Ecological Hermeneutics
Program Unit Type: Section
Accepting Papers? Yes
Call For Papers: In 2020 there will be three thematic sessions and an open session.
(1) A joint session with the Paul and Politics unit, “Paul and Ecology,” which will engage questions of ecology and politics in any aspect of the study of communities to which Paul wrote, Paul’s letters, the Pauline legacy, and/or contemporary communities using these texts. The papers should explore the resources and/or challenges Pauline texts offer for ecological conversations. Papers that engage the intersections of gender, race, and economics in these conversations are particularly sought.
(2) A session, “Land: Occupied,” which will explore an ecological view of the relationship between humans and land in occupied territory, with both humans as long term residents and as occupiers, in the context of the Biblical material (with keywords including, but not limited to Palestine, Canaan, Israel, Davidic Kingdom, conquest, exile, Rome, Canaanites, Israelites, relocated peoples, returnees).
(3) A joint session with Contextual Biblical Interpretation unit, “Land and Home as Threatened,” welcomes proposals on ecologically oriented, contextually informed interpretations rooted in the impact on human, plant and animal habitat (“home”) of matters such as residence, migration/immigration (broader than occupation), along with the structures, human and natural, that drive these movements, and contemporary threats, such as “climate change,” “natural” disasters, or power/economic interests. Of particular interest are the ways texts are used to resist or validate destruction and violence against parts of creation, both human and non-human.
(4) An open session on any biblical text or theme.
All proposals are encouraged to engage with the principles of ecological hermeneutics - e.g., suspicion, identification, retrieval (Habel and Trudinger, Exploring Ecological Hermeneutics, SBL 2008) or the methodology of the Exeter project (Horrell, Hunt and Southgate, Greening Paul, Baylor 2010).
Program Unit Chairs
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