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2021 Annual Meeting
Meeting Begins: 11/20/2021
Meeting Ends: 11/23/2021
Call for Papers Opens: 1/20/2021
Call for Papers Closes: 3/24/2021
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: For the 2021 SBL meeting, we seek paper proposals in the following two areas:
Session #1: Teaching with Diverse Media
We invite presentations (20 minutes each) on enhancing teaching and learning through incorporating diverse media into the classroom. Such media might include visual media (e.g., art, film), audio media (e.g., music), and material artifacts and other media (e.g., video games). What aspects of Biblical Studies and the biblical text lend themselves to “media-rich” pedagogical approaches? We seek engaging presentations explaining and modeling specific approaches that enhance direct instruction and active learning through use of diverse media.
Session #2: Improving Pedagogy and Assessment
We seek proposals that explain and demonstrate innovative approaches to pedagogy and assessing learning. What innovative pedagogical methods developed or implemented during the Covid crisis do you plan to continue to use going forward? Which forms of assessment are particularly beneficial to your teaching practice and why? What factors guide your approach to learning assessment? And what role should classroom demographics and dynamics play in shaping pedagogy and assessments? Presentations are 20 minutes each, with practical examples given.
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African Biblical Hermeneutics
Description: This section is devoted to the study of the Bible from African perspectives, and focuses on African issues. A diversity of methods reflecting the social-cultural diversity of Africa is used in reading the Bible. The emphasis is on encouraging readings of the Bible that are shaped by African perspectives and issues, and giving voice to African biblical scholars as they contribute to global biblical scholarship. The unit expects to publish essays from its sessions.
Call for papers: This section is devoted to the study of the Bible from African perspectives, and focuses on African issues. A diversity of methods reflecting the social-cultural diversity of Africa is used in reading the Bible. The emphasis is on encouraging readings of the Bible that are shaped by African perspectives and issues, and giving voice to African biblical scholars as they contribute to global biblical scholarship. The unit expects to publish essays from its sessions.
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African-American Biblical Hermeneutics
Description: The purpose of the African American Biblical Hermeneutics Section (AABHS) is to engage in the interdisciplinary and holistic study of the Bible and its place in a multi-faceted and complex African-American cultural Weltanschauung. The section provides a forum for scholarly discussion of any aspect of engagement with the bible from the perspective of African American culture, history, literature, or politics. It encourages interdisciplinary discussions about hermeneutics and culture and strives to encourage emerging scholars in publishing scholarly work in the field and advancing the study of African American hermeneutics.
Call for papers: The 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.
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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 three sessions at the 2021 Annual Meeting. The first will be co-sponsored with the AAR Religion, Affect, and Emotion Unit and will feature invited responses to Maia Kotrosits’s recently published monograph, The Lives of Objects: Material Culture, Experience, and the Real in the History of Early Christianity. The second session will focus on the topic of “ancient fiction and pedagogy.” We invite proposals that outline creative and engaging pedagogical practices involving introducing or teaching ancient fiction in the undergraduate or graduate classroom. Depending on interest, we hope this to be an interactive section filled with practical tips for instructors in a variety of teaching contexts. For the third session, we invite proposals on any topic related to the interests of the Ancient Fiction and Early Christian and Jewish Narrative section.
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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: 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.
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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: Plans for the 2021 meeting of the AABS are still under discussion. However, there will be a virtual component to the meeting even if there is also an in-person component. Information will be made available through announcements on the SBL website and in the SBL newsletter and through direct emailings to all on our emailing list. If you wish to be added to that list, email Elizabeth Struthers Malbon at malbon@vt.edu with your request.
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Apocalypse Now: Apocalyptic Reception and Impact throughout History
Description: Apocalypse Now is conceived as an interdisciplinary research group aiming to analyze the effective history of biblical and related apocalyptic literature (Daniel, Revelation, Enoch etc.) in the creation, establishment, and development of eschatological groups from antiquity to the present within the Abrahamic traditions, and in particular those of apocalyptic nature. It is of much interest to our work to observe how those groups developed networks of eschatological nature throughout history that can be found today at the basis of some social and political movements. By analysing in tandem the nature of the different groups over the centuries and how eschatological hope circulated among them at different moments, this research unit aims to foster and develop new interpretation theories that can lead to a better understanding of the use of apocalyptic expectations in the 21st century, and in particular, of the processes that led apocalypticism to take peaceful and/or violent forms.
Call for papers: In the second year of this seminar (2021, since 2020 was canceled thanks to covid-19), the focus will be on evil protagonists (or: antagonists) in eschatological scenarios, eschatological figures, such as the Antichrist, the Lamb, the mahdi, the two martyrs, the emperor, et cetera. How are these figures shaped in the sources at our disposal? What is the role they play in the eschatological narrative-building process?
The methodology of this seminar intends to focus on the interplay of three elements in particular:
1) authoritative texts and/or traditions used by a particular group in particular texts;
2) the ways in which existing materials are combined and harmonized;
3) the relation to the perceived crisis depicted in the text(s) under scrutiny.
This methodology leads to questions such as these: Which existing traditional apocalyptic materials are incorporated in the description(s) of the occurrence of such an antithetical-figure? How does the harmonization of existing traditions lead to a renewal of eschatological motifs? What is the function of these figures in the rhetoric of the eschatological discourse in which they play a role?
In 2021, the seminar intends to organize three sessions: one closed session for which the presenters will be invited, and two open sessions where scholars may apply for participation. Please make sure to focus on antichrist-figures and look for the roots of the incorporated traditions, for their rhetorical function, and for the way(s) in which their figures are contextualized in the eschatological setting that the group under scrutiny assumes.
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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: The Aramaic Studies Section invites papers on any aspect of Aramaic language, texts, and culture. We welcome presentations on Targumim, Qumran Aramaic texts, Syriac language and literature, Samaritan papyri, Biblical Aramaic, Elephantine Aramaic, magical texts, and other topics. In addition, we will be jointly hosting a session with the History and Literature of Early Rabbinic Judaism unit on the subject of code-switching. The papers in this session have been carried over from those that had originally been accepted for the 2020 Annual Meeting.
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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: We welcome any paper proposal that substantially addresses material culture and religious activity. We are also interested in papers that address the following:
1) "The Affect of Objects": What is the pull of ancient objects? Are realia somehow “more real” than utterance or text? How do the lives of things shape the way we imagine ancient people, practices, and belief? We invite papers to engage specifically with Maia Kotrosits, The Lives of Objects: Material Culture, Experience, and the Real in the History of Early Christianity (2020).
2) "BIG and small": donor inscriptions, devotional graffiti; statues, figurines; monumental temples, ad hoc altars—all in the same sanctuary. What significance, if any, might the juxtaposition between the big, the monumental, the “official” and the small, the miniscule, the “unauthorized” have had? And to whom? We seek papers the explore contrasts of size, materiality, temporality, among other possibilities, in ancient religious practices.
3) "Religious landscapes of city and hinterland": ancient religion and landscape archaeology; mapping of objects and sites and their interrelationship in a religious landscape; the “historiation” of the landscape through stories and memories, also visible in ancient texts; the use of religious sites and structures to establish boundaries and borders, whether political, cultural, or social, and to facilitate their transgression.
4) Co-Sponsored with Early Jewish Christian Relations: Early Jewish Christian Relations and Epigraphy: New Data and New Methods. The last two decades have seen extraordinary advances in the corpus of Roman-period Jewish inscriptions available to scholars. Research on EJCR can now utilize the recently-published critical editions of Jewish. This session addresses the use of inscriptions in the field of EJCR. Papers that present new methods for analyzing inscriptions are particularly welcome.
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Archaeology of Roman Palestine
Description: This program unit explores the socio-political, economic, cultural, and
religious history of Roman Palestine (ca. first century BCE to fifth century
CE) through its material remains. The goal is to emphasize the importance
of archaeology as an independent source of evidence for the study of early
Judaism and Christianity.
Call for papers: Three sessions will focus on the material culture of pilgrimage in Roman Palestine: 1) "The Material Culture of Pilgrimage in Early Roman Jerusalem"; 2) "The Material Culture of Pilgrimage in Late Roman and Byzantine Jerusalem/Aelia Capitolina"; and 3) “The Material Culture of Pilgrimage in Roman Palestine (Apart from Jerusalem), 63 BCE to 640 CE,” which is a joint session co-sponsored by the unit on Jewish, Christian, and Graeco-Roman Travel and in the Hellenistic, Roman, and Early Byzantine Periods. The first session consists of invited papers only, but we are inviting proposals for the second and third sessions. Session 2 will focus on the newly founded city of Aelia Capitolina, which shifted to a place of religious life and pilgrimage for non-Jews—including Greeks and Romans (during the 2nd and 3rd centuries) and Christians (during the 4th century and beyond)—as alternative shrines and other holy sites were established. The goal of Session 2 is to explore the material culture of the shifting pilgrimage dynamics in Jerusalem/Aelia Capitolina and its hinterland during the late Roman and Byzantine periods. Session 3 will focus on other forms of pilgrimage that flourished in the larger region of Palestine. These include travel to and worship at Samaritan, Greco-Roman, Idumean, and Nabatean shrines along the coastal plain, in Herodian urban centers, Decapolis cities, Samaria, Petra, and elsewhere during the 1st century BCE to 4th century CE, and a shift in the 4th century CE toward Christian pilgrimage to holy sites in Galilee, the Judean desert, Transjordan, and other locations associated with the life of Jesus. To this end, we invite proposals on papers dealing with any aspect of these two topics, including archaeological perspectives on specific sites, travel logistics, lodging, market exchange, and artifacts that may have facilities the experience of pilgrims in Jerusalem and around Palestine from the 1st century BCE to the early 7th century CE.
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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 Legacy and Scholarship of Dura-Europos 100 Years Later
In light of the 100th anniversary (in 2020) of the beginning of excavation at Dura-Europos, we invite papers discussing new directions, corrections, and revisions in the assessment of art and religion at Dura. We welcome perspectives from diverse fields (art history, archaeology, religion, etc.). We encourage papers from all the religious traditions represented at Dura. We also would like papers that deal with Dura from the Eastern context of Persia, the Silk Road, etc. as well as the relation of Dura's art and religion to the West.
Crafting Religion in the Western Empire
Continuing a series of sessions that the Art and Religions of Antiquity program has held devoted to regional studies (Syria, the Aegean, etc.), we invite papers on art and religion in the Western Empire (Gaul, Spain, Italy, Britain). We particularly encourage studies that identify regional distinctiveness in art, religious practices, and even religious texts that can be connected to practices and/or arts unique to the region(s). We welcome papers examining not only spaces and objects typically seen as "religious" (churches, shrines, cemeteries and tombs, reliquaries, etc.) but also the ways art and religion were manifest in family estates, domestic spaces, and private commissions.
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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 Seminary is planning 5 sessions at the 2021 Annual Meeting. The first open-session invites papers on the theme "Pandemic, the Bible, and Anti-Asian Racism." Among the many crises left in the wake of the global pandemic of COVID-19, the problem of systemic racism has presented itself anew. 2020-21 has witnessed two concrete expressions of centuries-old xenophobia: anti-Black and anti-Asian racism. While the former has been widely covered, and rightly so, the latter has received far less attention. We welcome proposals to address the global pandemic of COVID-19 and the problem of anti-Asian racism in ancient, modern, and global contexts of biblical interpretation on texts from the Hebrew Bible and/or the New Testament. Proposals should include attention to Asian and Asian American contexts, close reading of a biblical text, and demonstrated engagement with Asian and Asian American biblical scholarship. Please note your interest in publishing your paper in an edited volume at the end of your proposal. First-time presenters at the SBL Annual Meeting are welcome and encouraged to apply. The second open session will focus more broadly on “Reading Biblical Texts from Asian, Asian American, and Aesthetic Perspectives.” The third invited panel will review Reading Ecclesiastes from Asia and Pasifika, eds. Jione Havea and Peter H. W. Lau (SBL Press, 2020). The last two invited sessions will be co-sponsored: “Reading with the 'Etceteras' of the Gospels” (with Latino/a an Latin American Biblical Interpretation) and “Talk with the President,” which discusses Adele Reinhartz’s 2020 SBL presidential address, “The Hermeneutics of Chutzpah: A Disquisition on the Value/s of ‘Critical Investigation of the Bible’ (with Latino/a an Latin American Biblical Interpretation, Islands, Islanders, and Scriptures, Contextual Biblical Interpretation).
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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: In San Antonio, the Assyriology and the Bible Section will host a special invited session on "The Image of the City in Ancient Near Eastern and Biblical Contexts,” focusing how the city was conceived and represented within these related contexts and investigating how those representations may – or may not – align with the reality of the city itself.
In addition, we will be hosting a special joint session with the Prophetic Texts in their Ancient Contexts Section on “Hope”: hope as an emotion, as world view, cultic or political action, or documentary/textual or visual expression. We welcome proposals from a variety of perspectives and materials (prophetic literature, mantic literature more broadly, material culture, iconography, ritual phenomenology). Proposals should concern the intersection of biblical texts/world and ancient Mesopotamia. Other and later ancient contexts will also be considered. Proposals should be submitted to the Assyriology and the Bible Program Unit.
Additionally, Assyriology and the Bible will host open sessions, for which we accept proposals on any subject related to the study of both Assyriology 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 section will host three sessions in 2021. First, the Bible and Emotion and the Historical Paul sections are hosting a joint session, “Epistolary Affects,” exploring Paul’s letters as affective technologies: How do these texts work to inscribe, evoke, regulate, and cultivate emotions, both the emotions of Paul and of his addressees? Papers for this session have already been selected. The second and third sessions are OPEN. We invite proposals related to critical study of emotion across the full range of biblical literature and closely related literature. We are interested in papers that examine divine and/or human emotions in a biblical text, set of texts, book, or genre.
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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: Inter-generational Ethics & the Bible:
Recent global events have highlighted tensions between generations. In the current pandemic, for example, the young have been asked to undertake sacrifices to protect the elderly. In contrast, some climate change debates have seen the younger generation remonstrate the failings of older generations to act more decisively for environmental sustainability. This raises questions such as: What are the moral obligations to future generations for the present-day community? What are the moral obligations of the younger for older generations?
We invite paper proposals that will explore the theme of inter-generational ethics in the biblical literature. Potential presenters are expected to investigate this theme through a discussion of specific biblical texts, but are also encouraged to consider similarities and differences between the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament, or between one of the two Testaments and relevant extra-biblical material that sheds light on the topic.
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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: We invite papers for one or two open sessions on any subject pertaining to Bible and Film (both broadly construed). In addition, we especially encourage papers that engage one of the following topics:
(1)Horror and the Bible. How do horror films help us better understand the “dark corners” of the bible and vice versa? How might contemporary monster theory facilitate a mutual conversation between the Bible and horror films? How might Derrida’s hauntology elucidate persistent ghosts in the Bible and horror? Proposals should include substantial engagement with film theory and biblical studies.
(2)Suffering and the Human Condition. How have films, television and other audio-visual media engaged biblical themes while responding to the multiple crises of 2020 and early 2021? How has audio-visual media played in theologizing suffering and the human condition in light of these world-changing events? Proposals might consider the changes in media consumption as a result of quarantine or the ways in which the media world responded to apocalyptic and social justice issues.
(3)Pedagogy of Bible in/and Film. We invite proposals reflecting on the question: What are we teaching when we teach Bible in/and Film? Film is frequently used in the biblical studies classroom either as the main focus of a course or as a teaching tool, but the pedagogy of Bible in/and Film is underdeveloped. How is the relationship between Bible and Film theorized and what concrete pedagogical choices does this motivate? What is the role of nonbiblical films in the biblical studies classroom? What theoretical approaches and pedagogical strategies avoid privileging Bible over Film? Proposals should include substantial engagement with theory and practical suggestions for teaching.
All proposals should make clear how the presenter will establish a dialogue between a given film and biblical text as well as how this dialogue enriches our interpretation of each. Please note that we expect presenters
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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: The Bible and Popular Culture Unit will host two sessions in 2021. Our first session is a book review session focused on (OUP, 2020). Panelists for this first session will be invited. Our second session is an open session, and we invite and welcome proposals for papers focusing on any aspect of the reciprocal relationship between the Bible and popular culture.
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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: Bible and Practical Theology will host three sessions. The first session welcomes papers that include reading a biblical text, in a COV-19 Contextual environment. Successful proposals should incorporate the practical theological implications that emerge that address society and various faith communities (Christian, Jewish, Muslim, other). The second session welcomes papers that place the Bible in dialogue with the current political climate in the USA or political climate in another country. The third session is a joint session with Contextual Biblical Interpretation and welcomes papers that include reading the Bible using Practical Theology and/or the social sciences to address a current issue of concern together with a reflection on how your experience/context influences your interpretation/view of the issue.
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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 welcomes submissions for the following two sessions at the Annual Meeting in 2021: (1) We invite proposals on topics that relate to paintings, sculpture, and other forms of biblical art in public spaces in the San Antonio area; (2) For our open session, we invite proposals that fall within our broad purpose: to explore historical, hermeneutical, theological, iconographic and/or theoretical aspects related to the interpretation of the Jewish and Christian Scriptures in visual art through the centuries. There will also be a third session, joint with the Gospel of Luke section, postponed from 2020 (papers already approved).
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Bible in America
Description: This group will examine the uses of both an abstract idea of "the Bible" and
of particular biblical narratives by different groups, considering the Bible's
utility for social control, resistance, identity and group formation. Our forum
will bring together disparate discussions touching on the Bible
Call for papers: We invite papers on topics relating to the Bible's use and reception in America. Papers for our second session on the Bible and Civil Rights have already been accepted.
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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: For our first session, we welcome proposals on the use of myth and myth theory in biblical studies. We especially encourage papers that explore various definitions of myth and what it means to utilize this category within biblical studies. We welcome participants from diverse specializations, including Hebrew Bible, Ancient Near Eastern Literature, and Greco-Roman Religions. We aim to include studies covering a range of methodologies, critical theories, and types of data: textual and literary criticisms, philology, cognitive sciences, archeology, art history, and social and anthropological theories. Our second session, co-sponsored by the Nag Hammadi and Gnosticism section, solicits papers that study extant Gnostic literature (including but not limited to works attributed to Classic or Sethian Gnostics, Valentinians, and related alternative Christian movements) using methodologies conventionally employed in the study of ancient myth. Paper proposals might be comparative in scope, bringing specific aspects of Gnostic myth into dialogue with other classical or ancient Near Eastern myths. Alternatively, they might engage in deep theoretical reflection on Gnostic myth as myth. Complementary and divergent approaches are possible as well, of course, provided they focus on myth as a key feature of Gnostic religion and literature.
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Biblical Archaeology Society
Description: The Biblical Archaeology Society (BAS) was founded in 1974 as a nonprofit, nondenominational, educational organization dedicated to the dissemination of information about archaeology in the Bible lands. BAS’s flagship publication, Biblical Archaeology Review, is the only magazine that connects the academic study of archaeology to a broad general audience eager to understand the world of the Bible.
Call for papers:
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Biblical Exegesis from Eastern Orthodox Perspectives
Description: This unit fosters interpretation of biblical texts through engagement with Eastern Orthodox interpretive tradition. Such engagement might include critical reflection on Eastern patristics, Orthodox liturgical tradition, and modern Orthodox theologians to stimulate theological interpretation. The consultation will bring Orthodox perspectives to bear on contemporary exegetical issues.
Call for papers: We welcome proposals on the following topics: 1. Image of God in Paul, Middle-Platonism, and the early Fathers (joint session with the Pauline Letters Unit): References to the concept of creation "according to the image of God" in the Septuagint translation of Gen 1:26 and its reception by Hellenistic-Jewish authors presuppose a broad cultural discourse between biblical and Hellenistic philosophical traditions. This session will focus on the way Paul and the Pauline school draw on this discourse and create new concepts by interpreting the "eikon theou" notion against new Christological backgrounds. The research papers will be expected also to consider the voices of ancient philosophers and exegetes of Paul. 2. Fresh Perspectives on John Chrysostom as Biblical Exegete: John Chrysostom is the most celebrated exegete in Eastern Orthodox traditions. An increasing number of scholars describe John Chrysostom's profile as that of a son of both 4th century Christianity and Hellenism who conceives of exegesis as a kind of care for the soul. This session invites papers that consider current scholarly debates on John Chrysostom and reconstruct his exegetical background, techniques, and strategies. 3. Divine Plurality in the Hebrew Bible/Septuagint and its Christian interpreters: We invite abstracts on the identification of Jesus with the God of the Hebrew Scriptures, not only in theological treatises and exegetical texts, but especially in hymnography and iconography. How does this “liturgical exegesis” express the relationship between the Father and the Son on the basis of Scripture? 4. On the occasion of the recent critical edition and German translation of short chronographic Paleia (Die Kurze Chronographische Paleja, Gütersloh 2019), we solicit proposals which examine the impact of these Slavonic literary traditions on the study of the Pseudepigrapha and Eastern Orthodox Hermeneutics (joint session with the Pseudepigrapha Unit).
Tags: Religious Traditions and Scriptures (History of Interpretation / Reception History / Reception Criticism)
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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:
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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: Our section will be holding four sessions: (1) Blessings and Curses, (2) Reading Poetic Texts Disruptively (cosponsored with Feminist Hermeneutics of the Bible), (3) Tree Images (in the wild and in agriculture): Themes and Functions (cosponsored with Nature Imagery and Conceptions of Nature in the Bible), and (4) one general session. Session (1): Blessing and cursing are performative speech acts and vehicles of communication. Blessing and cursing speak life and death into the ears of the objects thereof. Blessing and cursing saturate a large swath of poetry in the Bible. The session on blessing and cursing in Hebrew poetry will consist of submitted papers, followed by a prepared response and a Q&A. Accepted papers must be submitted in final draft by August 31, 2021. Session (2): Reading Poetic Texts Disruptively: Moving beyond simple appreciation of the artfulness of Hebrew and NT poetic texts, how might we read biblical poetry disruptively in the context of the twenty-first century globalized world? Which features of poetic signifying may be fruitfully deconstructed, resisted, or refigured in transgressive ways in arenas having to do with agency, borderlands, diaspora, embodiment, gender, indigeneity, interiority, marginality, memory, sexuality, suffering, or social hierarchy? This invited panel will explore the possibilities afforded by radically disruptive readings of biblical poetry. Session (3) is an invited thematic session following up a 2020 session, showcasing research on the figurative use of parts of the tree: roots, branches, fruit, trunk/height, stumps, etc., or of specific trees or flora formations, and the diverse themes and functions they carry. This will involve co-operations with botanists and archaeobotanists according to the proposed topics. Session (4): General papers regarding any aspect of biblical poetry. All papers are welcome, but we are particularly interested in papers that examine the relationship between emotion and poetry.
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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: The Biblical Law section invites proposals for two 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. Together with the Deuteronomy section, we will be co-sponsoring a session of invited papers on the topic of "Is Deuteronomy Law?"
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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: We are expecting to be able to organize three sessions in 2021. Two of them are open calls, one of them on subjects relating to Hebrew lexicography, and the second on Greek lexicography. During the third session we want to review the Cambridge Greek lexicon, which will be published in March 2021. We are looking forward to your proposals.
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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: The Biblical Literature and Hermeneutics of Trauma (BLHoT) section has created a call for papers for three sessions: The first, entitled “Hermeneutics of White Supremacy, Critical Race Theory and Trauma,” invites proposals that address the traumatic impact of white supremacy narratives built upon biblical interpretations that support and sustain the dominant culture in the US. Presenters are encouraged to engage with Critical Race Theory, defined as a theoretical framework in the social sciences that examines society and culture as they relate to categorizations of race, law, and power. Successful proposals will clearly outline biblical texts, Critical Race Theories and trauma theorists that will be employed. Proposals for the second session entitled “Biblical Interpretation and the Trauma of Christian Nationalism in the US” could address the reception history of biblical narratives and apocalypses as building blocks in the founding of a divinely favored “Christian nation” and the traumatic impact of this metanarrative. Papers that address contemporary interpretations and critiques of the US as a Christian nation are also welcomed. Successful proposals will clearly describe the biblical texts and trauma theorists that will be employed. A third session will be co-hosted with the Ecological Hermeneutics program unit on the theme of "Ecological Trauma: the non-human aspects of trauma." Questions to prompt proposals include: What does it mean to talk about trauma in the non-human sphere? How does the reception history of texts and their interpretations enable humans to continue to perpetuate trauma against our world? Specific topics might include ecological trauma associated with climate change, mass extinction, racial justice or indigenous communities. Proposals for this session are encouraged to engage with methodologies from Ecological Hermeneutics and Trauma Theory.
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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: In 2021, we will host one invited panel in collaboration with the scholars participating in the Oslo Centre for Advanced Study year-long project, "Books Known Only By Title." Participants will share the preliminary findings of their research into the postulated books of the first millennium library, exploring questions of literary imagination, transmission, ascription, and gender. Two other panels will focus around the theme of the archaeology of text. One panel will be composed of papers deferred from the 2020 meeting, all of which ask us to consider (or reconsider) the archaeology of Book History. We invite proposals for another panel on similar themes, which may explore such questions as: How do stories about finding texts reflect practices of reading and writing in antiquity--and how do the stories we tell about modern textual discoveries reflect our own practices, as well? How do narratives about the archaeology of texts shape the ways in which texts are categorized, circulated, and interpreted? How does the literal archaeology of ancient textual materials intersect with the archaeology of knowledge? Or where does such figurative use of "archaeology" break down? Finally, this program group and the “Historical Paul” section invite papers on the materiality of and social processes entailed in letter writing for a joint session on Material Philology and Ancient Epistolography. Possible considerations include the authors and recipients or intermediaries (e.g., scribes, companions, co-workers) of letters; the copying and collecting of letters, as well as interventions that often occurred in these stages of transmission (editing, interpolation); the statuses of letters as textual objects, which might range from mundane communication to pedagogical resources to “religious” artifacts in their own right; and the various afterlives of letters and letter collections, among other possibilities.
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Book of Acts
Description: This Section (1) explores new strategies for reading Acts; (2) proposes solutions to existing exegetical, literary, text critical and historical problems associated with Acts; (3) highlights new areas of inquiry regarding Acts; and (4) assesses the significance of the history of Acts scholarship.
Call for papers: The Book of Acts section invites submissions for an open session covering any aspect of research related to the Acts of the Apostles, including (e.g.) textual, theological, narratival, historical, reception-historical, exegetical, social-scientific, and postcolonial approaches. Proposals for papers that engage in reading Acts with new, minoritized, or multiperspectival approaches are especially welcome. The section also plans to host two additional sessions composed of invited papers, respondents, and open discussion: (1) "Wealth and Poverty in Luke-Acts, Revisited," sponsored jointly with the Economics in the Biblical World and Gospel of Luke sections, and (2) “Characterization in Acts.”
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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: For the 2021 Annual Meeting in San Antonio, Texas, the Book of Daniel Section invites proposals dealing with any topic or issue in the critical interpretation of Daniel, including the MT, the LXX, the Additions to Daniel, and pseudepigraphical materials related to Daniel. The best proposals will indicate a distinctive contribution to a current problem in the study of Daniel, or will bring a promising theoretical framework to a particular issue, or will raise new questions about an overlooked problem in the understanding of Daniel. All proposals must go through the SBL proposal submission link on the website. In addition to this open call, we will be hosting an invited panel of scholars addressing Daniel in early Jewish and early Christian iconography.
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Book of Deuteronomy
Description: This unit provides a forum for the discussion of Deuteronomy as a book, its origins and growth, as well as its reception by different groups of readers in antiquity.
Call for papers: The Deuteronomy Program Unit will entertain proposals for a limited number of papers on topics related to the origin, growth, or reception of the book of Deuteronomy. For the 2021 annual meeting, we will co-sponsor a session with the Biblical Law Program Unit consisting of invited papers on the topic “Is Deuteronomy Law?” The session explores the ways in which law and narrative interact in the Book of Deuteronomy. The laws themselves draw attention to their narrative qualities as they describe cases and prescribe outcomes. At times, they refer to national history. More broadly, how does consideration of the narrative context affect our understanding of what appears to be legislation? Indeed, in context, can it be called legislation at all?
The Program Unit will also host a session of papers held over from the previous year, and another open session of papers submitted this year. N.B., All abstracts will be anonymized for voting purposes to ensure equity.
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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: The Theological Perspectives of the Book of Ezekiel will hold three sessions in San Antonio in 2021. (1) For the Open Session, we invite paper proposals on any aspect of the book, though we particularly encourage submissions on the reception of Ezekiel in the Persian period. (2) For our second session, we are seeking papers that explore a range of issues related to the selection, deployment, and interpretation of metaphors in Ezekiel, including the meaning of individual metaphors, the broader patterns of metaphor usage that emerge in the book, and the role metaphors play in the shaping of Ezekiel’s theological message. We especially welcome papers that focus on metaphors other than the often-considered JERUSALEM IS A WOMAN (Ezekiel 16, 23) and LEADERS ARE SHEPHERDS (Ezekiel 34) metaphors. (3) For the third session, we are meeting jointly with the Writing/Reading Jeremiah section on the topic "Jeremiah in Conversation with Ezekiel." We invite papers that reflect on the literary relationship between Ezekiel and Jeremiah. Beyond aspects of the historical sequence of these books, papers that explore textual, thematic, and imaginal relationships that pursue implications for reading these books separately or as a whole would be highly desired. Additionally, we encourage papers that pursue creative analyses of intertextual relationships and the payoff of these links in different contexts.
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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 Isaiah group will offer three sessions in 2021. Two sessions will consist of invited papers. It will also offer a joint session with the Qumran group with invited papers.
1. Isaiah and Nature: The first session will consider “nature” in the book of Isaiah. The aim of this session is both to examine individual passages that touch on this theme as well as to trace its development throughout the entire book. Whether focused on a single passage or on the whole book, papers from a variety of perspectives and approaches are welcome—e.g., final form, source-critical, agrarian, ecological, poetical, rhetorical. Papers that consider this theme in the reception of Isaiah are also welcome.
2. The Exile in the Book of Isaiah: The second session will explore the meaning and understanding of “exile” in the different parts of Isaiah (Isa 1–39, 40–55, 56–66) from historical, redactional, and theological perspectives. Papers will a. highlight the diverse conceptions of exile in the different literary layers of the book; b. examine the questions raised by exile regarding identity—the “we” and the “others”—with focus on nationality, gender, ethnicity, etc. c. investigate the role of the historical and the religious-historical conditions of the early Persian period for understanding the concept of “exile” in Isaiah.
3. The third section is an open session, and we welcome papers related to the book of Isaiah.
The joint session with the Qumran group will explore and reassess the significance of the substantial Isaiah material for our understanding of the book of Isaiah.
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Book of Psalms
Description: It is the aim of the Book of Psalms unit to promote all aspects of and approaches to the study of the Psalms, with a major focus on the issue of how the Psalter as a collection has an integrity, history, and purpose of its own.
Call for papers: The Book of Psalms Program Unit invites proposals for the 2021 meeting. Several papers accepted for the 2020 meeting were postponed until the 2021 meeting, including our joint session with the Book of Samuel: Narrative, Theology, and Interpretation program unit. Another session will be devoted to the work of Patrick D. Miller (1935-2020). A third session is entirely open.
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Book of Samuel: Narrative, Theology, and Interpretation
Description: Utilising critical and literary methods, this unit focuses on the literary and theological interpretation of the Book of Samuel. The consultation promotes the integration of multiple methodologies in interpretation, including dialogue between specialists in synchronic and diachronic approaches.
Call for papers: The 2021 meeting will include two sessions that were postponed from 2020 due to COVID-19 and at least one open session of new papers. The following sessions are planned for 2021: 1. A joint session with the Book of Psalms Section on Samuel and the Psalms; 2. An Open Session of papers that were postponed from 2020; 3. At least one open session on any aspect of the Book of Samuel. We welcome proposals on any aspect of the Book of Samuel, especially papers which explore different methodologies in interpretation, the dialogue between synchronic and diachronic approaches, and theological concerns.
Tags: Former Prophets - 1-2 Samuel (Biblical Literature - Hebrew Bible/Old Testament/Greek OT (Septuagint))
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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: For the Annual Meeting in 2021, the Book of the Twelve Prophets Section will organize three sessions: an open session, an invited session about “The Book of the Four: Revisiting the Consensus,” and an invited session on the theological / ideological presentations of God in the Book of the Twelve. For the open session we invite 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.
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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: ¬The Children in the Biblical World section will host two joint-sessions this year. The first session will be co-hosted with “Hebrew Bible, History, and Archaeology.” The sessions will address motherhood and we invite papers that think creatively about all aspects of motherhood as presented at the nexus of Hebrew Bible, history, and archaeology.
We will again host joint-sessions with “Israelite Prophetic Literature”; the sessions will include some deferred papers from 2020, but additional proposals are also welcomed. The joint-sessions with Israelite Prophet Literature will focus on violence against women and/or children, particularly within the prophetic texts of the Hebrew Bible.
In addition to our joint sessions, we will have two general sessions. Papers in the first session will explore children as a marginalized group: children who are enslaved, disabled, poor, or otherwise marginalized. Papers may focus on children as members of an Israelite or Jewish community, an early Christian community, a diaspora community, or other migrant community. The second session is an open session dedicated to any topic related to children and the Bible, the ancient world, or how biblical texts affect children in the post-biblical world. We especially welcome papers addressing children in the New Testament, Intertestamental Period, or Early Christianity.
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Christian Apocrypha
Description: The Section fosters ongoing study of extra-canonical texts, as subjects of literary and philological investigation; as evidence for the history of religion, theology, and cult practice; and as documents of the socio-symbolic construction of Christianity along lines of class and gender.
Call for papers: The Christian Apocrypha program unit invites paper proposals on any topic directly related to apocryphal texts. For the 2021 Annual Meeting, we are particularly interested in papers that treat 1) apocryphal apocalyptic texts, and 2) hagiography (with an eye towards the genre's continuity with apocryphal acts of the apostles). As always, we enthusiastically welcome papers that present relatively unknown texts and/or texts extant in ancient languages beyond Greek and Latin.
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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: The Christian Theology and the Bible unit welcomes papers on any topic relating to the intersection of Christian theology and the Bible, whether exegetically driven, focused on a specific text(s), or more topical in nature, oriented toward, say, a particular doctrine. The unit strives for balance between the two testaments of Christian Scripture.
For 2021, the unit expects three sessions: the first will be devoted to a review of Garrett Green's Imagining Theology (2020). A second consisting mostly of invited papers, will consider the corporeality of God. A third session is open.
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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 Program Unit will have four sessions in 2021. 1) An invited panel on the dating of Chronicles-Ezra-Nehemiah; 2) An invited book review panel on Lisbeth Fried’s Nehemiah: A Commentary; 3) An invited book review panel, co-sponsored with The Bible in Ancient (and Modern) Media section, on Laura Carlson Hasler’s Archival Historiography in Jewish Antiquity; and 4) An open session. We welcome paper proposals on any topic relevant to the program unit, and we especially encourage early-career scholars to submit proposals to the open session.
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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: For 2021 Annual Meeting we will host three sessions: 1) an open session on cognitive linguistics and biblical interpretation in general; 2) an open, themed session on cognitive linguistics and Bible translation to continue the insightful conversation from the previous Annual Meeting; 3) an invited panel on cognitive linguistic models that are underrepresented in biblical scholarship.
Both open sessions seek to apply findings from cognitive linguistics to biblical interpretation. In particular, our focus is on how various methodological approaches from cognitive theory enable contemporary scholars to understand and interact with ancient texts.
Call for Papers for the Open Session: Papers should use and explore at least one cognitive linguistic method to study a biblical text or corpus. Possible approaches include, for example, conceptual metaphor theory, prototype theory, frame semantics, construction grammar, or viewpoint analysis. Papers are required to go beyond methodological reflection by including exegetical and linguistic results.
Call for Papers for the Open Themed Session, “Cognitive Linguistics and the Translation of Biblical Texts”: This session focuses on how cognitive resources (for example: frames or constructions) can enhance the study of translation issues in a discrete biblical text.
Successful proposals indicate which cognitive linguistic models and/or method(s) are used. They should reveal the author’s assessment of both the payoffs and the challenges of using the chosen methods for analyzing biblical material. Scholars and students new to the field of Cognitive Linguistics are encouraged to submit proposals for papers.
The invited panel aims to provide accessible, theoretical presentations of more advanced cognitive linguistic methodologies such as construction grammar, force dynamics, cognitive hermeneutics, and metaphor from the perspective of frame semantics.
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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: This year we will host two sessions. For the first session we invite proposals that address the conceptualization of disease, disability, and/or frailty in biblical and cognate literature. Abstracts should indicate how the depiction of the physical condition or the afflicted body contributes to management of the condition, whether psychologically, medically/therapeutically, or socially. As always, we especially welcome papers that employ cognitive or social theory in their analysis.
The second session, jointly sponsored with the Psychology and Biblical Studies Seminar will address Ageing, Death, and Mourning as depicted in the Bible. Papers for this session are already chosen. They will be circulated in advance of the Meeting, where they will be briefly summarised and then discussed in earnest by all present. Anyone wishing to receive the papers should email the Chair (rikard.roitto@ehs.se) in order to join the emailing list.
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Comparative Method in Biblical Studies
Description: Comparative Method in Biblical Studies (CMBS) is designed to develop the
skill set and critical attention necessary for intellectually and ethically robust
approaches to comparison. CMBS examines and critiques approaches to
comparative methodology, explores ethical questions, and offers practical
suggestions for improving comparison within biblical studies and to other
literatures and scriptural traditions.
Call for papers: Because the days of being able to read the Bible as an insular text are limited, academic professionals must be able to put the Bible into dialogue with other literatures and scriptures, from ancient to modern. The primary goal of the CMBS program unit is to create a space in which biblical scholars have the opportunity to discuss the goals, challenges, and ethics of comparison, and to share methods that help navigate this difficult terrain. Our aim is not to present, promote, or generate a single way of doing comparison, but to create an ongoing forum in which scholars can discuss strategies and considerations that they find helpful—or problematic—in their own work and in the field generally, thus enhancing professional reflection on the relationship between method and outcome.
For our inaugural year, CMBS will host three sessions: one open session for which we are soliciting abstracts and two sessions comprised of invited scholars working on a diverse range of topics. For the open session, CMBS seeks papers dedicated to constructive reflection on comparative method, which may or may not include an illustrative case study. Invited papers will use case studies to introduce attendees to the major issues and ethical questions posed by the act of comparison, as well as our discipline’s own history on this specific topic. We will also discuss promising directions for future study, thus leaving attendees with practical suggestions of where to learn more and piquing their interest in subsequent conversations.
For more information about the aims and strategies of our program unit, please read our application here: https://amylbaloghcom.files.wordpress.com/2021/01/cmbs-program-unit-application-final-13jan2020.pdf
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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 biblical texts or methodology while explicitly engaging a reader’s contemporary context. (1) We invite papers to join an open session exploring “Unexamined Contexts” - those contexts taken for granted even when readers try to make explicit their contemporary contexts. We are particularly interested in intersectional aspects of interpreter’s contexts and how they navigate them in interpretations. How are gender expression, sexuality, race/ethnicity, white privilege, socio-economic status, geographic location, political position, etc. presented in interpretations and where are certain contexts erased? Why is there resistance to contextualizing these contexts? What are the pitfalls of doing intersectional contextuality? How might our (lack of) response to hidden contexts expand/limit scholarship? (2) We invite papers for an open session on "Experiential Readings of Biblical Text and Context," co-sponsored with the Bible and Practical Theology Unit. Paper proposals should include reading the Bible using Practical Theology and/or the social sciences to address a current issue of concern together with a reflection on how your experience/context influences your interpretation/view of the issue. Examples of possible issues include but are not limited to a) Issues of masculinity (e.g.: Toxic Masculinity, Pastoral Care with Men, Sheep Dog Security [men trained with weapons to protect faith communities], etc.); b) Race Issues in Society and Faith Communities Environment; c) Any issue, the key is that the chosen issue be one pressing Faith Communities environment and or society today. (3) We will facilitate an invited panel of scholars and activists on LGBTQIA+ Activism and Biblical Interpretation. They will explore how LGBTQIA+ contextualized readings are being used to foster community engagement and activism globally. (4) We join other program units in the "Talk with the President” session with Dr. Adele Reinhartz.
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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 year, we have an open call for two sessions. The first session is entitled Prophets and Prophecy in North African Christianity. Submissions may examine either the reception of biblical prophets (books or individuals) or the phenomenon of prophecy then current in North Africa. Papers may focus on a single text or author, or trace a character or theme through a variety of sources. Resubmissions of papers withdrawn last year are welcome, as are new submissions. The second session is entitled Sermons and Sermonisers in North African Christianity. Submissions may consider a particular homily or collection of homilies, preaching on a particular text, or an aspect of the practice of preaching in North Africa. We will also hold an invited panel session on a forthcoming book, and will co-sponsor (with the AAR Augustine and Augustinianisms Unit) an interview with James K. A. Smith, discussing the questions raised by his bestselling On the Road with Saint Augustine: A Real-World Spirituality for Restless Hearts (Brazos, 2019).
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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: For the 2021 Annual Meeting, the Corpus Hellenisticum Novi Testamenti Section is planning invited sessions on the following topics: (1) Choice, Change, Conversion: a continuation of the celebration of the scholarship of A. D. Nock begun in Denver (2018) and San Diego (2019); (2) The Quran and Early Christian Literature: Overview and Critical Questions; and (3) Celebrating Harold Attridge. In addition, (4) CHNT will cosponsor a session on Ancient Gynecological Theories with the Healthcare and Disability in the Ancient World Section (see its call for papers). These sessions were scheduled for the 2020 Meeting but were postponed until they could be held in person at the 2021 Meeting.
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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: For 2021, the Cultic Personnel in the Biblical World section intends to have at least one open session for papers covering any aspect of the social and historical roles of Cultic Personnel in the biblical world broadly conceived.
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Deuterocanonical and Cognate Literature
Description: The unit provides a forum for the deuterocanonical writings. The goal is to foster academic research, stimulate discussions among scholars, and promote interest in these texts.
Call for papers:
Tags: 1 Esdras (Biblical Literature - Deuterocanonical Works), 1 Maccabees (Biblical Literature - Deuterocanonical Works), 2 Esdras (4 Ezra) (Biblical Literature - Deuterocanonical Works), 2 Maccabees (Biblical Literature - Deuterocanonical Works), 3 Maccabees (Biblical Literature - Deuterocanonical Works), 4 Maccabees (Biblical Literature - Deuterocanonical Works), Additions to the Book of Esther (Biblical Literature - Deuterocanonical Works), Baruch (Biblical Literature - Deuterocanonical Works), Deuterocanonical Works (Biblical Literature - Deuterocanonical Works), Ecclesiasticus (Sirach) (Biblical Literature - Deuterocanonical Works), Judith (Biblical Literature - Deuterocanonical Works), Letter of Jeremiah (Biblical Literature - Deuterocanonical Works), Prayer of Manasseh (Biblical Literature - Deuterocanonical Works), Psalm 151 (Biblical Literature - Deuterocanonical Works), The Additions to the Book of Daniel (Biblical Literature - Deuterocanonical Works), The Additions to the Book of Daniel - Bel and the Dragon (Biblical Literature - Deuterocanonical Works), The Additions to the Book of Daniel - Prayer of Azariah and Song of the Three Young Men (Biblical Literature - Deuterocanonical Works), The Additions to the Book of Daniel - Susanna (Biblical Literature - Deuterocanonical Works), Tobit (Biblical Literature - Deuterocanonical Works), Wisdom and Philosophical Literature (Early Jewish Literature - Jewish Pseudepigrapha), Wisdom of Solomon (Biblical Literature - Deuterocanonical Works)
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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: The Deuteronomistic History section invites abstracts for papers 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. In addition to one or more open session(s), the Deuteronomistic History section will be organizing two special sessions, both of which will be populated by invited papers: (1) The first, organized by the DtrH section, will explore issues of kinship and state formation, as they emerge from the Deuteronomistic History. (2) The second, organized in cooperation with the Historiography and the Hebrew Bible section, will explore the use of terms such as “core,” “kernel,” “original,” and “older traditions” in diachronic studies of the Bible.
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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 2021 our program unit is sponsoring three sessions: 1) A session on biblical exegesis and the development of Christological doctrine in fifth-century authors and texts; 2) A panel discussion of Andrew Radde-Gallwitz’s Gregory of Nyssa’s Doctrinal Works: A Literary Study (OUP, 2018); and 3) A session on figural or allegorical exegesis of Homeric, Jewish, and Christian texts in antiquity. In addition, we running a joint session with the program unit "Early Exegesis of Gen. 1-3" on the role of Genesis 1-3 in the fifth-century Christological controversies. All of our papers accepted for the 2020 annual meeting were deferred to the 2021 meeting, so we are not accepting new proposals this year.
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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: The Digital Humanities in Biblical, Early Jewish, and Christian Studies session is accepting abstracts for three open sessions related to our primary theme. We are especially interested to receive proposals on recent project, technical developments in the humanities, digital editing practices, gender and access issues in the digital humanities, intellectual history of religious traditions in the digital humanities, distance reading, or other areas of concern.
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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: Depending on the number and quality of proposals received, the Disputed Paulines Section will offer one or more open sessions for which we invite papers exploring historical, literary (including rhetorical), and theological matters that bear upon the interpretation of one or more of those letters (or a discreet section thereof).
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Documentary Texts and Literary Interpretation
Description: Studies often rely on documentary sources to interpret the Bible, but is this
done responsibly? This program unit will explore examples of, approaches
to, and teaching perspectives on the interdisciplinary use of documentary
texts, especially in the digital age, for the study of biblical literature.
Call for papers: The Documentary Texts and Literary Interpretation (DTLI) unit welcomes paper proposals for an open session that focuses on a documentary textual source or dataset from the ancient world and its value for interpreting an ancient literary passage, particularly a literary work composed or used by ancient religious communities, such as from the HB/OT, Apocrypha, NT, the Iliad, Egyptian Book of the Dead, Enuma Elish, etc. Papers that (1) illustrate a critical (e)valuation of the documentary text(s), (2) show how the documentary source(s) may be responsibly used to frame the study of a literary work, and (3) that provide a new insight into the literary passage are highly desired. The DTLI loosely defines a documentary textual source as a surviving textual artifact that can be historically contextualized, preferably by an archaeological context or by a convincing argument made on material, scientific, and/or acquisitional grounds. A second invited session is planned.
An additional open call for a co-sponsored session with the Digital Humanities in Biblical, Early Jewish, and Christian Studies is accepting papers:
Using Digital Tools in the Study of Documentary Sources: Paper proposals are invited for one open session, hosted jointly by the Digital Humanities in Biblical, Early Jewish, and Christian Studies and the DTLI units, on the topic: Using Digital Tools in the Study of Documentary Sources. We especially welcome papers that reflect on research processes related to the study of biblical literature that make use of multiple online and digital repositories of ancient documentary sources. Papers should have a strong focus on introducing digital research tools and workflows that may not be familiar to a general biblical studies crowd. Some assessment of the quality of digital and computational research tools generally and specifically in the presenter's field of study would also be appreciated.
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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 examines economic aspects of early Christian groups from the first to the fifth century CE, understood within the context of the economies of the Roman Empire and its provinces. “Economy” is understood broadly to consist of the production, transmission, and consumption of goods and services, as well as the social, political, and ideological conditions associated with economic systems. We invite papers exploring aspects of the economic organization of early Christian assemblies as well as Rome and its provinces, in addition to those critically assessing the theoretical frameworks (e.g., economic anthropology, régulation theory, New Institutional Economics) and concepts (e.g., class, exploitation, wealth and poverty, gender, ethnicity, and movements of human and material resources) used in the study of the economic history of the Mediterranean basin in antiquity. For the 2021 annual meeting, papers that focus on labor and wages are also particularly welcome.
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Early Exegesis of Genesis 1–3
Description: The Impact of the Exegesis of Genesis 1–3 for the development of Christian and Jewish
Theology is at the center of the program unit. Important issues are the integration of
philosophical concepts(especially for cosmology and anthropology), the methods of exegesis,
and the different literary strategies (commentaries, sermons, theological works, catenae) in
various contexts from the 1st to the 6th century.
Call for papers: The Impact of the Exegesis of Genesis 1–3 for the development of Christian and Jewish
Theology is at the center of the program unit. Important issues are the integration of
philosophical concepts(especially for cosmology and anthropology), the methods of exegesis,
and the different literary strategies (commentaries, sermons, theological works, catenae) in
various contexts from the 1st to the 6th century.
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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: For the 2021 Annual Meeting, the Early Jewish Christian Relations program unit plans three sessions, the first two of which invite submissions. 1) A session titled Early Jewish Christian Relations and Epigraphy: New Data and New Methods, co-sponsored with the Archaeology of Religion in the Roman World program unit. The last two decades have seen extraordinary advances in the corpus of Roman-period Jewish inscriptions available to scholars. Research on EJCR can now utilize the recently-published critical editions of Jewish inscriptions by D. Noy, W. Horbury, W. Ameling, A. Panayotov, and H. Bloedhorn (Jewish Inscriptions of… and Inscriptiones Judaicae Orientis) as well as the Corpus Inscriptionum Iudaeae/Palaestinae by H. Cotton, L. Di Segni, W. Eck, A. Ecker, B. Isaac, A. Kushnir-Stein, H. Misgav, J. Price, I. Roll, P. Weiß, and A. Yardeni, the remaining four volumes of which are due out this year. This session addresses the use of inscriptions in the field of Early Jewish Christian Relations. Papers that present new methods for analyzing inscriptions are particularly welcome. 2) a session titled Early Jewish Christian Relations Without the New Testament. We invite papers on any topic that engage Jewish-Christian relations from the perspective of extra-canonical sources, particularly those from the 3rd-6th centuries. 3) An invited panel titled Careers in Early Jewish Christian Relations, in which senior scholars reflect on the trajectories of the field and their own work during their careers, and then engage in conversation with junior scholars about possible future directions for the field.
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Ecological Hermeneutics
Description: This Section will focus on hermeneutical principles and models for ecological readings of the biblical text and tradition. Attention would be paid to the anthropocentric bias of texts and readers as well as to discerning alternative traditions sympathetic to ecology, Earth and the Earth community. The aim is to explore the art of reading the text with empathy for the natural world.
Call for papers: The year 2020 was “different.” The challenges and events of that year may have prompted many of us to see things in a different light. There may be insights that are still developing. This year, we take the opportunity to encourage proposals that refine and develop those insights in relation to Ecological Hermeneutics. For example, proposals are requested that consider possible links with Climate Change and survival of life on Earth. How are we to live in an age of mass extinction? (cf., Ezek 33:10 – ethics after a razed city – what is extinction ethics?) What are links with racial justice or indigenous communities? A joint session co-hosted with the Hermeneutics of Trauma Program Unit will allow the above topics (or others) to be explored in conversation with Trauma Studies (see further the call from that unit). Proposals on any aspect of Ecological Hermeneutics are invited. 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) – and trauma theory (for the joint session).
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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: 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).
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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 Egyptology and Ancient Israel section will hold two sessions at the 2021 Annual Meeting in San Antonio, TX. The first session is OPEN, accepting papers dealing with any topic which deals with the relations between ancient Egypt and Israel or Egypt and the Hebrew Bible. The second will consist of INVITED PAPERS in a joint session with Wisdom in Israelite and Cognate Traditions.
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Ethics and Biblical Interpretation
Description: The aim of the Ethics and Biblical Interpretation section is to study the way the various projects of biblical interpretation and hermeneutics intersect with the concerns of ethics. This consultation will engage ethicists, theologians, and biblical scholars in interdisciplinary conversations.
Call for papers: The Ethics and Biblical Interpretation Group is an interdisciplinary partnership between biblical scholars, theologians, and ethicists. The work of our group focuses on the methods, texts, and principles for interpreting the Bible and engaging in ethical deliberation. Thus, the aims of the Ethics and Biblical Interpretation section are to study the way the various projects of biblical interpretation and hermeneutics intersect with the concerns of ethics and to foster interdisciplinary conversations. For the 2021 Annual Meeting, we invite proposals on the theme of “The Use of the Bible in the Public Square.” The Bible, biblical themes, and images play a huge role in public discourse, ranging from politics to entertainment to sports. And, in all these spaces, the Bible has been used to advance the causes of justice and inclusion or to perpetuate oppression and exclusion. This session invites further exploration on how biblical interpretation and hermeneutics intersect with ethics in the public realm. In a pluralistic and a secular society, what warrants the use of the Bible in the public square? What is the role of the Bible in shaping public imagination and conversation? What are the hermeneutical negotiations and interpretive parameters that should inform the use of the Bible in the society? How might explorations of biblical texts provide thick descriptions of and contributions to robust ethical inquiries?
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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: There will be two sessions. One session is open and welcomes papers addressing a broad range of topics including canon, ideology, sociology, and literary formation in Ethiopic literature. Preference will be given to papers deferred from the 2020 Annual Meeting. The second session will focus on important discoveries and recent analyses related to the material evidence of Ethiopian church history and textual transmission, such as the excavations at Beta Samati and important manuscript discoveries.
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Ethnic Chinese Biblical Colloquium
Description: The Ethnic Chinese Biblical Colloquium (ECBC) emerged with the rise of the awareness of contextualization and cross-cultural awareness in biblical interpretation. A group of scholars who are of ethnic Chinese origin created ECBC as a forum to address issues relevant to this concern within SBL in the 1990s. Prominent founding members of this group are Dr. Seow Choon-Leong, Dr. Wan Sze-Kar, Dr. Gale Yee, Dr. Mary Foskett, Dr. Jeffrey Kuan, and Dr. John Yieh. The group invites scholars to participate in the forum held annually within the SBL Annual Meeting.
Call for papers:
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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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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 (FHB) section will offer the following four sessions at the 2021 meeting.
Open Call
Session #1: FHB issues an open call for papers using feminist, womanist, Latina/x or other cognate ideological frames to read biblical texts, broadly defined.
Session #2: Latina/o and Latin American Biblical Interpretation and FHB invite papers that represent new directions in Latina/x/o studies of gender and the Bible. A few panelists will be invited, but we particularly issue a call for papers from previously underrepresented perspectives in Latina biblical studies, such as AfroLatina/x, AsianLatina/o/x, and/or LGBTQ perspectives.
Invited Panels
Session #3: FHB and Biblical Hebrew Poetry present Reading Poetic Texts Disruptively. This invited panel will explore features of poetic signifying that may be deconstructed, resisted, or refigured regarding dimensions such as borderlands, embodiment, gender, indigeneity, marginality, memory, sexuality, and social hierarchy.
Session #4: FHB and Women in the Biblical World present Teaching Intersectionality, an invited panel that is a follow-up to "Cultivating Womanist, Feminist, and Queer Relationships in this Neoliberal-Authoritarian Age" session at the 2019 San Diego meeting. This panel will focus on pedagogical approaches to cultivating students' awareness of intersectionality and empowering students in dialogic practices that foster relationships across perceived difference.
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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: Our FIRST SESSION is an open session. We invite papers on all aspects of gender and sexuality as they relate to the Bible and other closely related ancient texts. We are especially interested in submissions that engage unconventional or unexpected biblical texts and those that attend to un- or underexplored aspects of gender and sexuality. We encourage innovative explorations of gender identity and sexuality, including queer, transgender, agender, and non-binary identities and approaches, as well as asexuality and graysexuality. For the 2021 meeting, topics related to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic how it shapes new readings of ancient texts, contemporary interpreters, and health care with intersections of gender and sexuality are welcome.
Our SECOND SESSION is on Critical Intersectionality. While some presenters will be invited, we also seek submissions reflecting on intersectionality as a method, practice, and intellectual category in biblical studies. Papers may be theoretical in nature or have practical application to a specific text. In addition to gender and sexuality, we encourage engagements with ethnicity, race, disability, and class, along with "intersectionality" itself as a category.
Our THIRD SESSION is an open session; however, we especially invite papers that engage questions of gender, sexuality, white Supremacy, and the Bible.
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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 Program Unit accepted a large number of papers in 2020, most of which were deferred to the 2021 in-person Annual Meeting in San Antonio. Consequently, we are not accepting paper proposals this year. We regret any inconvenience this may cause.
Additional announcement: The co-chairs and Steering Committee members of the Genesis Program Unit seek an individual who is interested in serving as co-chair, as we anticipate rotation in leadership in the coming year. Responsibilities will begin in November 2021. Please express interest to Naomi Steinberg at nsteinbe@depaul.edu.
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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 section will offer three sessions in 2021. First, we invite submissions for an open session covering any aspect of Luke’s distinctive narrative construction and its rhetorical, theological, and ethical emphases. Proposals for papers that employ new, marginalized, or multiperspectival approaches to Luke are especially welcome. The section will also host two sessions carried over from 202: “Early Reception of Luke in Visual Art,” jointly sponsored with the Bible and Visual Arts section and "Wealth and Poverty in Luke-Acts, Revisited," jointly sponsored with the Economics in the Biblical World and Book of Acts sections. This third session will be made up of invited panelists and is not accepting additional paper proposals.
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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 Gospel of Mark section invites papers on the influence of the apocalyptic symbolic world on Mark’s treatment of the Reign of God. The section also extends an open call for papers on any topic advancing scholarship on the Gospel of Mark. Preference is given to proposals with a clearly defined thesis, methodology, and argument.
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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: Session 1 (“Death and Demise of Greek and Roman Religions”) seeks to rethink narratives of death and continuity of Greco-Roman religions in Late Antiquity. We invite papers that theorize interruptions in the cults of the Greek and Roman world, ranging from their transmutation to the cessation of, e.g., the Mithras cult or the “New Prophecy.” How, e.g., do religions die, how do we recognize their deaths, and what are their afterlives? How do they relate to earlier generalizations about the triumph of Christianity?
Session 2 ("The Religion of Slaves and Freedpersons") continues conversations on typology, descriptive categories, and the production of knowledge. Potential foci include analyses of slave/freedperson populations in the Mediterranean world: their day-to-day lives, training, and cultural capital within social networks. We are open to various forms of evidence, including material culture, text, epigraphy, and archaeological data on reconstructed ritual practices.(1)(2)
Session 3 ("Animals in Ancient Mediterranean Religions") examines human/animal relations in antiquity beyond the topos of animal sacrifice. We invite papers addressing this topic in literary and archaeological sources, and exploring the roles animals played in religious thought and practice. How, e.g., might we understand theriomorphic gods, the ritual use of animal masks and masquerades, or of animal parts in magical potions? Presenters may submit their papers for a planned publication.(2)
Session 4, “Studying Greek and Roman ‘Religions’ in Context,” invites papers that interpret material evidence and contexts towards understanding religions in the Greek and Roman worlds, particularly those at their margins. We especially welcome papers focusing on contextual practices as they relate to wider discourses, encouraging a “thick” description and analysis of specific cults.
(1) With Redescribing Early Christianity Section.
(2) With Society for Ancient Mediterranean Religions.
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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 two new open sessions at the 2021 meeting. 1) At least one open session welcoming paper proposals on any aspect of health and disability related to the Bible. 2) Pandemics in the Ancient World (and Today)
The Ancient Healthcare and Disability Program Unit invites proposals specifically engaging with pandemics and plagues in the ancient world. We especially welcome papers focusing on: a) the assessment and re-assessment of data and theoretical frameworks related to ancient pandemics; b) the social, political, economic, cultural, and discursive aspects and effects of ancient pandemics; c) comparative explorations between an ancient pandemic(s) and modern pandemics, such as HIV and AIDS, and Covid-19; d) ancient religious and cultural responses to the trauma of and/or resilience to a pandemic.
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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: We invite papers for open sessions which fit broadly with the mission of the program unit: critical reflection on the relationship between the biblical literary materials, history of ancient Israel and Judah, and material culture, and to develop and model theoretical positions on the relationships between these corpora and disciplines.
Additionally, Hebrew Bible, History, and Archaeology will feature two invited sessions this year. The first of our invited sessions will be jointly held with the Children in the Biblical World program unit, on the topic of motherhood at the nexus of Hebrew Bible, history, and archaeology. We are also planning an invited session on the Kingdom of Israel.
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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 welcomes papers that highlight comparisons between the Hebrew Bible and other ancient Near Eastern texts. We especially appreciate contributions that establish new points of overlap and illuminate the source material in fresh and unexpected ways.
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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: In 2021, the Hebrews Program Unit will have three sessions: (1) an invited session, co-sponsored by the Theological Interpretation of Scripture Program Unit, with papers that highlight distinct approaches to reading Hebrews; (2) an open session with papers deferred from the 2020 Annual Meeting; and (3) an open session with papers exploring any topic related to the study of Hebrews.
We welcome proposals for the third open session.
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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 2021 SBL Annual Meeting in San Antonio the Hellenistic Judaism section organizes three sessions.
1) Open Call: Topics in Hellenistic Judaism
We invite papers on any aspect of the following topics in Hellenistic Judaism: the history of Judaism in the Hellenistic period broadly conceived, from the conquests of Alexander the Great to the principate of Hadrian; the political, social and cultural history of Judaea and Jewish communities in this period; evidence for Greek-speaking Judaism in antiquity (that is, “Hellenistic” in its linguistic sense); and the interactions of Jews of this period with the cultures and peoples of the hellenistic worlds in which they lived.
2)Open Call: The Samaritans, from Alexander the Great to the end of the first century CE
We invite papers on the Samaritans in the period from Alexander the Great to the end of the first century CE. While we welcome a broad range of topics, priority will be given to the following: responses to new research in Samaritan studies; the archaeology of Samaria; the Wadi Daliyeh documents; evidence from the Samaritan diaspora; potentially Samaritan literary sources known from later authors (e.g. Pseudo-Eupolemus); sources on Samaritan-Jewish relations; Josephus’ presentation of Samaria and the Samaritans.
3)Invited Book Review Panel of Historical and Theological Lexicon of the Septuagint (HTLS). Volume1. Ed. Eberhard Bons (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2020.
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Historical Geography of the Biblical World
Description: This unit provides a platform for scholars to present original research
related to the historical geography of the biblical world. While we anticipate
many studies related to both the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament and the New
Testament, we welcome studies of related regions and texts as well.
Call for papers: This unit provides a platform for scholars to present original research related to the historical geography of the biblical world. While we anticipate many studies related to the lands and peoples of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament and the New Testament, we welcome studies of related regions and texts as well.
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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 program unit organizes four sessions for the Annual Meeting in 2021. We are inviting papers for two sessions this year. The first is a session dedicated to answering the question "Is the Third Quest Over?" Several scholars have pronounced the Third Quest over, but there has been no real resolution on the issue, which is complicated by arguments over the three-quest schema. The second session focuses on urban Galilee in the time of Jesus. We welcome proposals that relate archaeological research on Galilean cities to the study of the historical Jesus. Both these sessions will also include invited contributors. The third session is a review panel on Tucker Ferda’s book, Jesus, the Gospels, and the Galilean Crisis (T&T Clark, 2018) with invited panelists. Finally, there will be a joint session of the Qumran and Historical Jesus program units, in which invited presenters will explore ways in which study of the Dead Sea Scrolls and of the historical Jesus can be mutually illuminating.
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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 Historiography and the Hebrew Bible program unit is accepting paper proposals that examine specific historical questions or topics that pertain to the texts of the Hebrew Bible. Papers that engage contemporary debates surrounding the theories and methods of history writing are especially welcome. In addition to general (open) sessions, we will also co-host a special session with the Deuteronomistic History unit that will feature invited papers. Diachronic studies of the Bible regularly use terms such as “core,” “kernel,” “original,” and “older traditions.” Historical studies also search for “older traditions,” as well as older “realities” and “memories.” Yet in both subfields, what do these terms actually mean, what kinds of biases or assumptions do they reflect, and how are we to engage with and utilize such terms in our work? Combining theoretical discussions and specific case studies, papers in this special session will engage with literary-historical and historical/historiographical discussions to consider these questions in light of what panel participants consider to be necessary methodological considerations. This session's goal is to improve our understanding of how to work at the intersection of literary history and the lived past.
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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: The History and Literature of Early Rabbinic Judaism section plans up to four sessions for the 2021 meeting. One session, co-sponsored with Aramaic Studies, will consider code-switching; because this session is deferred from 2020, we will not be accepting further papers for it. We are asking for papers for three more sessions:
1) Following up on the success of our 2018 session on comparative Jewish and Christian biblical exegesis, we are calling for sets of papers from *pairs of scholars* juxtaposing late antique Jewish reception of biblical texts or ideas with their early Islamic or early Christian receptions. Successful proposals will describe *two* short (likely 10-minute) papers, one from each scholar. Interested potential presenters looking for a partner may post their interests and/or look for potential colleagues on the googledoc here (https://tinyurl.com/y5qqcntb).
2) We are calling for papers addressing performativity, theatricality, and playfulness in Rabbinic literature.
3) We are also calling for papers for an open session for papers addressing any aspect of late antique Rabbinic literature.
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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: 2021: 1. 'Catholic' use of the Catholic Epistles: Papers on interpretation from the earliest to the recent interpreters on any of 1&2 Peter, James, 1-3 John, Jude. Did the apparently ‘late’ canonical inclusion give them a boost in the 3rd-5th centuries, or did it mean the opposite? Did they feature in Byzantine interpretation or in that of the Oriental Churches? Are they truly Catholic in that one sees an increased use of them in the era of the (Counter-) reformation on one side rather than the other, and even from that point on until recently? (OPEN SESSION: JOINT WITH EPISTLES OF JAMES, PETER AND JUDE) HELD OVER FROM 2020 SO CLOSED SESSION
2. Jews and Christians on the bible: 1880-1940. Papers could include those on Rosenzweig and Buber, not last their bible translation, H-J. Schoeps, Gershom Scholem and Walter Benjamin and possible E. Levinas. On the Christian side Franz Overbeck, Karl Barth and Dietrich Bonhoeffer show unusual awareness of Jewish concerns. Then there is also Max Scheler and Edith Stein and possible Erik Peterson. Some of these figures will have more or less to owe to the bible. We might want to consider how some of them have inspired more recent thinking that sees the bible as a place of rapprochement and guidance. (HELD OVER FROM 2020 SO CLOSED SESSION)
3. OPEN SESSION--ACCEPTING PAPERS: METHOD AND PURPOSE IN HISTORY OF INTERPRETATION. With examples from the history of interpretation we welcome papers that could take stock of methods and approaches to the HoI and also suggest new angles. What is at stake and what does HoI have to offer to biblical studies, church history, theology today?
4.INVITED SESSION: La Bible et ses traditions.
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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 invites papers in our open call session for the 2021 meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature in San Antonio. The papers can address any topic related to the intersection between homiletics and biblical studies. We encourage papers from a variety of traditions and welcome inter-religious dialogue.
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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: 1. THE FUTURE(S?) OF IDEOLOGICAL CRITICISM. This roundtable discussion will consider the history, significance, and future(s) of Ideological Criticism in the field of Biblical Studies. How does the intellectual history of the field locate the emergence and perpetuation of ideological criticism within biblical studies, literary studies, and philosophy? How have divergences within the various subdisciplines of inquiry (e.g., feminist criticism, queer theory, postcolonial criticism) relocated critical inquiry in helpful or fracturing ways? What is the state of field of ideology in relationship to critical methodologies more broadly? Can we still speak of “ideology” with its Marxist connotations? What are possible future(s) for ideology criticism in biblical studies? Panelists will be invited; expressions of interest are welcome.
2. INDIGENOUS/SETTLER READINGS: STORY, RELATION, LAND. This unique session is co-convened between Islanders and Ideological Criticism. Part of a year-long collaboration, this session is an opportunity for settler scholars and allies to share and collaborate with Indigenous writers and scholars. Learning from Indigenous emphases and exploring indigenous ways of knowing, our focus is on scripture as Story, rooted in Land, and expressed in Relation. Together, we will explore Indigenous and settler-colonial receptions of scripture and facilitate the creation of new, collective readings. We invite participants and attendees to consider ideologies of identity, economy, ecology, and appropriation as we gather around this three-fold theme. Panelists will be invited; expressions of interest are welcome.
3. OPEN SESSION. We welcome proposals on any dimension related to critical philosophical approaches to biblical texts and the political implications of texts in their contexts, reception and influences.
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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: Note that all paper proposals for IBR and the Kirby Laing Centre Scripture Collective sessions must be submitted directly to the coordinator of the relevant session, not through the SBL system. See https://www.ibr-bbr.org/research-groups for details on each group.
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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 San Antonio, to be held in conjunction with SBL. We invite 20' papers on any aspect of LXX and cognate literature. One of the sessions will be devoted to the Greek Psalter and the Göttingen Septuagint (chair Felix Albrecht), another will seize the publication of the Oxford Handbook of the Septuagint as an opportunity to reflect on where the field of LXX studies is going (chair Alison Salvesen). Proposals for one of these sessions or on any other relevant topic are welcome and should be submitted through the SBL Annual Meetings website. All presenters and panelists must be members in good standing order of IOSCS. Please direct any queries to Reinhart Ceulemans at reinhart.ceulemans@kuleuven.be.
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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.
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International Syriac Language Project
Description: All papers are presented as contributions to the International Syriac Language Project (ISLP), the aim of which is to redefine ancient-language lexicography for the 21st century, and to lay the foundations for a new comprehensive Syriac-English lexicon. The group and its invited contributors is interdisciplinary and collaborative, and therefore includes specialists in related fields.
Call for papers: All papers are presented as contributions to the International Syriac Language Project (ISLP), the aim of which is to redefine ancient-language lexicography for the 21st century, and to lay the foundations for a new comprehensive Syriac-English lexicon. The group and its invited contributors is interdisciplinary and collaborative, and therefore includes specialists in related fields.
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Interrelations of the Gospels
Description: This section focuses on the production and reception of early Christian
Gospels, particularly the ways subsequent authors redacted and rewrote
previous Gospels in whole or in part. Perennial inquiries include the
Synoptic problem and John's relation to the Synoptics, but additional
texts-both extant and hypothetical-are also evaluated. The unit fosters an
open forum that does not privilege or exclude any methodologically
rigorous source-critical hypothesis.
Call for papers: In 2021 the unit will feature two invited sessions. One will debate Matthias Klinghardt's recent argument for the priority of Marcion’s Gospel. The other will debate the Matthean Posteriority hypothesis.
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Intertextuality and the Hebrew Bible
Description: The purpose of this unit is to provide a forum for presentation and discussion on the study of intertextuality in the Hebrew Bible. This unit explores various issues related to methodology as well as interpretation, considering not only the Hebrew Bible but also its connection to ancient Near Eastern literature, Second Temple texts, the New Testament, interreligious sources, art, and film.
Call for papers:
“African Biblical Hermeneutics,” “Intertextuality and the Hebrew Bible,” and “Israelite Prophetic Literature” sections jointly welcome papers (for three sessions) that examine the themes of exodus and liberation in the Hebrew Bible (and beyond). Papers may analyze explicit reference(s) to the exodus event, the motif of a second exodus, or liberation more broadly construed. We are particularly interested in papers that go beyond offering philological or historical-critical analysis of texts to consider their reception by or application to contemporary liberative movements, such as the ongoing #BlackLivesMatter campaign. This session will give attention to how these texts question power and authority and how they have been or might be used to address various forms of oppression, whether based on race/ethnicity, sex/gender, class, nationality, ableism, etc. Presenters are also encouraged to reflect on their own social or cultural contexts, considering how their social location affects the way these texts are read and understood.
There will also be one “open” session.
Proposals can be on any element of intertextuality and the Hebrew Bible. We do encourage papers that explore similar topics to our joint-sessions, but this is not required.
[Note: This session will include two papers postponed from 2020.]
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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: The Intertextuality in the New Testament (INT) Section invites proposals for papers during the 2021 annual meeting. Papers may focus on any aspect of intertextuality and New Testament interpretation, but should articulate the kind of intertextual work or method being employed. First-time presenters are encouraged to propose papers. They should submit their abstract through the SBL website and send the full paper by email to the section co-chairs. INT is also planning two invited plenary sessions. One will be co-sponsored with the John’s Apocalypse in Cultural Contexts Ancient and Modern section, focusing on the New Jerusalem in Revelation 21-22. The second will be a panel review of the section’s second volume of collected essays entitled: Practicing Intertextuality: Ancient Jewish and Greco-Roman Exegetical Techniques in the New Testament published by Cascade, 2021. The book review will feature invited authors and respondents, followed by a panel discussion.
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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.
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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: 1. (ISLANDER) NOMADISM AND IDENTITY.
Islanders' nomadism, various colonial histories, and dispersions arguably can generate ongoing demands on identity formation in new locations. For Islanders, relocation often involves movement from smaller to larger places, resulting in the transformation/re-formation of identity cohesion as cultural acclimation occurs. Here, too, is an ancestral reverberation of the nomadism of Israel's matriarchs and patriarchs, Jesus' Galilee, Paul's journeys, John’s exile and other moments in which peoples commingle in various imperial contexts. We invite papers that meaningfully engage with the idea of islander nomadism, given (a) the impact of our colonial histories and neo-colonial present and/or (b) our experiences as diasporic or displaced islanders. We also invite presentations that utilize multi-sensuous modalities that engage these incipient theorizings for their hermeneutical, translation, and/or exegetical possibilities. 2. INDIGENOUS/SETTLER READINGS: STORY, RELATION, LAND. This unique session is co-convened between Islanders and Ideological Criticism. Part of a year-long collaboration, this session is an opportunity for settler scholars and allies to share and collaborate with Indigenous writers and scholars. Learning from Indigenous emphases and exploring indigenous ways of knowing, our focus is on scripture as Story, rooted in Land, and expressed in Relation. Together, we will explore Indigenous and settler-colonial receptions of scripture and facilitate the creation of new, collective readings. We will explore and reinforce ongoing scholarly responsibilities to Indigenous peoples and places and consider the implications of this work for the field of biblical studies, broadly conceived. Story, Relation and Land are not a final goal, but are conceived as entry points into a deeper conversation around ideologies of identity, economy, ecology and appropriation. Some invited panelists; expressions of interest are welcome.
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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: The Israelite Prophetic Literature section will sponsor four sessions in 2021 and now accepts proposals:
(1) “African Biblical Hermeneutics,” “Intertextuality and the Hebrew Bible,” and “Israelite Prophetic Literature” sections jointly welcome papers that examine the themes of exodus and liberation in the Hebrew Bible (and beyond). Papers may analyze explicit reference(s) to the exodus event, the motif of a second exodus, or liberation more broadly construed. We are particularly interested in papers that go beyond offering philological or historical-critical analysis of texts to consider their reception by or application to contemporary liberative movements, such as the ongoing #BlackLivesMatter campaign. This session will give attention to how these texts question power and authority and how they have been or might be used to address various forms of oppression, whether based on race/ethnicity, sex/gender, class, nationality, ableism, etc. Presenters are also encouraged to reflect on their own social or cultural contexts, considering how their social location affects the way these texts are read and understood.
(2) We will again host joint-sessions with “Children in the Biblical World” section; the sessions will include some deferred papers from 2020, but additional proposals are also welcomed. The joint-sessions will focus on violence against women and/or children, particularly within the prophetic texts of the Hebrew Bible.
(3) We will also sponsor a session of invited papers. This session will be a roundtable discussion of in-progress commentaries on Hosea. The authors of the commentaries will briefly discuss their works-in-progress, as well as the task of commentary writing, and there will be extended time for panel and audience discussion.
(4) “OPEN” session (accepting proposals) with papers on a broad range of topics dealing with prophetic literature. Papers that fall within the scope of this year’s themes in our joint-sessions may also be presented here.
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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: 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; 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.
This year we have one open call for papers. In addition, we are pleased to announce a joint session with the Social Sciences and the Interpretation of the Hebrew Scriptures unit. We are soliciting papers on the topic of religion and the body in ancient Israel and Judah in their social and cultural context. We welcome papers that engage topics and theories of practices related to the body, dress, and the senses in the social sciences. We also solicit work on related areas, including power, gender, and ritual in the broader context of the study of religion in South West Asia.
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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: For 2021, we will have two open sessions and welcome papers on any aspect of this topic. We will also have one invited sessions (carried over from 2020), which will be co-sponsored with the Synoptic Gospels section for a strategic review of The Reception of Jesus in the First Three Centuries, ed. by Helen Bond, Chris Keith, Christine Jacobi, and Jens Schröter (Bloomsbury/T&T Clark, 2019).
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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: For the 2021 SBL Annual Meeting, the "Jewish-Christianity/Christian Judaism” section welcomes proposals on papers on any topic related to our theme, including but not limited to Jewish Christianity in and beyond the Church Fathers, "hybrid" identities, and explorations on conversion and apostasy.
Planned sessions include a review panel on Matt Jackson-McCabe’s Jewish Christianity (Yale UP 2020) and a panel on religious identity in the Didache, Didascalia Apostolorum, and Apostolic Constitutions.
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Jewish, Christian, and Graeco-Roman Travel in the Hellenistic, Roman, and Early Byzantine Periods (300 BCE–600 CE)
Description: This unit explores Jewish, Christian, and Graeco-Roman travel and movement between 300 BCE and 600 CE. Developing an interdisciplinary approach to the theme, this unit aims to integrate the study of Jewish and Christian travel with the study of the ancient Mediterranean more broadly.
Call for papers: This consultation explores Jewish, Christian, and Graeco-Roman travel and movement between 300 BCE and 600 CE. In its fourth and final year, we will organize two sessions.
(1) “The Material Culture of Pilgrimage in Roman Palestine (Apart from Jerusalem), 63 BCE to 640 CE.” In this open session, co-sponsored with the “Archaeology of Roman Palestine,” we focus on other forms of pilgrimage that flourished in the larger region of Palestine. These include travel to and worship at Samaritan, Greco-Roman, Idumean, and Nabatean shrines along the coastal plain, in Herodian urban centers, Decapolis cities, Samaria, Petra, and elsewhere during the 1st century BCE to 4th century CE, and a shift in the 4th century CE toward Christian pilgrimage to holy sites in Galilee, the Judean desert, Transjordan, and other locations associated with the life of Jesus. To this end, we invite proposals on papers dealing with any aspect of these two topics, including archaeological perspectives on specific sites, travel logistics, lodging, market exchange, and artifacts that may have facilities the experience of pilgrims in Jerusalem and around Palestine from the 1st century BCE to the early 7th century CE.
(2) “Travel in Antiquity.” This open session accepts papers dealing with any aspect of travel or movement, whether real or imagined, in the Hellenistic, Roman, and Early Byzantine periods. We particularly encourage the development of interdisciplinary approaches and the integration of Jewish and Christian travel into the broader study of the ancient Mediterranean.
Tags: Comparative Approaches (Interpretive Approaches), Religio-Historical Approaches (Interpretive Approaches), Roman Empire (History & Culture)
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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: The Johannine Literature Section welcomes papers for the 2021 SBL Annual Meeting. We will have four sessions. Two invited sessions with panelists and respondents: (1) Reading John within Judaism; (2) John’s Relationship with Mark, co-sponsored with the Mark Seminar. We invite paper proposals for the two remaining sessions: (3) an entirely open session; and (4) a themed session exploring violence and/or justice; seeking to engage with current social conversations. Papers may focus on the Gospel, the Letters of John, or a combination of the two. A wide variety of methodologies, interdisciplinary readings and interpretations are encouraged.
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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: We invite submissions for an open session on John's Apocalypse and Cultural Contexts, Ancient and Modern. While we welcome proposals on all aspects of the book of Revelation, we especially invite papers that offer new perspectives on the text, including papers that approach the text from specific hermeneutical contexts, employ innovative approaches to the Apocalypse, and/or offer new perspectives on enduring questions.
We also invite papers for an open session on “Revelation and Place.” The session welcomes papers that explore the ways in which John's Apocalypse is interpreted through the theme of place, both in the sense of geographical space and cultural/social location. We welcome papers that explore the significance of place within the narrative of Revelation, including the ways place can contribute to the formation of identity, be hybridized by migration and cultural exchange, and fuel political and/or ideological resistance. We are also interested in papers that consider how place shapes ancient and modern readers and/or hearers of John’s Apocalypse, and we invite papers that explore the topics of identity, borders, displacement, migration, exile, and climate as they relate to the book of Revelation.
We will also host a joint session of invited papers with the Intertextuality in the New Testament Section on Revelation 21-22's portrayal of the New Jerusalem.
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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 2021 annual meeting. One session will be devoted to papers related to the Brill Josephus project and is by invitation only. The second session is an open paper session. We are especially interested in proposals that bring Josephus into sustained comparison with another ancient author (e.g., Philo, Polybius, Luke) but will consider proposals on any Josephus-related topic.
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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: At the 2021 Annual Meeting, we will have three sessions. -- Two open sessions on Joshua and Judges. Papers dealing with any topic related to either book are welcome. -- And an invited session: The Book of Judges before the Judges (Judg 1:1-3:6): The first chapter of Judges tells stories of conquest and settlement outside the framework of most of the book, as the tribes here are not led by chieftains, and there is no one overarching narrative framework. Chapter 2 tells the story of the angel at Bochim (vv. 1-5), then the repeat of Joshua's death scene (vv. 6-10). Following this the text lays out "the Judges scheme" (vv. 11-23) and then lists the remaining peoples (3:1-6). Only at 3:7 do we arrive at a story of what can properly be called "a judge," that of Othniel (though even this is skipped over in the brief survey at the end of LXX Joshua 24, which jumps directly to Eglon). How are we to understand these opening units, their relationship to each other, to the rest of the book, and finally to the larger DtrH or Enneateuchal corpus?
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Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion
Description: The JFSR is the oldest interdisciplinary, interreligious feminist academic journal in religious studies. Founded in 1985, it is published twice annually, in the spring and fall. Located at the intersection of feminist theory and studies in religion, it welcomes contributions that explore a diversity of feminist theories, practices, cultures, and religions. Its editors are committed to rigorous thinking and analysis in the service of the transformation of religious studies as a discipline and the feminist transformation of religious and cultural institutions. Website: http://www.fsrinc.org/jfsr/
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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: In 2021 - KBC (SBL) is honored to host MIN JIN LEE, the author of PACHINKO. We will "intersect" this powerful four generation story of a Korean family in Japan (20th century) with biblical narratives that are framed in generational consciousness with themes of "exile," "home," "hope," "resilience," and "compassion." We will have a 45 minute Q & A with the author, Min Jin Lee. https://www.minjinlee.com/book/pachinko/
Here is what a reader said about Min Jin Lee's work:
"This is a captivating book I read at the suggestion of a young staffer on my team — a historical novel about the Korean immigrant experience in wartime Japan. Min Jin Lee’s novel takes us through four generations and each character’s search for identity and success. It’s a powerful story about resilience and compassion.”
– President Barack Obama
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La Comunidad of Hispanic Scholars of Religion
Description: Our organization was founded in 1989 at the American Academy of Religion/Society of Biblical
Literature to advance the interests and scholarship of Latinas and Latinos in biblical, theological,
and religious studies. Although originally created to bring together Latino/a Catholic and Protestant scholars, today we are interdenominational and interreligious in nature and welcome scholars from across all disciplines who share our vision and mission, and who are interested in scholarly work on
Latino/a religions. We regularly sponsor panels, host annual events, engage in advocacy for Latino/a scholars, and seek to provide networking and mentoring opportunities. For more on our mission and
goals, please review our "Mission" and "Objectives" pages.
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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: We will hold two sessions and co-sponsor two others: (1) For one session, held jointly with Feminist Hermeneutics of the Bible, we invite papers that represent new directions in Latina/x/o studies of gender and the Bible. A few panelists will be invited, but we particularly welcome papers from previously underrepresented perspectives in Latina biblical studies, such as AfroLatina/x, AsianLatina/o/x, and/or LGBTQI+ perspectives.
(2) A second session, scheduled originally for the 2020 meeting, places Latinx and Latin American biblical studies in conversation with Latin American and Latinx studies. Proposals were accepted last year and so we are not accepting additional proposals.
(3) We are happy to co-sponsor Minoritized Criticism's session on the "Anointing Women" and the "Etceteras" of the Gospel for the SBL 2021 Annual Meeting. For this invited panel, we ask scholars to imagine interpretations of: the woman who anointed Jesus (Mark 14:3-9); the women who followed Jesus from a distance (Mark 15:40-41; 47); and/or the women who came to anoint Jesus in the tomb (Mark 16:1-8) from the perspective of Latinx, decolonial, women of color feminist, activist experiences. Following Gale Yee's 2019 SBL Presidential Address "Thinking Intersectionally: Gender, Race, Class, and the Etceteras of our Discipline," we look to be in conversation with intersectional readings of these texts or of others that foreground "the etceteras" of the gospel in context with women of color feminist and queer activism (e.g. Black Lives Matter). (4) We are also co-sponsoring "Talking with the President" - This session is hosted by Asian and Asian American Hermeneutics. An invited set of panelists will respond to the 2020 Presidential address by Adele Reinhartz.
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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: The Latter-day Saints and the Bible section invites presentation proposals for two sessions. One session will once again focus on social justice narratives, themes and motifs in the Bible. A particularly timely example of engagement for this session might be the intersection of female characters or imagery and social justice. The other session will be an open forum in which presenters may engage any aspect of the Bible or its reception within the wider LDS tradition. Although we will be hearing four papers that were accepted last year but not presented, we are committed to accepting new papers of the appropriate quality thru scheduling options and other alternatives.
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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: This unit provides a forum for sharing original research regarding all aspects of and approaches to the interpretation of the Catholic Epistles (specifically James, 1–2 Peter, and Jude) as a collection or individual letters. For the 2021 annual meeting we encourage papers focusing on these letters which take up a variety of critical methodologies and especially welcome proposals considering the history of reception of these letters
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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: For the 2021 meeting, LGBTI/Queer Hermeneutics invites abstract submissions for one open session, and we encourage all scholars who are working in any aspect of LGBTI/Queer hermeneutics to present their research in our section.
In addition to this open session, LGBTI/Queer Hermeneutics has planned three already-selected sessions, which had to postponed from the 2020 Meeting. We are looking forward to our panel on Queer Pedagogy ("There's a Queer Way to Teach That!"), during which panelists will model and engage the audience in conversation/demonstration about teaching queer texts and contexts. We are also excited for two special sessions on the impact of Hortense Spillers’ work for the fields of biblical, theological, and religious studies, which we are co-sponsoring with the SBL program units Paul and Politics and Pedagogy, Racism, and Biblical Studies; and the AAR program units Queer Studies in Religion; and Theology and Religious Reflection.
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Linguistic, Literary, and Thematic Perspectives on the Qur’anic Corpus (IQSA)
Description: This unit provides a forum for the study of the Qur’an from a literary standpoint. We welcome papers that examine the structure of passages or entire surahs; analyze the plot, characterization, themes, and voice in Qur’anic narrative; study the interplay between sound and meaning; explore literary motifs specific to each type of Qur’anic discourse; compare and contrast recurrent narratives and other repeated elements or passages; and investigate the Qur’an’s use of literary devices such as imagery, metaphor, foreshadowing, flashback, irony, chiasmus, caesura, alliteration, assonance, and so forth.
Call for papers: The Linguistic, Literary, and Thematic Perspectives on the Qur’anic Corpus unit invites proposals for papers that engage with the techniques utilized in the Qur’an for crafting imagery, characters, and narratives. Proposals may attend to artistic and literary strategies as well as to the broader social, religious, and political ends towards which these strategies are deployed
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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 program unit solicits papers for four sessions:
The FIRST SESSION is non-thematic / open. We invite papers that address the study of Biblical Hebrew using a well-articulated linguistic theory and/or apply linguistics to particular Biblical Hebrew constructions or corpuses.
The SECOND SESSION is a thematic session entitled “Argument Alignment in Biblical Hebrew.” Biblical Hebrew is commonly viewed as a ‘nominative–accusative’ language, but various constructions have been characterized as having ‘non-canonical’ subjects. The verbal stem (binyan) system also contributes to syntactic diversity. We invite papers on these and related topics in ancient Hebrew, including, but not limited to, differential argument marking, argument alteration, omission, types of subject, complementation.
The THIRD SESSION, co-sponsored with the Masoretic Studies section, is entitled “Developments in Ancient Hebrew Traditions: Between Natural and Deliberate Change.” The various traditions of ancient Hebrew show evidence of historical development. Many innovations likely reflect spontaneous development representative of natural language use. Others bear the hallmarks of considered and intentional interventions. We invite contributions focused on linguistic development in the Masoretic transmission of Biblical Hebrew and in Samaritan tradition from the perspective of the continuum of natural versus deliberate change, treating features on various levels of the language, e.g., phonology and vocalization, morphology, syntax, semantics, and prosody (accentual systems).
The FOURTH SESSION is a joint open session with NAPH, entitled “Linguistics and Biblical Hebrew.” 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 constructions or corpuses are especially encouraged.
Contact: Tania Notarius tnotarius@gmail.com; Aaron Hornkohl adh44@cam.ac.uk
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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 invites proposals for an open session focusing on any aspect of the history, literature, and religion of "Israel" in the Achaemenid Period, especially those utilizing interdisciplinary approaches.
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Lived Religiousness in Antiquity
Description: This unit focuses on the lived experiences of individuals in antiquity who participated in activities
or social networks they might have perceived as being “Jewish,” “Christian,” or an analogous
affiliation. We discuss textual and archaeological evidence and explore embodied and cognitive
experiences. Our goal is to develop best practices for scholarly writing about these phenomena,
breaking with traditional scholarly categories and capturing the complexity of human experience
in the early centuries, in which “religiousness” was only one of many factors shaping everyday
life, and the boundaries between “Christianness,” “Jewishness,” “Romanness,” etc. were not
always clear or meaningful.
Call for papers: At the 2021 meeting, we plan to have three sessions. Two of these have been carried over from 2020, one of which will address the question: Does it make sense to distinguish between “Christian” and “pagan”? This session seeks to problematize the distinction regularly drawn in scholarship between “Christian” and “pagan” (or: “gentile,” “Roman”) persons, texts, practices, images, etc. Questions for reflection include: (a) How do scholars decide if a text is “Christian” or not? Is a shopping list or business letter written by a baptized person a “Christian” document? If a person who rejects traditional claims about Jesus writes a story about him, is that a “Christian” text? (b) How does one decide if a practice is “Christian”? If a baptized person is a vegetarian, does that make his or her avoidance of meat a “Christian” practice? If someone participates in a ritual in honor of Jesus only once a year, is that person a “Christian”? Is the practice “Christian”? (c) Does it make sense to discuss criteria that would define which ancient persons, texts, practices, images, etc., should be considered “Christian” for scholarly purposes? If not, what are some alternative approaches for determining which practices, texts, etc., are “worthy of scholarly attention” for those whose work ostensibly concerns “early Christianity”? We welcome additional proposals on this topic, as well as for an open session on “Lived Religiousness.” Papers should be well-developed and theoretically sophisticated.
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Mark Passion Narrative
Description: The Mark Passion Narrative Seminar approaches Mark 14-16 from a variety of methodological
approaches in dialogue. The goal is twofold – to gain new insights into the Mark PN within the
context of the entire Gospel of Mark and to illustrate how methods in dialogue can produce
meaningful understandings of texts.
Call for papers: The Mark Passion Narrative Seminar invites its members to propose papers for the national SBL meetings in San Antonio in November 2021 on Mark 15:1–20, covering the trial before Pilate and Jesus delivered over to be crucified. Membership in the Seminar is required to make a proposal. To request membership write to co-chair Tom Shepherd at trs@andrews.edu. Papers may approach the text from any methodology or combination of methodologies. Two papers delayed from 2020 on Mark 14 will be included in the Seminar’s two sessions. All seminar members are encouraged to make a proposal since some papers not presented at the national meetings will be included in the Seminar’s planned anthology for publication.
Submit your proposal to Co-chair, Tom Shepherd at trs@andrews.edu by February 28, 2021.
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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 Masoretic Studies section is planning to have four sessions at the 2021 Annual Meeting. The first three sessions will be open. Papers can address any topic pertaining to Masoretic studies, such as Masoretic notes, Hebrew manuscripts, biblical accents, etc. The presentation of the work of doctoral candidates and early career researchers are especially welcome.
The fourth session co-sponsored with the Linguistics and Biblical Hebrew section is open and has the theme “Developments in Ancient Hebrew Traditions: Between Natural and Deliberate Change.” The various traditions of ancient Hebrew show evidence of historical development. Many innovations likely reflect spontaneous development representative of natural language use. Others bear the hallmarks of considered and intentional interventions. We invite contributions focused on linguistic development in the Masoretic transmission of Biblical Hebrew and in Samaritan tradition from the perspective of the continuum of natural versus deliberate change, treating features on various levels of the language, e.g., phonology and vocalization, morphology, syntax, semantics, and prosody (accentual systems).
The Masoretic Studies section invites submissions for all four of these sessions.
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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 2021 Annual Meeting. We will hold three sessions at this meeting. Two are carried over from 2020. The first is an invited session, a panel discussion of Matthew within Judaism (Runesson and Gurtner) and Matthew within Sectarian Judaism (Kampen). The second is an open session, 'Topics in Matthew.' We invite proposals for the third - open - session. This session will focus on the theme 'Jesus and Power in Matthew: Dynamics in Text and Reception.' Contributions are invited on any topic related to this theme. These may include Jesus’ authority in Matthew and/or Matthean reception; power structures in the Matthean community; empire and worldly rule; Jesus, women and power; Jesus, poverty and power; Jesus, ethnicity and power, etc. Submissions will be evaluated on the originality and clarity of the thesis proposed, control of current and classic scholarship (author: year), quality and clarity of supporting evidence, and the overall contribution that it makes to the field of scholarship and to the vision of SBL Matthew to present the best in Matthean scholarship. (Note: ideally, abstracts should be less than 300 words).
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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: The MGRW seminar has planned two sessions for 2021: a) an open session, the first we’ve done in a very long time. We encourage those interested to consult our website https://mgrw.hypotheses.org/ in order to gain a sense of what topics have and have not been pursued by this seminar and how. We are very much looking forward to your proposals. b) The second session is by invitation only and features interaction between churches in the Republic of Korea practicing worship meals based on their understanding and research of early Christ people meals of the first and second centuries, and SBL scholars. This group of churches, led by the Yega Presbyterian Church in Seoul, translated and published in Korea the book, In the Beginning Was the Meal: Social Experimentation and Early Christian Identity (Hal Taussig, Fortress, 2009). The 20-year-academic trajectory of the early Christ people meals and of the SBL Seminar on Meals in the Greco-Roman world will be the subject of the first paper. The second paper will be a cross-cultural study by a group from the Korean churches and American scholars examining Christian vocabularies about worship-related meals: eucharist, communion, Lord’s supper, agape, and symposium. Third will be a description and visual presentation of “The Revolution of 21st Century Korean Church Worship Meals”. Finally, Korean Church representatives will describe their experience of the relationship between their 21st century church meals in relationship to the meals of Christ people in the first and second century.
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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: The Meals in the HB/OT and Its World will host three sessions in 2021. The first session is an open call for papers on the theme: ‘Isolation and Gathering in the Context of Meals in the HB/OT, Its World, and Ours.’ In light of our experience of a global pandemic where isolation has become the norm and many long for the day when they can again gather together with others around the table, this session welcomes proposals that explore the themes of isolation/gathering at meals, topics as relevant to life in the ancient world as they are to our own time. The Meals in the HB/OT and Its World unit will also hold two back-to-back sessions in 2021 that reflect on the state of research of food studies and the Hebrew Bible. In particular, the first session will include invited papers that highlight research from the forthcoming edited volume The T & T Clark Handbook of Food in the Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel. The second session will consist of invited papers that will reflect on future research on foodways in the Hebrew Bible and its world.
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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: For the 2021 Annual Meeting, the Metacriticism of Biblical Scholarship unit will convene 3 sessions. The first is a session for which we solicit proposals on the topic of the political use of the Bible in the 21st century. Recent events have seen the resurgence of performative religiosity in connection with reactionary politics. The shifting alignment of state power and particular religious communities has seen the Bible emerge as a potent symbol. How does it function in political spaces? Does its substantive content influence that function? Or is the Bible's value in such contexts merely iconic? What opportunities are there to disrupt or complicate its adjacency to structured power? Finally, how does the political invocation of the Bible and biblical language more generally influence recent debates on secularism?
We will also convene an invited panel to discuss Richard Newton's book Identifying Roots: Alex Haley and the Anthropology of Scriptures (Equinox 2020). This panel focuses on Newton’s critical reexamination of the category “scriptures." How might we envision alternatives to presuming the intrinsic importance of familiar, historical canons? How does an expansive conception of scriptures challenge our understanding of the relationship between culture and text?
Finally, we invite paper proposals for an open session on the topic of "the present and future of the academic study of the Bible." Participants are encouraged to propose essays that engage critically with the discipline's current heuristic frames and critical horizons while drawing attention to areas presently underrepresented in scholarship. In particular, we are interested in presentations that focus on the intersection of power and knowledge production, or that engage critically with the hegemonic construction of the Bible within contemporary culture. Presentations that synthesize critical textual engagement with metacritical reflection are especially welcome.
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Metaphor Theory and the Hebrew Bible
Description: This section aims to advance the understanding of how metaphor operates in the Hebrew Bible, with a focus on how applied metaphor theory can enhance our work as Bible scholars; it also aims to deepen our knowledge of the diverse metaphorical language used in the Hebrew Bible.
Call for papers: The Metaphor Theory and the Hebrew Bible section will host two sessions in San Antonio. The first session will be a Graduate Student Workshop designed specifically for graduate students (PhD, DPhil, or ThM) working on metaphors in their dissertation or thesis research. The session is open to students working on any aspect of metaphors in the Hebrew Bible, ancient Near Eastern literature, or the New Testament. Students will have the chance to present a portion of their research, such a completed chapter or an aspect of their overall project, and then receive extensive feedback from a faculty colleague versed in the field of metaphor research. For the second session, we are seeking papers that explore approaches to research on metaphors that go beyond those commonly associated with Conceptual Metaphor Theory, including Blending Theory. Papers may draw on and/or modify past approaches (e.g., from Max Black, Paul Ricoeur, etc.) or they may point in the direction of new theories or methods. Papers should demonstrate the potential utility of these approaches for biblical research and/or the study of metaphors in ancient Near Eastern literature.
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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 invites paper proposals for two sessions it will sponsor at the 2021 Annual Meeting of the SBL: 1) A session devoted to the theme "Midrash and Music" which encourages broadly defined approaches to the subject; 2) An open session devoted to any aspect of the study of Midrash and related literature.
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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: (1) As a response to state modes of human care, our program unit offers a panel session titled “Minoritized Hermeneutics of Human Care.” This session will host an invited panel to reflect critically on minoritized hermeneutics of human care and healing. Panelists will be encouraged to engage this topic from a range of nodal points that include: racializing scientific medical care versus ancestral/indigenous care traditions, immigration detention versus sanctuary churches, Western Protestant rationalism versus Global South healing (e.g., Pentecostalism), and eugenics/ethnic cleansing versus multiethnic activist resistance.
(2) The topic of the second session is “Radical Women-of-Color-Centered Biblical Criticism.” The political term “women of color” has a solidarity definition and historically describes a commitment to work in collaboration with other oppressed women of color who have been “minoritized.” Hence, this open session invites papers from women-of-color biblical scholars to discuss the history, benefits, and challenges of building a radical women-of-color coalitional movement within the field of biblical studies. Panelists will be encouraged to engage the contributions of radical feminists-of-color like Audre Lorde, Angela Davis, Cherríe Moraga, Gloria E. Anzaldua, Chela Sandoval, Nikol Alexander-Floyd, Grace Lee Boggs, and Yuri Kochiyama, to name a few.
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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: For the 2022 annual meeting, we are inviting PANELS as well as PAPER PROPOSALS on any aspect of mysticism, esotericism, or gnosticism in Mediterranean antiquity. Paper proposals should be uploaded to the SBL website. IF YOU WANT TO PROPOSE A PANEL, contact April DeConick directly, adeconick@rice.edu.
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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 planning to hold four sessions at the 2021 Annual Meeting in San Antonio. There is an open call for the first session for papers on any topic related to the study of Nag Hammadi and/or Gnostic traditions. For the second session, we encourage proposals addressing the topic of Jesus, gospels, and the Nag Hammadi collection. In this session, invited panelists will also review volume 2 of The Reception of Jesus in the First Three Centuries, edited by Chris Keith, Helen Bond, Christine Jacobi, and Jens Schröter. Additionally, we are planning to hold two joint sessions: one with The Bible, Myth, and Myth Theory section, which welcomes proposals that study extant Gnostic and related literature using methodologies conventionally employed in the study of ancient myth, including comparative and theoretical approaches; and the other with the AAR Platonism and Neoplatonism group which will include only invited speakers. For all sessions that seek proposals, advanced graduate students and scholars of traditionally under-represented groups are especially encouraged to submit abstracts for consideration.
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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: 2021 Annual Meeting
Call For Papers: NAPH is sponsoring four sessions and two co-sponsored sessions. I. Annual Meeting of Officers and Members. II. Book event, Zev Garber and Kenneth Hanson, eds., Annotated Passover Haggadah (Global Center for Religious Research/GCRR Press, 2021). Halakhic and Theological issues related to the Haggadah reading on Seder night, e.g., absence of Moses, voice of Miriam, Elijah’s chair then and n fromow are featured. III. Theme: Dating Parts of the Hebrew Bible: Of Scribes and Spelling. This section, continuing themes of 2019 meeting, invites research on topics such as orthography, linguistic change and variation, phenomenah related to languages in contact, Qeri-Ketiv, and textual transmission. Questions contact Ziony Zevit at zzevit@aju.edu. IV. NAPH and SBL Theology of the Hebrew Scriptures Section are accepting papers for the characterization of YHWH and Moses in ethical conflicts (crises) in the Pentateuch. In this session, we ask how biblical texts assess/depict/deconstruct the ethics of the actions of deity/deities. Contact Soo J. Kim (sjkim@aeu.edu). V. Theme: What is Working (and What is Not) in Online Biblical Hebrew Instruction.
The 2021 pedagogy session of NAPH considers reports from the field by Biblical Hebrew instructors who interact with learners in electronically mediated environments. Such modalities include fully online courses as well as combinations of some face-to-face classroom time together with online instruction. Contact: Robert Stallman (bob.stallman@northwesu.edu). VI. Papers are invited for a joint open session with the Linguistics and Biblical Hebrew Seminar of SBL entitled Linguistics and Biblical Hebrew. 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 constructions or corpuses are especially encouraged. Contact: Tania Notarius (tnotarius@gmail.com)
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Nature Imagery and Conceptions of Nature in the Bible
Description: The section focuses on the plethora of nature references in the Bible,
discussed multi-disciplinarily by scholars of Bible, archaeology,
iconography, life & natural sciences, and more. Our goals are to enable
better exegesis of biblical nature imagery and to address biblical
conceptions of nature.
Call for papers: For San Antonio, we are planning four sessions. (1) One invited thematic session in collaboration with the Biblical Hebrew Poetry Group devoted to “Tree Images (in the wild and in agriculture): Themes and Functions”. This session will follow up a session from 2020 by showcasing research on the figurative use of parts of the tree: roots, branches, fruit, trunk/height, stumps, etc., or of specific trees or flora formations, and the diverse themes and functions they carry. This will involve co-operations with botanists and archaeobotanists according to the proposed topics. (2) For a related open thematic Session we encourage presenters to propose papers focused on tree and flora images. (3) Our methodological study session is an invited session in collaboration with Ancient Near Eastern Iconography and the Bible Section in which we will continue the focus on “Conceptions of Nature in Literature and Iconography: Methodological Considerations”. (4) Finally, there will be an open session for papers on any topic relevant to this group’s focus on nature imagery in the Bible.
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New Testament Textual Criticism
Description: The New Testament Textual Criticism Section seeks to foster the study and criticism of the text of the New Testament—including examination of manuscripts and other sources, evaluation of their textual variation, restorations of texts, and the investigation of the history of its transmission—in its cultural and historical contexts. SBL has had a group dedicated to this topic as far back as 1946.
Call for papers: The New Testament Textual Criticism section invites proposals for its two open sessions on any aspect relating to the study and criticism of the text of the New Testament. We also invite short introductory presentations providing updates for on-going or recently completed collaborative, multi-scholar projects of interest to our field. In addition, we will be hosting a joint session with the Mark Group on the scholarly legacy of Larry W. Hurtado (1943-2019), as well as an invited session on New Philology and its significance for New Testament textual criticism.
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Nida Institute
Description: For information please contact: Kent Richards at kent.richards@strategypoints.org.
Call for papers: For information please contact: Kent Richards at kent.richards@strategypoints.org.
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Novum Testamentum Graecum: Editio Critica Maior
Description: The unit presents the on-going work on the Editio Critica Maior (ECM), a comprehensive text-critical edition of the Greek New Testament that exhibits the history of the Greek text through its first millennium as documented in manuscripts from the second century until the invention of letterpress printing. It provides scholars engaged in the tasks of exegesis and textual criticism with all the relevant materials found in Greek manuscripts, patristic citations, and early translations. The selection of Greek manuscripts rests on an evaluation of all known primary witnesses, and each of the manuscripts selected is cited completely with all its variants. This opens the way for a new understanding of the history of the text, the more so because all relevant evidence is stored on databases. The primary line of the ECM presents a text based on a careful application of internal and external criteria, streamlined by the Coherence-Based Genealogical Method.
Call for papers: The 2021 session will contain a mix of invited papers reporting on progress on the edition and open submissions of papers related to the ECM.
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Numismatic Evidence and Biblical Interpretation
Description: This Program Unit explores how ancient coinage illumines the
interpretation of early Christianity and biblical literature. It will appeal to
scholars interested in epigraphic, iconographic, and historical questions, as
well as those who specialize in the social history of early Christianity.
Call for papers: The theme for 2021 in Numismatics and Biblical Interpretation is numismatic iconography and biblical interpretation. We welcome paper submissions for all sessions from SBL members.
The first session (open call) offers a review and critical exploration of resources in numismatic iconography for biblical studies across all relevant fields. Papers will address the cal navigation of major international collections and databases including Archaic and Classical Greek Coinage; Persian, Royal Hellenistic, Ptolemaic and Seleucid Coinage; Roman Republican Coinage; Roman Imperial Coinage; Roman Provincial Coinage; and non-Classical Ancient Coinage inculusive of Celtic, Baktrian, Parthian, Sasanian, Sabaean, Himyarite, Aksumite, and Kushan.
The second session (open call) is devoted to addressing any key issues in iconographic methodology, including potential difficulties in identifying iconographic ambiguity or the parameters of a “type” of coin and the threshold of differentiation that can be plausibly applied for distinction.
The third session (open call) will offer a range of papers exploring a range of numismatic iconographic themes which directly or indirectly illuminate the interpretation of the bible such as portraiture, hairstyles, physicality, architecture, Temple Structures, military themes or other relevant thematic elements.
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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.
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Paul and Politics
Description: The purposes of the Paul and Politics Group are to bring together several currently separate but often overlapping lines of investigation and interpretation of the apostle Paul, his mission, his letters, and his longer-range impact. Those lines of investigation include "Paul and the politics of the churches," "Paul and the politics of Israel," "Paul and the politics of the Roman Empire" and "Paul and politics of Interpretation."
Call for papers: The Paul and Politics Section proposes four sessions at the 2021 Annual Meeting in San Antonio, Texas. We have four sessions with three sessions open for paper proposals. TThe FIRST SESSION explores the unbearable whiteness of Pauline scholarship. Specifically, the panel will examine how Paul, his writings, and/or histories of interpretation interact with and construct white supremacy (see recent essays on "Whiteness and Biblical Studies" on the Political Theology Network). Papers that attend to white supremacy through multiple lenses including gender analysis, economic inequalities, decolonization strategies, sexuality studies, affect theory, and political systems analysis are especially encouraged. The SECOND SESSION, co-sponsored with African American Biblical Interpretation, will present a session on “Pauline Literature and African American Reception.” We seek papers that address varying Pauline texts and the reception of these texts in diverse African American communities with special interest in both centering and decentering Paul as a figure in African American communities. The steering committee especially encourages conversation with Lisa Bowens’s book, African American Interpretations of Paul (Eerdmans, 2020). The THIRD SESSION, a holdover from 2020, in collaboration with several SBL and AAR program units, welcomes papers on any aspect of Hortense Spillers’ work and its relationships to Paul and politics. Proposals, for instance, can focus on how Spillers’ work on slavery and its many lingering racialized, sexualized, and gendered legacies intersect with conversations around Paul and politics found in Pauline communities. The FOURTH SESSION will be an open call inviting proposals for papers on any element of research related to the relationship(s) between "Paul" and "politics" (in the broadest sense of both of these terms)
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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: This year we will have one invited and one open session, both addressing the question 'What does Paul within Judaism actually mean?' For the open session we invite papers which explore criteria and implications for considering texts and people as being 'within Judaism'.
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Pauline Epistles
Description: The Pauline Epistles section aims to stimulate critical analysis of the letters of Paul by offering a platform for new research. The section maintains a historical orientation and typically focuses on situating the undisputed Pauline letters in their immediate social, political, religious, and intellectual contexts.
Call for papers: For the 2021 Annual Meeting, the Pauline Epistles Section is planning two open-call sessions, for which we invite paper proposals on any topic that falls under the broad remit of our Section description. In addition to these, we are planning (1) a book panel on Laura Nasrallah's Archaeology and the Letters of Paul and (2) a joint session with Pauline Theology on the problem of doing history and doing theology in the study of Paul.
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Pauline Theology
Description: The unit has been set up in order to explore central issues in Pauline theology. No single understanding of "Pauline theology," or of how it is to be delimited from other aspects of Pauline discourse, is assumed at the outset. A complementary goal is the introduction of Pauline textual and theological insights into conversations with other fields, for example, with brain research, ecology, and race.
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Pentateuch
Description: The Pentateuch Section provides a forum within the SBL for presentation and discussion of research on the Pentateuch, with a particular focus on transmission-historical issues and linkage of that area of inquiry with other more synchronic methodologies.
Call for papers: The Pentateuch Section provides a forum within the SBL for presentation and discussion of research on the Pentateuch, with a particular focus on transmission-historical issues and linkage of that area of inquiry with other more synchronic methodologies. For the 2021 San Antonio meeting we will have a particular focus on Theocracy with a co-sponsored session with the Literature and History of the Persian Period group. Paper proposals in all areas of Pentateuchal research are welcome, but proposals that address the subject of Theocracy in the Pentateuch are especially encouraged.
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Performance Criticism of the Bible and Other Ancient Texts
Description: This interdisciplinary unit is intended to foster discussion about how the creation and interpretation of biblical and other ancient texts has been shaped by their oral transmission and aural reception by ancient communities, using the methods associated with performance criticism.
Call for papers: The Performance Criticism of the Bible and Other Ancient Texts section will hold two sessions at the 2021 meeting. The FIRST SESSION is an OPEN session, seeking submissions on performance criticism of the Bible and other ancient texts with a particular focus on: “anger, grief, and a call to transformation.” The SECOND SESSION explores the function of performance in the interpretation of ancient texts. This is a joint session with the Bible in Ancient (and Modern) Media with INVITED papers from two members of the respective sections. The presenters will address the issue from counter positions—Ray Person will approach the topic from the perspective of the text: “Scribal Performance and Scribal Memory: A New Approach to Text-Critical ‘Variants’” and Cliff Barbarick will approach the topic via a performance of Paul’s letter to the Philippians. This session is designed to provoke conversation about the formative influence of performance on the creation of texts, the performance of such texts in ancient and modern contexts, and the representation of oral performance in written texts. The session will provide ample time for discussion of each scholar’s work and on the impact of those conclusions upon the discipline of Biblical Performance Criticism.
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Philo of Alexandria
Description: Philo’s works are invaluable sources about not only his own thought and exegesis but also such related fields as Judaica, philosophy, history, Classics, New Testament, and early Christianity. This Seminar focuses on these topics and on commentaries-in-preparation on Philonic treatises.
Call for papers: For 2021, the Philo Seminar is planning three sessions. One is an open call on "Daily Life in Ancient Alexandria." All aspects of daily living in Alexandria will be considered, from the writings of Philo or other near-contemporary Alexandrians, or from archaeology, papyrology, and/or related fields.
The second session is an open call on "Divine Providence in Philo of Alexandria." Papers will be considered that explore aspects of divine providence in Greco-Roman philosophy, Hellenistic Judaism, and Early Christianity, with preference given to papers that discuss Philo's conception directly.
The third will be a joint session with the Deuterocanonical and Cognate Literature section covering "The Experience of the Other: Inclusion, Exclusion, and Judeophobia." This joint session will be an open call as well.
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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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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.
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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: This year the Poverty in the Biblical World Section will host one session. SESSION 1: Walls and borders in biblical texts function both materially and symbolically, having the potential to be in varying degrees life-affirming and/or death-dealing. Walls and borders might promise peace (e.g., Psalm 122, 147), yet conquering nations break down the wall surrounding Jerusalem (e.g., Nehemiah 1). Some texts declare God created nations and borders (e.g., Deuteronomy 32:8, Acts 17:26), but others dictate God wants people to care for those who are arrive from outside these walls and borders. Jesus, Mary and Joseph cross the border between Judea and Egypt fleeing the persecution of Herod (Matthew 2), while Revelation describes how a wall will again surround the New Jerusalem (e.g. Revelation 21). In short, the biblical texts attest to the many ways that walls and border can be places of particular vulnerability for the poor and marginalized. With a special focus on how walls and borders impact impoverished peoples, both ancient and/or contemporary, papers in this session will explore how to better understand these disparate texts, either in their ancient contexts or as they have been applied throughout their reception histories. Topics might address wall building or destruction, border establishment or crossing, with special attention on their implications for the poor and marginalized.
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Prayer in Antiquity
Description: The Prayer in Antiquity Section examines prayer in Israelite, Jewish, Christian and pagan contexts. Moving beyond historical- and form-critical methodologies, and approaches that reduce prayer simply to text, presentations will examine prayer within its cultural context and give priority to understanding prayer as embodied practice.
Call for papers: The Prayer in Antiquity program unit will host three sessions at the 2021 annual meeting. We invite proposals for our first session which will be a joint session with the Religious Experience in Antiquity unit on the topic of “Embodiment, Spatiality, and Ancient Prayers”. Our second session will be an invited review of Andrew Mellas, Liturgy and Emotions in Byzantium: Compunction and Hymnody (Cambridge University Press, 2020). Our third session will be a totally open session. We ask that all proposals clearly identify the data that will be discussed, relevant texts, and methodological approach.
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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: In 2021 and 2022, Prophetic Texts in their Ancient Contexts is hosting
a section with the Assyriology and the Bible Program Unit on “Hope”:
hope as an emotion, as world view, cultic or political action, or
documentary/textual or visual expression. We welcome proposals from a
variety of perspectives and materials (prophetic literature, mantic
literature more broadly, material culture, iconography, ritual
phenomenology). Proposals should concern the intersection of biblical
texts/world and ancient Mesopotamia. Other and later ancient contexts
will also be considered. Proposals should be submitted to the
Assyriology and the Bible Program Unit.
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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 focuses on three distinct areas for the 2021 Annual Meeting of the SBL. On the occasion of the recent critical edition and German translation of short chronographic Paleia (S. Fahl, D. Fahl, Die Kurze Chronographische Paleja [Gütersloh, 2019]), we solicit proposals which examine the impact of these Slavonic literary traditions on the study of the Pseudepigrapha. For a second thematic session, we welcome proposals that concern the Christian ownership and transmission of Jewish texts. For a third planned session, the Pseudepigrapha Section will feature a conversation with invited panelists on issues that emerge from Liv Ingeborg Lied, Invisible Manuscripts: Textual Scholarship and the Survival of 2 Baruch (Mohr Siebeck, 2021). Proposals that concern other issues related to the study of the Pseudepigrapha are also welcome for an open session.
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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: Our current long-term theme is Facing Life's Crises: Reading Biblical Texts from a Psychological Perspective, and this year's concluding focus is on issues around Ageing, Death, and Mourning as depicted in the Bible. As always, we require that a named psychologist or psychological theory or approach be included in the paper and the abstract and request that reference to the biblical languages be included where relevant.
Anyone on our emailing list (Friends of PsyBibs) will be circulated with the accepted papers in advance of the Meeting, where they will be briefly summarised and then discussed in earnest by all present. Anyone else wishing to receive the papers should email the Chair in order to join the emailing list, mckayh@edgehill.ac.uk.
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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: The Q Section is pleased to offer three sessions for the 2021 meeting:
1. Q and the Historical Jesus/John: Did you think there was nothing left to say about Q and the historical Jesus or the historical John the Baptist? Wrong! There has admittedly been a great deal written on this topic, but we suspect a new generation of scholars has been thinking differently about it. In this session, we thus invite proposals (the more theoretical, the better!) that think carefully about the procedures and assumptions involved in using a text like Q to reconstruct the historical figures of Jesus and John. Some papers will be invited, but the section also welcomes unsolicited proposals for this panel.
2. Q and Materiality: The Q section invites papers examining the material features of the production and circulation of Q with particular attention given to their socio-cultural implications and using parallels drawn from early Jewish and Greco-Roman archives. Some papers will be invited, but the section also welcomes proposals for this panel.
3. Open Session: As always, we will reserve a third session as an open session, for which we warmly invite proposals on any aspect of research on Q.
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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 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. In 2021 the Section will co-host two invited sessions. The first will be a joint session of the Qumran and Formation of Isaiah program units, in which invited presenters will look at various ways in which the Qumran Isaiah manuscripts contribute to our knowledge of the formation and transmission of that book, and of transmission and editing processes more generally. The second will be a joint session of the Qumran and Historical Jesus program units, in which invited presenters will explore ways in which study of the Dead Sea Scrolls and of the historical Jesus can be mutually illuminating. In addition, we welcome proposals for two open-call sessions. We commit ourselves to balance senior and junior voices. In order to maximize opportunities for presenters, scholars should not present 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: The Qur'an and Biblical Literature Unit is looking for innovative papers that critically address the interchange and interplay between the Bible, Biblical literature and the Qur'an and its interpretative tradition.
Suggested topics include but are not limited to: the Qur’an and its exegesis in comparative perspective; the Qur’an in the context of Late Antiquity; critical approaches in Qur'anic and Biblical Studies; gender and sexuality in comparative perspective; inter-religious dialogue; comparative hermeneutics (traditional or contemporary); and pedagogy (engaging the Qur’an in the classroom).
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Qur’anic Studies: Methodology and Hermeneutics (IQSA)
Description: This unit aims to understand and contextualise the methods and hermeneutics applied to the Qur’anic text, both historical and contemporary. The Methodology and Hermeneutics unit addresses questions that might implicitly govern other units, such as: what is Qur’anic Studies, and how does the study of the Qur’an differ from the study of its interpretation? What are the methodological differences between descriptive and normative approaches to the text? How does context (intellectual, social, ethical, historical) affect hermeneutical approaches to the text? The unit welcomes papers addressed to the hermeneutics and methods of particular schools of interpretation or thought, and also on hermeneutics as applied to specific subjects or concepts such as social justice and gender.
Call for papers: o This unit aims to understand and contextualize the methods and hermeneutics applied to the Qur’anic text, both historical and contemporary. The Methodology and Hermeneutics unit addresses questions that might implicitly govern other units, such as: What is Qur’anic Studies, and how does the study of the Qur’an differ from the study of its interpretation? What are the methodological differences between descriptive and normative approaches to the text? How does context (intellectual, social, ethical, historical) affect hermeneutical approaches to the text? The unit welcomes papers addressed to the hermeneutics and methods of particular schools of interpretation or thought, and also on hermeneutics as applied to specific subjects or concepts such as social justice and gender. This year the Methodology and Hermeneutics Unit invites submissions for two panels on any aspect of Qur’anic interpretation, hermeneutics, and methodology. Proposals can focus on, among other topics, the following areas:
• The overlaps and distinctions between tafsir and ta’wil in exoteric and esoteric Qur’an commentary literature as they have evolved historically;
• The distinctive hermeneutical features of Qur’anic exegesis performed by minority Muslim communities including Sufi and Shi‘i (Twelver, Ismaili, Nusayri) commentators;
• How the Muslim Peripatetics (falasifa), such as Avicenna, have engaged with the Qur’an through Aristotelian and Neoplatonic lenses;
• The unique hermeneutical approaches of Muslim modernist thinkers in the 19th and 20th centuries;
• Interpretative engagements with the Qur’an from thinkers in South Asia and Southeastern Asia. Any other topic that deals with Qur’anic hermeneutics is welcome
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Racism, Pedagogy, and Biblical Studies
Description: This consultation will focus on strategies for addressing racism in the process of teaching and learning biblical studies. Presentations and discussions will deal with racist assumptions and practices at curricular, institutional, disciplinary, and meta-theoretical levels, as well as with respect to reading or use of specific biblical texts.
Call for papers:
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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 sponsors innovative, experimental work on Bible (“Bible” being interpreted in the broadest sense to include all commentaries and intertexts). We foreground, but do not solely concentrate upon, biblical criticism that engages continental philosophy, critical theory, and reception; we exist to accommodate work that pushes the boundaries of scholarship and augments conventional hermeneutics, and we work on the assumption that traditional questions of provenance, philology, and history are amply accommodated by other groups in the SBL. We also encourage innovative presentation. For 2021, we are planning three sessions. The FIRST is an “open call” session for general work that engages some aspect of critical theory but does not fit neatly into our other themed calls or those of other groups. SECOND, we are inviting papers that explore the work of Luce Irigaray and her influence (actual and potential) upon the discipline of biblical studies, broadly conceived. This panel was originally planned for the 2020 annual meeting, but we are interested in reviewing new proposals for it, as well. Finally, THIRD, we are interested in papers that explore the intersections of race, police violence, surveillance, and biblical text.
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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: We invite proposals for the topic "Women Biblical Interpreters Through the Ages." Proposals should deal, in a substantial way, with one or more women who interpreted the Bible sometime between the second century C.E. through 1918.
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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: Redescribing Christian Origins invites proposals for two sessions:
(1) Cultural Production and Social Networks in Early Christianity: Civic and Literate Religion(s): This panel will continue a set of conversations from our 2020 sessions on questions of typology, descriptive categories, practices, and the production of knowledge. Some questions provoked by our previous presentations and discussions include: To what extent are our current scholarly categories (e.g., domestic, civic, syncretism) appropriately nuanced? To what extent do we continue to reify an idealist/romantic or Neo-Kantian understanding of the role of Christianity among other Mediterranean religions? To what extent are concepts like “(the) Jesus movement” useful designators? Of particular interest in this panel are intersections or network theory related to literate cultural producers and acts of translation and/or the use of theoretical categories.
(2) Cultural Production and Social Networks within Greco-Roman Religion: The Religion of Enslaved Peoples and Freedpersons: Of particular interest for this panel is evidence for the religious discourses and practices of the enslaved and formerly enslaved (freedpersons). Potential foci for this topic include analyses of both literate and illiterate enslaved/freedperson populations throughout the ancient Mediterranean world: their day-to-day lives, literate training, and/or relative cultural capital within a household or other networks. We are open to a variety of forms of evidence in exploration of this subject matter, including so-called material culture, texts and other literary evidence, epigraphic evidence, and archaeological data related to reconstructed ritual practices. All regions and time periods are open for consideration; however, we are particularly interested in evidence from the Roman Imperial period. * Joint Session With: Greco-Roman Religions and Society for Ancient Mediterranean Religions (SAMR)
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Religion and Philosophy in Antiquity
Description: This unit seeks to investigate how Christian, Jewish, and “pagan” intellectuals engaged with the concepts, questions, and writings of ancient philosophy in order to understand better the interconnections of “religion” and “philosophy” in late antiquity and to reassess the usefulness of those categories.
Call for papers:
Tags: Church History and Ecclesiology (Other), Greece and Hellenism (History & Culture), Religio-Historical Approaches (Interpretive Approaches)
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Religious Competition in Late Antiquity
Description: This unit analyzes the competition between diverse socioreligious and philosophical groups of the ancient Mediterranean basin through the development of broadly comparative approaches and methodologies. It delineates the ways in which competitive interaction reshaped cultural and religious landscapes.
Call for papers: For the 2021 Annual Meeting, the Religious Competition in Late Antiquity program unit will host five sessions: (1) Our first session will be co-sponsored by the Religious World in Late Antiquity program unit, on “The Future of Late Antiquity.” This session will explore questions such as: “What do you want to see in the future from members of our field?” and “What interests you right now, a method, text, theoretical model, that you think has lasting purchase?” (2) The second is a session on “Ecclesiastical Histories as Competitive Texts.” (3) The third session will be on the theme “Markets and Prophets: Religious Competition and Market Models.” This session focuses on the use of markets in discourse on religion in late antiquity. (4) The fourth session will review Ross Shepard Kraemer’s new book The Mediterranean Diaspora in Late Antiquity: What Christianity Cost the Jews (Oxford UP, 2020). Please note that because sessions 1-4 consist of papers that were postponed and carried over from last year, we will not be soliciting new proposals for papers in 2021. (5) A fifth session will be an invited session co-sponsored by the Society of Ancient Mediterranean Religions (SAMR), on "Homo necans, homo competens: Ritual killing and competition in the ancient Mediterranean". For more information on this session, please visit https://samreligions.org/
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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 Religious Experience in Antiquity unit will hold three sessions at the 2021 annual meeting, two with open calls for papers. (1) We invite proposals that address the theme “Embodiment, Spatiality, and Ancient Prayers” for a session co-sponsored with the Prayer in Antiquity unit. (2) We will hold an open session in which we invite proposals on any topic connected to Religious Experience in Antiquity. Proposals for both calls are open to scholars working in all periods and geographical regions of antiquity. We ask that you specify the texts or other material artifacts under discussion and include a clear methodological perspective. Innovative approaches are most welcome. (3) Our third session will consist of invited papers that examine what is “religious,” “experiential,” and “antique” about “Religious Experience in Antiquity.”
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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:
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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 New Testament Section fosters research centered on the arts of persuasion, broadly conceived, as they intersect with the study of the New Testament and early Christian worlds. This section acknowledges that, given our current socio-political climate and discursive landscape, the study of rhetoric and biblical literature is as highly relevant as ever. To this end, we call for proposals centering on several themes at the 2021 annual meeting. All approaches to the study of rhetoric and the New Testament will be considered. Proposals that focus on the question of why the study of rhetoric and the New Testament matters now will be particularly welcome. FIRST: We seek proposals concerning “rhetorics of self-promotion.” How, on what terms, for whom, and to what ends are such discourses persuasive or not persuasive? For this session, we are especially interested in papers that consider the interplay of ancient and modern discourses, contexts, and deployments. SECOND: We seek proposals concerning “rhetoric in/and early Christian scriptural interpretation.” THIRD: We will host a review session of L. Larsen and S. Rubenson, eds., Monastic Education in Late Antiquity: The Transformation of Classical Paideia (Cambridge, 2018); participants for this session have been invited. FINALLY, as usual we invite proposals dealing with various aspects of the intersection of the study of rhetoric and the New Testament, with special attention given to paper proposals that front the ways in which rhetorical studies and criticisms inform the interpretive task.
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Rhetoric of Religious Antiquity
Description: The Rhetoric of Religious Antiquity Seminar provides a forum for collegial work on the Rhetoric of Religious Antiquity Commentary Series, and for the public exploration of facets of sociorhetorical interpretation that promise to contribute to the work of biblical scholars not directly associated with the project.
Call for papers: The Rhetoric of Religious Antiquity Seminar provides a forum for collegial work that employs any aspect of sociorehtorical interpretation. The Seminar also supports interpreters working on volumes in the Rhetoric of Religious Antiquity Commentary Series. Sociorhetorical interpretation is a broad and interactive interpretive analytic that welcomes engagement with a wide variety of interpretive perspectives and strategies that seek to explore the interpretation of biblical and cognate texts. Our first three sessions will be invited papers on the following topics. First, we will hold a joint session with the Biblical Ethics Section that explores how genre influences the development, deployment, and function of moral discourse. Second, we will hold an analytical seminar that delves into sociorehtorical commentary on a particular book of the New Testament. Third, we will hold panel on the Creativity of Early Christian Discourse. These papers will deal with varieties of religious discourses in the Mediterranean world and how they were creatively blended in the texts of the New Testament and Early Christianity to generate rhetorically effective communication. In addition to these sessions, the Seminar will host a session that was postponed from our open call from the 2020 meeting. These papers employ a wide variety of classic and contemporary interpretive strategies (e.g., cognitive science, material culture, critical spatiality, topoi analysis, new institutional economics, etc.) within an interactive process that explores the social, rhetorical, cultural, ideological, and religious interpretations of texts.
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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 will offer three sessions in the upcoming 2021 annual meeting. 1) The first session will continue our ongoing discussion on the relationship between ritual and epistemology; in light of this we invite proposals which will address the epistemological function of ritual in the ANE/OT/NT/Late Antiquity. 2) The second session invites proposals on the topic of women in liturgical contexts. This session wishes to engage some of the following questions: What role did women play in liturgical rites? Did they hold positions of authority or leadership in liturgy? Was female participation in liturgy a contentious issue? We welcome submissions that address issues of authority, power, and/or variances in participation based on conceptions of gender as they relate to women in liturgy in the Biblical world. 3) The third session, in conjunction with our interest in ritual and epistemology, is a joint session with the Senses, Cultures and Biblical Worlds section. It will continue the exploration of ritual and epistemology, with focus on the epistemological role of the senses on ritual praxis. This will not be an open call.
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SBL International Meeting Presentations
Description: Presentations from the cancelled 2021 International Meeting.
Call for papers: Presentations from the cancelled 2021 International Meeting.
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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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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 plan to hold THREE sessions in 2021. (1): With Philology in Hebrew Studies, we invite papers investigating the actual language used to describe sensory events in the Hebrew Bible. What terms are used for sense perception in the Hebrew Bible and what are their relationships to one another? Are there aspects of modern thinking about the senses that is imposed through conventional translations? What insights regarding the Hebrew terms and the depiction of sensory events in the Hebrew Bible can we gain by studying ancient versions? In general, what has been at stake in scholarship on the senses, and how much identity between ancient and modern experiences is generally presumed? How are we to frame the question of difference or alternatives to modern perspectives that are potentially brought to light through biblical texts? (2): With Ritual in the Biblical World, we invite papers on how the sensory aspect of ritual behavior can be understood as an epistemological avenue to the experience overall. (3): For our standalone panel, we welcome paper proposals exploring the function and meanings ascribed to the sense of touch in biblical and other ancient sources. Questions to address include but are not limited to the following: The significance of touch in encounters with divine beings and other experiences of the divine; The role of touch in ritual and in interaction with other worshippers as attested in literature and material culture; How does touch relate to other senses in cult and everyday life? The dual nature of touch, namely that it provides information both about external objects coming into contact with one’s skin, and about one’s own body; To what extent sensory hierarchies and views on haptics prevalent in specific target cultures are reflected in translations (both ancient and modern)? For all panels, the abstract should state the paper's thesis, outline the approach that will be taken, and identify the primary sources and examples to be discussed.
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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: Our session is an open call for proposals that address any aspect of enslavement, resistance, and freedom from enslavement in the Bible and Ancient Near East; New Testament; early Christian history; early rabbinic literature; and ancient Mediterranean history; or later interpretations of biblical, rabbinic, or other classical texts. We also welcome comparative papers, e.g., on the Bible and the Qur’an or on early Christianity and contemporary slavery, or papers on the legacies of ancient slavery for trans-Atlantic slavery. We encourage papers that show the complex experience of slavery by taking into account such various dimensions as ethnicity, age, gender, or disability, as well as relationships among slavery, religion, and specific economies. Papers might also address the theological use of slavery as a metaphor and its consequences for children and people of various ethnicities in the ancient world. Time periods addressed may be ancient, contemporary, or any time in between.
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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: This unit is planning four sessions for the 2021 annual meeting, two open call and two invited. These sessions were postponed from 2020.
1) This open session is interested in papers on making marriage religious in late antiquity (i.e. Christianizing or Judaizing marriage) and inviting discussion on documentary, ritual, and other under-studied sources.
2)Building on the 2019 annual meeting sessions’ discussions of literacy among ordinary people in antiquity, this open session on Rethinking Literacy and Conversations across Cultures in Antiquity asks how thinking about religions in their regional context—one that extended across imperial borders between the Roman and Iranian worlds—helps us understand ancient Jews, Christians, Manicheans, polytheists and others. Moreover, how does decentering canonical texts and centering practice illuminate religions and their permeable boundaries? Using the synagogue of Dura Europos as a case study, contributors to this panel demonstrate what we can learn about ancient literacy, pedagogy, and cross-cultural interactions in antiquity.
3) An invited session centers on the study of Samaritans: the last three decades have seen a surge of scholarship on the Samaritans. From the study of the Persian Period, to the Dead Sea Scrolls, to Rabbinic literature and beyond, interest in the Samaritans has grown exponentially. Despite this upswing of attention, scholarly contributions have tended to remain within their own subfields, without broader conversation about the (potentially radical) consequences of Samaritan inclusion in the study of the Bible, late antiquity, Jewish Studies and the study of Religion generally.
4) Co-sponsored with the Exile (Forced Migrations) in Biblical Literature unit, this invited session is inspired by and responds to Jennifer Barry’s newly published book Bishops in Flight: Exile and Displacement in Late Antiquity (UC Press 2019) and
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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: Will have four sessions. The first three are invited, the fourth is an open, themed session. 1) Our first invited panel—postponed from 2020—addresses notions of time and temporality in the Hebrew Bible and related literature. It is especially interested in projects that investigate the usefulness of memory studies as a promising methodological framework for the presentation and analysis of models of time in the biblical corpus. Equally, this panel is interested in ways literature related to time may challenge, reframe, and underscore the value of memory studies for the analysis of biblical texts. (2) The second panel—also postponed from 2020—explores interdisciplinary approaches to death and the underworld. Death powerfully provokes the human imagination. It generates rituals, belief-systems, questions about identity, and it permeates across the boundaries of culture and time. Scholarship abounds in research concerning “beliefs” about post-mortem existence and resurrection, but how might contemporary research from the social sciences heuristically inform our reflection on the topic? What is the meaning and significance of ancient underworlds? What is the meaning and significance of the metaphors that emerge concerning the “under”- “spirit”- “nether”- or “other”-world and death? (3) The third session is a review panel for Isabel Cranz’s new monograph: Royal Illness and Kingship Ideology in the Hebrew Bible (Cambridge University Press, 2020). (4) Our last session is jointly hosted with the Religions of Israel and Judah in their West Asian Environment unit. We are soliciting papers for an open panel on the topic of the religion and the body in ancient Israel and Judah in their social and cultural context. We welcome papers that engage theories of practices related to the body, senses, and dress in the social sciences. We also solicit work on related topics, including power, gender, and ritual in the broader context of the study of religion in the ancient Middle East.
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Social Scientific Criticism of the New Testament
Description: The Social Scientific Criticism of the New Testament Section program encourages the self-conscious employment of recognized models, methods, or theories of the social sciences in order to contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of the texts and social world of the New Testament.
Call for papers: The Social-Scientific Criticism of the New Testament unit is pleased to offer four sessions at the 2020 Annual meeting:
1-2. Two sessions on Early Christianity and Labor/Occupations (both co-sponsored with the Ancient Economy section). Papers will be invited.
3. Book review session featuring two recent books on the sociological study of early Christianity: John S. Kloppenborg’s Christ’s Associations: Connecting and Belonging in the Ancient City and Anthony Keddie’s Class and Power in Roman Palestine: The Socioeconomic Setting of Judaism and Christian Origins. In this session, we will ask the invited reviewers not only to assess the book they’ve been asked to review, but also to think about the “so what?” or “what’s next?” questions that might follow from the book.
4. Open Session: As always, we enthusiastically invite submissions on all aspects of the social-scientific study of early Christianity.
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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: SAMR seeks proposals for three co-sponsored sessions in 2021.
(1) Cultural Production and Social Networks within Greco-Roman Religion: The Religion of Enslaved Peoples and Freedpersons: Of particular interest for this panel is evidence for the religious discourses and practices of the enslaved and formerly enslaved (freedpersons). Potential foci for this topic include analyses of both literate and illiterate enslaved/freedperson populations throughout the ancient Mediterranean world: their day-to-day lives, literate training, and/or relative cultural capital within households or associated networks.
(2) Homo Necans, Homo Competens: Ritual Killing and Competition in the Ancient Mediterranean: This panel invites papers exploring ritual violence as performance and competition in Greco-Roman religious practice, including Jewish and Christian traditions; authors are encouraged to reflect on the trajectories of the theoretical frameworks established nearly fifty years ago in Burkert’s seminal Homo Necans, e.g., ethology, functionalism, structuralism, and the long arc of human behavior from the Palaeolithic to Late Antiquity.
(3) Animals in Ancient Mediterranean Religions: This panel examines human/animal relations in antiquity beyond the topos of animal sacrifice. We invite papers addressing this topic in literary and archaeological sources, and exploring the roles animals played in religious thought and practice. How, e.g., might we understand theriomorphic gods, the ritual use of animal masks and masquerades, or of animal parts in magical potions? Presenters may submit their papers for a planned publication.
Please visit our website (www.samreligions.org) for further information.
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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) encourages 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.
For 2021, SCRIPT invites paper proposals on any aspect of iconic and performative texts.
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Society for the Arts in Religious and Theological Studies (SARTS)
Description: The Society was organized to provide a forum for scholars and artists interested in the intersections between theology, religion, and the arts, to share thoughts, challenge ideas, strategize approaches in the classroom, and to advance the discipline in theological and religious studies curricula. The goal of the Society is to attract consistent participation of a core group of artists and scholars of theology and religion in order to have dialogue about the theological and religious meaning of the arts, and the artistic/aesthetic dimension of theological and religious inquiry.
Call for papers: The Society was organized to provide a forum for scholars and artists interested in the intersections between theology, religion, and the arts, to share thoughts, challenge ideas, strategize approaches in the classroom, and to advance the discipline in theological and religious studies curricula. The goal of the Society is to attract consistent participation of a core group of artists and scholars of theology and religion in order to have dialogue about the theological and religious meaning of the arts, and the artistic/aesthetic dimension of theological and religious inquiry.
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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 the 2021 Annual Meeting in San Antonio, the Space, Place, and Lived Experience in Antiquity program unit will host sessions focused on borders, border crossings, and migration. We invite proposals that critically examine the use, significance, and function of physical, literary, or imagined borders and borderlands. We are also interested in papers that consider ways that modern conceptions of borders influence studies of ancient spaces and/or how ancient texts and spaces are used in modern discussions of borders. In conjunction with the Exiles (Force Migrations) in Biblical Literature program unit, we will also host a session focused on the lived experience of exile and ways that people build, practice, and represent identity and community in diasporic settings. Finally, we invite proposals for an open session on any aspect of space, placed, or lived experience in antiquity.
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Student Advisory Board
Description: SAB functions as a Board within the Society’s governance structure, and as such is composed of appointed individuals, both student members of the Society and a faculty liaison, who work to advise the SBL Council regarding issues and opportunities relating to student membership and participation in the Society as a whole. SAB also has as its core mandate the coordination of student participation across all Society activities, committees, and programs in an effort to foster opportunities for student participation and leadership development. In order to achieve this mandate, SAB works to encourage student attendance and active participation at regional, national, and international congresses, with a focus on paper presentations and professional skills development; to link SBL student membership to effective, working resources for skills advancement, facilitated through the development and maintenance of communication tools such as a webpage and newsletter and to provide support in the development, review and evaluation of SBL policies and procedures as relating to student membership and participation and to make recommendations, where appropriate, to SBL Council on these matters. See more at https://www.sbl-site.org/SBLcommittees_SAB.aspx.
Call for papers: SAB functions as a Board within the Society’s governance structure, and as such is composed of appointed individuals, both student members of the Society and a faculty liaison, who work to advise the SBL Council regarding issues and opportunities relating to student membership and participation in the Society as a whole. SAB also has as its core mandate the coordination of student participation across all Society activities, committees, and programs in an effort to foster opportunities for student participation and leadership development. In order to achieve this mandate, SAB works to encourage student attendance and active participation at regional, national, and international congresses, with a focus on paper presentations and professional skills development; to link SBL student membership to effective, working resources for skills advancement, facilitated through the development and maintenance of communication tools such as a webpage and newsletter and to provide support in the development, review and evaluation of SBL policies and procedures as relating to student membership and participation and to make recommendations, where appropriate, to SBL Council on these matters. See more at https://www.sbl-site.org/SBLcommittees_SAB.aspx.
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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 an open session on the content or formation of any of the Synoptic Gospels. We especially welcome papers that address the relationship between two or more Gospels or that deal with themes touching on multiple Gospels. We also invite proposals for a second open session on the intersection of the Synoptic Gospels and the body—such as issues of corporeality, embodiment, materiality, disability, gender, or sexuality.
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Syriac Studies
Description: Syriac Studies invites papers on the Syriac versions of the Bible, on the
interpretation and reception of biblical material in Syriac traditions, and on
the literature and history of Syriac-speaking Christian communities and
their interaction with neighbouring cultures (e.g., Greek, Armenian, Arabic)
and religions (e.g., Jews, Manichaeans, Zoroastrians).
Call for papers: For the 2021 conference, we invite proposals for a general session, for which papers on any aspect of Syriac Studies are welcome; and two thematic sessions: on Syriac poetics, and on death and dying in late antique Syriac Christianity. For poetics, we are interested in how the two primary metrical forms of Syriac literature, madrashe and memre, developed during late antiquity, in what contexts, for what performative uses, with what consequences for content, and how they relate to other poetical genres. Papers are invited to address these matters and their implications for the literary, social and cultural issues of late antique Christianity more broadly. The third session, on death and dying, aims to broaden the discourse beyond the common focus on martyrdom as a lens for considering death by turning to more personal and direct encounters. Scholars are invited to submit proposals that address issues of death and dying as we see it presented in Syriac evidence, through any extant evidence: literary, material, archaeological, documentary.
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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: In 2021, the Teaching Biblical Studies in an Undergraduate Liberal Arts Context Unit will offer two sessions.
Session 1:
Hybrid Biblical Studies.
The events of 2020 have inspired many professors to learn new techniques. In this session, we are interested in effective strategies for teaching biblical studies courses that blend classroom instruction with online learning. We welcome papers that illuminate best practices for hybrid teaching in an undergraduate liberal arts context.
Session 2:
Career-Ready Skills in the Biblical Studies Classroom.
Biblical studies students learn more than just Bible content. As in other liberal arts courses, they also learn skills that will serve them well in their careers. This session invites papers that focus on best practices for teaching career-ready skills in the undergraduate biblical studies classroom. Papers addressing this topic in a co-teaching setting are also welcome.
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Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible
Description: The Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible section concerns itself with the origin and nature of all forms of the biblical text. The discipline involves the comparison of data from the various witnesses to the biblical text (Masoretic text, Septuagint, Dead Sea Scrolls, etc.), and the evaluation of that data.
Call for papers: The program unit encourages in particular applications from younger scholars and underrepresented groups. As always, the sole criterion for acceptance of papers will be their scholarly quality. For the 2021 annual meeting in San Antonio, the TCHB invites papers for one open session related to the theme of “Between Literal Rendering and Interpretative Translation: How the (Late) Ancient Versions Understood Their Vorlage/Base Texts.” Papers should explore the differences between literal and interpretative renderings in the context of both primary and secondary translations. Possible issues could include the general style of a primary or secondary translation, the literary style of a given translation, the question of translational characteristics restricted to specific biblical books, the hermeneutical characteristics of a given translation, and matters of translation technique.
The program unit is also planning two invited sessions on the topics of 1) “Memory, Orality, and Textuality in the Textual History of the Hebrew Bible” and 2) “Difficult Heritage: Stereotypes and Rhetoric in Modern Literature Textual Criticism.”
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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: We are happy to receive proposals featuring textual criticism of Samuel, Kings, and/or related Historical Books. In addition to text-critical papers in the strict sense, we will consider papers with a focus on: literary, redaction, or narrative criticism; linguistics, such as lexicography and syntax; or ancient versions beyond the Septuagint (Latin, Coptic, Syriac), etc. Papers in related areas and cognate fields should either take advantage of text-critical findings or demonstrate the useful application of their approaches to textual criticism generally or specifically. Joint papers featuring cooperation between a textual critic and a specialist in another approach are especially welcome.
In addition to general papers, there will be a thematic session on "Ancient Versions of and beyond the Septuagint." We call for papers demonstrating the text-critical value and text-historical relevance of the secondary versions of the Septuagint (e.g., Coptic, Syriac, Latin, Ethiopic, Armenian, Georgian) and of the proto-Masoretic text (Peshitta, Targumim, Vulgate). In addition, papers that seek to explain translational or other features in the said versions using text-critical evidence are welcomed. Particularly, we encourage joint papers by scholars bringing together expertise on different areas of research on the ancient versions.
All proposals should name the investigated biblical passages, describe the ancient sources, the chosen methodology, and explain how the proposal is linked with current research.
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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 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. BA(M)M will hold four sessions at the 2021 meeting: (1) an open session, (2) an organized session exploring the function of performance in the interpretation of ancient texts, jointly sponsored with The Performance Criticism of the Bible and Other Ancient Texts section, (3) a panel reviewing Sandra Huebenthal, Reading Mark’s Gospel as Text from Collective Memory (Eerdmans 2020), and (4) a panel reviewing Laura Carlson Hasler, Archival Historiography in Jewish Antiquity, jointly sponsored with the Chronicles-Ezra-Nehemiah section.
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The Enoch Seminar
Description: The Enoch Seminar is an academic group of international specialists in Second Temple
Judaism (Jewish, Christian, and Islamic Origins), who share the results of their research in the
field and meet to discuss topics of common interest. The Enoch Seminar was founded in 2001 at the initiative of Gabriele Boccaccini, University of Michigan. Members of the Enoch Seminar
are university professors and specialists in Second Temple Judaism, Christian Origins, and
early Islam.
Call for papers: The Enoch Seminar is an academic group of international specialists in Second Temple
Judaism (Jewish, Christian, and Islamic Origins), who share the results of their research in the
field and meet to discuss topics of common interest. The Enoch Seminar was founded in 2001 at the initiative of Gabriele Boccaccini, University of Michigan. Members of the Enoch Seminar
are university professors and specialists in Second Temple Judaism, Christian Origins, and
early Islam.
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The Forum on Missional Hermeneutics
Description: The Forum on Missional Hermeneutics fosters interdisciplinary scholarship at the intersection of
critical biblical interpretation, contextual theology, and mission studies. The Forum gives special
attention to the concepts and practices of Christian mission in their historical, postmodern, and
postcolonial manifestations and to their significance for the reception, interpretation, and usage
of biblical texts in a variety of social, cultural, ethical, theological, and religious contexts.
Call for papers: Three sessions: (1) Review of Missional Theology: An Introduction (Baker Academic, 2020), by John R. Franke. A leading contributor and shaper of the missional hermeneutics conversation, Franke has recently authored Missional Theology: An Introduction, a sweeping postmodern vision of the process and product of theology done from a missional perspective. The Forum invites paper proposals that explore and assess the book and its import for missional hermeneutics, specifically, and/or theological inquiry, more generally. (2) Missional Hermeneutics and Whiteness. Whiteness has emerged in recent years as both a historical reality and as an ideological construction that has had profound consequences for Christian theology, mission, and biblical interpretation. This session will focus critically on the interaction between the assumptions and intuitions of whiteness and the reading and interpretation of biblical texts, as well as their entailments and consequences in the Christian community and the world. The Forum invites paper proposals that explore and interrogate the influence of whiteness on hermeneutical theory and practice in general and with respect to missional hermeneutics in particular. Proposals may focus on specific texts as well general hermeneutical principles. (3) Reading the Bible Missionally in a “Post-Truth” World. Those claiming the mantle of Jesus in the United States often find themselves opposed to each other—politically, socially, economically, and otherwise. One person’s justice strikes another as injustice. How are biblical terms such as justice, love, mercy, unity, and truth to be understood in this ‘post-truth’ environment? How are they related? This session invites paper proposals that engage biblical texts on such themes, exploring what missional hermeneutics may have to contribute within the context of American Christianity. Papers should specifically acknowledge and address the interpretive relevance of the located-ness of the author.
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The Historical Paul
Description: This program unit aims to reinvigorate the study of Paul as a historical figure. Through attention to biographical detail and social context, careful consideration of historical method, and engagement with a diverse range of comparanda, it seeks to describe him as a contextually plausible social actor.
Call for papers: The Historical Paul section welcomes proposals for the following two sessions:
1) The "Book History and Biblical Literatures" and "Historical Paul" sections invite papers on the materiality of and social processes entailed in letter writing for a joint session on Material Philology and Ancient Epistolography. Possible considerations include the authors and recipients or intermediaries (e.g., scribes, companions, co-workers) of letters; the copying and collecting of letters, as well as interventions that often occurred in these stages of transmission (editing, interpolation); the statuses of letters as textual objects, which might range from mundane communication to pedagogical resources to “religious” artifacts in their own right; and the various afterlives of letters and letter collections, among other possibilities. While our collaboration seeks in part to set the stage for a future discussion of material philology and the letters of Paul—the Historical Paul section will hold a session on interpolations in the Pauline corpus and their biographical implications in 2022—we are here open to a range of topics and ancient evidence that speak to broader context.
2) An open call for papers addressing our objective of providing a contextually plausible account of the historical figure Paul. Especially welcome are proposals that explore the biographical entailments of Paul’s vocabulary, usage, and style.
(A third session, Epistolary Affects, co-sponsored with the Bible and Emotion unit, consists of papers deferred from 2020.)
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The Qur’an and Late Antiquity (IQSA)
Description: The Qur’an and Late Antiquity program unit focuses on investigation of and critical reflection on the historical context in which the Qur’an was revealed. We seek papers that illustrate significant textual parallels between the Qur’an and other literatures of Late Antiquity, especially those that contribute to a better understanding of the Qur’an’s place in its cultural, political, social, and religious environment. We also seek papers that interpret the rise of the Qur’anic community in a broader phenomenological, sociological, or historiographic context, whether that of pre-Islamic Arabian society or the Roman and Sasanian Empires that dominated the eastern Mediterranean and Near East in this period. Particular attention will be paid to such questions as processes of political consolidation and legitimation, construction of communal boundaries, and relationships between communities and polities.
Call for papers: For the 2021 IQSA Annual Meeting in San Antonio, the Qur’an and Late Antiquity program unit invites proposals that utilize various types of material or evidence—be that literary, documentary, or epigraphic—to illuminate the historical context in which the Qur’an was revealed and the early Islamic polity emerged. This year, we are especially interested in papers that present and discuss the historical Muhammad, including new and comparative methodologies to approach this figure, the relationship between Muhammad and the Qur’an, and Muhammad’s role and function in the cultural, political, social, and religious environment of Late Antiquity.
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The Qur’an and the Biblical Tradition (IQSA)
Description: The focus of this unit is the Qur’an’s relationship to the Biblical tradition in the broadest sense: the books of the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament in the various languages of their original composition and later translations (regardless of a particular book’s status of canonization within specific Jewish or Christian groups), the exegetical traditions of the Bible, and the homiletic, narrative, and legal corpora that have developed in close dialogue with this Biblical tradition prior to the emergence of the Qur’an and subsequently in exchange with the Qur’an.
Call for papers: The focus of this unit is the Qur’an’s relationship to the Biblical tradition in the broadest sense: the books of the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament in the various languages of their original composition and later translations (regardless of a particular book’s status of canonization within specific Jewish or Christian groups), as well as the exegetical, homiletic, and narrative traditions of the Bible in written or oral form. For the 2021 meeting in San Antonio, the Qur’an and the Biblical Tradition unit welcomes proposals that engage any aspect of the relationship between the Bible and the Qur’an.
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The Qur’an: Manuscripts and Textual Criticism (IQSA)
Description: The aim of the Manuscripts and Textual Criticism unit is to provide a cross-disciplinary setting for the exploration of the various interconnected issues that arise when questions concerning the Qur’an’s text are investigated through the prism of its manuscript tradition. This latter term encompasses the field of Qur’an manuscripts per se, but also alludes to such information regarding the history of the text that can be gleaned from the citations, marginal notes, and detailed analysis provided in other branches of the Islamic sciences, for example Qur’an commentaries and the qira’at literature. It is hoped that bringing together scholars from a variety of disciplines will serve to enrich and strengthen each of these fields. The Manuscripts and Textual Criticism unit seeks to create a forum for the application of textual criticism to the Qur’anic text attested both in physical manuscripts and within the wider Islamic tradition. It also aims to investigate palaeographic, codicological, and art historical features in the Qur’an’s manuscript tradition.
Call for papers: The aim of the Qur’an: Manuscripts and Textual Criticism unit is to provide a cross-disciplinary setting for the exploration of the various interconnected issues that arise when questions concerning the Qur’an’s text are investigated through the prism of its manuscript tradition. This latter term encompasses the field of Qur’an manuscripts per se, but also alludes to such information regarding the history of the text that can be gleaned from the citations, marginal notes, and detailed analysis provided in other branches of the Islamic sciences, for example Qur’an commentaries and the qira’at literature. It is hoped that bringing together scholars from a variety of disciplines will serve to enrich and strengthen each of these fields. The Manuscripts and Textual Criticism unit seeks to create a forum for the application of textual criticism to the Qur’anic text attested both in physical manuscripts and within the wider Islamic tradition. It also aims to investigate palaeographic, codicological, and art historical features in the Qur’an’s manuscript tradition.
For the 2021 meeting in San Antonio, the unit welcomes papers on any topic within the range of the interests of the Manuscripts and Textual Criticism program unit.
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The Qur’an: Surah Studies (IQSA)
Description: The program unit “Surah Studies” seeks to bring different perspectives and scholarship on a given Qur’anic surah into dialogue with one another.
Call for papers: The Surah Studies Unit invites proposals for individual papers on any aspect of Surat al-Naml (27, “The Ants”). Much of the attention directed at the surah has focused on the story of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. Proposals about any aspect of that narrative are welcome—in particular ones that explore power and gender dynamics—but proposals that can take our thinking about the surah in new directions are especially encouraged. These might broach such topics as: the deployment of animals as characters; the nature of the Arabian prophets’ missions; the role of the surahs’s inaugurators (fawati?), ?a Sin, both in the surah and within the Qur’an as a whole; the rhetorical relationship between the various prophets and prophet-stories; miracles; and much else besides. The Surah Studies Unit welcomes diverse methods and new approaches. The raison d'être of the Unit is to bring different perspectives on a given surah into dialogue with one another.
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The Societal Qur'an (IQSA)
Description: The Societal Qur'an
Call for papers: The Societal Qur’an unit invites proposals for papers that investigate the Qur’an in its lived and societal contexts throughout history, from Late Antiquity to contemporary Late Modernity. Proposals are encouraged that engage with sociological, anthropological, and political science theories and methods in their pursuit of the societal and lived Qur’an. Papers might, for instance, discuss topics such as ritual and artistic uses of the Qur’an, practices of teaching the Qur’an, talismanic and medical uses of the Qur’an, the production of manuscript, print, and new media versions of the Qur’an, or the deployment of the Qur’an in terms of social identity and political organization.
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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)
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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: TOTHS in 2021 will deal with the pedagogical dimension of the Hebrew Scriptures. How much authority, how much flexibility, and how much influence should/could the educators (including professors, teachers, rabbis, and pastors) have in their teaching? How much shall we stick to the text; how much shall we suggest asking the challenging questions from the Bible reading, and how shall we establish the norm and keep the balance? Under this rubric, the first session is a joint session with the Exile and Forced Migrations Unit. On the one hand, we will discuss focusing on the theology of return articulated in the Hebrew Bible and/or Second Temple period literature. On the other hand, we also welcome the papers that bring the new methodologies or educational strategies for the identity build-up in the returned community.
The second session will be the open session. Papers that ponder up to the pedagogical issues will be especially welcome. [Note: This session will include two papers postponed from 2020.] The third session and fourth session will be the deferred sessions in 2020. The third session is with the NAPH (National Association of Professors of Hebrew) joint session for the Characterization of YHWH and Moses in conflict (crisis) in the Pentateuch by panelists. The fourth session is also a panel discussion of John J. Collins’ book with invited panelists.
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Theta Alpha Kappa
Description: Theta Alpha Kappa is the national honor society for religious studies and theology and is a member of the Association of College Honor Societies. Founded in 1976 at Manhattan College, the society has chartered over 350 chapters in institutions ranging from small religiously affiliated colleges and seminaries to large public research universities. Theta Alpha Kappa exists to encourage, recognize, and promote student excellence in the academic study of religion and theology through its local chapters, multiple scholarship opportunities offered by the national organization, publication of student articles in Journal of Theta Alpha Kappa, and other national programs. For more information, please see www.ThetaAlphaKappa.org or contact us at theta_alpha_kappa_inquiries@ThetaAlphaKappa.org.
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Transmission of Traditions in the Second Temple Period
Description: The unit will concentrate on the transmission of traditions particularly in the Second Temple period. It will focus on both transmission processes themselves and the practical mechanics employed in such processes. While literary evidence is central to this investigation, physical manuscripts, other material artefacts, iconography, and traces of oral transmission processes will be factored into the discussion whenever possible. In the textual evidence particular emphasis will be placed on texts in which two or more empirically attested versions of the same story (or book) differ considerably. All such cases in the different available corpora from the general time period will be taken into consideration.
Call for papers: The section will host three sessions in 2021, one session with invited speakers and two open sessions. The first session with invited papers will focus on how the traditions concerning the three “major” prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, developed and changed during the Second Temple period. The papers will address both how the composition, reworking, and reception of the main literary works related to these prophets as well as other works associated with them or engaging with these figures changed the overall traditions.
The second session is an open one on the theme “Transmission of Wisdom.” We invite proposals that engage with the transmission of literary works usually discussed under the rubric wisdom literature, the use, reception, and transmission of other literary works in these compositions as well as more conceptual papers discussing what is wisdom and how it is transmitted.
The third session is open for all proposals directly related to the topic of the program unit. We hope the proposed papers would deal either with specific empirical evidence of transmission mechanics, like case studies on the use of editorial techniques, or more conceptual matters related to the wider processes of transmitting traditions in the Second Temple period.
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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 plans to hold three sessions in 2021: (1) A session consisting of invited papers (postponed in 2020 and rescheduled for the 2021 Annual Meeting) that considers Ugaritic literature and history and Northwest Semitic epigraphic and material culture through the lens of gender. Papers may consider literary or iconographic constructions of femininity and masculinity, the experience of women as accessible in the historical or epigraphic record, or how gender inflects other categories of social, historical, and philological analysis. (2-3) Two open, non-thematic sessions consisting of papers on any topic relevant to Ugaritic and Northwest Semitic studies.
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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: For 2021 we invite proposals that examine the political use of the Bible across a range of resistance movements. Papers might focus on resistance movements within contemporary contexts or historical ones, but in either case should highlight ways in which the Bible is taken up as part of a particular movement’s self-understanding, rhetoric, and/or practices. We would especially welcome work that looks beyond North America and Europe for its examples. We will also have at least one open session: proposals are welcome on any aspect of the Bible's reception history. For the open sessions our preference is for papers that do not focus on the narrower history of scholarship, but explore wider aspects of the Bible's impact on religions, society and culture, politics, art, literature and music.
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Utopian Studies
Description: The Utopian Studies consultation provides a forum in which (1) to foster a
sustained and focused conversation about the intersection of the fields of
utopian studies and biblical studies and (2) to examine the applicability of
methodological and theoretical insights from utopian studies for biblical
studies.
Call for papers: During our first year, we will have two sessions. The first session is a panel on current needs in method and theory for utopian studies, the current state of utopian studies within SBL, as well as goals for future work. The second session will be on Utopian Constructions of Law in Ancient Judaism. We welcome proposals for these sessions.
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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: Our section will not be accepting papers this year but will be offering the following three panels: 1) Religion, Violence, and Xenophobia: Fear of the “other” has been and continues to be a frequent contributor to violence. We seek papers addressing any intersection of xenophobia and violence from antiquity/late antiquity to our present moment. What constituted xenophobia in the past and/or in the present? Is xenophobia a form of violence? Or rather, does xenophobia lead to or exacerbate violence, and if so in what ways? Jointly sponsored with AAR's Comparative Approaches to Violence. 2)Violence in the Afterlife: This is an invited panel. Panelists will explore how violence and/or violent death shape the body's afterlife in various religious contexts. 3) The Afterlives of Trauma: affects and narratives in transmission: We invite papers that address how trauma, in its aftermath, is felt and narrated (or avoided), and how these responses shape its experience. How do the affective and/or narrative dynamics of trauma unfold on both the subjective and collective levels? How can the combination of our evidence and our interpretative frameworks best and most ethically address these complex processes of suffering? Papers that explore the methodology of such transmissions, and the coding and re-coding of these experiences are also invited.
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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.
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Westar Institute
Description: Westar Institute — home of the Jesus Seminar — is dedicated to fostering and communicating the results of cutting-edge scholarship on the history and evolution of the Christian tradition, thereby raising the level of public discourse about questions that matter in society and culture.
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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 program unit will hold two sessions at the 2021 SBL Annual Meeting. The first is an invited session, “Wisdom and Apocalypticism beyond the Monotheism/Polytheism Divide.” Much scholarship on ancient Judaism has taken issue with the category of "monotheism," with noteworthy contributions by scholars such as Mark Smith, Peter Schäfer, and Paula Fredriksen. This invited session aims to bring this discussion to bear on Jewish and Christian materials with particular attention to wisdom and apocalyptic literature. The second session is open, and we welcome submissions on any topic that relates to sapiential and/or apocalyptic traditions in early Jewish and/or Christian literature. Submissions are particularly encouraged from women and underrepresented minorities.
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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 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. Paper proposals related to these criteria are invited for three open sessions. This section will also host a joint session with the Egyptology and Ancient Israel Section that reviews Bernd Schipper's recent Hermeneia commentary on Proverbs 1-15 and a joint session with the Philology in Hebrew Studies section on Edward Greenstein's new translation of Job.
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Womanist Interpretation
Description: Womanist Interpretation is a unit that provides a space where black women
who identify as womanist biblical scholars and graduate students present
and receive generative affirming feedback on their intellectual work and
respectful sustained critical dialogue with other womanist scholars/ship,
students, and SBL units. It is a think tank for womanist epistemologies
engaged in the intersectional political work of interpretation with a
teleological goal of justice. As a mentoring space, it increases our presence
and impact while facilitating hope, stamina, and longevity in the academy.
Call for papers: SESSION NO.1: Remembering and Celebrating the Past, Present, and Future of Womanist Interpretation moderated/presided by Ericka Dunbar. Invited panelists are: Valerie Bridgeman, Jennifer Kaalund, Raquel Lettsome, Clarice Martin, Yolanda Norton, Mitzi Smith, Renita Weems.
SESSION NO. 2: Centering Black Girls: Womanist interpretation and Social Justice Activism. Central to womanist interpretation is intersectionality as a tool of analysis and as a means of consciousness raising about the intersectional impact of racism, sexism, class, heterosexism, ageism, and nationalism on the lives of poor black women and our communities and the change we deserve and need. We cannot lose sight of the social justice and transformational goals of intersectionality. We invite interpretations of texts and readers of texts through a womanist intersectional framework that addresses (in)justice and black children, especially black girls. We welcome papers that read sacred texts (i.e., biblical and apocryphal texts and/or readers of those texts) through the lens of or in dialogue with inequities in pandemic education with post pandemic consequences, missing black girls, police brutality, sexualization or criminalization of black girls and other injustices.
SESSION NO. 3: Dissenting Opinions. Since SBL will be in San Antonio in 2021, we could like to situate our emphasis on justice and voice in Texas. The state of Texas attempted to sue other states like Michigan, Pennsylvania and Georgia in hopes of convincing the Court to render the votes of black and brown peoples as fraudulent and void in order to overturn the will of the people and democracy. The Supreme Court refused to hear the frivolous petition; Justices Alito and Thomas dissented. We invite submissions of dissent in response to the Texas lawsuit or around judicial opinions, proceedings, decisions and so on impacting votes, voices, and lives of black women and children in Texas, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and beyond.
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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: The Women in the Biblical World Program Unit plans to offer three sessions in 2021: 1) An invited panel that is a follow-up to "Cultivating Womanist, Feminist, and Queer Relationships in this Neo-liberal-Authoritarian Age" session at the 2019 Annual Meeting in San Diego. This session is organized by Susanne Scholz, SMU Perkins School of Theology and Ashley Bacchi, Starr King School for the Ministry. This year’s discussion will focus on pedagogical approaches to cultivating students' awareness of intersectionality and empowering students in dialogic practices that foster relationships across perceived difference. This year's session will again be cosponsored with the Feminist Hermeneutics of the Bible Unit. 2) The year 2020 was the 25th anniversary of the publication of Mayer Gruber’s Women in the Biblical World: A Study Guide, a resource for scholars, clergy, seminarians, undergraduates and others interested in studying biblical women. This invited panel will address pedagogical approaches for teaching the subject of women in the biblical world to the variously addressed constituents. 3) Open call for papers on women in the biblical world. Papers on any relevant topic are invited, but those on women and migration in the biblical world are especially welcome.
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Writing Social-Scientific Commentaries of the New Testament
Description: The goal of the seminar is to develop and test theoretical approaches suitable for writing social-scientific commentaries on the New Testament, in particular in the series T&T Clark Social Identity Commentaries in the New Testament
Call for papers: In 2021, the seminar will organize invited sessions and one session with open call. In 2021 our special topic is prototypicality but all proposals that apply the social identity approach or related social and cognitive approaches on any New Testament, Hebrew Bible or Second Temple Jewish writing are welcome. The papers will be pre-distributed and only summarized in the sessions.
Tags: Social-Scientific Approaches (Anthropology, Sociology, Psychology) (Interpretive 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: The Writing/Reading Jeremiah group serves as a space for 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.
In 2021, the Writing/Reading Jeremiah section will have three sessions. These sessions will consist of a combination of invited papers as well as papers selected in response to the Call to Papers. In the first session, we invite papers that explore the Jeremianic triad of “sword, famine, and pestilence” in the context of current of contemporary dislocations produced by social unrest and the pandemic. How have these texts been interpreted in these times? How do these times interpret these texts? What histories of interpretation of these texts shed new light upon current receptions of these texts? Papers that engage the threats and realities of disasters as represented in the book are particularly encouraged.
The second session will focus on "Rage and Resilience.” Through an invited panel, papers will explore anger as a survival strategy in the book of Jeremiah. Papers will include reflection on the various representations of divine and human anger throughout Jeremiah, considering notions such as the harmful effects of pent-up anger, the therapeutic or cathartic nature of anger, the relationship of anger to justice in a context of injustice, and finally, the association of anger with the hope for a better future.
For the third session, “Jeremiah in Conversation with Ezekiel,” we will, together with the Theological Perspectives on the Book of Ezekiel section, co-sponsor an open session that reflects on the literary rela
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