CFP> AAR Sacred Texts and Ethics Group

Alison Melnick Discussion

Dear Colleagues,

The American Academy of Religion Sacred Texts and Ethics Group has asked me to pass along thier call for papers. They are hoping to expand to include scholarship on a wider range of religious traditions. Thanks for your patience with cross-postings.

Best,

Alison Melnick

Bates College

amelnick@bates.edu

Call for Papers: 

The American Academy of Religion Sacred Texts and Ethics Group invites proposals from scholars and/or activists that closely analyze the use of sacred and foundational religious texts, including commentaries, in ethical or political discourse (either contemporary or historical). We welcome individual papers and panel proposals from all religious traditions and methodologies, including constructive ethical reflection with a textual basis.

Proposals on all topics are welcome. We are particularly interested in the following questions:

• Sacred texts and refugees

• Texts in exile. How are sacred texts read in exilic or diasporic communities? What texts, passages, and ethical themes come to the fore in exilic interpretations?

• Sacred texts and housing issues, either contemporarily or historically. This topic honors the 50th anniversary of the Chicago Freedom Movement led by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King.

• Reflections on the intersection between love as a theme in sacred texts and its employment as ethical norm in particular contexts. This topic speaks to the 2016 AAR Presidential Theme, "Revolutionary Love."

• The relationship between different textual genres (narrative, legal, poetry, letters, etc.) and religious ethics

Proposals may be submitted to the online PAPERS system on the AAR website. The deadline for proposals is March 1, 2016

Please email program co-chairs with questions:

Emily Filler, filleem@earlham.edu

Elizabeth Phillips, erp31@cam.ac.uk