American Academy of Religion
Society of Biblical Literature
American Schools of Oriental Research
Southeastern Regional Meeting 2011
March 4-6, 2011
Galt House, Louisville KY
FRIDAY, March 4
2:00-8:00 pm
Registration
GHE 2nd Floor Reg. A
Book Exhibits
Wetherby Exhibit Hall
1:00-3:00 pm
Breathitt
Nurturing the Next Generation of Scholars: Fund for Theological Education
In partnership with the Southeastern Commission for the Study of Religion (SECSOR), The Fund for
Theological Education (FTE) is pleased to host a workshop for students from underrepresented racial and
ethnic communities who are enrolled in masters and undergraduate programs and are considering the
Ph.D. in religion, theology or biblical studies. Students must be pre-registered to participate.
1:00-3:00 pm
Nunn
Undergraduate Research in Religious Studies
This is a professional development workshop intended to help teachers in the region develop
their skills and approach to mentoring students in undergraduate research. This workshop is open
to ALL members of the region.
Bernadette McNary-Zak, Rhodes College, and Rebecca Todd Peters, Elon University,
Facilitators
3:00-4:00 pm
Laffoon
Southeastern Commission for the Study of Religion
AAR/SBL/ASOR Joint Executive Committee
Jodi Magness, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Presiding
4:00-5:00 pm
Laffoon
AAR/SBL/ASOR (SECSOR): Joint Business Meeting
All members of the societies are invited
Jodi Magness, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Presiding
FRIDAY EVENING, March 4
6:00-8:00 pm
SESSION I
SBL: Hebrew Scriptures/Old Testament I
Morrow
Brian Alderman, Lee University, Presiding
William L. Lyons, Regent University
What’s so Holy about War? An Examination of a Biblical Misnomer
Deena Grant, Barry University
Divine Anger as Fire in Early Biblical Poetry and in the Judahite Prophets
David B. Schreiner, Asbury Theological Seminary
The nir Passages in the Books of Kings and in the nar Passages in the Books of Samuel
Seth A. Bledsoe, Florida State University
Delilah’s Mistaken Identity: Repetition and Characterization in Judges 14-16
SBL: New Testament I
Stanley
Theme: Embodiment in the New Testament
Margaret Aymer, Interdenominational Theological Center and Andrew Mbuvi, Shaw University
Divinity School, Presiding
Jennifer Bird, Greensboro College
Body, Language and Power: A Feminist Reconceptualization of Paul
Greg Dover, Wake Forest University
Table Manner(ism)s: Corporeal Imagery and Ideology in the Lukan Last Supper
Meng Hun Goh, Vanderbilt University
The Embodied Lord’s Supper in 1 Corinthians 11:17-34
Matthew V. Novenson, North Carolina State University
Christ’s Davidic Pedigree in Romans 1:3: Does Paul Mean What He Says?
AAR/SBL: Bible and Modern Culture I
Wilson
Theme: Diverse Explorations and Challenges in Bible and Culture
Finbar S. Benjamin, Oakwood University, Presiding
Shaily Shashikant Patel, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
The Samaritan Mission in Acts 8:4-25: Liminality and Authority
Annie Tinsley, University of Birmingham, UK
Isolationism and the Culture of Isolation
Lynn R. Huber, Elon University
Revealing and Resisting: Thinking about a Queer Hermeneutics through the Lens of
Revelation
Arthur M. Wright, Union Presbyterian Seminary
Coming Out of Babylon: Reading Revelation as a Christian Supporter of Gay Rights
AAR: Constructive Theologies I
Beckham
Theme: Text and Context
David Dault, Christian Brothers University
Hidden Among the Leaves: Protestant and Catholic Battles for Theological Identity
Across the First Pages of Print Culture
Adam C. English, Campbell University
Cyril of Jerusalem: A Catechetical and Mystagogical Interpretation of Scripture
Joshua R. Brown, Campbell University Divinity School
“The Sole Test and Fruit of Religion:” Walter Rauschenbusch and the Impetus for
Prohibition
AAR: Black Cultures and the Study of Religion I
Taylor
Monique Moultrie, Western Kentucky University and Roger Sneed, Furman University,
Presiding
K. Merinda Simmons, University of Alabama
Existentialism and Refugee Subjectivity
Joshua Guthman, Berea College
Calvinism in Black and White: Experiencing Grace in the Jim Crow South
Dorcas Dennis, Florida International University
From South to South: The local Appropriation and uses of “Rasta” Symbols from
Jamaica in Ghana
Andrew Polk, Florida State University
The Best Knower: Mythmaking, Fard Muhammad, and the Lost-Found Nation of Islam
AAR: Ethics, Religion, and Society I
Fields
Theme: Open Session for Scholars to Discuss Current Research Projects in Ethics
This will be an informal opportunity for scholars working in the general field of ethics to share
their current (and past or future if desired) research projects with other scholars in the field. All
are welcome to come and participate either by discussing their research, or listening and learning
from colleagues.
AAR: Teaching Religion I and Islam I
McCreary
Theme: Teaching World Religions: Texts, Themes and Issues
Thom Stark, Emmanuel School of Religion, Presiding
Elizabeth Corrie, Emory University and Hazem Ziada, Emory University
Sacred Spaces: Using Architecture as a Lens for Teaching World Religions
Michael Stoltzfus, Valdosta State University
Teaching World Religions in the ‘Bible Belt’
Carole A. Barnsley, Transylvania University
Pedagogical Challenges and Rewards of Teaching Religion and Violence
Hussami Timani, Christopher Newport University
Teaching the Qur’an in the Classroom: The Art of Translation
AAR: Religion in America I and Women, Gender and Religion I Wilkinson
Theme: Gender and Method in American Religions
Kelly Baker, University of Tennessee at Knoxville, and Jill Peterfeso, University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill, Presiding
Jodie Ann Baird, Florida State University
Separation Anxiety: How Secularism Helped Shape the Development of Women’s
Emotionology in Early America
Susannah Laramee Kidd, Emory University
Women and the Bible: Imagining Oneself as Another
William Yoo, Emory University
East-West Encounters in Twentieth-Century Korean and American Experiences of
Whallan Kim and Agnes Davis
AAR: Religions of Asia I
Sampson
Theme: Conceiving the Body in South and East Asian Religion
Steven W. Ramey, University of Alabama, Presiding
Warner A. Belanger III, Georgia College and State University
From Toyika to Turfan: Textual Practices, Merit, and the ‘Inconceivability’ of the
Buddha
William A. Harman, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
Possession as Healing/Possession as Illness: The Fierce Grace of the Goddess
Elena Amato, Florida International University
“Life-Breath” in the Visuddhimagga: An Exploration and Analysis
Respondents: Amy L. Allocco, Elon University and Pamela D. Winfield, Elon Unniversity
AAR: Method and Theory I
Collins
Theme: Religion, Science and Theory
Laura Ammon, Appalachian State University, Presiding
Amy Brown, University of Florida
Ethics and the Naturalistic Fallacy
Kevin Heston, Wake Forest University
Creation without Science: A Reawakening of the Evangelical Movement?
Witold Wolney, University of Virginia’s College at Wise
The Symbolic Multiverse, the Anthropic Principle and the Salvation of the Klingons:
Would we still argue about God when we know everything?
Sameer Yadav, Duke University
Naturalism and Religion
Michael T. Bradley, Georgia Perimeter College
Checking Our Bearings: Exploring the Use of Spatial Cognition in Tweed’s Crossing and
Dwelling
8:15-9:30 pm
AAR/SBL/ASOR: Plenary Session
Grand Ballroom C
Bernadette McNary-Zak, Rhodes College and
Theodore Burgh, University of North Carolina at Wilmington, Presiding
Announcements of Student Awards
Presidential Addresses:
AAR: Laura Stivers, Dominican University of California
Homelessness and Hospitality
SBL: Gail Streete, Rhodes College
Against All Odds
9:30-11:00 pm
Conference Reception
Carroll Ford
SATURDAY MORNING, MARCH 5
7:30-8:45 am
Grand Ballroom C
AAR/SBL: Women’s Caucus Religious Studies Breakfast
Margaret Aymer, Interdenominational Theological Seminary and
Robyn Neville, Emory University, Presiding
Business Meeting
8:00 am-6:00 pm
Registration
GHE 2nd Floor Reg. A
Book Exhibits
Wetherby Exhibit Hall
9:00-10:45 am
SESSION II
ASOR/SBL: Archaeology and the Ancient World I
Collins
Theme: ASOR Presidential Address
James Riley Strange, Samford University, Presiding
Ralph K. Hawkins, Kentucky Christian University
The Iron Age I Structure on Mt. Ebal: Excavation and Interpretation
SBL: Hebrew Scriptures/Old Testament II
Morrow
Joseph Scrivner, Samford University
Samuel Long, Asbury Theological Seminary
Piercing Through the Layers: HS in Numbers 25
Robin Gallaher Branch, Victory University
A Comparison and Contrast (but No Competition!) Among Ladies in Waiting: The
Significance of Maids in the Book of Judith and the Additions to Esther
Gideon Park, Vanderbilt University
A Speech Act Analysis of Psalm 13
Business Meeting
SBL: New Testament II
Stanley
Theme: Reading Luke/Acts
Margaret Aymer, Interdenominational Theological Center and Andrew Mbuvi, Shaw University
Divinity School, Presiding
Ed Gallagher, Heritage Christian University
The ‘Blood of Zechariah’ ((Mt. 23:35; Lk. 11:51) in the History of Interpretation
Doug Hume, Pfeiffer University
Fear and Friendship, Reluctance and Rejection: The Emotive Aspect of Change and
Transformation in Acts 9:1-31
Jason A. Staples, University of North Carolina
Ephraim’s Return: Reexamining the Parable of the Prodigal Son
Business Meeting
AAR/SBL: Bible and Modern Culture II
Wilson
Theme: Interpretation and Cultural Context: Navigating the Waters of Interpretation
Samuel Murrell, UNC-Wilmington, Presiding
Eric Douglass, Randolph-Macon College
The Role of Culture in Interpretation: At the Crossroads between the Reader, the
Intended Audience, and the Text
Andres Arrazola, Florida International University
A Vagabond Hermeneutic
Katye Stone, Vanderbilt University
Genesis: Narrativization, Creation, and Chaos: A Contextual Interpretation
Finbar S. Benjamin, Oakwood University
Where Center and Margins Meet: Reading Strategies for a Multi-Cultural Interpretation
of the Bible
Respondent: Finbar S. Benjamin, Oakwood University
Business Meeting
AAR: Religion, Culture, and the Arts I
Taylor
Theme: Mediating Memory, Treating Trauma, Creating Community
Cara Burnidge, Florida State University, Presiding
Josh Fleer, Florida State University
The Winning Team: The House of David’s Barnstorming Baseball
Meghan Goyer, University of Georgia
Art as Ritual: A Tool for Healing
Adam M. Ware, Florida State University
Photographer, Heal Thyself: Revitalization Through (and of) the Lens of Edward Sherriff
Curtis
Jamie Brummitt, Duke University
Toward a Reconciled Death and a Virtual Afterlife: The Deconstruction of “the
Forbidden Death” through Web Memorials
AAR: Black Cultures and the Study of Religion II and Teaching Religion II Nunn
Theme: Critical Pedagogy
Reginaldo Braga, Interdenominational Theological Center, Presiding
Almeda M. Wright, Pfeiffer University
Transforming Black Religious and Theological Education: From Mis-education to
Reaffirming Theological Somebodiness, Critical Consciousness, and Epistemic
Responsibility
Thomas Grinter, Hood Theological Seminary and Joy Kennedy, University of North Carolina at
Greensboro
A Pedagogy of Love: The Bible and Paolo Freire
Carmichael D. Crutchfield. Memphis Theological Seminary
A Model of Leadership Formation: Teaching For Freedom: Teaching Teachers To Teach
For Freedom
Business Meeting: Black Cultures and the Study of Religion, Adam L. Bond, Samuel DeWitt
Procter School of Theology, Presiding
AAR: History of Christianity I
Fields
Theme: Patristics
Mark Nickens, Averett University, Presiding
Robert Morehouse, The Catholic University of America
A Universal Heresy: Pagan Christians in Ephrem of Nisibis’s Heresiography
Travis Proctor, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
The Battle in the Soul: Demons, the Logos, and the Purpose of Justin Martyr’s Apologies
Michael Simmons, Auburn University
The Soteriological Argument of Book Four of the Theophany of Eusebius
AAR: Women, Gender and Religion II
McCreary
Theme: Female Saints, Devotional Practice
Lisa Stephenson, Lee University, Presiding
Jenny Bledsoe, University of Tennessee at Knoxville
Physical Suffering and Heavenly Reward in the Vitae of St. Margaret of Antioch: Tarrant
Crawford’s Wall Paintings and Psalter
Cindy Bolden, Campbell University
Asceticism: Its Abuse and Use in the Devotional Life of the Church
Sarah Lieberman, Wake Forest University
Vibia Perpetua’s Gendered Hybridity: An Examination of Perpetua’s Androgynous
Identity in The Martyrdom of Saints Perpetua and Felicitas
Business Meeting
AAR: Religions of Asia II
Beckham
Theme: New Perspectives on Merit in Buddhist Cultures: Textual, Ritual, Material, Social and
Political Approaches
Warner A. Belanger III, Georgia College and State University, Presiding
Amy Holmes-Tagchungdarpa, University of Alabama
Modernizing Merit: Ideas of Merit in New Tibetan Print Cultures
Kalzang Dorjee Bhutia, University of Alabama
Radical Revisionings of Merit and Anti-Colonial Politics in The History of Sikkim
Jeffrey Samuels, Western Kentucky University
Overcoming Marginalization through Doing Good: Social Capital and the Making of the
Malaysian Buddhist Identity
Ian Chapman, University of Alabama
Statue Dedication and Merit Transfer in Fifth-Sixth Century Northern Chinese Daoism
AAR: Method and Theory II
Wilkinson
Theme: Undergraduate Papers in Method and Theory
Tom Ellis, Appalachian State University, Presiding
Jessica Krieg, Appalachian State University
The Aztec Practice of Human Sacrifice: A Marxist Analysis
Zachary Hagerty, Appalachian State University
The Rational Choice behind Radical Islam: An Application of Rational Choice Theory
and Social Identity Theory to the Study of Islamic Suicide Terrorism
James Collins, Appalachian State University
The Roots of Christianity: A Methodological Approach to Early Christologies
Alexandria Clifton, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Spectral Photography: An Analysis of the Photograph as Haunt in Contemporary
American Culture
Business Meeting
AAR: Religion in America II
Sampson
Theme: Varieties of American Religious Experience: Quakers, Missions, Beer and Atheists
Mark Hulsether, University of Tennessee, Presiding
Seth M. Walker, University of South Florida
Ovila de Sierra Nevada: The Partnership Between An American Craft Brewery and
Trappist Monks
Derrick Lemons, University of Georgia
Missional Shifts in the Evangelical Church in America
Jonathan H. Harwell, Georgia Southern University
Settling and Laying Down: Ongoing Findings in the Ethnohistory of Quakers in
Savannah and Statesboro, Georgia
Eric Chalfant, Wake Forest University
Thank God I’m an Atheist: Deconversion Narratives on the Internet
AAR: Ethics, Religion and Society II
Breathitt
Theme: Ethics, Civil Religion, and War
Sally Holt, Belmont University, Presiding
Jermaine M. McDonald, Emory University
Day that Will Live On? The Future of 9-11 as a Significant Date on American Civil
Religion
Tom Penna, Emory University, Candler School of Theology
The Variably Adorned Public Square: A Case Study in Religion and the Politics of
Healthcare Reform
Matthew Puffer, University of Virginia
Revisiting Barth on War: Taking Exception to the Grenzfall’s Reception
Business Meeting
11:00 am-12:00 pm
Plenary Session
Grand Ballroom C
Bernadette McNary-Zak, Rhodes College, Presiding
Ellen Armour, Vanderbilt University
Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve? Text, Tradition, and the Debate over Homosexuality
SATURDAY AFTERNOON, MARCH 5
AAR/SE, SBL/SE, and ASOR/SE Business Meetings
12:45-1:15 pm
AAR/SE Business Meeting
All members of the society are invited
Nunn
1:15-1:45 pm
SBL/SE Business Meeting
All members of the society are invited
Breathitt
1:45-2:15 pm
ASOR/SE Business Meeting
All members of the society are invited
Nunn
Fons Vitae, an academic, peer-reviewed interfaith press, is pleased to invite SECSOR
participants for tea and visit on Saturday, March 5, 2:00 p.m. Transportation will be provided.
For reservations, email michelle_tooley@berea.edu.
Besides publishing titles from the world's faiths, Fons Vitae publishes a Thomas Merton Series
(Merton and Sufism, then Buddhism, Hesychasm and Judaism, with Taoism on the way)which
have been accompanied by congresses. Please look at our website (www.fonsvitae.com) for
more information. See 'Events' for our recent launch with the Dalai Lama of 'Common Ground
between Islam and Buddhism'. We offer conference participants discounts and we are interested
in your scholarly work.
2:30-4:15 pm
SESSION III
ASOR/AAR: Archaeology and the Ancient World II and Women, Gender and Religion III
Collins
Theme: Gender in Material Culture
Cynthia A. Hogan, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Presiding
Carrie Duncan, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
If It’s Good for the Gander is it Good for the Goose? Gender and Representation in
Synagogue Title Inscriptions
Melanie Starks Kierstead, Asbury University
Phrygian Roots of the Montanist Movement
John Wineland, Kentucky Christian University
The 2009 Season of the Karak Resources Project, Central Jordan
SBL: New Testament III
Morrow
Andrew Mbuvi, Shaw University Divinity School, Presiding
Theme: Interpretive Strategies
Matthew Burgess, University of Virginia
More weight than it can bear? A reexamination of Gregory-Aland 0220
Wayne Martin Coppins, University of Georgia
William Sewell’s Theory of Structure and the Interpretation of 1 Corinthians 8-10: A
Social Historian’s Appreciative Critique of Giddens and Bourdieu and its Relevance for
New Testament Studies
Mark Proctor, Lee University
Were we infants among you?-Punctuating 1 Thess. 2:7b
Rafael Rodriguez, Johnson Bible College
Speaking of Jesus: “Oral Tradition” beyond the Form Critics
AAR: History of Judaism I
Taylor
Michael Fuller, Lee University, Presiding
Mark A. Christian, Vanderbilt University
Helping Caleb Find His Place within Second Temple Judaism
Michael Fuller, Lee Unversity
The Accommodation of Eschatological Ideas with Greco-Roman Contexts
Alexander Stewart, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary
4 Ezra’s Narrative World: A Case Study in Worldview Analysis
Business Meeting
AAR: History of Christianity II
Sampson
Theme: Medieval Period
Michael Simmons, Auburn University, Presiding
Travis Ables, Vanderbilt University
The Word in which All Things are Said: Anselm and Bonaventure on the Speculative
Trinitarian Logic of the Incarnation
Jennifer Freeman, Vanderbilt University
Made in His Image: A Select Translation of the Libri Carolini
Mary Hackworth, Pacifica Graduate Institute
Carved in Stone: Two Strands of Medieval Philosophy in Gothic Architecture
Business Meeting
AAR: Religion in America III
Stanley
Theme: Protestants and Print
Matt Hedstrom, University of Virginia, Presiding
Barton Price, Florida State University
Effervescence on the Page: Frontier Revival Practices and the Creation of an
Evangelical Printed Public Sphere, 1787-1860
Seth Perry, University of Chicago Divinity School
Kick Against the Pricks Goads: Thomas M. Allen’s King James Bible
Joshua Guthman, Berea College
Calvinism in Black and White: Experiencing Grace in the Jim Crow South
Respondent: Matt Hedstrom, University of Virginia
Business Meeting
AAR: Black Cultures and the Study of Religion III and Constructive Theologies II
Nunn
Book Panel: The Christian Imagination: Theology and the Origins of Race by Willie James
Jenkins
Cameron Jorgenson, Campbell University Divinity School and Ronald B. Neal, Wake Forest
University, Presiding
Panelists:
Victor Anderson, Vanderbilt University
Mike Broadway, Shaw University
J. Kameron Carter, Duke University
M. Shawn Copeland, Boston College
Respondent: Willie James Jennings, Duke University
AAR: Philosophy of Religion I
Fields
Theme: The Intersection of Theology and Philosophy
Mark A. Wells, Montreat College, Presiding
Matthew Boedy, University of South Carolina
Bonhoeffer’s Performative Engagement with Philosophy
Andrew Irvine, Maryville College
Toward a Semiotic Theory of Divinization
Peter Capretto, Vanderbilt Divinity School
Heidegger and Wittgenstein on Hermeneutic Circularity and the Domain of Religious
Belief
AAR: Religion and Ecology I
Beckham
Theme: Theological Praxis amid Ecological Decline
Richard Carp, Appalachian State University, Presiding
Terence Baz, St. George Antiochian Orthodox Christian Church
Methods/methodologies for “learning from others” and Green initiatives in theological
education
Jefferson Calico, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
Healing the Word: Strip-Mining, Reclamation, and Tikkun Olam in the work of Wendell
Berry
Curt Lowndes, Duke Divinity School
Mountaintop Removal and the Image of God
Business Meeting
AAR: Islam II
McCreary
Theme: Islam: Spiritualities and Identities
Carole Barnsley, Transylvania University
Seth Bailey, University of Georgia
The Textual Traditions of Bahira: Deciphering the Source in the Sira and the Polemics of
Bahira Prophecy
Nathan Hofer, Emory University
Unruly Sufis in Upper Egypt
Marcela Schlueter, Duke University
A Woman’s Perspective: Sisters in Islam and Qur’anic Interpretations in Malaysia
Diego Castellanos, Florida International University
Muslims in the Caribbean: Identity, Ethnicity and Religion
Business Meeting
AAR: Teaching Religion III
Wilkinson
Margaret Aymer, Interdenominational Theological Center and Reginaldo Braga,
Interdenominational Theological Center, Presiding
Theme: Theory, Method, Practice, Praxis
Amy Laurent, Duke University and Lucia Hulsether, Agnes Scott College
Undoing Cultures of Shame: Student-Faculty Collaboration as Critical Resistance
Natalie Wigg-Stevenson, Vanderbilt University
Practical Pedagogy: How Practice Theory Can Remap the Religious Studies Classroom
Business Meeting
AAR: Ethics, Religion, and Society III
Wilson
Theme: Comparative Religious Ethics
Darla Schumm, Hollins University, Presiding
Michael Stoltzfus, Valdosta State University
Desire and Moral Agency: Buddhist and Christian Perspectives
Helen “Betsy” Mesard, University of Virginia
Imagining Humanity: Moral Anthropology and Islamic Humanism in the Work of
Abdewahab Elmessiri
Seth Tweneboah, Florida International University
The Traditional Chief’s Power and the Right of the Individual to Express Religion Freely
to Traditional Ghanaian Communities
Christopher Gross, The Catholic University of America
Abortion as the ‘American Holocaust’: The Shoah as a Rhetorical Tool in the Abortion
Debate
AAR: Religion, Culture, and the Arts II
Breathitt
Theme: Trauma, Memory, and Identity in the American Novel
Lauren Gray, Florida State University, Presiding
Cara Burnidge, Florida State University
Memories of Progress, Memories of Racial (In)Equality: The Religious-Historical
Narrative of Charles M. Sheldon’s The Redemption of Freetown
Emily Gravett, University of Virginia
The Case of Missing Religion in Richard Powers’s The Echo Maker: Memory Loss,
Fractured Identities, and Divine Destiny in Rural Nebraska
Carolyn Jones Medine, University of Georgia
“Bare Life” and the Presence of God in Cormac McCarthy’s The Road
Business Meeting
4:30-6:00 pm
SESSION IV
ASOR/SBL: Archaeology and the Ancient World III
Collins
Theme: Ancient Inscriptions and Their Bearing on the Reading of the Hebrew Bible
Todd Hibbard, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, Presiding
Bennie Reynolds, Millsaps College
May YHWH Cause My Lord to See Peace: Jussive Invocation of YHWH and the Rhetoric
of Political Crisis
Amanda M. Davis, Emory University
The Identity of the “Mad King” of Daniel 4 in Light of Ancient Near Eastern Sources
Adam L. Bean, Emmanuel School of Religion
The Topography of Divinity: Local Manifestations of Deities in the Ancient Near East
AAR: Philosophy of Religion II
Fields
Theme: Soren Kierkegaard
Mark A. Wells, Montreat College, Presiding
Shannon A. Montgomery, Georgia State University
Leaping into the Event: The Paradoxical Moment in Kierkegaard and Badiou
David M. Gides, Mount Mercy University
Can Kierkegaard’s Existentialist Philosophy Serve as a Lutheran Philosophy?: The
Implications of Kierkegaard’s Understanding of Faith for Luther’s Doctrine of
Justification
Kirk Essary, Florida State University
Kierkegaard and Plantinga: Two Attacks on Historical Biblical Criticism
Business Meeting
AAR: Religion and Ecology II
Beckham
Theme: Learning from “Others”: Exploring (Re)Sources of Ecological Wisdom from Outside
“the West”
David McDuffie, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Presiding
Isabel Mukonyora, Western Kentucky University
The Thickening of Metaphor in Religions of Place
Joseph Witt, University of Florida
Appalachian Nature Religion: Spiritual Values of Place and History in the Coalfields
Alayne Brown, Wesleyan College
The Disappearing Monkey Tail: Using Indigenous Religions’ Methodologies to Save
Nature
AAR: History of Christianity III
Wilson
Theme: Global Christianity
Michael Simmons, Auburn University, Presiding
Brock Bingaman, Wesleyan College
Transforming Christian Mysticism: A Vision for the Modern World
Genevieve Nrenzah, Florida International University
Religion, Culture, and Gender in Modern Ghana’s Pentecostalism: Women’s Own Views
about Their Spiritual Roles and Experiences
Mark Nickens, Averitt University
If It Was Good Enough for Paul, It Is Good Enough for Me: Why Some Christians View
the King James Version as the Only Reliable Version of the Bible
AAR: Islam III and Ethics, Religion, and Society IV
McCreary
Hussam Timani, Christopher Newport University, Presiding
Zahra Ayubi, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Ethical Approaches to Islamic Gender Reform
Thom Stark, Emmanuel School of Religion
Subverting the Sacred: The Politics of Script and Ritual in the Thought of Ali Shari’ati,
with reference to James C. Scott and Victor Turner
Jeff Gottlieb, Florida State University
The Use of Mu’tazilite Reasoning for Modern Times: Mohsen Kadivar’s Harmony of
Reason and Revelation
AAR/SBL: Bible and Modern Culture III
Stanley
Theme: Scripture Evolving: Adapting, Re-writing, and Singing the Bible
Richard Pindar, Johnson and Wales University, Presiding
Avery Cooper, Morehouse School of Religion
Kirk Franklin’s Usage of Revelations 7:16-17 in the Song “Revolution”
Frederick L. Downing, Valdosta State University
Jesus the Rebel: Clarence Jordan and the Re-writing of Scripture
Amanda Beckenstein Mbuvi, Guilford College
(Un)conventional Genesis: Adapting the Bible for the West
Panel discussion, The Bible as a Cultural Source Text
Richard Pindar, Johnson and Wales University, Moderator
AAR: Method and Theory III
Nunn
Book Review Panel of Science and Nonbelief (Prometheus Books, 2007) by Taner Edis
Panelists: Thomas Ellis, Appalachian State University
Sean McCloud, University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Craig Martin, St. Thomas Aquinas College
Benjamin Zeller, Brevard College
Respondent: Taner Edis, Truman State University
AAR: Religions of Asia III
Sampson
Theme: Asian Religions and Ecology: Conflicts, Contexts, and Contributions
Brian K. Pennington, Maryville College, Presiding
Michael Bathgate, Saint Xavier University
Living Relations? The Texts and Contexts of Medieval Japanese Ecology
Mark Toole, High Point University
Springtime in Sukhavati is Far from Silent: Pure Land Buddhist Constructive Theology
as a Lens for Addressing Environmental Crises
Gerald Carney, Hampden-Sydney College
A Bridge Too Far?—The Conflicted Religious Ecology of Contemporary Vrindaban
Respondent: Pamela D. Winfield, Elon University
Business Meeting
AAR: Constructive Theologies III
Taylor
Mark Medley, Baptist Seminary of Kentucky, Presiding
Thomas A. James, Union Presbyterian Seminary
Radical Monotheism and Multiplicity: Theology Encountering Deleuzianism
Earl Gordon Barnett, Candler School of Theology
The Politics of Jesus?: A Eucharistic Vision of the Just War Tradition
Mark A. Wells, Montreat College
A Citizenship Model of Atonement
Business Meeting
AAR/SBL: Undergraduate Research I
Morrow
Theme: Reexamining Texts
Anne Blue Wills, Davidson College, Presiding
Leslie G. Frey III, Gardner-Webb University
Astrological Worship in Amos 5
Matthew Murch, Virginia Tech
Eating, Meeting, and Meaning: Food Events in the Gospel of Mark
Daniel Motley, Campbellsville University
The Crisis and the Curse: An Exposition of Galatians 3:10-14
Amanda Olmstead, Elon University
Charlotte H.E.L.P.: Complexities of a Justice Model
AAR/SBL: MA/MDiv Session I
Breathitt
Theme: Church, Academy and Society
Rev. Dr. Johnny B. Hill, Foundation for Reconciliation and Dialogue, Presiding
This session provides a timely and important opportunity for scholars at all stages to engage in
discussion about the intersections of Church, Academy and Society, with particular attention to
contemporary social, political, and religious challenges related to war and peace, ecology,
poverty, religious pluralism, sexism, racism, and consumerism in today's world. Panelists will
include denominational leaders, scholars, and graduate students as the offer critical reflections on
the interconnections of Church, Academy and Society concerning these themes, as well as ways
to overcome barriers to constructive dialogue. All are welcome to come and participate.
6:00-7:00 pm
Reception for Student Members of the Societies
SUNDAY MORNING, MARCH 6
Carroll Ford
7:00-8:15 am
Grand Ballroom C
Section Chairs’ Breakfast
Steven Ramey, University of Alabama and Kavin Rowe, Duke Divinity School, Presiding
8:00-11:00 am
Registration
GHE 2nd Floor Reg. A
Book Exhibits
Wetherby Exhibit Hall
8:30-10:15 am
SESSION V
ASOR/SBL: Archaeology and the Ancient World IV
Collins
Theme: Archaeology and the Bible
Sharon Lea Mattila, University of North Carolina at Pembroke, Presiding
Shane Buchanan, Kentucky Christian University
The Khirbet Qeiyafa Inscription and 11th-10th Century BCE Israel
Christopher A. Rollston, Emmanuel School of Religion
Writing in the Bronze and Iron Ages: Methodological Reflections about Writing,
Literacy, and the Hebrew Bible
Frederick L. Downing, Valdosta State University
Joseph A. Callaway and the Ruin of Biblical Archaeology
James Riley Strange, Samford University
Archaeology and the Epistle of James
SBL: New Testament IV
Stanley
Theme: Reading Paul
Margaret Aymer, Interdenominational Theological Center and Andrew Mbuvi, Shaw University
Divinity School, Presiding
Richard Adams, Emory University
The Apostolic Parousia and the Death of the Author: A Study of Paul’s Presence in
Galatians
Kathy Dawson, Duke University
Did Paul Really Ask the Galatians If They Had Been Bewitched?: An Alternative
Translation of Gal. 3:1 in Light of Rhetorical εναργεια
Thomas Grafton, Asbury Theological Seminary
Why All the Boasting? A Study of Paul’s use of Boasting Language in 2 Corinthians
Jason Myers, Asbury Theological Seminary
Is Abraham the Gentile of Rom. 2:14-15? The echoes of Rom. 2:14-15 in Rom. 4:1-8
AAR:Religion, Culture, and the Arts III and Women, Gender and Religion IV Morrow
Theme: Culture(s): Literary, Print, and Visual
Jill Peterfeso, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Presiding
Cynthia A. Hogan, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
The Body and Blood of “Alice”: Female Sacrifice, Violence, and Resurrection in the
Resident Evil Film Series
Jae Jenkins, Florida State University
Through Image and Song: The Social Mysticism of Hildegard of Bingen
Jennifer Kryszak, Duke University
Daily Inspiration: Using a Calendar to Transform Society
Kristine Suna-Koro, Xavier University
Women, Poetry and Theology in the Liturgical Space of Diaspora: Encounters with
Latvian Women Through Text and Sound
AAR: Religion in America IV and History of Judaism II
Wilson
Theme: Judaism in America
Kelly J. Baker, University of Tennessee, Presiding
Scott Lebowitz, Florida Atlantic University
Sabbath on the Suwanee: Judaism in Early Florida
Samira Mehta, Emory University
Dovetail: Blending of Christian/Jewish Families in Contemporary America
Michael S. Berger, Emory University
American Religion and American Judaism: Intentional vs. Natural Communities
Nathan Shurte, Wake Forest University
Familiar Hatreds in New Typeface: Anti-Semitism in Print Media in Urban America,
1915-1935
AAR: Religions of Asia IV
McCreary
Theme: Multiple Models of Translation: Texts, Theory, and Theology
Amy Homes-Tagchungdarpa, University of Alabama, Presiding
Peter Valdina, Furman University
Translating the Yoga Sutra and Theorizing Religion
John M. Thompson, Christopher Newport University
Translation as Public Performance: A Buddhist Case
Satnam Forrest, Centre College
The Gizistag Abalish: A Tenth-century Interreligious Dialogue Between Zoroastrians and
Muslims
Respondent: Amy L. Allocco, Elon University
AAR/SBL: Undergraduate Research II
Taylor
Theme: Religion, Gender, and Equality
Anne Blue Wills, Presiding
Jen Kotrady, Rhodes College
The Construction of Female Ideologies in the Carthusian Order
Kiva Nice-Webb, Elon University
Reconsidering the Goddess in the Saint: Reading Brigit through a Postcolonial Lens
Sarah Lanners, Davidson College
A Daring Woman’s Words: The Effect of Ann Eliza Young’s Life and Lectures on
American Feminist, Political, and Religious History
Jerica Sandifer, Rhodes College
’Open and Affirming’: Shifting Church Identities in the Movement towards GLBT
Inclusion
10:30 am-12:15 pm
SESSION VI
SBL: New Testament V
Stanley
Theme: Non Canonical Writings and the New Testament
Margaret Aymer, Interdenominational Theological Center and Andrew Mbuvi, Shaw University
Divinity School, Presiding
Christopher W. Skinner, Mount Olive College
The Gospel of Thomas’s Rejection of Paul’s Theological Ideas
Gideon Park, Emory University
Martyrdom in the Gospel of Judas
Joshua Jipp, Emory University
Death and the Human Predicament, Salvation as Transformation, and Bodily Practices
in 1 Corinthians and the Gospel of Thomas
Eric Thurman, University of the South
Reading the Men: Postcolonial Manhood in Mark’s Gospel and the Ancient Novel
AAR/SBL: Bible and Modern Culture IV
Morrow
Theme: Biblical Explorations: Problems and Possibilities
Eric Douglass, Randolph-Macon College, Presiding
Dorina Miller Parmenter, Spalding University
“A Bible That is Falling Apart” and “America’s Iconic Book” in Contemporary
Evangelical Biblicism
Richard Pindar, Johnson and Wales University
The Marginalization of the Modern Christian Church by the Modern Christian Church
Brian Mooney, Johnson and Wales University
“Voodoo Death”: Walter B. Cannon, Science and Religion in the Spirit of William James
John Thompson, University of Glasgow, UK, and Wakemed Hospital, Raleigh, NC
Voicing Our Pain: Reading Lamentations in the Hospital
AAR: Teaching Religion IV
McCreary
Theme: Engaging Schussler-Fiorenza: A Discussion of the Pedagogical Theory and Practice in
Democratizing Biblical Studies
Panelists:
Joseph F. Scrivner, Samford University
Elizabeth Hinson-Hasty, Bellarmine University
Tina Pippin, Agnes Scott College
Lynn Huber, Elon University
AAR: Constructive Theologies IV and Women, Gender and Religion V Collins
Theme: Body as Text
Carrie Duncan, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Presiding
Brandy Daniels, Duke University
Barth and the (Sexed) Body as Text: A Theological Engagement with Elizabeth Grosz’s
Volatile Bodies
Carolyn Jane Davis, Vanderbilt University
Embodied Desire: A Theology of Christian Sex-Talk with Adolescent Women
Margarita M. W. Suarez, Meredith College
Cuban Women Pastors: Struggling Faithfully, Creating Possibilities
AAR: Ethics, Religion, and Society V
Wilson
Theme: Ethics, Religion, and Society
Michael Stoltzfus, Valdosta State University, Presiding
Joseph Kelly, Southern Seminary
Chewing the Cud: Israelite Dietary Laws as Fodder for Christian Ethics
Wilson M. Maina, University of West Florida
The Recent Revival of the Moral Principle of Cooperation in the Roman Catholic Health
Care Ethics
Lindsey Graham, Davis and Elkins College
A Sociological Approach to Understanding Clergy Sexual Misconduct and Harassment
AAR: Religion in America V
Taylor
Theme: New Religious Movements: Hybridity, Legitimacy and Theft
Kelly Baker, University of Tennessee at Knoxville, Presiding
Christopher James Blythe, Florida State University
Joseph [Smith] Being Dead Yet Speaketh: A Case Study in Legitimacy, Grief, and
Apparitions of Deceased Prophetic Figures
Kenny Smith, Georgia State University
Religious Theft of Sacred Culture?
Kelly O’Reilly, Georgia State University
A Look at Hybridity and Metamorphosis in the ‘HIStory’ of Michael Jackson
Louis A. Ruprecht Jr., Georgia State University
Crete Myth and Us: Ancient Reflections on Modern Hybridities