This year that annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion will be held in San Francisco. Some associated session begin Friday, November 18; the meeting officially runs Saturday to Tuesday, November 19-22. Here is a list of sessions being offered that deal with liberal religious subjects. As usual, the Unitarian Universalist Scholars and Friends will host a panel session and a separate reception. Note: in some cases, only one presentation (i.e. the one dealing with liberal religion) has been listed, out of a session with multiple presentations.
North American Paul Tillich Society
Tillich and Culture
Friday – 9:00 am-11:30 am
Room: HI-Mason
Mary Ann Stenger, University of Louisville
Tillich’s Theology of Culture in Relation to the American Religious-Secular Dialectic
Rose Caraway, University of Florida
A New Human Being: The Religious Dimensions of Secularism in Cuban and Soviet Moralities
Bert Daelemans, Katholieke Universiteit, Leuven
The Breakthrough of the Spirit in Contemporary Church Architecture
North American Paul Tillich Society
Courage and Symbol in Tillich
Friday – 1:00 pm-3:30 pm
Room: HI-Mason
Derek Nelson, Thiel College
Absolutely Relative: Teaching Dynamics of Faith, on teaching Dynamics of Faith
Verna Marina Ehret, Mercyhurst College
Doubt, Courage, and the Transformation of Redemption Within Globalization
Ryan O’Leary, University of Iowa
Gaia as Symbol
North American Paul Tillich Society
International and Interreligious Approaches of Tillich
Friday – 4:00 pm-6:30 pm
Room: HI-Mason
Theo Junker, Université de Strasbourg
Paul Tillich’s Mature Politics: Unconfined Realism and Vigilant Hope. Examples from his Enduring Legacy of Political Affirmations and Refutations
Anne Marie Reijnen, Faculté Universitaire de Théologie Protestante de Bruxelles
Das Neue Denken in Franz Rosenzweig and Paul Tillich. The “Star of Redemption” as a Jewish-Christian Theology of Correlation
Responding:
Lon Weaver, Glen Avon Presbyterian Church
Tillich: Issues in Theology, Religion, and Culture Group
Saturday – 9:00 am-11:30 am
Room: CC-3018
Sharon Peebles Burch, Interfaith Counseling Center, Presiding
Theme: Ultimate Concern After the Post-Secular Age
John Robichaux, Harvard University |
The Religiosity of the Secular and the Secularity of the Religious: Tillich, Murray, and Rawls |
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Daniel Miller, Mount Allison University |
Ultimate Concern and Postmodern Theology: Two Competing Legacies |
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Adam Pryor, Graduate Theological Union |
God as Still Living: An Analysis of Paul Tillich’s Concept of the Divine Life in Light of Mark Taylor’s Infinitization of the Finite |
Niebuhr Society
Reinhold Niebuhr and the Economic Order
Saturday – 9:00 am-11:30 am
Room: MM-Club Room
John D. Carlson, Arizona State University, Presiding
Christopher Evans, Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School
Ties That Bind: The Christian Economics of Walter Rauschenbusch and Reinhold Niebuhr
Thomas Ogletree, Yale University
Facilitating Human Freedoms and Constraining Persistent Abuses: Reinhold Niebuhr’s Quest for Balance in the Public Oversight of Market Economies
Scott Paeth, DePaul University
The Great Recession: Some Niebuhrian Reflections
Reform in Islamic Thought: Challenges and Prospects
Saturday – 11:00 am-1:00 pm
Room: HI-Continental Ballroom 9
North American Paul Tillich Society
Philosophical and Mystical Aspects of Tillich’s Thought
Saturday – 1:00 pm-3:30 pm
Room: HI-Golden Gate 1
Rob James and Durwood Foster
Tillich’s ‘Killer Mistake’ regarding His ‘One Unsymbolic Statement’? It Never Happened
Jari Ristiniemi
Differential Thinking and the Possibility of Faith-Knowledge; Tillicj and Kierkegaard Between Negative and Positive Philosophy
Stephen Butler Murray
The Beauty of a Union with God through Dangerous Obedience: A Christian Mysticism of Social Activism
North American Religions Section
Saturday – 4:00 pm-6:30 pm
Room: CC-2006
Jeff Wilson, University of Waterloo, Presiding
Theme: Rethinking Key Paradigms in American Religion: “Black Church,” “Queering Religion,” “Nature Religion,” and “Material Culture”
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Bron Taylor, University of Florida |
Gaian Earth Religion: Vanishing Divine Being(s) and the Mod-God of Nature |
Tillich: Issues in Theology, Religion, and Culture Group
Saturday – 4:00 pm-6:30 pm
Room: CC-3020
Russell Re Manning, University of Cambridge, Presiding
Theme: Faith, Betrayal, and Disenchantment: Paul Tillich in Dialogue with Contemporary Philosophy and Theology
Hollis Phelps, Mount Olive College |
Evental Fidelity, Ultimate Concern, and the Subject: Reading Alain Badiou with Paul Tillich |
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Thomas A. James, Union Presbyterian Seminary |
Can There be a Theology of Disenchantment?: Unbinding the Nihil in Tillich |
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Blake Huggins, Boston University |
Tillich and Ontotheology: On the Fidelity of Betrayal |
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Carl-Eric Gentes, Lutheran School of Theology, Chicago |
The Courage to Be(tray): An Emerging Conversation between Paul Tillich and Peter Rollins |
Unitarian Universalist Scholars and Friends Discussion
Celebrating Embodied and Transformative Worship and Ritual
Saturday – 6:30 pm-9:00 pm
Room: HI-Continental Ballroom 2
Myriam Renaud, University of Chicago, Presiding
Our annual conversation will explore ritual practices that build multi-religious, justice-loving beloved communities. Unitarian Universalists have long struggled to transcend both the cultural and class privileges of our forebears and our inherited skepticism about ritual and the body. In this event we will celebrate the new possibilities that open up when we join these two struggles together. A diverse group of panelists will share both specific case studies and general principles drawn from the fields of theology and ritual studies. Our emphasis will be on what is now working well within and beyond Unitarian Universalist communities, as well as on ritual strategies for turning failures into opportunities for growth.
Panelists:
Dorsey Blake, Starr King School for the Ministry
Clyde Grubbs, Throop Unitarian Universalist Church
Emily Mace, Brevard College
Robert McCauley, Emory University
Responding:
Nancy Palmer Jones, First Unitarian Church of San José
Queer Studies in Religion Consultation and Religion and Cities Consultation
Sunday – 1:00 pm-2:30 pm
Room: CC-2005
L. Benjamin Rolsky, Drew University, Presiding
Theme: Queer Practices in San Francisco
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Jeff Wilson, University of Waterloo |
“All Beings are Equally Embraced by Amida Buddha”: Jodo Shinshu Buddhism and Same-Sex Marriage in North America |
Tillich: Issues in Theology, Religion, and Culture Group
Sunday – 1:00 pm-2:30 pm
Room: CC-3000
K. Healan Gaston, Harvard University, Presiding
Theme: Tillich and Niebuhr: Conversations and Legacies
Panelists:
Ronald Stone, University of Pittsburgh |
Andrew Finstuen, Pacific Lutheran University |
Responding:
Jonathan Rothchild, Loyola Marymount University |
Kevin Carnahan, Central Methodist University |
Unitarian Universalist Scholars and Friends Reception
Sunday – 7:00 pm-8:30 pm
Room: HI-Lombard
Persons connected to the Unitarian Universalist tradition are invited to gather for conversation and to plan next year’s events.
Study of Judaism Section
Monday – 9:00 am-11:30 am
Room: MM-Yerba Buena 10
Sarah Imhoff, Indiana University, Presiding
Theme: American Judaisms
Robert Erlewine, Illinois Wesleyan University |
From Exclusivity to Partnership: Abraham Joshua Heschel and the Legacy of Liberal Judaism |
Liberal Theologies Consultation
Monday – 9:00 am-11:30 am
Room: IC-Sutter
Ellen Umansky, Fairfield University, Presiding
Theme: Post-Post-Liberalism: Constructive Proposals for Revitalizing Liberal Theologies and Liberal Institutions
Michael Hogue, Meadville Lombard Theological School |
Pragmatic Liberalationist Public Theology |
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Shelli Poe, University of Virginia |
Friedrich Schleiermacher and the United Church of Christ: Reformed, Liberal, Public |
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William Myatt, Loyola University, Chicago |
The (Non)existence of Religious Rationality: David Tracy, “The Fragment”, and Liberal Theological Discourse |
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Joshua Daniel, University of Chicago |
Posture and Discourse: The Perfectionism of Liberalism in H. Richard Niebuhr |
Responding:
Inese Radzins, Pacific School of Religion |
Contemporary Islam Group and Liberal Theologies Consultation
Monday – 1:00 pm-3:30 pm
Room: IC-Sutter
Kambiz GhaneaBassiri, Reed College, Presiding
Theme: Pious Publics/Critical Publics: Theologies of Self and State in Contemporary Islam
Muhamad Ali, University of California, Riverside |
“One and Many”: Islam and Religious Pluralism in Contemporary Indonesia |
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Jon Armajani, College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University |
Mohammed Arkoun on Classic Islamic Reason and Applied Islamology: Analysis and Critique |
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Syed Rizwan Zamir, University of Virginia |
Preaching Religious Reform and Reforming Religious Preaching: A Contemporary Shi’ite ‘A’lim’s Appropriation of the Karbala Paradigm |
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Kathleen Foody, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill |
Just Rulers and Critical Publics: Religious Leadership and Dissent in the Islamic Republic of Iran |
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Samaneh Oladi Ghadikolaei, University of California, Santa Barbara |
Islamic Activism in Iran |
Responding:
Zayn Kassam, Pomona College |
Religion and Disability Studies Group
Monday – 4:00 pm-6:30 pm
Room: CC-2014
Darla Schumm, Hollins University, Presiding
Theme: Metaphor, Language, and Corporeality
Devva Kasnitz, Society for Disability Studies |
Copresenting with Naomi Steinberg |
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Naomi Steinberg, Humboldt State University |
Inattentive Metaphors: Language and Thought on Disability in Progressive Judaism |