moral life? We invite papers on these and similar questions.
The SECOND of these is an invited session, "Reception History and Discourse Ethics."
Description: Reception History/Reception criticism has become a growing and provocative field of study among Bible scholars. This session explores the ethical implications of the reception of texts and the work of those doing such scholarship by putting reception criticism in conversation with discourse ethics. As an invited session, we are NOT accepting papers for it.
FINALLY, the Ethics and Biblical Interpretation Group will co-host an invited session with the Biblical Hebrew Poetry Group on "Poetics as a Vehicle for Ethics: The Medium, the Message."
Description: This session is focused on the intersection between Biblical Hebrew poetry and Ethics. Invited participants will investigate the way in which various aspects of Biblical Hebrew poetry have impacted and can impact reflection on the ethics of Hebrew Scripture. The focus will not be on ethical themes that arise throughout Biblical Hebrew poetry but rather on the way the very form of Biblical Hebrew poetry impacts and communicates ethics in the Hebrew Bible. That is, in what way is the medium or should the medium be the message? We are not accepting papers for it.
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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 session is accepting proposals subject to the agreement of the Program Committee to renew the unit.
1. Ethiopic Bible and Literature - Open Session: Ideology, Sociology and Literary Formation in the Ethiopic Tradition
This session invites proposals that contribute to a deeper understanding of the unique Ethiopic Christian tradition. Papers are invited exploring the external influences from Christian traditions, including Greek, Syriac, Arabic, and other religious traditions, including Jews and Muslims in the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsular. Papers are invited exploring how Ethiopian theologians and community leaders developed their own sense of identity, expressing these through their development of the biblical text, or which explore theological, historical, or sociological perspectives on the various works of literature, translated into or composed in Ethiopic, particularly papers exploring the ancient roots of Ethiopic thought. This tradition also developed its own technology and sociology of manuscript production, and papers are invited investigating this aspect, as well as the issues of digitization, cataloguing and access to the relevant manuscripts.
2. Ethiopic Bible and Literature - Issues of Method for the Textual History of the Ethiopic Old Testament Project (THEOT)
THEOT is a three-year project to reconstruct the textual history of the Ethiopic Old Testament. It will involve a fresh collation of 20 to 30 manuscripts for sample passages from each book of the Ethiopic Old Testament. Presenters will deal with issues of method for discerning families of manuscripts within the Ethiopic tradition and affiliations of the Ethiopic with other traditions. Some of the presentations for this session will be invited. Persons engaged in such work on Ethiopic or other manuscript traditions are invited to propose. This session will also address the issues of digitization, cataloguing and access to the relevant manuscripts.
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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.
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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: 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.
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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: Our two sessions at the 2013 annual meeting will feature only invited papers.
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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: The Feminist Hermeneutics of the Bible Section will offer three sessions at the 2013 Annual Meeting. One will be an open session for which paper proposals on any topic within the section’s scope of concern are welcome. A second will be a session on the theme “Feminist Hermeneutics, Economics and Biblical Interpretation.” Proposals for papers related to this theme are most welcome, especially papers addressing topics of contemporary relevance such as poverty, economic inequality, survival strategies for difficult economic times, and the like. A third session will feature an invited panel offering “Feminist Reviews of A New New Testament: A 21st Century Bible with Traditional and Newly Discovered Texts, Hal Taussig, editor.”
The section will also co-sponsor a joint session with the Disputed Paulines Section on the theme, “Contemporary Feminist Readings of the Disputed Pauline Letters.” Especially welcome will be papers connecting feminist readings to the perspectives of post-colonial interpretation, readings from minoritized communities, and other contemporary approaches to the text.
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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 of Luke-Acts Section focuses on the dynamic relationship between Luke-Acts and other New Testament texts, which might contribute to our understanding of the process which led to the formation and narrative composition of Luke-Acts. Moreover, the influence of the Septuagint is significant, both in terms of broader narrative features and characteristic elements and details. A special area of interest is the probable influence upon the composition of Luke-Acts due to Greco-Roman rhetorical education in general, and the Progymnasmata in particular. We encourage paper proposals within all these three areas.
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Function of Apocryphal and Pseudepigraphal Writings in Early Judaism and Early Christianity
Description: This unit is focused broadly on questions related to canon, namely: What is the biblical canon? How did it take shape? How did the so-called noncanonical works function in the early Jewish and Christian communities? How do these noncanonical works help us comprehend the shaping of the canon and by whom? What is the relation between a closed canon and the notion of a God who speaks in every generation? With considerable media interest in this subject in recent times, it is important to raise and address some of these important questions.
Call for papers: This year we are seeking papers for the following sessions:
1. The influence of conceptions of paradise in apocryphal and pseudepigraphal literature on early Jewish and Christian communities.
2. The influence of conceptions of hell and damnation in apocryphal and pseudepigraphal literature on early Jewish and Christian communities.
3. Open session on the influence of apocryphal and pseudepigraphal literature in early Jewish and Christian communities.
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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 calling for papers for the Baltimore meetings. FIRST SESSION: Many sections of the biblical corpus, and those traditions that stake claims to this body, reflect upon pain, trauma, torture, vulnerability, and/or abjection. Such phenomena evoke boundaries of the body or bodies-in-crisis, but they are often specifically gendered and/or eroticized as well. For this session, then, we seek papers that address and engage these concepts and practices about the body and their relations to and with biblical texts and afterlives. SECOND SESSION: In a joint session with The Archaeology of Religion in the Roman World Section, we seek paper proposals on the worship of Antinoos. This co-sponsored session concerns textual and material evidence for this new religious movement in the second century CE, and scholars working on topics related to Antinoos or ancient masculinities are particularly encouraged to submit proposals. THIRD SESSION: 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 for any of these sessions may be directed to the chair, Joseph Marchal at josephamarchal@gmail.com
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Genesis
Description: The Genesis unit promotes sustained and continued dialogue and scholarship on the book of Genesis from a variety of methodological perspectives, especially (yet not limited to) those approaching and treating the text as a canonical whole. It creates space for those working on Genesis to share their work in a focused place.
Call for papers: The Genesis unit promotes sustained and continued dialogue and scholarship on the book of Genesis from a variety of methodological perspectives, especially (yet not limited to) those approaching and treating the text as a canonical whole. It creates space for those working on Genesis to share their work in a focused place.
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Gospel of Luke
Description: The Gospel of Luke garners continued interest because of its distinctive narrative construction and its rhetorical, theological, and ethical emphases. The unit is interested in exploring Luke’s literary features and theology, and in encouraging new research on the gospel.
Call for papers: The Gospel of Luke garners continued interest because of its distinctive narrative construction and its rhetorical, theological, and ethical emphases. The unit is interested in exploring Luke’s literary features and theology, and in encouraging new research on the gospel.
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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 Seminar invites papers on the topic Putting Mark in Its Place. The sessions will focus on placing Mark's Gospel within the larger context of the ideas and developments of first century Christianity. We are not interested here in the Synoptic Problem or in Redaction Criticism. Instead, we are thinking of how the Gospel of Mark’s theology, outlook and understandings relate to those of other representatives of first-century Christianity, e.g., Paul's letters, the other Synoptics, John, etc..
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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 Greco-Roman Religions Section of the Society of Biblical Literature solicits proposals for its open session, “Issues in Greco-Roman Religions,” that cover the full variety of religious phenomena from the cultures of ancient Greece and Rome. Proposals that contain Christian/Judaic material are welcome; however, successful proposals focus primarily focus on non-Christian, non-Jewish data. Christian/Judaic examples should be used for comparative purposes only. For the open session, special consideration will be given to those proposals that engage questions dealing with the connections between practitioners’ social location and religion. Social location includes among other issues, economic, political, social, military, gender, and identity power relations. The second “Redescribing Session,” entitled “Attitudinal Practices: Relating to Authorizing Agencies. Redescribing Faith, Belief, and Piety,” solicits papers dealing with the possibilities of reconceptualizing faith, belief, and piety as attitudinal practices as internalized societal or field-specific, “non-negotiable” presuppositions about practices that create and reinforce dispositions inherent in ancient religious habitus, or perhaps as practices and sites of discipline through which power is impressed on the body to produce long-term dispositions. The GRR Section is also co-sponsoring a session with the Society for Ancient Mediterranean Religion (SAMR). Papers can be submitted for these sessions directly to the associated SAMR website.
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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 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.
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Healthcare and Disability in the Ancient World
Description: This unit, titled Disability Studies and Healthcare in the Bible and the Ancient World, seeks to foster scholarship related to disability, illness, medicine, and healthcare in the biblical world and text. Major areas of interest include: the religious, legal, and cultural status of persons with disabilities or illness in the biblical and formative Jewish and Christian periods; the representation of disability and illness in biblical and cognate texts; the theology of such texts; the history and archeology of medicine and healthcare in the ancient Near East and Greco-Roman worlds; and the subjects of disability, illness, medicine and healthcare in the history of biblical interpretation.
Call for papers: The unit plans to have at least three sessions at the 2013 meeting. 1) An open session, welcoming paper proposals on any aspect of the study of health and disability related to the Bible. 2) With the Senses and Culture in the Biblical World section, a session on "Sensory Disabilities in the Biblical World." Human cultures construct the body, including the senses, and how the body is marked as “abled” or “disabled.” We welcome papers that treat sensory disabilities and/or the healing of sensory disabilities, as well as meanings ascribed to these experiences. Papers may draw on (but are not limited to) sensory anthropology, medical anthropology, disability theory and/or gender studies. 3) With the Social History of Formative Judaism and Christianity section, a session on Illness and Disability in the Ancient World. We welcome proposals on any aspect of sickness and disability in late antiquity, such as discussions of etiology and treatment regimes, views of healthcare professionals (professional and charismatic), attitudes to sickness and disability, and definitions of "cure." For all joint sessions, please submit papers to both sections individually.
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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 year the Hebrew Bible and Political Theory section will be hosting three sessions. The first will be a joint session with the Deuteronomistic History section. This section is planned as an invited panel of four papers with a critical response. The theme of the panel will be “Monarchy and Kingship in the Deuteronomistic History from the Perspective of Political Theory”.
This year we will also be hosting a joint session with the Biblical Law section. The theme will be Legal and Political Theory and the Study of Biblical Law. For this session we will consider theoretically oriented proposals on issues such as legal authority, justice, jurisprudence, critical legal studies, and their application to the study of biblical law, broadly defined. Some examples of questions that would take advantage of the theoretical matrix this joint session provides include: To what degree may the biblical law corpora be construed as "constitutions"? In what ways is biblical law statutory law? Are there "rights" in biblical law? Can biblical law be termed "natural law"? Does biblical law have a theory of ownership or possession? Privilege will be given to those proposals that take seriously the contributions of political philosophers.
A third session will be accepting papers that attempt to gain understanding of the Hebrew Bible and the literature commonly read by scholars of ancient Judaism by utilizing the theories of political philosophy. As other program units already explore feminist ideology, African-American hermeneutics and post-colonial approaches, this session will give preference to papers that employ theoretical models concerning, for example, notions of nationhood, citizenship, law, class, social hierarchy, economic distribution, modes of leadership, and the like.
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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 year the Program Unit Hebrew Bible, History, and Archaeology will hold three sessions.
The first session will consist of several invited papers devoted to the topic of historiography and the construction of historical thought in the Hebrew Bible and the ancient Levant.
The other two sessions will be open sessions, accepting papers that address the history or archaeology of ancient Israel and Judah through the use of texts, archaeology, and anthropological approaches.
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Hebrew Scriptures and Cognate Literature
Description: The Hebrew Scriptures and Cognate Literature Section provides a major forum for research on specific points of contact between the Bible and the literatures of Israel's neighbors, to better elucidate the Bible as a collection of ancient Israelite writings.
Call for papers: The Hebrew Scriptures and Cognate Literature Section offers a wide-ranging forum for new research on specific points of contact between the Bible and the literatures of Israel's neighbors, with the goal of understanding biblical texts as they relate to the broader production of ancient scribes. We welcome submissions on all relevant topics, emphasizing that papers must incorporate both biblical and non-biblical material. It is also important to address considerations of method in undertaking specific applications of these combined studies.
In 2013, the section will devote a special session to invited papers on The Ancient Near East and the Dead Sea Scrolls. There will be either one or two open sessions, depending on the decision of the committee regarding paper submissions.
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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” will sponsor two sessions in 2013: (1) A session with papers and responses by invited speakers only again on the topic “The literary, philosophical, and theological content and context of the Book of Hebrews,” but this year with a particular interest in Hebrews scholarly reception history, that is, Hebrews reception in modern and postmodern scholarship; and (2) an open session on the topic of “Hebrews, Textual Criticism, and Papyrology,” or any other topic concerned with the Book of Hebrews. For questions contact Gabriella.Gelardini@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 2013 SBL Annual Meeting, the Hellenistic Judaism section invites proposals for two open panels. First is the theme of "Myth and History in Hellenistic Judaism." Second is "Hellenistic Jewish Women," including but not limited to Hasmonean and royal women.
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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 historical exploration of Jesus of Nazareth in his first-century context, as well as methodological issues involved in this exploration. In 2013 we will have one open session for which we invite proposals on any aspect of the historical Jesus from scholars at all stages of their careers. Please use this website to submit a paper proposal. We also plan to have a second, theme session, for which the papers will be invited.
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Historiography and the Hebrew Bible
Description: This unit (formerly Current Historiography and Ancient Israel and Judah) explores how historians use the Hebrew Bible for purposes of historical research and writing.
Call for papers: The Current Historiography of Ancient Israel and Judah section welcomes papers focused on a historical question, scenario, or topic. Papers may utilize archaeology, the social sciences, or take another interdisciplinary approaches to the past, but they must be primarily historical in nature. In 2013, understanding ancient Israel and Judah's relationship with nearby empires in the Iron Age will be emphasized, but papers with other historical foci will be considered.
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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: Paper proposals dealing with all aspects of the history and literature of early Rabbinic Judaism are welcome. Proposals dealing with rabbinic literature in its broader Mediterranean, Persian, and eastern Christian contexts are of particular interest. There may be one invited session.
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History of Interpretation
Description: The purpose of the section is: (1) To encourage the investigation of the history of biblical interpretation, especially with respect to the socio-historical context of the interpreters; (2) To support scholars by providing a forum for presentation and critical discussion of their works at the annual meeting; and (3) To encourage conversation among scholars investigating different time periods and geographical areas for their mutual benefit.
Call for papers: The purpose of the section is: (1) To encourage the investigation of the history of biblical interpretation, especially with respect to the socio-historical context of the interpreters; (2) To support scholars by providing a forum for presentation and critical discussion of their works at the annual meeting; and (3) To encourage conversation among scholars investigating different time periods and geographical areas for their mutual benefit.
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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: The Homiletics and Biblical Studies section in planning an invited panel "Preaching and the Environment". It is also accepting papers for an open call that can deal with either topics concerning preaching and the environment or other pertinent topics to the area 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 papers on the following topics
for the 2013 Annual Meeting: 1) Social Change, Religious Change,
Theories of Change -- papers that address religious/social change in
antiquity/modernity from a theoretical perspective or which seek to
advance theoretical understandings of religious/social change. 2)
Reception History - Theoretical Underpinnings -- we welcome papers
that look both at the ideological dimensions of the use and influence
of biblical texts, as well as at the ideological potentials of
reception history for the field. Can its interpretive framework break
certain ideological impasses that often divide scholars along
methodological lines—e.g., historical critics vs. reader-response
critics vs. sociological critics, etc.? 3) Philosophical perspectives
on the Bible beyond Paul.
In the past decade, the turn to religion among Continental
philosophers has focused on Paul, Papers for this session would seek
engagement with other aspects of the Bible from new Philosophical
perspectives. 4) Material Culture and imperial ideology - Many of the
texts considered in Biblical Studies (perhaps all) were written during
the rule of various Empires. All of these were supported and resisted
by a material culture that has just started to be analyzed for its
ideological content. We seek papers that will engage in such analysis.
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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 the 2013 meeting we invite papers that explore translation in its broadest possible sense, from intermedial translations to textual studies, from film, literature, art and of course the biblical texts. 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 also welcome.
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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: The Institute of Biblical Research holds an Annual Lecture each year on the Friday night prior to SBL. This lecture is invited. There are, however, opportunities for involvement in IBR in research groups which take place on Friday afternoon. To propose papers and ideas for these research groups please go to http://www.ibr-bbr.org/research-groups and contact Research Group coordinators listed there. To propose a new research group please contact Ruth Anne Reese (ruthanne.reese@asburyseminary.edu). For further information about the IBR program please contact Mark Boda at mjboda@mcmaster.ca.
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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 (IOSCS) is soliciting papers for its annual meeting in Baltimore, to be held in conjunction with the SBL. In addition to open sessions, where papers on any topic will be considered,IOSCS is also sponsoring a session to discuss a new monograph in our field: J. Ross Wagner, Reading the Sealed Book Old Greek Isaiah and the Problem of Septuagint Hermeneutics. IOSCS is also co-sponsoring a session, Greek Biblical Traditions and the Partition of Ancient Judeo-Christian Culture, with EJCR and Greek Bible. 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 Qur’anic Studies Association (IQSA)
Description: The International Qur’anic Studies Association fosters scholarship on the Qur’an, its context, its relationship to other scriptural traditions, and its influence upon literature and culture. IQSA facilitates the broad and open discussion of the Qur’an from a variety of academic perspectives.
Call for papers: The International Qur’anic Studies Association fosters scholarship on the Qur’an, its context, its relationship to other scriptural traditions, and its influence upon literature and culture. IQSA facilitates the broad and open discussion of the Qur’an from a variety of academic perspectives.
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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: ISLP will organize one session with invited papers at the 2013 Annual Meeting.
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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 2013 open session in Baltimore, our theme is “Intertextuality in Hebrews.” We invite paper proposals that focus on this theme. Special consideration will be given to proposals that expound on a specific approach to Intertextual interpretation and examine a sample passage or passages in the Letter to the Hebrews on how that approach enlightens the text. Our other sessions will be focused on Intertextuality and the Art of Persuasive Argumentation and another session on Methodology. The latter two sessions are by invitation only.
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Inventing Christianity: Apostolic Fathers, Apologists, and Martyrs
Description: This unit focuses on the writings of the Apostolic Fathers, the apologists, and the authors of martyrdom accounts (AFAM) in the second and third centuries. The goal is to explore their role in the invention of “Christianity” and early Christian identities.
Call for papers:
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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 an invited session and an open session. For the open session we invite proposals of [multi-media] presentations that reflect upon storm narratives, natural upheavals and/or nature's violence, in biblical canonical and extra-canonical literature. We welcome diverse perspectives and alternative orientations. In September 2012, Superstorm Sandy cut a swathe through the northern Caribbean, the Mid-Atlantic coast of the USA, and eventually spilled its wrath on the USA north eastern seaboard and neighboring states. Sandy's intensity and journey conjoined the dominant USA and the Caribbean islands in a shared experience. It exposed differing attitudes to preparation for and response to storms and natural disasters. These differences may be categorized into island-postcolonial/continent-empire inhabitant attitudes. These categories are not mutually exclusive and we anticipate papers that may represent a specific island perspective or richly mix perspectives along the continuum.
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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 two independent sessions and one joint session at the 2013 meeting. Session 1. Prophecy in Society--Confrontation or collaboration with Power. Explores prophetic literature's portrayal of prophetic confrontation or collaboration with leaders within Israelite/Judahite and imperial settings. Issues of textual representation, ideology, identity, and political dimensions of the theological discourse may be explored. Session 2. An open session on topics dealing with Israelite prophetic literature. Session 3: This is a joint session commemorating the 35th Anniversary of the publication of Walter Brueggemann’s The Prophetic Imagination. Invited panelists will reflect on the place of the book in fostering discourse on the prophetic literature. The author will conclude with a response. Co-sponsors include Writing/Reading Jeremiah, Israelite Prophetic Literature, Homiletics and Biblical Studies, and Theology of the Hebrew Scriptures.
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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: We welcome papers from scholars across the globe, senior and junior alike, returning presenters as well as new ones, specializing in or featuring any of the sub-disciplines.
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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: 2013 Annual Meeting
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 one session in 2013, we especially seek papers that explore how Jesus traditions were used in the 2nd century in the context of empire. How are such traditions deployed in strategies of negotiation in the Roman Empire? What continuities or discontinuities are evident between imperial negotiations in the canonical gospels and second centuries writings? Inquiries to warren.carter@tcu.edu or Colleen Conway at conwayco@gmail.com.
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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: One session invites proposals regarding the history of research into Jewish Christianity. Another session is an open call for papers that fall under the broader aim of the section. A prospective joint session with Construction of Christian Identities welcomes proposals dealing with the names and archaeological evidence for Jewish Christians.
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Jewish-Christian Dialogue and Sacred Texts
Description: This unit explores issues related to the interpretation of sacred texts, with a view toward contemporary Jewish-Christian dialogue. It aims to foster biblical scholarship and pedagogy that is informed by and nurtures dialogue and to provide venues for discussion between the traditions on sacred scriptures.
Call for papers:
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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: In Baltimore the Johannine Literature Section will host three sessions. Two are by invitation and deal with "Johannine Scholarship Today - Global and Local Perspectives" and "Ethics in Johannine Literature." The third session is open and we invite paper proposals on any subject related to the Gospel and Letters of John.
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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 section invites submissions for an OPEN SESSION on John's Apocalypse and Cultural Contexts, Ancient and Modern. We especially welcome papers that offer new perspectives on the text, including papers that approach the text from specific hermeneutical contexts (e.g. African-American, Latino/ Latina, Asian, Pacific Islander), employ innovative approaches to the Apocalypse (e.g. spatial theory, cognitive linguistics, social-economic analysis), and/ or offer new perspectives on enduring questions.The section also invites proposals for a JOINT SESSION with the Ethiopic Bible and Literature Consultation on apocalyptic and specifically the Book of Revelation within Ethiopic contexts and interpretive traditions.
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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 Seminar is planning three sessions for 2013, continuing the theme of "Jesus Remembered in the Johannine Tradition." One will focus on the multiple "portraits" of Jesus in the Fourth Gospel, including Jesus as rabbi, prophet, and apocalyptic Son of Man. A second session will be held jointly with the Synoptic Gospels Section and focus on common elements of tradition in Luke and John. Special attention will be given to the passages and themes most relevant for historical Jesus research. A third session will focus on "Jesus Remembered Within the Developing Johannine Tradition." Topics will range from the study of oral tradition to later written material. At least one paper will focus on Jesus remembered in the Johannine Epistles, building on the intratraditional features of the developing Johannine tradition.
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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: Two sessions are planned for the 2013 annual meeting. One session will be devoted to papers related to the Brill Josephus project and is by invitation only. For the second session the Josephus group invites proposals relating broadly to the theme of "Josephus and his contemporaries". We are particularly interested in papers that explore points of contact and comparison between Josephus and other writers working toward the end of the first century or the beginning of the second century CE.
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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: Three sessions: (1) Open Session on Building Data for the Study of Joshua-Judges. Paper proposals that deal with a specific text or texts within Joshua-Judges are welcome; (2) Open Session. This session seeks papers that deal with Joshua-Judges but are not focused on a particular passage. We welcome proposals for papers that will utilize diverse methodological techniques and/or synthetic approaches for the study of Joshua-Judges, or that will seek to place these books in a particular methodological landscape; (3) A joint-session between the Postcolonial Studies and Biblical Studies section and the Joshua-Judges section will examine Joshua-Judges through the lens of postcolonial theory, broadly conceived. The session is open to papers that explore (a) the ancient imperial/colonial context of these books, with possible reference to the question of nationhood and law, or (b) the use of Joshua-Judges within the modern colonial enterprise. Papers should include engagement with specific texts from the books themselves.
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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/
Call for papers: 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: 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.
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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: For 2013 the program will be twofold, continuing in both cases ongoing projects. One project addresses the topic of Liberation and Economics. Its focus will be on early liberation thinking as well as dialogue with Marxism. The other will center on the topic of Migration and the Bible, with a focus on both reviews of the existing literature and constructive proposals. Participation is by invitation.
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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 Spring 2013 Oxford Press is publishing a second edition of Philip Barlow's book entitled, Mormons and the Bible: The Place of the Latter-day Saints in American Religion. The LDS and the Bible section at the national meetings of the SBL in Baltimore will focus on this work. Proposals are invited for papers that discuss either issues raised by Barlow's work or responses to the work itself.
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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 related foci: (1) We are in a multi-year research program examining "Letters of James, Peter, and Jude at the Intersection of Jewish and Greek and Roman Intellectual Traditions." Paper proposals for our 2013 meeting with this focus are strongly encouraged. (2) We continue to hold Open Session(s) in which papers on any aspect related to the study of the letters of James, Peter and Jude consistent with the general description of this section are welcome.
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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: The LGBT/ Queer Hermeneutics program unit invites papers for OPEN SESSIONS on the following topics:
(1) "Narrative Literature through a Queer Lens," which continues our genre series. We invite proposals that employ LGBT/Queer hermeneutical approaches in conversation with narrative texts within the biblical traditions (e.g. Genesis, Exodus, Gospels, Acts), including cognate literature (e.g. ANE, Second Temple, Early Christian) and interpretive traditions. Proposals that engage the relationship between biblical traditions and contemporary narratives from a queer perspective are also welcome.
(2) In honor of being in the home of queer icon John Waters, we also invite papers that engage "Camp and the Obscene in Biblical Traditions and Interpretation." Papers may explore how the concepts of camp and the obscene relate to or appear within biblical texts, traditions, and interpretations and/ or the ways in which camp and the obscene provide challenges to biblical texts and traditions. While not required, papers that use the work of John Waters as an interpretive lens are also encouraged.
(3) For a possible book panel, we invite papers that critically discuss and/ or apply a queer lens to William R.G. Loader's 2012 work, "The New Testament on Sexuality: Attitudes towards Sexuality in Judaism and Christianity in the Hellenistic Greco-Roman Era."
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Linguistics and Biblical Hebrew
Description: The goals of the unit: to provide a forum where scholars can share the
results of their research on different aspects of Biblical Hebrew; advocate
the advantages of linguistic methods for biblical studies; build a platform for
interdisciplinary partnership with other disciplines and units.
Call for papers: The Linguistics and Biblical Hebrew Section solicits papers for two sessions. The first session will be non-thematic; any papers that address the study of Biblical Hebrew using a well-articulated linguistic method are welcome, and those that apply linguistics to particular Biblical Hebrew texts are especially encouraged. The second session will be topical, focusing on language variation and text-based studies of the differentiation of idiolect, dialect, and discourse pragmatics. Papers grounded in sound linguistic theory and applied to a set of texts have the most potential to further our understanding and are therefore preferred. Please submit your abstract online. Submitters who have not presented a paper previously in the Linguistics and Biblical Hebrew Section are asked also to include the full paper.
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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; an invited panel and an open session for which paper proposals will be accepted. Both sessions will be on the topic of Amphictyony as a social construct of Mediterranean cultures of the 6th-4th centuries BCE. Papers will address the issues of historiography, religious ritual, economics, land tenure and genealogical claims in light of social groups organized as a collective or league in the context of an imperial administrative system. The impact of these disparate strata of group identity and mobilization upon the formation of biblical and extra-biblical Jewish texts will be examined, as well as parallels from Greek and Persian sources (historiographic, epigraphic and otherwise).
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Manuscripts from Eastern Christian Traditions
Description: This Workshop provides a forum to familiarize students and scholars, especially those who have not worked with manuscripts before, with manuscript studies within the broader fields of eastern Christianity in any of its languages and literary traditions.
Call for papers: For the 2013 meeting in Baltimore, we invite papers that deal with manuscript studies in the languages and traditions of the Christian east, especially presentations of instructive and practical value for both students and scholars. We anticipate at least two sessions, for one of which we invite papers that focus on Syriac manuscript studies for a joint session organized with the SBL unit "Syriac Literature and Interpretations of Sacred Texts." Papers on manuscripts of other languages and traditions (Arabic, Armenian, Christian Palestinian Aramaic, Coptic, Ge`ez, Georgian, Persian, Sogdian) are warmly welcomed for the other session.
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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.
Call for papers: The Seminar will have two sessions in 2013. Session one will address possible literary source material for Mark 8:1-10:52. Session two will address general methods for and approaches to identifying Markan literary sources. We welcome paper proposals for either topic.
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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: 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).
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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 2014 Annual Meeting. We will hold one open session and one panel review of Nathan Eubank, Wages of Cross-Bearing and Debt of Sin: The Economy of Heaven in Matthew's Gospel (BZNW 196; de Gruyter, 2013). The open session welcomes papers on any Matthean topic. Submissions will be evaluated in a blind review process on the basis of originality and clarity of the thesis proposed as well as the overall contribution it makes to Matthean studies.”
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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 have planned two sessions for 2013 on the topics: a) Killing and Eating: On Sacrifice and Meals, b) Bodies on the Couch: Gender, Space, and the Meal. Papers have been assigned for both sessions. There will not be a call for papers this year.
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Meals in the HB/OT and Its World
Description: The unit explores the cultural-anthropological centrality of meals, utilizing the considerable data about food and feasting from the OT/HB and ANE (textual, iconographic, archaeological), to address questions of gender, social formation/identity, intercultural dynamics, ecology, ideology & theology.
Call for papers: We welcome proposals for a session on "Meals, Feasting, and Cultural Exchange in the Persian Period." This session seeks to address aspects of meals, offering meals, and feasts in this time of enormous cultural exchange. Papers can address meals in the biblical text, as well as in the archaeology, iconography, and texts of the ancient Near East and Magna Graeca from the period of Persian hegemony. Our second session, made up of invited papers, will take up the topic "Meals and Gender."
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Megilloth
Description: This unit seeks to offer an outlet for scholarship on the collection known as the Megilloth. The Program will provide a venue for discussion of both the individual books (scrolls) that constitute the collection (Ruth, Song of Songs, Ecclesiastes, Lamentations, and Esther) as well as to the relationship between the individual books themselves, thereby seeking to foster conversation about the Megilloth as a distinct corpus within Hebrew Bible and the value of this designation to the academic community. The Program unit is interested in readings of these books and the corpus that explore matters of gender, ethnicity, and identity, as well as those that explore the different canonical locations of the books and the varied readings that may emerge from these differences.
Call for papers: The new consultation "Megilloth" is planning two sessions for the meeting in Baltimore, both of which will consist of invited papers only. The first session will address issues of unity as they pertain to the five books in the Megilloth, seeking to address not only the inclusion of the books in the canonical traditions of Judaism and Christianity, but also their arrangement and relationship to one another. To this end, we will invite papers that seek to explore linguistic or thematic elements that may unify the five scrolls. The second session will focus on the historical uses and influences of the Megilloth. We will invite papers that explore the impact that the five scrolls, both individually and as a group, have had on different communities, both Jewish and Christian and how these communities have treated the scrolls canonically. This session also seeks to address issues of reception in pre-modern and modern communities and how these interpretive acts inform contemporary understandings of the Megilloth. At the conclusion of the second session the steering committee will host an business meeting, which will be open to SBL members, to discuss future agenda.
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Metacriticism of Biblical Scholarship
Description: This unit interrogates the contours and boundaries of the discipline of
biblical studies, including analysis of the guild's historic and current
preoccupations, methods, and participant composition, while providing a
forum for constructive recommendations for future directions in the field.
Call for papers: The Metacriticism of Biblical Scholarship Consultation evaluates suppositions in and underlying biblical scholarship, including how an explicitly non-religious approach differs from what is even now represented as historical-critical scholarship, especially when compared to other secular disciplines within the Humanities (history, classical studies) and the Social Sciences (e.g., anthropology, sociology). At the Baltimore Annual Meeting, we plan three sessions: (1) one assessing how scholarship has addressed biblical passages urging mass violence toward targeted groups, including scholars' use or avoidance of the term 'genocide,' jointly sponsored with the Use, Influence, and Impact of the Bible Unit; (2) a session on academic freedom in biblical studies, across all types of institutions; and (3) an open session, for which we welcome proposals on any subject within our Consultation’s purview.
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Metaphor in the Bible and Cognate Literature
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: The section "Metaphor Theory and Biblical Texts" is planning three sessions for the meeting in Baltimore.
One session will be organized together with the Ancient Near Eastern Iconography and the Bible section on the theme: 'God, Metaphor, and Iconography'. This session will consist of both invited and proposed papers. We welcome papers dealing with representations of God/god both in literature and pictorial images; of special interest are papers which investigate similarities and differences between the two areas and how the two areas may be mutually enlightening. A second session is an open session with the theme: `The Many Faces of Death: Metaphorical Descriptions of Death in the Hebrew Bible.' For this session we welcome papers on the diverse metaphorical descriptions of death, dying, and the realm of death in Hebrew Bible texts. A third session has the theme: `Metaphor Identification in Biblical Texts.' The study of metaphor in Biblical Texts, whether for stylistic, literary, linguistic or cognitive purposes, starts with identifying metaphors in the texts. Yet, biblical scholars do not usually reflect explicitly on how they have identified the metaphors they are studying. Moreover, quite some discussion often arises on whether a particular expression should be counted as a metaphor or not in a given text. This session will consist of both invited and proposed papers. We welcome papers dealing both methodologically and practically with the issue of metaphor identification: how can one recognize metaphors in a biblical texts, how can one make sure that this identification is reliable, i.e. is not only dependent on the researcher's intuitions, how can one develop tools to advance the scholarly dialogue on whether specific expressions are metaphorical or not?
All proposals should state the author's main thesis, the methodological approach followed and the specific examples studied.
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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: The midrash section will sponsor one session that addresses critical reaserch in any area of midrash. A second session will be co-sponsored by the Philo of Alexandria Section; this session will focus upon Philo of Alexandria and his bible interpretations or midrash and Philonic interpretation. A third session will focus upon Josephus, Pseudo-Philo, and related literature. The works of Philo and Josephus as well as the Liber Antiquitatum Biblicarum contain numerous biblical interpretations; we will explore the relationship between these interpretations and midrash. We will accept paper proposals for all of our sessions.
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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: For 2013 the focus will be on interpreting texts from a minoritized perspective, with a special focus on economics, and thus on the intersection between race-ethnicity and materialism, in the light of various locations and ideologies. Two sessions are scheduled: one on 1 Kings 21 and one on Revelation 18. Participation is by invitation.
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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 Esotericism and Mysticism in Antiquity Section will hold three sessions in 2013. Session one is an open panel on any relevant topic. Session two is on women and gender in esotericism and mysticism in antiquity. We are looking for submissions to this session, in addition to already invited papers. Session three is a roundtable discussion on the nature of esotericism in antiquity, featuring invited participants.
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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 is holding an open call for papers for 2013. In addition, papers are welcome for a special session on Scribes and Readers of the Nag Hammadi Codices in Fourth- and Fifth-century Egypt, to be held jointly with the Papyrology and Early Christian Backgrounds Group.
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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: NAPH is sponsoring six sessions. - Session One, Annual Meeting of Officers and Members.
- Session Two, Theme, “New Testament Jesus in Modern Jewish Literature.” What kind of Jesus these writers depict and what do they find in this ancient figure? We invite papers that address these questions and explore the transformations of the biblical Jesus into the modern Jewish text.
- Session Three, Theme, “Diachrony in Biblical Hebrew: Where do we go from here?” The recent publication of Diachrony in Biblical Hebrew, ed. Cynthia L. Miller-Naudé and Ziony Zevit (Eisenbrauns 2012), presents several ways to approach the question of diachronic change and variation in Biblical Hebrew. Which of these approaches is most compelling and which should be further pursued in future research? This session will consist of invited papers to evaluate the volume and address these issues. Also accepted are paper proposals that evaluate any aspect of the volume or address a topic related to the question of diachronic change and variation in Biblical Hebrew or the ancient Near Eastern languages generally.
- Session Four, Theme: “Teaching Biblical Hebrew in the ‘Flipped’ Classroom.” The Methodology session invites papers about or demonstrations of teaching Hebrew in a "flipped" classroom.
- Session Five, Theme, "Subtle Citation, Allusion, and Translation in the Hebrew Bible: Evidence, Evaluation, and Implications." Papers will focus on not-so-obvious, unrecognized cases of citation and allusion and on translations from other languages, clarifying the methodological considerations on which their status as real can be established and their implications.
- Session Six, continues the intent and content of Session Five.
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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 NT Textual Criticism Section invites paper proposals for two sessions: 1) The first session will be in collaboration with the Bible in Ancient and Modern Media and invites papers on the topic of the public reading of texts in early Christianity. Although this general focus may include a variety of possible topics, we especially welcome papers on oral/written transmission and textual variants. 2) For the second session, we welcome papers on all aspects of the textual trasmission of the New Testament, particularly those that employ the insights of discourse analysis to investigate textual variation.
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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: NAASR plans to organize at least one invited session for 2013.
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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: We are not accepting proposals but will organize a session at the 2013 Annual Meeting.
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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: The Orality and Textuality in the Formation of the Hebrew Bible section invites papers for an open session. We welcome proposals that explore how the dynamics of orality and textuality affect the formation and use of the Hebrew Bible. We particularly welcome proposals that bring biblical studies into dialogue with research in other disciplines on orality, textuality and their interaction.
We also invite proposals for a session on: Consonantal text and Oral vocalization of the Hebrew Bible
The oral vocalization of the consonantal framework and the emergence of fixed oral vocalization traditions is a pivotal part of the formation and transmission of the Hebrew Bible: Without vocalization, the consonantal framework is often ambiguous and can be read in several ways, implying different meanings. However, in spite of their obvious importance, the origins of the vocalization, its early oral transmission, and the interaction between the orally performed vocalization(s) and the written consonantal framework(s) are largely unexplored fields of research. This is even true for the best known vocalization tradition, which became part of the Masoretic text and which is thus well preserved, but there are further important early witnesses of vocalization, which should be carefully analysed as well, especially the Samaritan Pentateuch, the Septuagint, and Qumran manuscripts. The goal of this session is to move forward the scholarly conversation about both the historical and theoretical aspects of the relationship between the consonantal frameworks and vocalization traditions of the Hebrew Bible.
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Papyrology and Early Christian Backgrounds
Description: The Papyrology and Early Christian Backgrounds Group explores how the ancient papyri illumine the world of early Christianity and will appeal to scholars interested in paleographic, linguistic, and textual questions, as well as those who specialize in the social and cultural history of early Christianity.
Call for papers: The Papyrology and Early Christian Backgrounds Group explores how the ancient papyri illumine the world of early Christianity and will appeal to scholars interested in paleographic, linguistic, and textual questions, as well as those who specialize in the social and cultural history of early Christianity.
This Section invites proposals for papers for three sessions: the first is an open session, papers for which can address any of the group's themes. The second is a thematic session, on "Christian papyri from Oxyrhynchus", for which papers discussing the literary or documentary Christian papyri from Oxyrhynchus are invited. Proposals focusing on larger thematic issues pertaining to Christianity at Oxyrhynchus or its Christian texts in their local context are especially welcome. In addition, papers are welcome for a special session on Scribes and Readers of the Nag Hammadi Codices in Fourth- and Fifth-century Egypt, to be held jointly with the Nag Hammadi and Gnosticism Group.
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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: Slavery, Resistance, and Freedom and Paul and Politics program units are co-sponsoring a session on the intersections of enslavement with gender, sexuality, and/or with empire. We invite papers on enslaved persons as persons who exercise agency and may engage in resistance, focused upon enslaved persons in Pauline materials and traditions, or on the various uses of and responses to Pauline materials in ancient or more contemporary communities. Papers that respond, at least in part, to Hector Avalos's Slavery, Abolitionism, and Ethics of Biblical Scholarship (and the scholarly and activist uses of Pauline materials described within it) are also particularly welcomed.
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Paul within Judaism
Description: While the opposition between Paul and Judaism has been the undisputed point of departure in much previous Pauline scholarship, the aim of this program unit is to develop Pauline studies from the hypothesis that Paul remained within and practiced Judaism.
Call for papers: For this open session we accept proposals on any subject related to the study of Paul as a first-century Hellenistic Jew, e.g., papers on the nature of Paul's Judaism, his relation to other forms of Judaism(s), to non-Jews, and his view of the Torah.
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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: The Pauline Epistles Section will have one session with invited papers and three open sessions at the annual meeting in November 2013. One of the three open sessions will have a thematic focus on Paul's apocalyptic imagination (following up on the invited session at the 2012 annual meeting), so we encourage papers on that particular topic for one open session. For the remaining two open sessions, we welcome papers on any topic. Proposals for papers presenting original, scholarly research are welcome for any of the three open sessions. Paper proposals will only be considered if they are submitted on the SBL website.
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Pauline Theology
Description: The unit has been set up in order to explore central issues in Pauline theology. No single understanding of "Pauline theology," or of how it is to be delimited from other aspects of Pauline discourse, is assumed at the outset. A complementary goal is the introduction of Pauline textual and theological insights into conversations with other fields, for example, with brain research, ecology, and race.
Call for papers: For 2013 Pauline Soteriology is not calling for papers but rather inviting papers on a particular topic.
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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 is planning four sessions for the 2013 Annual Meeting. Two of these will be invited panels. One will be an open session, for which papers on any topic related to the Pentateuch, but especially those focused on historical-critical topics, are encouraged. We will also have a session on Arab peoples in the Pentateuch, for which we welcome proposals.
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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: In 2013, we will hold two sessions, and we are issuing an open call for both. For the first session, we are interested in papers that examine the formative influence of oral performance on the creation of texts, performance of texts in ancient contexts, representation of oral performance in written texts, performance features embedded in biblical and other ancient texts, or related topics. For the second session, we solicit presentations focused on the interdisciplinary exchange between theatre criticism/Shakespearean studies and performance criticism of biblical and other ancient texts. A scene from a Shakespearean play may be performed and discussed at the second session.
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Philo of Alexandria
Description: Philo’s works are invaluable sources about not only his own thought and exegesis but also such related fields as Judaica, philosophy, history, Classics, New Testament, and early Christianity. This Seminar focuses on these topics and on commentaries-in-preparation on Philonic treatises.
Call for papers: Philo's exegetical and non-exegetical works are informed by and reflect an awareness of many different sources, both Jewish and non-Jewish. In 2013, we would like to focus on Philo's knowledge of specific non-biblical sources. These might include the writings of Greek philosophers, poets, tragedians, and historians; other Jewish exegetes and thinkers, who wrote in Greek and other languages; Roman writers; and perhaps even some Egyptian writers. Presenters will include invited speakers and others selected in response to this call for papers. In addition, our group is co-sponsoring with the Midrash Section a panel on Philo and midrash. We welcome proposals for papers that explore the relationship between Philo's biblical interpretations and rabbinic midrash from any perspective.
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Philology in Hebrew Studies
Description: This program unit aims to take up the dual challenge of reflecting self-critically on the nature of philology as a discipline and developing rigorous methodologies of philological study, particularly as may pertain to the Hebrew Bible and related literature.
Call for papers: This program unit aims to take up the dual challenge of reflecting self-critically on the nature of philology as a discipline and developing rigorous methodologies of philological study, particularly as may pertain to the Hebrew Bible and related literature.
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Polis and Ekklesia: Investigations of Urban Christianity
Description: This new Consultation of SBL investigates the expansion of early Christianity as an urban
phenomenon from Jerusalem to Rome, from the perspective of Paul’s letters and the book of
Acts against the backdrop of the local documentary and archaeological evidence. It seeks to bring together New Testament and classical scholars in the study of the New Testament writings as primary evidence for the understanding of civic and religious life in the first-century Mediterranean world. The wide range of methodologies and disciplines employed in this investigation ensures a more holistic approach than has been the case in the past.
Call for papers: This consultation investigates the expansion of early Christianity as an urban phenomenon from Jerusalem to Rome, from the perspective of Paul's letters and the book of Acts, against the backdrop of the local documentary and archaeological evidence. The consultation seeks to bring together scholars of early Christianity and Classicists in the study of early Christian literature as primary evidence for understanding the civic and religious life of the first and second century Mediterranean world. The wide range of methodologies and disciplines employed in this investigation promises a more holistic approach than has been the case in the past. The city chose for investigation in 2013 is Ephesos. There will be two sessions of the consulation: one is by invitation only; the other is open for offers of papers.
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Postcolonial Studies and Biblical Studies
Description: This section offers a forum for papers exploring any aspect of the relation between postcolonial studies and biblical studies, including both the use of the Bible in the modern colonial enterprise and the application of postcolonial models to the ancient world.
Call for papers: The Postcolonial Studies and Biblical Studies Section will offer three sessions at the 2013 Annual Meeting. Two of the sessions will be co-sponsored with other program units. Proposals are welcome for these two sessions. (1) For an open session co-sponsored with the Joshua-Judges Section, we are looking for papers that examine Joshua-Judges through the lens of postcolonial theory, broadly conceived. We are especially interested in papers that explore (a) the ancient imperial/colonial context of these books, with possible reference to the question of nationhood and law, or (b) the use of Joshua-Judges within the modern colonial enterprise. Papers should include engagement with specific texts from the books themselves. (2) For a partially open session co-sponsored with the AAR's Bible, Theology, and Postmodernity group, we invite proposals that explore the relationship between postcoloniality and disability studies, as this intersection has been recently emerging within literature (e.g., Salman Rushdie) and in theory (e.g., Ato Quayson) as well as in transhumanist figuration. We are looking for papers that express the significance of this relationship for biblical and theological studies. (3) For our third session, which will focus on the influence of Fernando Segovia's application of postcolonial studies to biblical studies, all of the speakers will be invited.
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Poverty in the Biblical World
Description: This unit will examine poverty, servitude, and related issues in the Hebrew Bible, Early Judaism, and Early Christianity. While non-canonical texts and related materials will be included, primary focus will be on biblical texts. Innovative interdisciplinary methods as well as traditional exegesis are welcome.
Call for papers: The Consultation on Poverty in the Biblical World will sponsor two sessions at the 2013 Annual Meeting.
Session 1) “Responses to Poverty in the Bible”:
In an overall biblical arc of justice several key passages focus on what might be called “anti-poverty programs,” in which the wider community, movement, and/or people respond in various ways to the need of those whose livelihood is threatened. Prominent among these are the various devices of “risk-sharing” among agrarian communities demanded in covenantal law-codes (sabbatical fallow; lending without interest; release of debt-slaves; redemption of land), the “reforms” of Nehemiah that rolled back devices of impoverishment (Neh 5:1-13); the “community of goods” practiced by the early Jerusalem community of Jesus-loyalists (Acts 2:44-47); and the collection that Paul was gathering for the poor in Jerusalem (2 Cor 8; 9; etc.).
The steering committee invites proposals for critical multifaceted analysis and interpretation of a key biblical passage or responses to poverty in both historical political-economic context and the context of the biblical tradition of common good and shared community responsibility for the needy.
Session 2) “Forgiveness of Debts”:
Arguably in modern as well as ancient political-economies debt is the mechanism by which both wealth, on the one hand, and poverty, on the other, are generated. In contrast to the capitalist and some other economic systems, biblical literature includes a number of passages in which the forgiveness of debt is demanded or encouraged (e.g., Deut 15; the “Jubilee,” Lev 25; Isa 61; Lord’s Prayer, Luke 6:27-35; 11:2-4; Rom 13:8-10). Certain other passages, however, have been read as blaming the poor for their poverty.
The steering committee invites proposals for critical analysis and interpretation of key biblical passages on debt and the cancellation of debts in historical and biblical context.
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Prophetic Texts and Their Ancient Contexts
Description: The objectives of this group are: (1) to foster as much discussion as possible among participants in the sessions without limiting the number of participants; (2) to involve a wide variety of viewpoints from the international academy interested in "prophetic texts and their ancient contexts"; and (3) to encourage creativity and diversity among those interested in this field by inviting proposals for papers within the described parameters.
Call for papers: This year's session of the Prophetic Texts and Ancient Contexts Group will look at Dream Divination in the Hebrew Bible and elsewhere in the Ancient Near East, paying special attention to the various ways that 'dreams' function as a medium for divination. The relationship between dreams and dream-divination to other forms of divination, such as visions or prophecy can also be discussed. The section will consist of invited papers only.
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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 is planning to have three sessions at the Annual Meeting in San Diego.
The first will be a closed session. Four invited speakers will honor the life’s work of Professor Michael Stone of The Hebrew University. Then two invited speakers will review Andrei A. Orlov’s book Heavenly Priesthood in the Apocalypse of Abraham (Cambridge University Press, 2013).
The second session is entitled “Notions of Time in Early Judaism and Christianity.” We invite papers that explore attempts to make sense of the passage of time, broadly conceived, in early Jewish and Christian writings. Preference will be given to papers that are not concerned with the calendars but explore the conceptualization of time across diverse genres of literature.
The third session will be an open session. Young scholars and new voices in Pseudepigraphic Studies are especially encouraged to submit abstracts.
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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 always welcome proposals for papers that address Biblical texts, themes, figures and/or readers using the concepts and interpretive tools of any field of psychology.
For 2013, we are particularly interested in papers on the following themes:
- The psychodynamics of transformative Bible study. How does or how might psychologically-informed methods of engaging the biblical text enable transformative change in cognition, perception, and/or behavior?
- The psychological function of irony. Irony is a popular theme in contemporary biblical interpretation, and it is often difficult to distinguish. What might be the psychological functions of irony and how might a psychological understanding of irony affect a reading of the text?
We also plan a book review session on the Festrschrift honoring Wayne G. Rollins, Psychological Hermeneutics for Biblical Themes and Texts, Ed. J. Harold Ellens (New York: T&T Clark, 2012).
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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 https://neues-testament.uni-graz.at/de/forschung/fwf-projekte-zum-spruchevangelium-q/sbl-q-section/.
Call for papers: For the 2013 meeting the Q Section will organize three sessions:
(1) Narratological Readings of Q. H.T. Fleddermann (2005) and M. Labahn (2010) have introduced narratological approaches into Q studies; this new trend will be explored in this session.
(2) Traces of Q in Early Christianity. In his new book “Two Shipwrecked Gospels: The ‘Logoi of Jesus’ and Papias’s ‘Exposition of Logia about the Lord’” (2012) D.R. MacDonald presents a new model for Q’s role in Early Christianity. Taking this model as its starting point, the session will discuss the early reception of Q beyond Matthew and Luke.
(3) Open Session. In this session papers on introductory questions (e.g., reconstruction, date, audience, social and ethnic setting, etc.) are especially welcome.
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Qumran
Description: The Qumran Section of the SBL provides an equal-opportunity forum for presentation and discussion of views relating to the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Qumran settlement, and the people of that place and of those documents. The Qumran Section has three goals: (1) It provides a forum for scholarly discussion of any aspect of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the material culture of Qumran, and the history, literature, and worldviews of the people associated with them. (2) It encourages new discussions and new approaches in the field of Dead Sea Scrolls studies. (3) It strives for integrating the study of the Dead Sea Scrolls with other fields of biblical and related studies.
Call for papers: The Qumran section welcomes papers on any aspect of the study of the Dead Sea Scrolls and Qumran, including studies of texts, material culture, history, literature, or recent advances in the field. For 2013, the section especially invites papers on understanding the Book of Jubilees in the context of the Dead Sea Scrolls as well as papers on the exploration of performative aspects of Qumran texts. In 2013, the Qumran section will also co-sponsor an invited session on The Ancient Near East and the Dead Sea Scrolls with the Hebrew Scriptures and Cognate Literature Section. The Qumran section wishes to maximize opportunities for presenters by limiting scholars to present no more than two years in succession. This restriction does not apply to invited papers.
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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: Suggested topics include, but are not limited to: the Qur’an and its exegesis in comparative perspective, with particular attention to literary and historical connections between Muslim interpretation of the Qur’an and non-Muslim exegesis of the Bible and related traditions; the current state of the field of Qur’anic Studies; critical approaches to the study and analysis of the Qur’an (from both Muslim and non-Muslim perspectives); Qur’an translation; pedagogy (the Qur’an in the classroom); comparative hermeneutics (ancient, medieval, or contemporary); interfaith dialogue; sectarian polemics; gender and sexuality in comparative perspective; the Qur’an in the context of Late Antiquity. The Qur’an and Biblical Literature section plans to have four panels at the 2013 Annual Meeting, and in cooperation with the SBL Pentateuch Group we seek papers for a co-sponsored session on the Arabs in the book of Genesis. All other panels are currently open, but prearranged panels with a set topic and invited participants will be given full consideration.
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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 focus on Borges and the Bible. Jorge Luis Borges has long been a familiar presence in critical theory. Perhaps most famously Foucault notes in his preface to The Order of Things that he was inspired by “the laughter that shattered, as I read [a passage from Borges], all the familiar landmarks of my thought.” Proposals are welcome for papers that read Borges in (similarly destabilizing) conversation with biblical studies, theory, and/or Bible. Papers concerning the Bible in Borges’ work will be considered too, especially those emphasizing such Borgesian tropes and concepts as: heterodoxy, translation, textuality, undecidability, and (in Zizek’s terms) the "counter-story."
The 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. We welcome papers on the following topics: Session 1) "Women, War, and Violence." This could include papers on historical women who interpreted biblical texts about war and violence; or papers dealing with how experiences of war and violence shaped the interpretative work of historical women; or papers on other subjects related to war, violence, and female interpreters prior to the early 1900s. Session 2) "Women Biblical (and Qur'anic) Interpreters Through the Centuries: Writing For and About Children." This is a joint session co-sponsored by the AAR Childhood Studies and Religion Group. For more information, contact Marion Taylor at marion.taylor@wycliffe.utoronto.ca.
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Redescribing Christian Origins
Description: The Seminar contributes to the study of Christian origins by problematizing current consensus
views, unexamined assumptions, and categories. It recontextualizes and redescribes key data
through comparative analysis. It accounts for (i.e., explains) the production and continued
function of cultural artefacts (mainly texts but not entirely) in terms of social theory.
Call for papers: The Seminar contributes to the study of Christian origins by problematizing current consensus
views, unexamined assumptions, and categories. It recontextualizes and redescribes key data
through comparative analysis. It accounts for (i.e., explains) the production and continued
function of cultural artefacts (mainly texts but not entirely) in terms of social theory.
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Religious 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: This year we will be accepting papers for two different sessions. The first session is titled "The Rhetoric of Competition: Reading 'Greek' and 'Barbarian' Texts in Late Antiquity." In recognition of the importance of textual reception in the process of identity formation, this session invites papers that examine the ways Jews, Christians, or Platonists interpreted both their own 'canonical' texts and the texts of other communities including those that may have been construed as 'pagan,' 'heretical,' or 'barbarian.'
In the second session we will accept papers discussing any aspect of religious competition in Late Antiquity.
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Religious Experience in Antiquity
Description: This section investigates the experiential elements of religions from the ancient near east to late antiquity, with a particular interest in examining (1) the relationship between texts and experience, (2) religious practices in the context of ritual, prayer, ecstasy, dreams and visions, 3) the role of embodied experiences (cognitive, neurological, and sensory) in the generation of religious ideas and commitment.
Call for papers: The RelEx section will be holding three sessions this year. The first is a review of Angela Harkins, /Reading with an "I" to the Heavens: Looking at the Qumran Hodayot through the Lens of Visionary Traditions/ (DeGruyter, 2012), with invited panelists. The two remaining sessions are open:
I. For a joint session with the section on "Senses and Culture in the Biblical World" we invite papers on "Sensory Perception and Religious Experience." Frequently, religious experiences are bodily, in so far as they engage the senses. Stimulation of the senses may also generate religious experience. In turn, when practitioners report on religious experiences, they frequently use sensory language to describe them. This joint session welcomes paper submissions which focus on one or more of these phenomena at the intersection of religious experience and sensory perception in antiquity. The abstract should state the paper's thesis and outline the approach that will be taken.
II. For this session we invite paper proposals on baptism. Especially well-suited proposals will address how ancient reports, descriptions and sites of baptism speak to phenomenal experience. We also welcome papers that take an interdisciplinary approach to the topic: e.g., anthropology, archaeology, sociology, and/ or neuropsychology, etc..
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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: For the SBL Annual Meeting 2013 RWLA calls for proposals in two subjects:
1. Constructions of Poverty and the Poor in Late Antiquity //
Poverty and charity are both realities, but they are also constructions and in some cases, ideals. How do the ever-changing religious institutions of late antiquity situate themselves in relation to poverty and charity, and how does this affect the actuality of giving over time? How do the definitions of poverty change, and who makes those definitions? What is the social meaning of being poor or among ‘the poor?’ What is the ideal relationship between giver and receiver? How do religious ideals of poverty or charity effect community economics and politics? Are the recipients of charity always poor? And, with consideration of Peter Brown's “Through the Eye of a Needle: Wealth, the Fall of Rome, and the Making of Christianity in the West, 350-550 AD,” what happens at the intersection of wealth, poverty and charity?
2. A Paideia Proposal: Theories of Education in Late Antiquity //
How did adherents of late antique religions conceive of, impart, and transform religious knowledge? What tools and techniques did they use? Was education a tool of social mobility, or a guarded marker of elite privilege? Are there gendered or social distinctions in modes of education or the educational levels toward which an individual might aspire? How was mastery assessed? We welcome proposals on the methods, tools, and locations associated with religious education; theoretical discussions of social, cultural, religious, literary, gender or technical formation; legislation and contracts relevant to apprenticeship/discipleship. (Co-sponsored with Social History of Formative Judaism and Christianity - please submit your single proposal to both Units).
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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 "Rhetoric and the New Testament” section seeks papers for three sessions in 2013: 1) “Rhetorics of Social Relationships and/in Early Christian Discourses,” an open call for a paper session wherein we shall prioritize proposals for critical appraisals of gendered, racial/ethnic, economic, pedagogical, and other discourses concerning social relationships, and their rhetorical deployments, within and across complexes of early Christian materials, as well as in the histories of scholarship thereof; 2) "Imagining a Rhetorical Future: Interventions and Innovations in New Testament Rhetorical Criticism;” 3) "Receptions of Early Christian Rhetoric,” for which we invite proposals examining the rhetorical strategies employed by late-ancient authors in their re-use of New Testament texts. Here, papers that consider re-formulations occurring in discrete manuscript strains are especially welcome (among these, the Nag Hammadi codices, the writings of Shenoute, the Pachomian monastic library, and the corpus of documents attributed to Evagrius).
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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 RRA Group holds three sessions at the annual meetings according to three research tracks. Track 1 (New Horizons in Sociorhetorical Interpretation) will have two sessions in 2013: "The significance of material culture for sociorhetorical interpretation" and "Visual Texture: A new horizon for sociorhetorical interpretation". Track 2 (An Analytical Seminar showcasing the use of sociorhetorical interpretation) will be on the letter of Jude and will be presented by Dr. Robert Webb. Track 3 (Refining Sociorhetorical Interpretation) will be on "Refining narrational texture" and will be divided between presentations on Acts and on Paul's letters. Presenters for all of the papers are invited.
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Ritual in the Biblical World
Description: The Ritual in the Biblical World Section focuses on the nature, meaning and function of ritual found in textual sources (HB, NT, non-canonical) in the larger context of the material culture of the ancient world, employing insights and methods of the field of ritual theory and enthnography.
Call for papers: The Ritual in the Biblical World Section focuses on the nature, meaning and function of ritual found in textual sources (HB, NT, non-canonical) in the larger context of the material culture of the ancient world, employing insights and methods of the field of ritual theory and ethnography. In addition to a planned joint-session with the Ritual Studies Group of AAR, we invite proposals relating to competition between ritual systems, or any other aspect of ritual for the Annual Meeting in Baltimore.
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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 and Tradition Group invites papers in two linked areas for this coming year.
1) Sabbath Observance
Biblical and post-biblical texts offer long arrays of commandments, both positive and negative, defining the observance of the Sabbath. This session welcomes papers that focus on the biblical and post-biblical construction of Sabbath observances, exploring the various definitions of Sabbath commandments; differences between biblical and post-biblical interpretations of Sabbath observance; the historical growth and development of ideologies of Sabbath observance in Antiquity and Late Antiquity; letter vs. spirit of the law in Sabbath observance; Sabbath observance as viewed and described by insiders and outsiders; disputes about the parameters of Sabbath observance; the connection between Sabbath observance and righteousness, and other related topics.
2) Sabbath Violations
Violation of the Sabbath carries with it severe penalties present from the earliest strands of biblical literature. This session welcomes papers that inquire about texts that confront such violation from a number of perspectives: definitions of violation; penalties (both divine and human) in response to Sabbath violation; historical growth and development of responses to Sabbath violation; letter vs. spirit of the law in Sabbath violation; Sabbath violation as disqualifying act and sign of unsuitability; altered definitions of violation in response to new historical realities; sacrificial and other atoning responses to Sabbath violation, and other related topics.
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Sacred Texts and Public Life
Description: The purpose of this unit is to support the discussion of the way sacred texts, and especially the Bible, play a role in and intersect with various dimensions of public life, including policy. It hopes to bring people and institutions together to unravel the past relationships of sacred texts and public life and envision new ways to shape this lively intersection.
Call for papers: The purpose of this unit is to support the discussion of the way sacred texts, and especially the Bible, play a role in and intersect with various dimensions of public life, including policy. It hopes to bring people and institutions together to unravel the past relationships of sacred texts and public life and envision new ways to shape this lively intersection.
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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 offers three open sessions for the 2013 Annual SBL conference: First, it invites papers for the session “Cultic themes in the Septuagint and Greco-Roman Culture;” second, it invites papers for the session “Cultic Action and Experience in the Hebrew Bible;” third, it invites papers for the session “Cultic Action and Experience in the New Testament.” All sessions will feature four papers followed by a five-minute discussion. A general discussion panel concludes the session.
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Scripture and Paul
Description: The intent of this seminar is to provide a forum for a group of Jewish Scripture and Pauline scholars to examine Paul’s use of Scripture in light of text-critical and scholarly advances regarding second temple literary use of Scripture. It is the intent of this seminar to work toward the resolution of scholarly gridlock concerning the way the apostle Paul interpreted and applied the Jewish Scriptures.
Call for papers:
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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 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 on 2 Corinthians along the lines of the goals of the seminar (see description). 2.) a call for papers soliciting contributions on portions or the whole of 2 Corinthians 7:5-16 (and its place in the letter as a whole or in respective letter fragments) along the lines of the goals of the seminar (see description). We are open to whatever paper proposal will be submitted to this text. But we would like to encourage papers on the following topics in particular:
• The place of 7:5-16 in the letter as a whole or in respective letter fragments
• A study of the emotions expressed in 7:5-16
• The theology of lypê which Paul develops in 7:5-16
• A rhetorical-critical study of 7:5-16
• A comparison between the way the painful letter is described in chapter 2 and in 7:5-16
• Paul’s relationship with the Corinthians with a focus on 2 Cor 7:5-16.
The complete texts of the accepted papers are due October 31, 2013. They will be made available online by November 10.
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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: The Semiotics and Exegesis Section offers an open call for papers on any topic related to the discipline of semiotics (broadly and pluralistically conceived), in relation to scripture studies, biblical exegesis, or text as cultural sign. If you have a question concerning your proposal, please contact rwalsh@methodist.edu.
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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: We invite proposals for three jointly-sponsored, open sessions at the 2013 Annual Meeting. The abstract should state the paper's thesis and outline the approach that will be taken. First, with "Religious Experience in Early Judaism and Early Christianity," we invite proposals on "Sensory Perception and Religious Experience." Religious experiences are bodily, insofar as they engage the senses. Stimulation of the senses may also generate religious experience. In turn, practitioners frequently use sensory language to describe religious experiences. We welcome papers which focus on one or more of these phenomena at the intersection of religious experience and sensory perception in antiquity. Second, co-sponsored by “Cognitive Linguistics in Biblical Interpretation,” a panel on "Mnemonic Modalities" will discuss the intersection between sensory experience and memory as they are represented in and prompted by texts from the biblical world. As cognitive science demonstrates, sensory cues often serve as mnemonic devices. This enables sensory vocabulary to evoke memory in a most efficient way. Papers presented in this panel are expected to discuss: (1) evidence for the use of linguistic sensory cues to evoke memory in ancient texts, and/or (2) ways in which sensory vocabulary is used to create, sustain, or otherwise manipulate memory. Third, with “Healthcare and Disability in the Ancient World,” we invite proposals on “Sensory Disabilities in the Biblical World.” Human cultures construct the body, including the senses, and how the body is marked as “abled” or “disabled.” We welcome papers that treat sensory disabilities and/or the healing of sensory disabilities, as well as meanings ascribed to these experiences. Papers may draw on (but are not limited to) sensory anthropology, medical anthropology, disability theory and/or gender studies.
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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: 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.
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Slavery, Resistance, and Freedom
Description: This unit will investigate the intersections between Ancient Near Eastern and Mediterranean slavery and biblical and early rabbinic texts, the diverse forms of resistance to it, and the meaning of freedom in slave-holding societies. Presenters will also examine how Jews and Christians—free, freed, and enslaved—have interpreted biblical texts on slavery and freedom and will propose how to “read for freedom.”
Call for papers: Slavery, Resistance, and Freedom and Paul and Politics are co-sponsoring a session on the intersections of enslavement and gender, sexuality, and empire. We invite papers on enslaved persons as persons who exercise agency and may engage in resistance. Papers may focus upon enslaved persons in Pauline materials and traditions, or on the various uses of and responses to Pauline materials in ancient or more contemporary communities. Papers that respond, at least in part, to Hector Avalos's "Slavery, Abolitionism, and Ethics of Biblical Scholarship" (and the scholarly and activist uses of Pauline materials described within it) are also particularly welcomed.
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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: For 2013 we are planning four sessions. The first will be a pre-arranged session on Hayim Lapin's new book, Rabbis as Romans: The Rabbinic Movement in Palestine, 100-400 CE. For the other three sessions, we seek proposals on the following topics: 1. Religion and the Market. We are particularly interested in proposals that address the intersection of commerce and religious ritual/practice. This would include theoretical discussion (commentary, legislation, and exegesis) as well as material evidence of modes of production and actual commercial interactions, or analyses of the physical space and use of workshops and markets. 2. Illness and Disability. (Co-sponsored with Healthcare and Disability in the Ancient World - please submit your single proposal to both Units). We welcome proposals on any aspect of sickness and disability in late antiquity, such as discussions of etiology and treatment regimes, views of healers (professional and charismatic), attitudes to sickness and disability, and definitions of "cure." 3. Paideia: Theories of Education in Late Antiquity. (Co-sponsored with The Religious World of Late Antiquity - please submit your single proposal to both Units). How did adherents of late antique religions conceive of, impart, and transform religious knowledge? What tools and techniques did they use? Was education a tool of social mobility, or a guarded marker of elite privilege? Are there gendered or social distinctions in modes of education or the educational levels toward which an individual might aspire? How was mastery assessed? We welcome proposals on the methods, tools, and locations associated with religious education; theoretical discussions of social, cultural, religious, literary, technical, or gender formation; legislation and contracts relevant to apprenticeship/discipleship. In addition to these thematic topics, we are pleased to receive proposals that address any topic pertinent to the social history of formative Christianity and Judaism.
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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: We will be holding two sessions at the Annual Meeting. The first session, for which we invite papers, will concentrate on the theme of Biblical Texs and Social Contexts: We welcome papers introducing substantive discussions on the discursive natures of contexts, social, political, and otherwise, of specific texts in the Hebrew Scriptures or of its readers. Themes may, for example, address de-centered social-political realities, advantaged or disadvantaged social-political positions, definitions of "social context" as it relates to a specific text or hermeneutic, or the mobilization of identity in response to shifting networks of power.
The second session will be a book review session. We are delighted to be able to concentrate on Douglas A. Knight’s Law, Power, and Justice in Ancient Israel (Westminster John Knox Press, 2011). We will be inviting respondents to ensure a lively and multi-focused discussion ranging across social history, sociology, and justice and ethics.
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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: For 2013, we will have three sessions. Two sessions will be open and therefore anyone using the social sciences in the analysis of the texts of the New Testament and related literature is welcome to submit a proposal.
The third session will feature invited papers that focus on "space" in the New Testament and related literature.
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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: The Society for Ancient Mediterranean Religions seeks to explore rituals and customs practiced by a wide variety of individuals and communities, including Greek, Roman, Jewish, and Christian among others. Our focus ranges chronologically from the Bronze Age through Late Antiquity and geographically from the Fertile Crescent to the Straits of Gibraltar. In 2013, we plan to hold two sessions. One is an open session that seeks papers that focus on one of the following areas: (1) healing and associated practices (2) death and funerary practices (3) household and domestic cult. The other session will be an invited panel emphasizing Roman religion in the first half of the second century: "From Trajan to Marcion."
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Society for Comparative Research on Iconic and Performative Texts
Description: The Society for Comparative Research on Iconic and Performative Texts (SCRIPT) was founded in 2010 to encourage new scholarship on iconic and performative texts. Our goal is to foster academic discourse about the social functions of books and texts that exceed their semantic meaning and interpretation, such as their display as cultural artifacts, their ritual use in religious and political ceremonies, their performance by recitation and theater, and their depiction in art. SCRIPT sponsors programming at existing regional and international scholarly meetings and at colleges and universities. We welcome new members and ideas for programs and venues to host them. For further information, see http://script-site.net/.
Call for papers: The Society for Comparative Research on Iconic and Performative Texts (SCRIPT) was founded in 2010 to encourage new scholarship on iconic and performative texts. Our goal is to foster academic discourse about the social functions of books and texts that exceed their semantic meaning and interpretation, such as their display as cultural artifacts, their ritual use in religious and political ceremonies, their performance by recitation and theater, their depiction in art and other media, and the various ways they are sensually engaged. We welcome new members and ideas for programs and venues to host them. For further information, see http://script-site.net/.
For Baltimore, SCRIPT invites proposals for a panel of four papers that address the iconic and performative dimensions of specific texts or a range of texts. We particularly encourage comparative studies that cross traditional scholarly boundaries of time, culture, religion, media or genre.
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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 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.
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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: For 2013, we plan two sessions. One session will be co-sponsored with the program unit Archaeology of Religion in the Roman World. It will feature an open call for papers that will be organized around the theme of borders and borderlands: geographic, political, cultural, or cognitive boundaries where the lack of dominance by any one group creates both a need to interact and negotiate differences, and a space for the emergence of new and hybrid cultural forms and identities, not just at the center of power, but especially at its margins.
The other session's topic is "Demonic Spaces." It will present invited papers that focus on interrelations between magic and space or theorize the spatiality of magical practice and belief.
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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: 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.
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Synoptic Gospels
Description: The Synoptic Gospels as a unit plays an important role in modern scholarship, including, but not limited to, generating debate about the relationships among the gospels. This section provides a forum for the discussion of papers from a variety of theoretical perspectives and critical methods on the content and formation of the Synoptic Gospels and what they reveal about the contexts of their composition.
Call for papers: The Synoptic Gospels section invites proposals for papers on the content or formation of any of the Synoptic Gospels, and we especially are interested in papers that address the relationship between two or more of the gospels or deal with themes that touch on multiple gospels. One session, sponsored jointly by the Bible in Ancient and Modern Media Section, will focus on ancient media culture and the Synoptic Gospels; proposals are invited for papers that view the Synoptic Problem, or composition of the Synoptic Gospels, through the lens of new models of oral tradition, ancient manuscript culture, performance, and collective memory. Successful proposals will apply one or several of these and/or related theoretical models to established critical questions. A fourth session will be a joint session with the John, Jesus and History group, and will address relationships between John and Luke; for this session only invited papers will be read.
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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: For the 2013 meeting in Baltimore, we welcome papers for at least four sessions.
1) This year, we invite papers that focus on Syriac manuscript studies for a joint session organized with the SBL unit "Manuscripts from Eastern Christian Traditions."
2) We welcome papers for a session on women's presence in and contributions to the development of Syriac literature and the interpretations of sacred texts throughout the centuries.
3) Together with the AAR program unit "Middle Eastern Christianity" group we plan to organize a panel that aims at analyzing Christian theology in the Middle East. For this, we invite research on all branches of Christian theology in all historical periods, with an emphasis on its relevance to current theological trends among Middle Eastern Christians. We encourage proposals that interpret theology broadly; thus proposals could conceivably address an array of topics related to contemporary doctrine, ecumenism, ecclesiology, interfaith relations, biblical and Qur’anic hermeneutics, hagiography, philosophy, or religious thought more generally. We are interested, of course, in proposals that articulate the contribution(s) of Syriac voices to this field of inquiry.
4) We warmly welcome contributions for one or more open sessions, for which we invite submissions in all areas of research in Syriac literature and in the Syriac Bible, its versions, transmissions, exegesis, and relevance for understanding religion, culture, history, and society in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages.
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Teaching Biblical Studies in an Undergraduate Liberal Arts Context
Description: This unit addresses the unique opportunities and challenges of teaching
biblical studies in undergraduate liberal arts institutions. Sessions promote
the sharing and evaluation of pedagogical objectives, strategies, and
assessment tools, cultivate professional networks, and lead to published
results.
Call for papers: This program unit focuses on the unique opportunities and challenges of teaching biblical studies in undergraduate liberal arts institutions. For Baltimore 2013, we invite proposals for papers that identify and address problems arising from teaching biblical studies as part of a college-wide "general education" requirement. We also invite proposals for papers offering strategies to defend biblical studies as an important part of the secular liberal arts college curriculum, and papers describing best practices for providing individual feedback to help students in biblical studies courses develop as writers and critical thinkers.
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Test Session: Executive Office
Description: This field includes the 40-word synopsis of your unit's main focus/method/topic/interest(s). Thus, it is a key field for SBL members as they evaluate to which program units they might propose a paper. In order to edit the field, please contact the SBL Executive Office.
Call for papers: Enter your call for papers here. If you are not issuing a call for papers, please remember to update this field nonetheless and mark "no" to the question "Accepting paper?" This will indicate to SBL members that your unit will be active at the meeting but is not receiving unsolicited proposals.
Tags: Cultural Criticism (Interpretive Approaches), Ethical Approaches (Interpretive Approaches), Love Poetry (Ancient Near Eastern Literature - Genre), Syriac (Philology / Linguistics (incl. Semiotics))
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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: For the 2013 Annual Meeting, the section solicits papers for one or more open sessions. Papers on all aspects of the textual criticism of the Hebrew Bible are welcome, including papers devoted exclusively to non-Hebrew versions and papers that consider material aspects of the manuscript evidence. Another session will be devoted to the Samaritan Pentateuch. Some papers for the latter will be by invitation, but the section welcomes unsolicited papers on the SamP as well.
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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 in various languages, including the relationship of these books to Joshua and Judges as well as Chronicles. 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 junior and senior - 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: The Bible in Ancient and Modern Media invites papers for three sessions on our 2014 program.
First, Gary Alan Fine (Professor of Sociology, Northwestern University) has drawn attention to "difficult reputations," the dynamics of and debates over the memory of figures such as Joseph McCarthy and Warren Harding. The social dynamics of remembering and invoking ambiguous and/or villainous figures differ from the use of heroic reputations. Sometimes the differences are striking. In this invited panel, Fine presents his social theory of reputation-making, followed by responses that suggest potential applications of Fine's reputation research to texts from second-temple and Rabbinic Judaism and early Christianity. This discussion advances the recent interest in social memory research and its potential for historical questions pertaining to ancient Judaism and Christian origins.
Second, we invite proposals for a joint session with the Synoptic Gospels unit that seeks to raise new questions about the origins of, and relationships between, the Synoptic Gospels from the perspective of recent research on ancient media culture. Proposals are invited for papers that view the Synoptic Problem through the lens of new models of oral tradition, ancient manuscript culture, performance, and collective memory. Successful proposals will apply one or several of these and/or related theoretical models to established critical questions.
Third, we invite papers for a session focused on the relationship between memory and material culture, particularly memories of lost things and specifically here with reference to Jewish and Christian memories of the lost Temple(s), its furnishings, and its cult. Emphasis is placed on how these items gain and shed meanings as they circulate through time and through space, from Jerusalem in the pre-exilic period to 17th century Europe. In what ways and forms do these lost objects live on in those societies? By bringing together specialists from across
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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: In 2013 the Theological Interpretation of Scripture seminar will sponsor two sessions and will co-sponsor an additional session with the Christian Theology and the Bible section. One of the sessions and the co-sponsored session will be on reading the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible as Christian Scripture, and in both these sessions all papers will be invited papers. The open session will be on Theosis in the New Testament. We invite proposals for exegetical, theological, and/or reception-history papers on New Testament texts that have been or may be interpreted as sources for, or witnesses to, the doctrine of theosis/deification. Papers in this session will be 20 to 25 minutes in length, followed by discussion. All accepted papers will be read in their entirety at the session. Persons interested in announcements regarding the work of this unit, or with ideas for future sessions, should contact the chair, Michael Gorman (mgorman@stmarys.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 hold four sessions in 2013: (1) An open session for which proposals are invited on any topic related to the theology of the Hebrew Scriptures; (2) A joint session commemorating the 35th Anniversary of the publication of Walter Brueggemann’s Prophetic Imagination (invited panelists); (3) A panel on the topic “What is Biblical Theology?” (invited panelists); (4) a panel discussing the JPS Ruth commentary (invited panelists).
Questions may be addressed to Julia O'Brien or Marvin Sweeney, program unit co-chairs.
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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: This group is accepting papers which deal with the processes of textual growth, and especially those which focus on what textual differences can tell us about the composition process of Hebrew scriptures. Particular focus is on the variant textual witnesses, which show how the texts of the Hebrew scriptures were changed or edited. Papers dealing with textual growth (or other editorial changes) in the Hebrew Bible, the Dead Sea Scrolls, the text critical evidence (LXX etc.), and other ancient Near Eastern literature are encouraged to participate.
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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 invites papers concerning any aspect of Ugaritic and Northwest Semitic orthography. Papers on this theme will be delivered in a session devoted to the topic. In addition, the section welcomes papers on other relevant topics for a non-thematic session.
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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: The call for papers for 2013 has the theme 'The Reception of Biblical Violence'. (1) We welcome proposals for a joint session with the Metacriticism of Biblical Scholarship Consultation, which will assess how scholarship has addressed biblical passages urging mass violence toward targeted groups, including scholars' use or avoidance of the term 'genocide.' (2) For our own open session(s) we would extend this more broadly to papers that focus on the reception of biblical violence in in contexts other than a narrow critical-academic one (e.g. politics, law, ethics, popular religion, the arts): we would particularly value studies of the ways that texts of violence have influenced and affected a particular group, or generated intellectual trends at a particular point in history.
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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 (open call): special consideration will be given to papers that offer theoretically informed and historically grounded explorations of the legitimations of violence: examining when and how violence has been justified in ancient texts and contexts. Session 2 (invited): this panel will consider rhetorical and performative incitements to violence in light of Brent Shaw's recent book, Sacred Violence. His work serves as a jumping off point for inquiry into the slippage between literary and actual 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 fosters the interdisciplinary study of war and its representations in the Hebrew Bible and ancient Near East. The Section is sponsoring two sessions at the 2013 Annual Meeting: (1) The FIRST is open, and the steering committee invites proposals for papers on all aspects of warfare and the formation of society in ancient Israel and the Near East. Presentations are limited to twenty minutes to promote discussion. (2) The SECOND session focuses on warfare scholarship at the twentieth anniversary of the publication of Susan Niditch's War in the Hebrew Bible. This session is closed and consists of invited papers that describe or advance the state and prospects of warfare research since Niditch, who will respond to papers. For additional information, contact Frank Ritchel Ames (fames@mac.com).
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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: The Wisdom and Apocalypticism section is planning three sessions for the 2013 Annual Meeting, all focus on various facets of the theme of paideia. We will have an open session focusing on the personification of Wisdom, Torah or Logos as a pedagogical technique in early Jewish and Christian texts.
For an open, joint session with the Corpus Hellenisticum Novi Testamenti Section, we are soliciting papers that address paideia in early Jewish and early Christian texts with an eschatological orientation, against the background of instructional literature or other evidence pertaining to education in the broader Hellenistic context.
We will also have an invited session on the use of Greek paideia in late antiquity, informed by the work of Raffaella Cribiore.
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Wisdom in Israelite and Cognate Traditions
Description: The Wisdom Section seeks to provide a forum for the exploration of new ideas in the study of Israelite and cognate conceptions of wisdom, focusing on wisdom in the Hebrew Bible and Deuterocanon along with related literature from elsewhere in the ancient Near East.
Call for papers: The Wisdom in Israelite and Cognate Traditions Section is hosting three sessions for the Annual Meeting 2013. Two of these are open for paper proposals on any topic concerned with the study of Wisdom Literature as defined in the program unit description. A third session to celebrate and remember the life and work of Victor Hurowitz (who was a member of the Wisdom section Steering Group until his death in January 2013) will consist of invited papers.
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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. "Is a Feminist Commentary Possible?" The commentary genre has struck many feminists as inappropriate to the goals of feminism, because most commentaries convey a single perspective on "what the text means." This session includes a panel of invited papers addressing issues of writing a feminist commentary.
2. Open session. Women in the Biblical World invites paper proposals focusing on women in the Hebrew and Greek scriptures and their social environments. We seek a broad range of methodological approaches.
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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: We welcome submissions for the following panels:
1) Historical, Literary, and Postmodern Signifying: A Case Study from Jeremiah. This panel will explore ways in which three interpretive axes -- historical context, literary signifying, and postmodern interpretive practices -- may cooperate to enrich our understanding of a thorny text even as they challenge each other's interpretive assumptions. The focus of proposals should be on one or more texts within the laments of Jeremiah, understood as a collection. Proposals should attend to the difference that method makes in our interpretive engagements.
2) Open session. Papers are invited on any interpretive issue related to the book of Jeremiah. Priority will be given to proposals that demonstrate a hermeneutical attentiveness that moves beyond, or seeks to complicate, traditional historicist interpretive paradigms.
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