Poverty in the Biblical World

Call For Papers: This year Poverty in the Biblical World will host three sessions. SESSION 1 (PARTIALLY OPEN CALL): "The Doctrine of Discovery and the Impoverishment of Native Peoples: Biblical Colonization and Its Present Day Legacies." This session—co-sponsored with the Ideological Criticism section—will explore the legacies of the Doctrine of Discovery (including the Papal Bull of 1453 and critical biblical interpretations buttressing territorial colonialization of the Americas and the Indigenous inhabitants of the land). Papers on recent religious rebuttals to the Doctrine of Discovery (e.g., by UMC, TEC, etc.) and the religious nature of the stand-off at Standing Rock are also welcomed. SESSION 2 (OPEN CALL): "Who Is My Neighbor?" With an eye to Lev. 19.18 and its reception in the Jesus movement, this session encourages presenters to explore just who the "neighbor" is in ancient and modern contexts. We ask that primary foci be in relation to ancient and modern contexts of solidarity in resistance to poverty, or its use in aiding the creation of systemic poverty through the exclusion of the "other." SESSION 3 (PARTIALLY OPEN CALL): This working group round-table session (25-40 people) will focus on “Resident Aliens” in the Hebrew Biblical and New Testament materials, as well as emergent Judaism and Christian Judaism/Christianity. SESSION 4 (OPEN CALL): This open session is co-sponsored with the Ideological Criticism section. Possible topics include—but are not limited to—the Discovery Doctrine, Jerusalem, colonialism (ancient and modern), Eusebius’s Onomasticon, and land-administration in Palestine.

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