Poverty in the Biblical World

Call For Papers: At the 2024 annual meeting, the Poverty in the Biblical World program unit will have three sessions. The first session will explore how the intersection of immigration policies, poverty, and biblical interpretation has been a subject of ongoing scholarly interest either in the social dimension reflected in the text or in the world the scholar/reader brings to the text. In recognition of the centennial of the 1924 Immigration Act (Johnson-Reed Act or the National Origins Act), this session aims to explore into the historical, social, and interpretative dimensions surrounding this pivotal legislation. Scholars are invited to critically engage with the 1924 Immigration Law, exploring its lasting impact on inequality and its intersections with biblical interpretation. This session will consist of invited papers. The second open session, co-sponsored with the Latino/a/e and Latin American Biblical Interpretation and the AAR’s Liberation Theologies and Latina/o Religion, Culture, and Society program units, honors three leading figures of liberation theology who passed away last year: Enrique Dussel, George/Jorge Pixley, and Franz Hinkelammert. We invite proposals that engage their intellectual legacies, especially by considering their impact on contemporary religious thought and biblical interpretation; the relevance of their ideas for addressing current social and economic crises; intersections between theology, philosophy, and biblical studies in their work; comparative analyses of their contributions and methodologies; and interpretations of scriptural texts that employ their thought to examine the texts’ economic and political dimensions and implications. Proposals for this joint session should be submitted to the Latino/a/e and Latin American Biblical Interpretation unit. Finally, our third session is co-sponsored with the Early Christianity and Ancient Economy program unit. Here we invite papers that explore any aspect of inequality in urban and/or rural environment

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