Published by the American Academy of Religion October 2003 Vol. 18, No. 4 www.aarweb.org

❒✓ IT’S TIME TO RENEW YOUR MEMBERSHIP Annual Meeting News See page 11 for a membership form What’s On in Atlanta ...... 6 Eat, Drink, and Be Entertained Reel Religion ...... 6 Eight Exciting Movies To Be Shown AAR Announces New Strategic Plan...... 3 Performances and Exhibitions . . 6 Centennial Strategic Plan 2004–2009 Spirituality, Sacred Places, and Gospel Singing Atlanta Tours ...... 7 Election 2004 ...... 4–5 Five Important Sites Candidates for Vice President and Student Director Results of Surveys ...... 8 Special Topics Forum Three New Program Units . . . . 8 Pew Awards AAR $560,000 to continue Animals and Religion; Childhood Studies and Religion; and Relics and Religionsource ...... 11 Sacred Territory (Space) Providing Journalists with Referrals to Scholars FBI on Panel at Annual Meeting ...... 8 FBI, Scholars, and a Journalist Look American Academy of Religion Awards ...... 12–13 at Religion’s Role in Crises Excellence in Teaching, Book Awards, Best In-Depth Reporting, Chairs Workshop ...... 9 Scholarship, Service, and Stress: and the Martin E. Marty Award The Tensions of Being a Chair Annual Meeting Focus ...... 10 Japanese Scholars and Scholarship AAR Surveys of Religion & Theology Marty Award Forum ...... 12 Programs in the U.S...... 14 A forum with 2003 winner Robert Wuthnow The Study of Religion and Theology at the Undergraduate and Graduate Levels

FEATURES Regional Meetings and Calls for Papers ...... 15 Beyond the Annual Meeting . .10 Regional Groups Meet in Spring 2004 An Interview with Manabu Watanabe Member-At-Large ...... 17 National Endowment for the Humanities ...... 17 An Interview with the Templeton Laureate 2003 An Interview with Chairman Cole Passages ...... 18 An Interview with Eugene Bianchi, Emeritus, Emory University Academy Fund ...... 22–23 In the Public Interest ...... 19 Over Eight Hundred Contribute to the Work of the Academy Supreme Court Membership Could Affect Church-State Relations Department Meeting ...... 20 An Interview with Wade Clark Roof, Chair of the UCSB Department of Religion Spotlight on Teaching Research Briefing ...... 20 Medieval Women and Their Holy Objects Teaching about From the Student Desk ...... 21 Religion and Violence From Clash to Creativity Religious Studies News, AAR Edition 2003 2003 Member Calendar AAR Staff Directory Dates are subject to change. Check www.aarweb.org for the latest information. Kyle Cole, Ph.D. Associate Director of Religionsource October November 15. AAR officer election votes due. December 31. Membership renewal for 2004 E-MAIL: [email protected] due. Renew online at www.aarweb.org/dues/ TEL: 404-727-4725 Religious Studies News, AAR Edition November 21. Fall Board of Directors page01.asp. Barbara DeConcini, Ph.D. October issue. meeting, Atlanta, GA. Executive Director and Treasurer Spotlight on Teaching Fall 2003 issue. November 21. Chairs Workshop at the E-MAIL: [email protected] Annual Meeting, Atlanta. Free for depart- And keep in mind TEL: 404-727-3049 October 1–November 15. AAR officer elec- ments enrolled in the Academic Relations throughout the year . . . Joe DeRose tion period. Candidate profiles published in Program. For more information, see Director of Membership and Technology Services RSN. www.aarweb.org/department/acadrel.asp. Regional organizations have various deadlines E-MAIL: [email protected] throughout the fall for their Calls for Papers. TEL: 404-727-7972 October 15. January 2004 RSN submission November 22–25. Annual Meeting, Atlanta, See www.aarweb.org/regions/default.asp. Ina Ferrell deadline. GA. Held concurrently with the Society of Accountant Biblical Literature each November, comprising In the Field. News of events and opportu- E-MAIL: [email protected] October 16. Third tier (“Regular”) Annual some 8,500 registrants, 200 publishers, and nities for scholars of religion. In the Field TEL: 404-727-2331 Meeting registration rates go into effect. 100 hiring departments. is a members-only online publication that Carey J. Gifford, Ph.D. accepts brief announcements, including Director of Academic Relations October 21. EIS preregistration closes. calls for papers, grant news, conference E-MAIL: [email protected] Deadline for receipt of Candidate Resume TEL: 404-727-2270 Forms. announcements, and other opportunities December appropriate for scholars of religion. John Harrison Submit text online at www.aarweb.org/ Director of Finance and Operations/ Journal of the American Academy of Religion publications/inthefield/submit.asp. Deputy Executive Director November December 2003 issue. E-MAIL: [email protected] TEL: 404-727-7954 October 1–November 15. AAR officer December 4. New program unit proposals due. Openings: Employment Opportunities for Scholars of Religion. Openings is a mem- Steve Herrick election period. Candidate profiles December 12–13. Program Committee bers-only online publication listing job Director of External Relations published in RSN. meeting, Atlanta, GA. E-MAIL: [email protected] announcements in areas of interest to TEL: 404-727-7948 November 1. Research grant awards December 15. Submissions for the March members; issues are viewable online from the first through the last day of each Myesha D. Jenkins announced. 2004 issue of Religious Studies News due. For month. Submit announcements online, Administrative Supervisor more information, see E-MAIL: [email protected] November 12. Executive Committee and review policies and pricing, at www.aarweb.org/publications/rsn/default.asp. TEL: 404-727-3026 meeting, Atlanta, GA. www.aarweb.org/openings/submit.asp. Aislinn Jones Annual Meeting Program Director E-MAIL: [email protected] TEL: 404-727-8132 Allya Macdonald Administrative Assistant E-MAIL: [email protected] TEL: 404-727-7920 Shannon Planck Director of Development E-MAIL: [email protected] TEL: 404-727-7928 Shelly C. Roberts Projects Assistant E-MAIL: [email protected] TEL: 404-727-4707 Susan Snider Administrative Assistant, Media Referral E-MAIL: [email protected] TEL: 404-727-4711

Religious Studies News, AAR Edition is published quarterly by the American Academy of Religion in January, March, May, and October. Letters to the editor and features examining professional issues in the field are welcome from all readers. Please send editorial pieces in electronic uncompressed file format only (MS Word is preferred) to: [email protected].

Subscriptions to individuals and institutions are available. See www.aarweb.org/ publications/rsn for more information. Deadlines for submissions: January: October 15 March: December 15 May: February 15 October: July 15 Advertising For information on advertising, please see www.aarweb.org/publications/rsn Publisher: American Academy of Religion 825 Houston Mill Road, NE Suite 300 Atlanta, GA 30329 Editor-in-Chief: Carey J. Gifford, Ph.D. Religious Studies News, AAR Edition is the newspaper of record for the field especially designed to serve the professional needs of Production Manager: persons involved in teaching and scholarship in religion (broadly construed to include religious studies, theology, and sacred texts). Shelly C. Roberts Published quarterly by the American Academy of Religion, RSN is received by some ten thousand scholars, by departments Layout: enrolled in the Academic Relations Program, and by libraries at colleges and universities across North America and abroad. Religious Jill Connolly, Madison, GA Studies News, AAR Edition communicates the important events of the field and related areas. It provides a forum for members and © AAR, 2003 others to examine critical issues in education, pedagogy (especially through the biannual Spotlight on Teaching), research, publishing, POSTMASTER: and the public understanding of religion. It also publishes news about the services and programs of the AAR and other organiza- Send address changes to Religious Studies News, tions, including employment services and registration information for the AAR Annual Meeting. AAR Edition, 825 Houston Mill Road, Suite 300, Atlanta, GA 30329. For writing and advertising guidelines, please see www.aarweb.org/publications/rsn.asp. Periodicals postage paid at Atlanta, GA.

2 • October 2003 AAR RSN ANNUAL MEETING NEWS

From the Executive Director’s Desk AAR Announces New Strategic Plan

our international outreach. These pro- strengthen and enlarge the study of reli- we have heard from over four hundred of INCE AT LEAST THE EARLY grams continue to offer vital support to gion in your classrooms and campuses, you — about 4 percent of our members. 1990s, the AAR has set its course our mission of advancing scholarship and your lectures and publications, and your Among the responses to this impending by means of a formal strategic plan- S teaching in religion and theology. public outreach. Especially, we are indebt- change (effective in 2008), the salient dif- ning process. Through the discipline of ed to the hundreds and hundreds of our ferential in opinion is the subfield within periodically scanning the impinging envi- During the past several years, the AAR has members who serve on committees, the field of religion in which one works. ronmental factors, assessing our accom- been about the work of imagining our organize and plan the Annual Meeting, Members whose scholarly work most plishments and challenges, and thinking new future and recollecting our past. work as editors and authors in our publi- closely engages the concerns of biblical strategically about the future of our pro- Through consulting with scholarly cations program, develop our regional scholarship are, understandably, distressed fession and our field, the Academy has experts, seeking the thoughtful engage- programming, and share your expertise by the prospect of the loss of valuable shaped its objectives, created programs to ment of our members, and spending long and enthusiasm in workshops, seminars, conversation partners. And some respon- meet them, and garnered the resources to hours in thinking and conversation, the and advisory groups. As a community of dents anticipate with regret fewer oppor- achieve them. Since 1990, the Academy Board of Directors developed a fresh plan individuals who freely join their colleagues tunities to see old friends. At the same has developed in every way. To name a for the Academy this past spring. With a in common purpose, the AAR is graced time, the prospect of substantially more couple of key indicators, membership has view toward the one-hundredth anniver- with exceedingly generous members. program space and time for the various grown from 5,500 to over 9,300 individu- sary of our predecessor organization’s subfields within religion, as well as for als; and the AAR Annual Meeting pro- founding in 1909, we have named it the emerging discourses and new knowledge gram, from 160 to 280 sessions. The A New Approach to the Annual AAR Centennial Strategic Plan, in the field, cheer many respondents. Academy has garnered close to four mil- Meeting 2004–2009. Others look forward as well to enhanced lion dollars in external support of new Among these new strategic objectives, the programming in various aspects of the programs. one that has attracted the most attention The historical reference is more than com- profession per se. is the AAR’s decision to hold our own memorative. Rather, it offers the opportu- Through the 1990s, we focused on teach- Annual Meetings beginning in 2008, after nity and responsibility to take a large view Some of the feedback expressed consterna- ing and learning, mapping the study of many years of fruitful meetings held joint- — of the field and its striking develop- tion with the decision-making process itself religion in our colleges and universities, ly with the Society of Biblical Literature. ment over the past century, the continuing and with the (lack of) consultation with and contributing to the broad public This decision to hold stand-alone meet- challenge to explain what it is we do as the SBL. We have responded to these pro- understanding of religion. With the gener- ings is actually not new, but rather a scholars and teachers of religion, the needs cedural issues in new entries on the FAQ ous help of funders (the Lilly Endowment, return to our founders’ vision and purpose of our global society for better under- page of our Web site, at www.aarweb.org/ the Pew Charitable Trusts, the Ford in 1964. It is taken as one piece of a larger standing of the roles religion plays, and annualmeet/decision-faq.asp. Foundation, the National Endowment for rethinking of the future of the Academy as how the AAR can be most effective in the Humanities, and the Luce Foundation it enters into its centennial and this new serving these needs of the age, the field, The Board’s conversation about this aspect chief among them), AAR offered teaching millennium. The responsibility of the the profession, and its professors. of the future was open and wide-ranging; workshops in our ten regions, created a Board of Directors was to take stock of dissenting positions were carefully and Virtual Teaching and Learning Center of where the organization is now and where I invite you to take some time to study scrupulously weighed. I admired Board resources, mounted a major data collec- it might be heading — to imagine its the outline of this new centennial strategic members’ deep engagement and concen- tion project on undergraduate and gradu- future as a distinctive organization with its plan, to respond to it, and to become tration in the process, their clear under- ate programs, offered leadership opportu- own professional and scholarly identity involved in achieving it. standing that they were making the deci- nities for chairs and deans, initiated an and then to take steps towards that new sion not for one or another constituency online media resource of scholarly experts, horizon. And I want to express my earnest thanks or for their own interests, but for the launched our publishing program with to all of you, our members, who have Oxford University Press, and enhanced Since announcing this decision in April, worked individually and collectively to See ANNOUNCEMENT p.9 Centennial Strategic Plan (2004 – 2009)

VISION cal examination, the AAR welcomes all 9. To advance and secure the future of the field and its professors. disciplined reflection on religion — from the academic study of religion. The American Academy of Religion (AAR) is both within and outside of communities of 3. To enhance the identity of the AAR the preeminent scholarly and professional belief and practice — and seeks to enhance within the larger scholarly community. society in the field of religion, recognized as its broad public understanding STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES As the field of religion continues to the field’s leader in critical scholarship; teach- As we prepare for the Academy’s centenni- develop and to change its contours, ing and learning about religion; and resources al in 2009, 100 years from the founding there is growing interest and need to for pedagogy, programs, the professoriate, and GOALS of its predecessor organization, we identify relate the field to cognate fields. At the public understanding of religion. To accomplish this mission, the AAR sets the following strategic objectives. The the same time, we have not yet made forth the following goals: attention given to these objectives simply a thoroughly convincing case for our highlights them for special focus within field within the liberal arts setting MISSION 1. To promote research and scholarship the AAR’s continuing commitment to cur- and among college and university In a world where religion plays so central in the field of religion. rent and ongoing programs and services. administrators and colleagues. a role in social, political, and economic events, as well as in the lives of communi- 2. To foster excellence in teaching and 1. To attract new members to the AAR. 4. To clarify the identity and mission of ties and individuals, there is a critical need learning in the field. The notable growth of the AAR the AAR vis-à-vis other scholarly soci- for ongoing reflection upon and under- membership over the past ten years eties in religion, holding stand-alone standing of religious traditions, issues, 3. To facilitate our members’ profession- still leaves many scholars and teachers annual meetings beginning in 2008. questions, and values. The American al development. in the field of religion unaffiliated Currently the number of scholarly Academy of Religion’s mission is to pro- with the AAR. Both the field and the societies dedicated to the study of mote such reflection through excellence in 4. To develop programming and partici- Academy will be stronger and intel- religion is growing, and on a global scholarship and teaching. pation in AAR regional groups. lectually richer if these colleagues scale. Some have a general focus; oth- choose to join our ranks. ers, very specific areas of interest. In As a learned society and professional associ- 5. To advance publication and scholarly order to insure a fruitful interaction ation of teachers and research scholars, the communication in the field. 2. To enhance the role of the AAR in with these societies, it is important American Academy of Religion has some the profession. that the AAR have a clearly defined 9,500 members, most of whom teach in 6. To contribute to the public under- As a professional association, the AAR identity and mission of its own. more than 1,500 different colleges, universi- standing of religion. includes among its primary responsi- ties, seminaries, and schools in North bilities collecting and analyzing data 5. To foster scholarly interaction America and abroad. The Academy is dedi- 7. To welcome into our conversation the about the field; monitoring trends in among all approaches to the study cated to furthering knowledge of religions various voices in the field of religion the profession that affect individuals of religion, including the ethical and in all their forms and manifestations. This is and to support and encourage diversi- and departments (e.g., the increasing theological perspectives that arise accomplished through Academy-wide and ty within the Academy. use of adjunct teachers, the erosion of within particular religious tradi- regional conferences and meetings, research tenure, the growing corporate culture tions. Our objective is to welcome support, publications, professional develop- 8. To enhance awareness of the interna- in college and university administra- reflection from within and among ment and outreach programs, and tional context for the study of reli- tion); keeping members apprised of particular religious traditions into member services. gion and to increase involvement in such developments; and taking action our conversation. the AAR by scholars and teachers whenever appropriate on behalf of Within a context of free inquiry and criti- from around the globe. See STRATEGIC PLAN p.11

October 2003 AAR RSN • 3 Religious Studies News, AAR Edition AAR Election

A Message from the AAR Call for Nominations Please send your recommendations of persons Vice President the committee should consider to the AAR The Nominations Committee will continue The Vice President serves on the Executive Nominations Committee Executive Office marked “Recommendations its practice of consultations during the and Program Committees, as well as on the for Nominations Committee.” The Nominations Committee is Annual Meeting in Atlanta to begin the Board of Directors. S/he will be in line to be pleased to place four excellent names process for selecting nominees for vice presi- confirmed president-elect and president in on the ballot this year: two for Vice dent to take office in November 2004. The the following year. During her or his tenure, President and two for Student committee takes seriously all the Vice President will have the opportunity Director. We are grateful to each of recommendations by AAR members. to affect AAR policy in powerful ways; in them for their willingness to serve the How to Vote particular, during the presidential year, the Academy in this way. The following characteristics regularly surface in incumbent makes all appointments of mem- discussions of candidates for vice president: All members of the Academy are enti- bers to openings on committees. Once again, AAR members will be tled to vote for all officers. The elected able to vote by electronic ballot. A (a) Scholarship: “represents the mind of the candidates will take office at the end of paper ballot will be mailed to mem- Academy,” “international reputation,” “breadth the 2003 Annual Meeting. Student Director bers whose e-mail addresses are not of knowledge of the field,” “widely known.” In any given year, as much as 30% of AAR on file. Please know that we guarantee Please visit the AAR Web site at (b) Service to the Academy: “serves the members are students. The AAR’s student the privacy of your vote. www.aarweb.org (or, if you do not have Academy broadly conceived,” “gives members are served by the Student Liaison e-mail, return your paper ballot) by papers regularly,” “leads sections,” “chairs Group (student representatives from Ph.D. We expect a large number of our November 15, 2003, to exercise this committees,” “supports regional work.” programs), and the AAR includes a student members to vote in this election. important membership right. on the Board of Directors, with full voice Please be among them. (c) General: “electable,” “one the average and vote. The Student Director facilitates member of the Academy will look upon conversation among students and between Peter J. Paris, Chair with respect,” “one whose scholarship and students and the various bodies of the AAR, Nominations Committee manner is inclusive rather than narrow, and chairs the Student Liaison Group. sectarian, and/or exclusive.” Candidates for Vice President Elaine H. Pagels Diana L. Eck In 1982 Elaine Pagels joined the Princeton faculty as the Harrington Spear Paine Diana L. Eck is Professor of Comparative Religion and Indian Studies at Professor of Religion. In three consecutive years she was awarded the Rockefeller, Harvard University where she serves on the Committee on the Study of Guggenheim and MacArthur Fellowships (1980, 1981, and 1982). She has Religion in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. She is also a member of the written many scholarly articles and book reviews and has been profiled in The Department of Sanskrit and Indian Studies and the Faculty of Divinity. Atlantic Monthly, Vogue, The New York Times, Mirabella and The New She received her B.A. from Smith College (1967) in Religion, her M.A. Yorker. She has also appeared on “Frontline” on PBS. from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London (1968) in South Asian History, and her Ph.D. from Harvard University Pagels earned her B.A. in history and an M.A. in classical studies at Stanford, (1976) in the Comparative Study of Religion. and her Ph.D. “with distinction” from Harvard. As a young researcher at Barnard College, she changed forever the historical landscape of the Christian Professor Eck’s work includes the books Banaras, City of Light, Darsan: religion by exploding the myth of the early Christian Church as a unified movement. Seeing the Divine Image in India, and Encountering God: A Spiritual Journey from Bozeman to Banaras. She co-edited Speaking of Faith: Global Perspectives on Women, Religion, and She is perhaps best known as the author of The Gnostic Gospels: A New Account of the Origins of Social Change and Devotion Divine: Bhakti Traditions from the Regions of India. Her most Christianity (which won the National Book Critics Circle Award, the National Book Award, and was recent book, A New Religious America, was published in 2001. chosen by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best books of the 20th Century). She is also the author of The Origin of Satan; Adam, Eve, and the Serpent; The Gnostic Paul: Gnostic Exegeses of the Since 1991, Diana Eck has led the Pluralism Project, a research team based at Harvard University, Pauline Letters; and, most recently, Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas, published last May. to explore the new religious diversity of the United States and its meaning for the American pluralist experiment. The Pluralism Project’s CD ROM, On Common Ground: World Religions in She has continued to pursue scholarly research, especially on the impact of the Nag Hammadi treatises to America won the Educom award and its web site won this year’s Webby from the International our understanding of the early history of Christianity. She is currently at work on research involving the Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences. interaction of politics and religion at the beginning of the Common Era. In 1996, Diana Eck was appointed to a U.S. State Department Advisory Committee on Religious Pagels has been a member of the American Academy of Religion since 1988. Freedom Abroad. In 1998, Eck received the National Humanities Medal from President Clinton Statement on the AAR and the National Endowment for the Humanities for her work on American religious pluralism. ACH OF US who is a member of the to cultural diversity and politics. We see Statement on the AAR AAR and the SBL knows how central departments of religious studies flourishing at HE AAR plays a critical role in the under- tions and conversations that stretch my intellec- Ereligion is — and continues to be — not colleges and universities throughout the coun- standing and interpretation of religion in tual horizon. When I peruse the program book, only in our own perception, but in that of try, both public and private, including many Tthe academy and in the world. Our I highlight not only the Religion in South Asia people throughout the world. Yet this is not where they had not before; and we are seeing research as scholars takes us in many directions. sessions, but sessions on Islamic Studies, Asian- something that all of us have taken for grant- our colleagues establish new centers dedicated Our interests intersect with other fields of American Religion, Paul and Politics, Human ed. When I was growing up, my nominally to the study of religion. Today we find, too, study. As an Academy, however, our primary Rights, and Feminist Biblical Hermeneutics. I Protestant family found my engagement with many avenues of publication, both academic focus is the broad, diverse, even argumentative find that my own work benefits from engaging Christianity startling; my father, converted and trade. Publishers of books, journals, and field of religion. And the academic study of the energies of colleagues in different fields. from Calvinism to Darwin, insisted that reli- newspapers are well aware of current discus- religion needs our support, even our advocacy, What better forum for that engagement than gion was a relic of past superstition — some- sions of religion in matters ranging from in our universities and in the wider world. the AAR. This is not simply a professional soci- thing that mattered only to those who knew movies to supreme court decisions; and every ety where we tunnel into our specialties, but a nothing of science. As a college student, I dis- day our news media report on the multiple My own scholarly life in religious studies has forum where we strengthen the connective links covered that the university I attended — ways that religion plays into social, cultural, changed with the growth of our field. As a and cultivate the wider conversations crucial to Stanford — had no religion department; and political life. religion major at Smith College in the 1960s, our departments and our field. many, apparently, did not regard religion as an my basic requirements were biblical studies appropriate subject for academic study. Even The times we live in offer us, then, enormous and western Christian history. My decision to AAR studies show that graduate students will when I enrolled in a doctoral program in the challenge — and opportunity — to partici- study abroad in India and focus on Hinduism have to teach more widely than they are study of religion, I found similar attitudes at pate in shaping such discussions, and, at best, was accommodated, but was not at all the trained, and many of us wonder if it is wise to Harvard. When I first joined the AAR, fresh to illuminate them. Because the issues we usual course of study. By the time I finished leave the interpretive tasks that we all face in out of graduate school, I heard senior scholars engage are often controversial and sometimes graduate school in the 1970s, things were dif- teaching introductory courses to the on-the- lamenting the lack of resources available to explosive — and because many people, espe- ferent. Departments of religion were re-orient- ground training of a first job. Through the publish work in religious studies; while those cially in our country, assume that thinking ing their basic curricula toward a more com- AAR, scholars at all stages in their careers can outside our professional circles often regarded about religion is somehow an antireligious act prehensive study of the world’s religions. think together about the changing challenges the study of religion as an odd, antiquarian, — we may be able to help inform — and, as When I started teaching South Asian religions of teaching. For those of us who have been at somewhat regressive subject — one soon Kierkegaard said he hoped to do, to compli- in the late 1970s, the study of America was it a while, our teaching is constantly enhanced bound to become obsolete. cate — such discussions. Of course, the issues not in my line of vision. It never occurred to by the best work of our colleagues in other we investigate and discuss in many sessions of me that by the 1990s there would be Hindu areas of religious studies. Today all this has changed. An increasing our professional societies are usually highly and Jain temples, Islamic Centers, and Sikh number of people are coming to see — specific, and best articulated, in the process of gurdwaras in Boston. I never imagined that I Globalization and the new political, techno- whether they welcome it or not — the central research, in technical language. Yet those who would have hundreds of second generation logical, and demographic realities of the world importance of religion. The study of religion subsequently go on to rewrite the discoveries students of Indian origin and that the interests have made religious studies all the more com- has never mattered more than it does today, and conclusions found through primary that drew me to study a multi-religious society plex. Today, our collaborators, readers, pub- not only to those of us who share it as col- research in forms accessible to a wider like India would compel me to study my own lishers, and critics live and work all over the leagues, but to everyone concerned with country throughout the decade of the 1990s. world, connected through online journals and urgent questions that range from social ethics See PAGELS next page e-lists. Even so, North American scholars have In the AAR, especially in our annual meetings, See ECK next page 4 • October 2003 AAR RSN large and ungainly as they are, I find the connec- NEWS Candidates for Student Director Kimberly A. Bresler Paul Martens Kimberly A. Bresler is a doctoral candidate in the History of Doctrine at Paul Martens is a doctoral candidate in Moral Theology/Christian Ethics at the Princeton Theological Seminary. She received a B.A. in English cum laude from University of Notre Dame. He received his B.A. from Providence College Rice University in 1986 and a J.D. from the University of Texas School of Law (Manitoba) and his M.C.S. and Th.M. degrees from Regent College (Vancouver, in 1989, having served as Chief Articles & Notes Editor of the Texas BC). While attending Regent College, he worked for four years as the International Law Review. After practicing commercial litigation in a large, Coordinator of the Menno Simons Centre in Vancouver. Martens has also held a downtown law firm in Dallas for several years, she attended Perkins School of variety of research and teaching assistantships, served for two years as a member Theology at Southern Methodist University, receiving her M.Div. summa cum of the AAR’s Student Liaison Group, and participated as a member of various laude in 1997. Kimberly has served as Student Liaison to the AAR for the last faculty, library, academic, and conference planning committees. Currently, he is two years and has been active on a variety of other school committees and in the President of the Graduate Theological Society at Notre Dame. Theology Department. She also served as Theology Editor for Koinonia and has Martens has published in the International Kierkegaard Commentary Series, held teaching fellowships and research assistantships. Currently, she is the Editorial Associate for Theology Today, and Religious Studies Review, and an article in Conrad Theology Today. She is working on a dissertation combining a number of her longstanding interests — Grebel Review is forthcoming. In addition to presenting papers at both regional and national AAR meet- politics, justice, and religion — in its critical examination of St. Augustine’s construction of the notion of ings, he has read papers in a variety of other contexts, such as the most recent meeting of the Søren authority, offering constructive proposals for our reexamination and reconstruction, from a Christian per- Kierkegaard Society of the United Kingdom where he presented “Ethics and the Breach: Interpreting spective, of the meaning and exercise of authority in a variety of settings today. Her general areas of inter- Stages in its Pseudonymous Context.” Martens is currently working on a dissertation concerning the rela- est include historical theology (especially patristics), political philosophy, and constructive theology. tion between Socratic resignation and the notion of gift in Kierkegaard’s writings, which is supported by a research fellowship from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and a Statement on the AAR Presidential Fellowship from Notre Dame. Other research interests include Kant’s moral religion, the rela- HE AAR continues to be the foremost edition of Religious Studies News, I have been tionship between politics and religion, Anabaptist theology and ethics, twentieth-century accounts of agape, organization of religion scholars in the impressed and motivated by the obvious intel- Jean-Luc Marion’s theological phenomenology, and Jacques Derrida’s turn to ethical religion. Tworld, with over nine thousand individ- ligence, scholarly dedication, and, yes, passion ual members and Annual Meeting attendance I have experienced among my student liaison in excess of seven thousand. Although the gen- colleagues. In addition to the predictable dis- Statement on the AAR eral public sometimes may look askance at reli- cussions of job prospects and interviewing, URING MY TWO YEARS as an AAR as I seek to refine this solid foundation and to gion as an insular, even irrelevant academic these students reflect a genuine concern to use student liaison I have often been asked further develop the following opportunities for specialty in today’s fast-pasted, technological their scholarly gifts in the service of the public D“Why should I join the AAR?” or students to participate in and contribute to the world, I believe that, as scholars of religion, we good, in the diverse settings in which we all “Why should I go to the AAR Annual AAR. bear a responsibility to society to demonstrate find ourselves. I have been impressed also by Meeting?” Inevitably, my response evolves into a how religion’s insights pertain to some of the superb quality of programming for stu- discussion of opportunities. No, I do not just As I see it, the role of the student director is to today’s most pressing needs. From war and dents offered through the AAR — for exam- mean the yearly opportunity to meet former facilitate communication effectively both peace to AIDS, from human rights to road ple, the luncheon sponsored by the Wabash professors, connect with old and new friends, between student members and the Board of rage, from environmental stewardship to Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and get a few deals on books afforded by the Directors and among student members them- unemployment, religion contains resources for and Religion. Given the high standards already Annual Meeting. As important as these things selves. To this end, I propose two develop- shaping a more humane, livable world. The set by previous student directors, one of my are, the AAR has even more to offer to students. ments. First, building on the student liaison wide range of topics addressed at the AAR goals is simply to continue on the trajectory network that I have appreciated very much annual conventions confirms the multifaceted already established — for example, following For many of us who are student members of over the last two years, I suggest that the AAR relevance of religion today. up on last year’s initiative to explore the cre- the AAR, the varied opportunities we seek are continue to broaden the international scope of ation of regional student representatives and to frequently dialectically related: we seek oppor- its student participation and representation. As a student liaison for the past two years, I foster increased student participation and tunities to get what we need and we seek Despite the logistical and travel difficulties, have become familiar with the important role interaction at regional events. Another impor- opportunities to give to others what we have holding the 2002 Annual Meeting in Toronto the student director plays within the AAR: tant task in the coming years will be ensuring been given … and not always in this order. We signaled powerfully that our commitment to facilitating communication among students of that student concerns are addressed as the seek opportunities to learn, to internalize what shared interests and goals reaches beyond geo- religion via the Student Liaison Group list- AAR transitions to stand-alone Annual we learn, to share what we have learned with political boundaries. And in this spirit, I will serve, voicing student concerns to the AAR Meetings beginning in 2008 and continues to others, and then we often seek out further criti- encourage an increase in international student Board of Directors, and helping to plan mean- clarify its own distinct mission and identity. cal reflection on what we believe we have membership and liaisons so that student voices ingful student activities at both annual and The reduced size of Annual Meetings, for learned (all the while hoping that someday we more accurately reflect the resources, concerns, regional meetings. Essential to these functions instance, may present additional opportunities might find a career compatible with this life). and needs of the diverse international member- are the many student liaisons from around the for student participation. ship already present in the AAR. country and the world who provide a crucial Like many of my peers, who make up nearly link between the AAR and local schools — As the sole voice on the AAR Board of Directors 30 percent of AAR membership, I have discov- Secondly, I will encourage regional cooperation and with each other. Perhaps the most impor- for students, who make up almost one-third of ered that the AAR does much to meet our among students and between students and tant job for the director is to continue to foster AAR members, the student director bears a seri- needs as student members. The AAR provides regional officers of the AAR. Since students are the free exchange of information — both from ous responsibility to speak out on their behalf. I reduced fees for student membership and con- often exposed to the AAR at the regional level the AAR to students and from students to the have served as an advocate in a variety of venues ference registration, it self-consciously considers first, it seems only natural that representative AAR. As fledgling members of the Academy — as a trial attorney (before entering religion students in the planning of its annual meet- regional student liaisons should be active in just entering their professions, students often doctoral studies), a member of two church gov- ings, and it effectively facilitates the search for facilitating the transition of new students into may be more sensitive to changes in the field erning boards, and a student representative on employment through Openings and the AAR. To this end, I affirm the student than their elders. Staying alert to these changes campus committees and advisory bodies. I value Employment Information Services. paper competitions that many regions hold in — the increased use of adjunct and non- civility and consensus, but I am not afraid to Furthermore, the AAR provides valuable teach- conjunction with the regional meetings. tenured professors, the development of Web- speak out when necessary on issues of vital con- ing resources through its workshops and collec- Beyond this, I will further encourage network- based instruction and distance-learning, the cern. Indeed, only when all opinions are fairly tion of online syllabi, and it has even begun to ing among regional liaisons and encourage effect of the economic downturn on hiring, aired and respectfully considered can the collec- help students find satisfying jobs outside the regional officers to provide opportunities for and similar challenges — is an important part tive wisdom of the group come to full fruition. I conventional classroom. student representatives to participate not only of the student director’s job. Welcoming all am passionately convinced of the importance of in planning the regional meetings, but also in religion scholars within the broad umbrella of religion in our world and of the public service Moreover, the AAR is increasingly providing the regular regional business. the AAR — not only traditional academics, that religion scholars are equipped to provide by opportunities for students to give back to fel- but also those who seek other career opportu- applying their study of ancient cultures and wis- low students as well as to the entire member- Obviously, these proposed developments are nities, including religious journalism, editing, dom to contemporary problems. I will seek to ship of the AAR by including students on the open-ended and I cannot make promises as to and nonprofit work — is an important com- further the concern for students of religion that programs of both regional and annual meet- what contributions or demands will emerge mitment that should be continued. the AAR already has demonstrated in ways that ings, by providing space in Religious Studies through them. I believe, however, that they continue to adapt to the changing needs of News for students to publish their own ideas, provide tangible opportunities for students to As some of you may have read in an earlier today’s students. ❧ by gathering and listening to the student become more than mere consumers or purvey- liaisons who represent students from nearly ors of information, and they provide fruitful fifty Ph.D.-granting institutions, and by opportunities for interaction, for cooperation, ECK, from p.4 American Religion, and that our religious including a student representative on its Board and for students to have a lasting personal far more institutional support for the study of traditions are usually best studied in their of Directors. Therefore, I solicit your support impact on the present and future of the AAR. ❧ religion than our colleagues in most of interrelations with each other. Religion and Europe, Latin America, Asia, Africa, and the the interpretation of religion is continually PAGELS, from p.4 religious diversity in America and throughout Middle East. The international initiatives of on the move, and the Academy is an the world. Never has what our discipline can the AAR are extremely important as we sup- important bridge-building effort that facili- audience can find enormous interest and con- offer — careful research, scholarly interchange, port the growth of religious and cultural tates the new traffic. cern. My late husband, a theoretical physicist, new insights, and informed perspectives on so studies in universities around the world. often remarked that while physics actually many aspects of the study of religion — been Finally, our connections with each other, interests very few people, “religion is intrinsi- so urgently needed. During these decades of global change, the valuable as they are, should also enable the cally interesting to everyone.” We can see how AAR has also changed and has benefited from AAR to have vibrant bridging-connections the work of many of our colleagues has con- In the present situation, I think it appropriate dynamic and judicious leadership. The very with the public and civic institutions of tributed to public discussion on topics ranging to mention that, as someone who has partici- conceptualization of our fields of study is our society. People all over the world are from American civil religions to questions of pated in the AAR and SBL ever since I was a under constant scrutiny, as new sections and more interested in religion than ever gender, class, and race, from ritual and com- graduate student, I enthusiastically support the groups emerge. Our colleagues are discovering before, and perhaps more discouraged too. parative anthropology to language, art, and continuing collaboration of scholars in both that Biblical and early Buddhist studies have As scholars of religion, we have an impor- film, from history of religions to comparative societies. ❧ much to learn from each other, that Islamic tant role in shaping an intelligent and study of the formation of cultural identity and and Buddhist studies are now part of North timely discourse on religion. ❧ October 2003 AAR RSN • 5 Religious Studies News, AAR Edition REEL What’s On in Atlanta RELIGION Eating The Varsity Entertainment Please see the Annual 61 North AVE Meeting Program Book or Program Highlights page at An Atlanta institution for over sixty years. Atlanta Ballet www.aarweb.org for more Allie’s American Grille World’s largest drive-in offering fast food 1400 W. Peachtree ST information. dining. Hot dogs, hamburgers, fries, and 265 Peachtree Center AVE onion rings. Ask for “a naked dog a- Founded in 1929, it is the oldest continu- The Lord of the Rings: The walkin’.” ously running dance company in the This restaurant strives to redefine what a Fellowship of the Ring (A8) country. Under the leadership of John dining experience should be. Features Friday, 7:00 PM–10:30 PM McFall, the Atlanta Ballet features dancers breakfast and luncheon buffets and a pop- The Lord of the Rings, based from around the world. on the book by J. R. R. Tolkien, ular Friday night seafood buffet. is a groundbreaking epic of Sumptuous salads, imaginative entrees, Braves Museum and Hall of Fame good versus evil, extraordinary regional specialties, and lavish desserts. heroes, wondrous creatures, Reservations optional. Drinking 755 Hank Aaron DR and dark armies of terror. Hsu’s Gourmet Chinese The Braves Museum and Hall of Fame The Matrix: Reloaded (A79) Restaurant Casablanca Bar features more than five hundred artifacts Saturday, 8:30 PM–11:00 PM that trace the Braves’ history from their A follow-up to the 1999 hit 192 Peachtree Center AVE NE Inside the Hilton Hotel beginnings in Boston to the present. The Matrix, this sequel tells the Features authentic Hong Kong-style New Bogey and Bergman would have felt right story of Neo, Morpheus, Cantonese cuisine in an elegant and at home and you will, too. Have a cock- Museum of Contemporary Art of Trinity, and the rest of the crew Georgia as they continue to battle the upscale atmosphere, specializing in tail, enjoy billiards, or watch the large- machines that have enslaved seafood and Peking duck. Romantic and screen TV in a nostalgic setting. 1447 Peachtree ST the human race in a computer private atmosphere. program called the Matrix. Blues in the Alley This collection archives significant con- Lombardi’s temporary works by artists from Georgia The Seventh Chamber of 50 Upper Alabama ST (Underground and around the world. Edith Stein: An Interpreted 94 Upper Pryor ST Atlanta) Life (A168) Offers classic Italian cuisine with all-time The hottest blues nightclub in downtown Alliance Theatre Company Saturday, 8:30 PM–10:30 PM favorites such as savory veal entrees, Atlanta, featuring live local, regional, and 1280 Peachtree ST This film is a stylized interpre- shrimp scampi, and fantastic pasta dishes. national blues artists. Look for the signa- The Alliance is one of the largest regional tation of Edith Stein’s life and Upscale food served in a charming, casual ture eight-foot guitar in Kenny’s alley. theaters in the nation, serving a diverse death. This is her story of reli- atmosphere. You may enter from Pryor audience through award-winning work on gious awakening from her Street or through Underground Atlanta. The Tap Room beginnings in a Jewish family, its two stages. through atheism, and then 231 Peachtree ST NE, Suite A5 conversion to Catholicism. Her Pittypat’s Porch Southern Dining Zoo Atlanta death in a concentration camp 25 International BLVD NW The Tap Room is downtown Atlanta’s led to her canonization as a hottest new concept, featuring forty beers 800 Cherokee AVE Catholic martyr. Since its opening in 1967, Pittypat’s Porch and twelve martinis on tap. Wood, tile, Don’t miss the giant pandas from has been the downtown restaurant to visit. copper, and brushed aluminum combine Distance (A167) Chengdu! And take time to visit the goril- Rediscover the new Pittypat’s Porch, to give a 1930s Art Deco feel. PM PM las, orangutans, tigers, lions, giraffes, ele- Sunday, 8:30 –11:00 Atlanta’s landmark Southern restaurant. phants, birds, and more living in natural Kore-eda Hirokazu’s latest Sip a mint julep on the upstairs porch and habitats. ❧ movie is a polemical study of enjoy unique regional cuisine in an atmos- the human condition that takes its motif from the real crimes of phere of Southern charm and hospitality. the Aum Shinrikyo affair. The Open for dinner only. director will preside over the showing of this film. The Gospel of John (A279) Annual Meeting Performances and Sunday, 8:00 PM–11:00 PM One of the world’s most widely Exhibitions read and time-honored texts, the Gospel of John is now faith- fully recreated into a full-length, live action epic feature film. The AAR is pleased to present the following performances and exhibitions during this year’s Annual Meeting. My Journey, My Islam (A255) Monday, 8:30 PM–10:30 PM Saturday Night and teaches theology and liturgy at Emory Voices of Inner University, and is a past president of the This film is a personal journey Sunday Morning: Strength Gospel Choir between the West and the Society for the Study of Christian director’s birthplace, the Indian Music as Spiritual Spirituality. (A254) sub-continent. Visually com- Practice — A The Voices of Inner Strength (VOIS) of pelling images of everyday Islamic life are woven in with Performance by Don Places of Peace and Emory University is a student gospel choir the lives of several Muslim and Emily Saliers (A7) whose purpose is not to entertain, but to women. Power: The Sacred serve the Lord in song. Founded in 1979, Cosponsored with the Society for the Site Slide Show of VOIS performs a broad repertoire of Ramadan: A Fast of Faith Study of Christian Spirituality Martin Gray (A166) music representative of the black spiritual (A255) experience. VOIS has continued to strive Monday, 8:30 PM–10:30 PM On Friday, join Don Saliers and Emily Anthropologist and art photographer upward and outward as its ministry has Beautifully filmed in Java and Saliers (of the Indigo Girls) for an evening Martin Gray spent twenty years traveling developed within and beyond Emory Sumatra, this film tells the story of musical performance and conversation in eighty countries, studying pilgrimage University. Community service projects of Ramadan through the eyes about spirituality and the musical arts. traditions, sacred places, and religious art. and performances for Atlanta-area church- of a young couple, interwoven The program will explore ways that music He has visited more than one thousand es, civic groups, and other organizations with devotees’ reflections on their feelings of unity, rejoicing, deepens life by creating, sharing, and holy places, participated in countless cere- have become a regular part of VOIS activi- and reverence for God. improvising across so-called sacred/secular monies, met shamans and sages, and ties. The annual tour has become a high- differences. Is there a lyric truth that refus- deeply studied the arcane sciences of light for VOIS as it has presented oppor- Trembling Before G*d es to side with either Saturday night or archaeoastronomy, geomancy and sacred tunities for ministry nationwide and (A256) Sunday morning? Can music become a geography. In this beautiful slide show of abroad. The choir has toured in several Monday, 8:30 PM–10:00 PM bridge between such cultural divides? sacred places around the world, Martin states, including California, Tennessee, This is a documentary film of Emily Saliers is a member of the Indigo will present a fascinating discussion on the and New York, as well as in Jamaica and intimately told personal stories Girls, a pioneering music duo with two mythology and anthropology of pilgrim- Bermuda in recent years. In the spring of about gay and lesbian decades of collaboration, eleven records, a age places and a radical explanation of the 2000, VOIS recorded its first CD, entitled Orthodox and Hasidic Jews Grammy Award, several platinum CD’s, miraculous phenomena that occurs at the Voices in My Head. ❧ and their struggle with being and commitments to the environment, sites. For more information: gay and religious. Native American children, Habitat for http://www.sacredsites.com. Humanity, and human rights. Don Saliers 6 • October 2003 AAR RSN ANNUAL MEETING NEWS Want to learn more about Atlanta? Take a tour! The AAR is pleased to sponsor several bus tours and a walking tour during the Annual Meeting this year. The buses fill up fast, so be sure to get your registration form in early!

Jimmy Carter Library and Museum cal boundaries to educate people all over cial exhibitions that draw on collections with items that date from 1660 until (A12) the world about Dr. King’s life, work, from around the world to engage the 1920; the Richard C. Kessler Saturday, 8:30 AM – 11:00 AM and his philosophy and methods of non- public and contribute to current scholar- Reformation Collection, a group relating violent conflict-reconciliation and social ship. The museum also mounts exciting to the Protestant Reformation in Sponsored by The Religions, Social change. traveling exhibitions developed by other Germany; the English and American Conflict, and Peace Consultation institutions and makes them available to Hymnody and Psalmody Collection of This is a self-guided tour. There is a university students, faculty, and the gen- items from the sixteenth through the The Jimmy Carter Presidential Library US$10 fee for this tour. eral public. For more information, visit twentieth century; the North European and Museum is one of only ten presi- http://carlos.emory.edu. Theological Dissertations of titles, from dential libraries in the world and the Michael C. Carlos Museum (A14) the sixteenth until the early twentieth only one in the Deep South. It is home Saturday, 9:30 AM – 12:00 PM Your guide is a member of the museum century, that document the course of to the presidential papers of the Carter staff. There is a US$10 fee for this tour. theological scholarship in northern Administration. Located adjacent to the Sponsored by the Arts, Literature, and Europe. nonprofit Carter Center in the Carter Religion Section, Europe and the Emory University’s Pitts Theology Presidential Center complex in Atlanta, Mediterranean in Late Antiquity Group, Library Special Collections (A14) Your guide is a member of the library the library and its museum are operated and Anthropology of Religion staff. There is a US$10 fee for this tour. by the National Archives and are open Consultation Saturday, 9:30 AM – 12:00 PM to the public seven days a week. The Walking Tour of Atlanta’s Religious museum of the Jimmy Carter Library The collections of the Michael C. Carlos Sponsored by the Theology and and Civic Sites (A202) provides a glimpse of the American Museum of Emory University span the Religious Reflection Section, Reformed Presidency, from life in the White House globe and the centuries. Housed in a dis- Theology Group, and Wesleyan Studies Monday, 1:00 PM – 3:30 PM to complex decisions made in the Oval tinguished building by renowned archi- Group Office. Several exhibits focus on impor- tect Michael Graves, the Carlos main- Sponsored by the North American tant twentieth-century issues such as war tains the largest collection of ancient art Pitts Theology Library, one of Emory Religions Section and peace, disarmament, and the econo- in the Southeast with objects from University’s six instructional libraries, is a my. The exhibit features an exact replica ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome, the Near distinguished collection of theological Tour of religious sites on Peachtree of the Oval Office, and information on East, and the ancient Americas. The materials. With over 490,000 volumes, it Street. Logistical details will be the Camp David Summit and the Iran Museum is also home to collections of provides unusually rich resources for the announced when the tour group meets Hostage Situation. nineteenth- and twentieth-century sub- Candler School of Theology and Emory at the information Kiosk in the main Saharan African art, and European and University, and has attracted internation- lobby of the Marriott Marquis. Please This is a self-guided tour. There is a US$15 American works on paper from the al attention for its collections. Pitts bring at least US$5 to use for MARTA fee for this tour (includes admission). Renaissance to the present. Theology Library has over 95,000 vol- public transportation fares. ❧ umes in its Special Collections. Martin Luther King, Jr. Center (A13) The Carlos Museum works with Emory Significant collections include the Saturday, 8:30 AM – 11:00 AM faculty members to develop unique spe- English Religious History Collection,

Sponsored by the Afro-American Religious History Group, Black Theology
Ê̜ÕÀÃÊ܈Ê`i«>ÀÌÊvÀœ“ÊÌ iÊ >ÀÀˆœÌÌÊ >ÀµÕˆÃÊœÌi°Ê*i>ÃiÊ>ÀÀˆÛiÊ£xʓˆ˜ÕÌiÃÊ«ÀˆœÀÊ̜Ê`iÊ«>ÀÊÌÕÀi° Group, and Womanist Approaches to Religion Group  /œÕÀÃÊ,iÃiÀÛ>̈œ˜ÊœÀ“ Established in 1968 by Coretta Scott King, the King Center is the official liv- .5-"%2/&0%23/.3).0!249 $!4% 4)-% #/340%23/. ing memorial dedicated to the advance- ?????#ARTER#ENTER4OUR! 3ATURDAY  AMnAM 53 ment of the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther ?????-,+#ENTER4OUR! 3ATURDAY  AMnAM 53 King, Jr., leader of America’s greatest ?????#ARLOS-USEUM4OUR! 3ATURDAY  AMnPM53 nonviolent movement for justice, equali- ty, and peace. More than 650,000 visi- ?????,IBRARY4OUR! 3ATURDAY  AMnPM 53 tors from all over the world are drawn ?????7ALKING4OUR! -ONDAY  PMnPM &2%% annually to the King Center to pay homage to Dr. King, view unique .AME ????????????????????????????????????????????????????? /RGANIZATION P!!2 P3", P.ONMEMBER exhibits illustrating his life and teach- !DDRESS ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ings, and visit the Library, Archives, his final resting place, his birth home, gift #ITY 3TATE #OUNTRY 0/34#/$% ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? shop, and other facilities. Located in Atlanta’s Martin Luther King, Jr. 0AYMENT-ETHOD P #HECKPAYABLETO!NNUAL-EETING4OURS P 6ISA P -ASTER#ARD P !MERICAN%XPRESS P $ISCOVER National Historic Site, the King Center #REDIT#ARD.UMBER ?????????????????????????????????????????????????%XPIRATION$ATEMMYY ??????????????????????? utilizes diverse communications media, #ARDHOLDER3IGNATURE?????????????????????????????????????.AMEON#ARDPLEASEPRINT ???????????????????????????????? including books, audio and video cas- settes, film, television, CDs, and Web 2ETURNCOMPLETEDFORMWITHPAYMENTBY.OVEMBERTO4OURS (OUSTON-ILL2OAD 3TE !TLANTA '!&!8    pages, to reach out far beyond its physi-

Have you ever thought about us? When you are making your will and are thinking about charitable bequests, have you considered including the AAR? This would help us immensely in the future to provide for the ongoing needs of the field.

Our legal title is American Academy of Religion, Inc. 825 Houston Mill Road, Suite 300 Atlanta, GA 30329-4246

October 2003 AAR RSN • 7 Religious Studies News, AAR Edition

New Program Numbers Count: Gathering, Managing, and Units Using Census Data in a Program Review and

Check out these new program units at the Annual Meeting! Enhancement

Animals and Religion Annual Meeting Special Topics Forum Consultation: curricula of the undergraduate and gradu- Linell Cady, Arizona State University T THE ANNUAL MEETING in Theological Reflection and Other ate study of religion provide invaluable Mark Chaves, University of Arizona Atlanta, the Academic Relations Animals: Recognizing Our Heritage, data for all those interested in the current Warren G. Frisina, Hofstra University Task Force will be conducting a Recognizing Today’s Realities (A95) A state of the field and its future develop- Ray Hart, Boston University session on Monday from 4:00PM–6:30PM (cosponsored by the Theology and ment. They provide a base for follow-up Hans J. Hillerbrand, Duke University which will present further analysis of the Religious Reflection Section) surveys (which the Academy intends to Wade Clark Roof, University of California data that has been collected in the Sunday, November 23 undertake every several years), thus begin- at Santa Barbara Academy’s undergraduate census, as well as 9:00 AM–11:30 AM ning a long-term AAR commitment to Richard Rosengarten, University of the preliminary analyses of the data gath- providing accessible longitudinal data. Chicago ered in the Academy’s recent survey of aca- Many Traditions, Many Animals (A196) Richard Rubinson, Emory University demic doctoral programs. An accompany- Monday, November 24 By way of analyzing the plethora of data Elizabeth Say, California State University, ing slide show will demonstrate how to 9:00 AM–11:30 AM we have received, we are gathering a small Northridge use comparable data to help review a given group of distinguished individuals in the Jack Schuster, Claremont Graduate department or program and compare it Childhood Studies and Religion field and in the study of higher education University with similar ones among the nearly nine Consultation: to think with us about the importance of Jonathan Z. Smith, University of Chicago hundred undergraduate departments and Research on Children and Childhood in these two surveys and to help us identify Terrence Tilley, University of Dayton sixty-two doctoral programs that reported. Religious Studies (A74) additional studies — perhaps more narra- Steven Wheatley, American Council of There will also be a presentation on gath- Saturday, November 22 tive and descriptive — that are needed. Learned Societies ering, managing, and using data in a pro- 4:00 PM–6:30 PM This group will be the capstone event in gram review. The panelists include the Academy’s Lilly-funded Strengthening (See the related article on AAR Terrence W. Tilley of the University of Relics and Sacred Territory (Space) College and University Programs in Religion surveys on page 14.) ❧ Dayton and Carey J. Gifford of the Consultation: and Theology (SCURT) initiative. The fol- American Academy of Religion. Types of Relics: Toward a Typology and lowing individuals have agreed to partici- Location (A47) pate in this day-long event in Atlanta on Taken together, these two surveys of the Saturday, November 22 Saturday, October 4: demography, enrollments, faculty, and 1:00 PM–3:30 PM ❧

FBI and Scholars on AAR Letter to the Editor Editor’s Note: Annual Meeting Panel A Response to Grimes RSN received this letter to the edi- tor in response to a letter by Ron JOURNALIST, two scholars, more important, motives. The panel Lisa Sideris, McGill University Grimes that was published in the and representative(s) from the will discuss analytical perspectives and Montreal March 2003 issue of RSN. A Federal Bureau of Investigation criteria for determining how religion are slated to be on a panel (A113) at matters to each group. In addition to the Annual Meeting from 1:00 to the FBI, the panel includes Mary To the Editors: was first and foremost, an American 3:30 PM on Sunday, November 23. The Walsh, a producer for CBS evening event, an attack on Americans because title of the panel is “How Religion news; Mark Juergensmeyer, professor of As an American teaching in a Canadian they are Americans. In saying this, I am Matters in Crisis Situations: sociology at the University of California university, I was intrigued by Ron not repeating Bush’s (admittedly Perspectives from Law Enforcement, at Santa Barbara and author of Terror in Grimes’ scathing portrait of American moronic) claims that terrorists hate “us” News Media, and Religious Studies the Mind of God: The Global Rise of bad manners on display at the Toronto because we are “free.” But regardless of Scholars.” All three groups face similar Religious Violence; and Eileen Barker, AAR. Since coming to Canada less than whether Grimes believes that American interpretive challenges in trying to dis- professor of sociology at the London a year ago, I’ve had a crash course in citizens deserve to be terrorized in this cern in crisis situations (such as the School of Economics and director of anti-American sentiment, and have fashion, can he or anyone else seriously 1996 standoff between FBI agents and INFORM (Information Network Focus taken to slipping a “u” in words like claim that these attacks just coinciden- the Montana Freemen) when religion is on Religious Movements), which pro- neighbour in hopes of blending in. But tally targeted a major American city? a primary motivating factor, when it is vides the public and media with accu- as an American who was teaching in The enormity of grief that Americans a subsidiary factor, and when appeals to rate information about new religious Manhattan during the time of the are attempting to work through is in religious convictions may conceal other, movements. ❧ September 11 terror attacks (indulge part a function of the realization that me for a moment while I do some of WE (writ large, as Grimes says) were that Americocentric, look-at-me grief deliberately targeted in this way. Maybe work), I don’t think he knows what he’s Americans were naïve not to have real- Future AAR Annual Meeting talking about. ized such hatred existed and perhaps we are “morons” for being surprised and Is Grimes miffed because he felt barred shocked by this violent manifestation of Dates and Sites from full participation in the “self-pre- it. But that does not lessen the grief. occupied public spectacle” of 9/11 ______2004 “funerary meditations”? His primary Of course, no one, I hope, would deny November 20–23 concern (other than American presses that citizens of other countries (includ- San Antonio, TX not taking Canadian cash — a problem ing Canada) also died in those attacks. I did not experience) seems to be that But that is because these terrorists, like 2005 2007 he could not gain equal access to the all terrorists, were unable or unwilling ______alleged American grieving frenzy he to discriminate. It’s unfortunate that November 19–22 November 17–20 describes (also something I did not wit- they did not consult Grimes who can Philadelphia, PA San Diego, CA ness, even in the sessions in which 9/11 apparently tell an American from a was discussed). Take for example his Canadian just by looking — such pow- ______2006 ______2008 petulant remark regarding American ers of discernment allowed him to scholars’ responses to 9/11: “Just determine that no Americans were lined November 18–21 October 25–28 because you live south of the 49th up at the AAR International Desk. Washington, D.C. Chicago, IL doesn’t mean you have a monopoly on Perhaps he scrutinized their nametags tragic and dramatic death.” Huh? “Such thoroughly before arriving at this judg- death,” he claims, “happens every- ment. But had he scrutinized mine, he Please renew your membership now, and consider making an where, every day, sometimes on an even would have mistakenly concluded that I additional contribution to the AAR’s Academy Fund. larger scale.” Really? It would seem that am Canadian. Grimes should take Membership dues cover less than 30% of programs and services. Grimes has quite a scoop here; someone seriously his own admonition to Renew online at www.aarweb.org/renewal. should notify the CBC. “become circumspect” and “pay closer Or contact us at TEL: 1-404-727-3049 attention.” Things are not always what E-MAIL: [email protected]. September 11 was an unprecedented they seem. ❧ Please see the Membership page, www.aarweb.org/membership. event for America and the world. But it

8 • October 2003 AAR RSN ANNUAL MEETING NEWS

Annual Meeting Chairs Workshop ANNOUNCEMENT, from p.3 association as a whole. It was striking to see particular members of the Board struggle with Scholarship, Service, and Stress: The Tensions of Being a Chair the tension between their own preferences on the one hand, and what they understood as HE ACADEMIC RELATIONS we will break up into groups by institu- 2002 Annual Meeting — Running a the good of the Academy on the other. This is, Task Force and the Academic tional type and discuss issues that are Successful Faculty Search in the Religious of course, why members are elected as officers Relations Program are pleased to unique to religion departments. Studies Department T — to make decisions, even hard decisions, for offer a Chairs Workshop during the the achievement of the Academy’s mission. Annual Meetings of the American Colleagues in your institution, such as 2001 Annual Meeting — Evaluating Among scholarly societies, the AAR is note- Academy of Religion and the Society of chairs, other members of the faculty, facul- and Advancing Teaching in the Religious worthy for its open model of governance, Biblical Literature in Atlanta, Georgia, ty being developed to assume leadership Studies Department “through which the winds of change can safely on Friday, November 21, 2003, from responsibilities, and deans, may be interest- blow,” as one ACLS colleague has character- 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM. ed in attending this workshop. Chairs may 2000 Annual Meeting — Assessing and ized us. want to bring a team of faculty or send a Advancing the Religious Studies This workshop will provide a day of designated faculty person to the workshop. Department In welcoming all scholarship in religion, in all structured discussion where chairs can traditions, and from all methods into our con- exchange personal narratives and strate- The topics for past Chairs Workshops We look forward to seeing you in Atlanta! versation, the AAR deeply appreciates that gies for navigating the pitfalls of life as a have been: biblical studies is historically one of the foun- chair. All of the speakers are AAR mem- The Academic Relations Task Force: dations of the study of religion in the West bers who have experience in being a Summer 2003 — The Entrepreneurial Warren G. Frisina, Chair, Kathryn and will continue to be a core aspect of that chair. The workshop is formatted as a Chair: Building and Sustaining your Kleinhans, Laurie L. Patton, Elizabeth, study. We also recognize that in the past three mix of short panel presentations and Department in an Era of Shrinking A. Say, Terrence W. Tilley ❧ decades, the nature of religious scholarship has small group discussions. During lunch Resources and Increasing Demands changed; it has become far more diverse in method, subject area, theoretical approach, the reach of its comparative foci, and the religious Scholarship, Service, and Stress: idioms studied. The decision represents another expression of The Tensions of Being a Chair this change. The Annual Meeting in its pres- 3 ent form and size cannot adequately host and AN ANNUAL MEETING CHAIRS WORKSHOP nurture the full range of scholarly work and conversation in religion. Friday, November 21, 2003, Atlanta, Georgia It seems important to emphasize that this is Part of the AAR’s Strengthening College and University Religion & Theology Programs not a decision against any one of these aspects initiative supported by a grant from the Lilly Endowment, Inc. of the study of religion, especially Christianity. A great deal of the programming of the AAR Annual Meeting is concerned with Christian PRELIMINARY PROGRAM subjects and scholarship. We want this aspect 9:00–9:30 Opening remarks – Laurie 10:00–11:00 Roundtable discussions 1:30–2:30 Roundtable discussions of the program to grow, especially since the Patton, Emory University: 11:00–11:30 Reporting 2:30–3:00 Reporting majority of our members work in the Christian traditions, and the current program Identity and Leadership 11:30–1:00 Lunch 3:00–3:30 Closing remarks – Laurie 9:30–10:00 Professional Identity – 3 Patton, Emory University: does not accommodate their needs as well as it 1:00–1:30 Leadership Styles and must. As AAR President Robert Orsi notes, “It panelists Department Cultures – 3 panelists Discernment is the AAR’s deepest moral and intellectual commitment not to render any religious world ‘other’ within religious scholarship, not to TO REGISTER marginalize any methods or approaches, including scriptural studies and constructive Complete the information below, arrange payment, and send via fax or surface mail. theological studies. This decision to enhance the meeting’s programming exactly eschews the politics of religious alterity.” Name While the AAR currently sponsors the most Department capacious conversation on religion in the United States, the field requires more of the Institution Serving as Chair since Number of faculty in department Academy to do it justice. Holding our own meeting promises to provide the opportunity DEPARTMENT ENROLLMENT and context for that “more.” In the end, the Please provide the following information if you are not a current AAR member. Board decided that the work in religion in its (You may check your membership information on the AAR home page www.aarweb.org) broad reaches and myriad specifics to which the AAR is so profoundly committed requires the expansion of Annual Meeting program- Fax E-Mail ming that this change will make possible. Surface Mailing Address Registration is limited to the first 75 participants. The new meeting structure will mean both Send your registration form and payment of $75.00 *** before November 1, 2003. ($100.00 on site). smaller meetings and additional space for new intellectual undertakings, including work at the intersection of biblical scholarship and the study of ancient Western religions. As we PAYMENT INFORMATION come closer to 2008, the Program Committee ❒ Check: (payable to “AAR Annual ❒ Credit Card (Check one): will be welcoming all manner of proposals to meet the needs of our field and our members. Meeting Chairs Workshop”) ❒ Visa ❒ Mastercard ❒ American Express ❒ Discover We also plan a thorough spring look at the program structure of the meeting, which has Credit Card Number Expiration Date itself been in place for 30 years. This must involve as many members as possible. Cardholder Signature I want to invite you to think creatively about our Annual Meeting program and other new Name on Card (Please Print) Register by Fax: 1-404-727-7959 initiatives the Academy should embrace to For more information, contact Carey J. Gifford, Director of Academic strengthen and enhance our field and its pro- Register by surface mail: Relations, at [email protected], or by phone at 1-404-727-2270. fessors. For a start, we invite you to attend a Chairs Workshop *** Chairs from departments enrolled in the Academic Relations Program special forum on the Centennial Strategic Plan American Academy of Religion with members of the Board of Directors at the 825 Houston Mill Road NE receive a complimentary registration. For information on enrolling your department, see www.aarweb.org/department. upcoming Annual Meeting on Sunday, Suite 300 November 23 at 1:00–3:30 PM in Atlanta. ❧ Atlanta, GA 30329-4246 Subscribe to [email protected], the listserv for leaders in the field, for updates to the workshop program and other news for chairs. For the most up-to-date information on the Workshop, see

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October 2003 AAR RSN • 9 Religious Studies News, AAR Edition Beyond the Annual Meeting: Sessions International Connections Committee with a Focus on An Interview with Manabu Watanabe, Japanese Professor of Religious Studies Scholars Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture Nanzan University and RSN: You have published several distin- In studying Aum Shinrikyo, I worked including various sects of Buddhism and Scholarship guished studies of religion in Japan. What closely with Professor Robert Jay Lifton Shinto. It has colloquia, seminars, and so motivated you to write on two so different beginning in 1996. It was a rewarding on. And it is known for its publications topics: Saigyo and Aum Shinrikyo? experience, and I enjoyed working with like the Japanese Journal of Religious Studies, The focus of the 2003 him. We also visited in Japan and inter- and we have edited more than thirty AAR Annual Meeting Watanabe: I have been interested in viewed several people together. He pub- monographs in several series like Nanzan the relationship between people’s religious lished Destroying the World to Save It: Aum Studies in Religion and Culture, Nanzan is on Japanese scholars beliefs and their practices. Shinrikyo, Apocalyptic Violence, and The Library in Asian Religion and Culture, etc. and scholarship. The New Global Terrorism in 1999. Even They include Nishida Kitar’s, Intuition sessions listed below First, I worked on Saigyo in the 80s. His though it is a psychiatric study and not in and Reflection in Self-Consciousness, verses show that he was immersed in the the field of religious studies, I think we Nishitani Keiji’s Religion and Nothingness, highlight this work: symbolism of nature tightly connected in can learn many things from it. I have Takeuchi Yoshinori’s The Heart of his Buddhist beliefs. Unlike the major published my articles on Aum Shinrikyo Buddhism, etc. We introduced Kyoto Recent Research on Japanese poets of the noble class in the Heian peri- mainly in English, but I have not pub- School to Western scholarship to stimulate Religions and Society (A36) od, he liked to stay in nature, that is, live lished a monograph yet. dialogue between them. And we have also Saturday, November 22 in a hut on the mountains and travel published eleven symposia of the Nanzan 1:00 PM–3:30 PM around from Kyoto to northern Japan. In RSN: You are noted for your work in Institute and two volumes of Religion in these conditions he especially appreciated Jungian psychology (the Japanese transla- the Contemporary World, both of which The Kyoto School in Dialogue cherry blossoms and the moon. Even tion of Jung’s The Ego and the Unconscious are in Japanese. Of course, each perma- with the West (A56) though it is true that his religion and and your monographs, The Psyche and the nent research fellow has published his or Saturday, November 22 nature cannot be divided as Saburo Ienaga Experiential World and Jungian Psychology her own books and translations as well. 4:00 PM–6:30 PM and William LaFleur pointed out, Saigyo and Religion). Why were you initially inter- saw Buddhist symbolism like satori or the ested in Jung? My area of research at Nanzan Institute is Religious Studies in a Japanese Western paradise of Amida Buddha no different from what I have been doing Context (A84) through nature. Watanabe: Even though I was a these years, as you see. For the last eight Sunday, November 23 common secular Japanese young man with years I have been working on the contem- 4:00 PM–6:30 PM Second, when the Aum Affair happened in almost no religious background, I received porary religious consciousness of the 1995, I had a strong urge to work on Aum a Jesuit education for thirteen years from Japanese people and new religious move- Christianity in Japan: Shinrikyo, because as a Japanese scholar of junior high school to graduate school. It ments and its antimovements, mainly in Conflicting Experiences (A143) religion I felt responsibility to illuminate was quite natural for me to experience a Japan. I organized a series of colloquia Sunday, November 23 what the Aum members believed and did. kind of culture shock. I tried to reconcile from 2000 to 2002 and the Thirteenth 4:00 PM–6:30 PM It is quite interesting that the Waco stand- the cultural gap between the East and the Nanzan Symposium titled “Religions and off of the Branch Davidians and the Aum West. I thought C. G. Jung’s psychology Social Problems: A Symposium on the Revisiting Authenticity Shinrikyo incident had contrasting effects could be a bridge between those different ‘Cult’ Issue” in 2002. We invited not only Discourses in Japanese Religious on the academies of religious studies in the cultures. I was especially interested in his scholars of religion, but also lawyers and Renewal Movements: Theory U.S. and in Japan. Although the U.S. concepts of the ego and the self. As you journalists. It was well received and stimu- and a Descent to Cases (A155) academies urged American scholars to know, Jungian psychology can be a kind of lated the discussions in the field. Sunday, November 23 speak out for the proper treatment of new New Age religion itself. Therefore, I tried 4:00 PM–6:30 PM religious movements and their conflict very hard to be critical of his methodolo- RSN: Can you tell us about the differ- with society, the Japanese academies gy. I finally came to the conclusion that ences that you see between approaches Distance Screening and involved some Japanese scholars of religion the psyche in the large sense is the world toward the study of religion in Japan and Conversation with Director in a tragic way. One of them had to resign as experienced in Jungian psychology. I in America? Kore-eda (A167) from the university. It is really a pity that hoped that we could reconstruct an arche- Sunday, November 23 the Aum Affair became a forbidden and typal hermeneutics out of it. That is what Watanabe: That is the theme of the 8:30 PM–10:30 PM unwelcome subject for most Japanese I did in my doctoral dissertation that was special topics forum (“Religious Studies in scholars of religion. published as The Psyche and the the Japanese Context”) sponsored by the Public Relations and Growth Experiential World (1994), which is only International Connections Committee Strategies in New Religious When I was on sabbatical leave from available in Japanese. I am grateful to (ICC) of the AAR at this year’s Annual Movements in Japan (A189) Nanzan University and senior research fel- Professors Yasuo Yuasa at the University of Meeting. Therefore, it is better for me to Monday, November 24 low at Harvard University Center for the Tsukuba and James Heisig at Nanzan leave that question to the forum. I will 9:00 AM–11:30 AM Study of World Religions from 1995 to Institute, who advised me and trained me only suggest a few points. Religious stud- 1996 and visiting scholar at Reischauer not only in studying Jung, but also in ies in Japan was influenced by the devel- Monotheism vs. Polytheism? Institute of Japanese Studies from 1996 to studying Japanese religious history and opments of Buddhist studies, not by East Asian Views on Religions 1997, I had a chance to pursue studies of thoughts. Christian theology. And religious studies and Environmental Ethics both Saigyo and Aum Shinrikyo at the covered religions other than Buddhism. (A198) same time. On the one hand, I had a RSN: Please describe the Nanzan Monday, November 24 chance to give a talk on Saigyo at Harvard Institute for Religion and Culture and RSN: Please tell us about your work on 9:00 AM–11:30 AM University and the University of your area of research there. the AAR’s International Connections Philadelphia. On the other hand, I began Committee. Japanese-American Immigrants studying the “cult” issues. In the fall of Watanabe: The Nanzan Institute for and Religion in the Late 1995, after the Aum Affair earlier that Religion and Culture is a community of Watanabe: Then-President Margaret Nineteenth and Early Twentieth spring, I was living in Cambridge, scholars of various nationalities and Miles appointed me as a member of the Centuries (A215) Massachusetts, and was asked to assist a beliefs. It was founded in 1974 on the committee in 2000. I met her at Nanzan Monday, November 24 staff writer of one of the major Japanese Nagoya campus of Nanzan University University on the occasion of the interna- 1:00 PM–3:30 PM newspapers that planned to do research on according to the spirit of the Vatican II. tional symposium and the fifty-eighth the cult and the anti-cult movement in the There are three founding ideals: 1) inter- annual meeting of the Japanese Response to Modernity: U.S. I interviewed scholars of religion, disciplinary study of the relations between Association for Religious Studies (JARS) at Interactions between Japanese representatives of anti-cult movements, religion and culture with particular refer- Nanzan University. I was a member of the and European Scholarship on and members of new religious movements ences to the Far East, especially, to Japan; steering committee at Nanzan. It seemed Buddhism (A230) with him. He and I also visited Waco, 2) the promotion of mutual understand- natural for me to continue to work on the Monday, November 24 Texas, and interviewed Branch Davidians. ing among Christianity and other reli- relationship between AAR and JARS. 4:00 PM–6:30 PM ❧ gions; and 3) the training of researchers in Although there were other issues the ICC Those experiences were so intense, and I these areas. dealt with, I mainly worked as a liaison needed time to digest them. Then, I began between the AAR and the JARS. We studying about new religious movements, The Nanzan Institute has a series of sym- thought it could be a model for a especially Aum Shinrikyo, and anti-cult posia for the interreligious dialogues See WATANABE p.26 movements in the U.S. as well as in Japan. between Christianity and other religions,

10 • October 2003 AAR RSN NEWS

STRATEGIC PLAN, from p.3 scholars and the flourishing of the Pew awards AAR $560,000 field itself in today’s interconnected As the Academy continues to grow in world. to continue Religionsource size and scope, it is important that the AAR stand-alone meeting not be mis- 7. To diversify the Academy’s leadership understood as a gesture in favor of any and nurture leaders for the future. HE PEW CHARITABLE public about religion and engender an single approach to the study of At the same time that colleges and uni- TRUSTS have awarded the AAR a increased appreciation for the important religion. The AAR must make ever versities are decreasing their historical two-year $560,000 grant to contin- contribution religion scholars make to T clearer its mission to welcome critical support of scholarly societies, the AAR’s ue Religionsource, a service that provides society. The new grant includes training reflection from all scholarly vantages growth and ambitious programming journalists with referrals to scholars with scholars in how to interact effectively and perspectives, from both within and need more dedicated and competent expertise in the topics the journalists are with journalists (e.g., “Answering the outside of living faith traditions. volunteers to provide intellectual and writing about. The purpose of the service Reporter’s Call,” session A18, on strategic leadership. As the field’s con- is to facilitate reporters’ writing more and Saturday morning preceding the 2003 6. To enhance the international dimen- tours continue to change and succeeding better stories on religion and thus AAR Annual Meeting). ❧ sion of the AAR. generations of scholars and teachers join indirectly to better educate the American By its nature, the academic study of the Academy, it is important to nurture religion is an international enterprise. and cultivate new cadres of leaders, both What is more, enhancing the AAR’s regionally and Academy-wide, and to international connections is increasingly foster greater racial, ethnic, and gender important for the work of religion diversity in the field and the Academy.

To remain vital, the AAR must regularly ✃ review organizational structures to assure access and openness to change, as well as MEMBERSHIP FORM continuity and tradition. 8. To prepare for the AAR’s centennial 2003 and 2004 Calendar Years in 2009. You may also establish your membership online at www.aarweb.org/membership The forthcoming AAR centennial AMERICAN ACADEMY OF RELIGION offers the opportunity to strengthen

❒Dr. ❒Prof the institutional memory of the ❒Ms. ❒Mr. Academy and to take steps to maxi- ❒Other______Name: ______ID Number (for renewals):______mize continuing leadership and serv- If your surname is not the last word in your name, please circle it (e.g., Kim Kyong Min, Juana González Nuñez ) ice in the field far into the future. Address: ______Office Phone: ______Home Phone: ______9. To enhance the financial security of Fax: ______the AAR. The AAR’s continued striving toward City: ______State/Province:______E-Mail: ______excellence as the leading scholarly and Postal Code: ______Country: ______professional association in the field of Current Institutional Affiliation (if any): ______religion is related to the financial resources available to imagine and undertake these and other emerging ANNUAL FUND objectives. ❧ MEMBERSHIP DUES SBL Please circle the appropriate dues category. See Member Discount Please consider a gift to the Academy Fund. 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METHOD OF PAYMENT: ➁ Payment in full, drawn on a U.S. bank or Canadian Retired: bank (if on a U.S. dollar account), is required. ❐ I am age 65 or older and I am retired from full-time ❐ Check or Money Order employment. ❐ Visa, Mastercard, Discover, or American Express ➂ SBL Member: Credit Card Number:______❐ I am also a current member of the Society of Biblical Literature. SBL dues must be paid separately to SBL. Expiration Date (mm/yy):__ __/__ __ CID* ______Signature: ______Cardholder’s Signature:______* Card Identification Number (required for Discover cards): 4 digits on front of American Express, 3 digits on back of other cards. Please fill in the demographic information below (optional). This is for AAR aggregate statistical use only. Gender: ❐ Male ❐ Female Citizenship: ❐ US ❐ Canada ❐ Other (specify): ______Year of Birth:______Ethnic Background: ❐ Asian or Pacific Islander ❐ Black, Not Hispanic ❐ Native American or Native Alaskan ❐ Hispanic ❐ White, Not Hispanic ❐ Other: ______Return to: AMERICAN ACADEMY OF RELIGION 825 HOUSTON MILL ROAD, SUITE 300 • ATLANTA, GA 30329-4246, USA TELEPHONE 1-404-727-3049 • FAX 1-404-727-7959 • E-MAIL [email protected] RSN184 www.aarweb.org October 2003 AAR RSN • 11 Religious Studies News, AAR Edition Book Awards Journalists Honored for In-Depth Reporting on Religion HE AMERICAN ACADEMY of Religion offers Awards for Excellence USAN HOGAN/ALBACH of the against Saddam Hussein; the South In the less than 100,000 circulation con- in order to recognize new scholarly T Dallas Morning News, Deb Carolina Mormon community; Christians test, Maya Kremen of the Herald News publications that make significant contri- Richardson-Moore of the Greenville who embrace the Judaic roots of their (West Patterson, NJ) placed second and butions to the study of religion. These S (SC) News, and Deborah Caldwell of faith; and different versions of the Ten Julie Marshall of the Daily Camera awards honor works of distinctive original- Beliefnet have won the American Academy Commandments. (Boulder, CO) placed third. The judges ity, intelligence, creativity, and impor- of Religion 2002 awards for Best In- praised Kremen’s “interesting, engaging, tance; books that have a decisive effect on Depth Reporting on Religion. The judges said Richardson-Moore “dis- and informative writing” on “unusual, off- how religion is examined, understood, and plays strong writing and a good diversity beat topic choices.” The judges said interpreted. Hogan/Albach won the contest for journal- in topics” and that she “made the connec- Marshall came up with “unusual twists on ists at news outlets with more than tion between religion as experienced on familiar stories.” Awards for Excellence are given in three 100,000 circulation; Richardson-Moore for the personal level and the related public categories (Analytical-Descriptive, news outlets with less than 100,000 circu- policy issues.” Another said the “article on In the opinion writing contest, Ken Constructive-Reflective Studies, and lation; and Caldwell for opinion writing. Messianic Christians is good story-telling Woodward of Newsweek placed second Historical Studies). Not all awards are that doesn’t gloss over the controversies.” and Bill Tammeus of the Kansas City Star given every year. In addition, there is a The award recognizes “well-researched placed third. The judges said Woodward separate competition and prize for the Best newswriting that enhances the public Caldwell’s opinion writing entries dis- was “extremely informative about Islam,” First Book in the History of Religions. For understanding of religion” said Barbara cussed the burgeoning market of Christian writing “virtually an ‘Islam 101’ for the eligibility requirements, awards processes, DeConcini, AAR Executive Director. sex manuals; Islam-bashing in the United general American reader,” and that he was and a list of current jurors, please see the States and President Bush’s inability to “sympathetic, but rigorous.” Tammeus was Book Awards rules Web page www.aarweb. Hogan/Albach submitted articles on restrain such rhetoric; the apocalyptic praised for his ability to mix “personal org/awards/bookrules.asp. Christian homosexuals; a congregation’s beliefs held by some conservative experience . . . with extensive information response when their pastor shed his Christians toward Israel; lay uses of the for the reader’s benefit.” The AAR is pleased to announce this toupee; the role of imams; the recovery World Wide Web; and homosexuality year's recipients of the Awards for process of the Catholic Church in Boston; among Catholic priests. In each contest, the prize for first place is Excellence in Religion and the Best First and how churches avoid infectious diseases $500. Each contestant submitted five arti- Book in the History of Religions: when sharing the communion cup. The judges said Caldwell, who won the cles published in North America during contest for the second consecutive year, 2002. Names of contestants and their Historical The judges said Hogan/Albach wrote “fas- was “extremely informative on crucial news outlets were removed from submis- Norman J. Girardot, cinating portraits of the face of gay ‘issues of the day,’ such as Islam bashing sions prior to judging. Lehigh University Christianity” and that the “toupee narra- and evangelical Christians’ love affair with The Victorian Translation tive was a great ‘piece’ of journalistic story- Israel,” and that the “diversity of topics… The judges were Kelly McBride, an ethics of China: James Legge’s telling.” The judges commented that the displays an impressive range.” faculty member at the Poynter Institute Oriental Pilgrimage “mark of an excellent reporter is the ability and a former religion reporter; Joyce University of California to inform while engaging the reader. This In the more than 100,000 circulation con- Smith, a journalism assistant professor at Press, 2002 journalist does just that.” test, Sharon Boase of the Hamilton Ryerson University in Toronto and former Spectator (Canada) and G. Jeffrey journalist; and Dena Davis, a law profes- Analytical-Descriptive Richardson-Moore submitted articles on a MacDonald of Religion News Service tied sor at Cleveland-Marshall College of Law Paul Christopher preacher who gave up his large congrega- for second place. The judges said, “Both and chair of the AAR’s Committee on the Johnson, University of tion to care for his ailing father; the reli- entries exemplified good storytelling sup- Public Understanding of Religion. ❧ Missouri, Columbia gious life of local Kurds and their stance ported by research.” Secrets, Gossip, and Gods: The Transformation of Brazilian Candomble Oxford University Press, 2002 Nominations Sought for the Marty Award

Constructive-Reflective Q: What do Ruth Benedict, Satyajit Ray, and Anthony Susan Neiman, Trollope have in common? Einstein Forum, 2003 Winner Potsdam A: Evil in Modern Thought: An If they were alive, they would be potential nomi- Alternative History of nees for AAR’s prestigious Martin E. Marty Award. Philosophy WARDED ANNUALLY SINCE Diana Eck (2002), David Knipe (2001), Princeton University 1996, this award recognizes and Eileen V. Barker (2000). The CPUR Press, 2002 A extraordinary contributions to the enthusiastically solicits nominations from public understanding of religion. The the membership for future recipients. You Best First Book in the award goes to those whose work has a rele- will find a nomination form on the AAR History of Religions vance and eloquence that speaks not just Web site at www.aarweb.org/awards/marty/ Ananda Abeysekara, to scholars, but to the broader public as nominations.asp. Virginia Polytechnic well. The contribution can be through any Institute and State medium (e.g., books, film, TV, public At the 2003 Annual Meeting, the CPUR University speaking), so long as it is based on scholar- will initiate the Marty Forum. Robert Colors of the Robe: ship in religion. Nominees need not be Wuthnow, this year’s Martin Marty Award The winner of the 2003 Martin E. Religion, Identity, and AAR members or academics. Nominations winner, will be the featured guest. Gustav Mary Award is Robert Wuthnow, Difference for the award are reviewed by the AAR Niebuhr, former religion reporter for the Gerhard R. Andlinger Professor of University of South Committee on the Public Understanding New York Times, will interview Wuthnow Sociology at Princeton University. He Carolina Press, 2002 ❧ of Religion (CPUR). and ask him to reflect on the contributions is an expert on the sociology of reli- of his extensive research on American reli- gion and on cultural sociology. His The first recipient was Martin Marty him- gion. Questions from the audience will be recent books include All in Sync: How self; since then, awardees have included welcome. Music and Art are Revitalizing American Religion (2003); Creative Spirituality: The Way of the Artist (2003); After Heaven: Spirituality in Excellence in Teaching Award America since the 1950s (1998); and Loose Connections: Joining Together in ANET WALTON will receive the classroom presentations, as well as requir- America’s Fragmented Communities Excellence in Teaching Award at the ing her students to get out of the class- (1998). He has also edited the J 2003 Annual Meeting of the room to visit theaters, churches, and many Encyclopedia of Politics and Religion American Academy of Religion. Walton is other sites. In addition to teaching fre- (1998). He recently completed a Professor of Worship at Union Theological quently with members of the Union facul- major research project on the public Seminary, where she teaches the courses ty, she has also collaborated with faculty role of mainline Protestantism in the “Worship and the Arts,” “Ritual from Hebrew Union College/Jewish U.S. since the 1960s, which resulted Performance and Criticism,” “Women’s Institute of Religion. in a coedited volume, The Quiet Experience as a Resource for Worship,” Hand of God: Faith-Based Activism and and “New York City: Its Living Symbols,” Professor Walton has also consulted widely the Public Role of Mainline among others. Professor Walton makes fre- with Christian and Jewish laity and clergy Protestantism (2002). ❧ quent use of New York City’s extraordi- nary resources by inviting artists to make See WALTON p.23 12 • October 2003 AAR RSN NEWS

Winner of the opinion writing contest Winner of the contest for journalists at news outlets over 100,000 circulation How Islam-Bashing Editor’s Note: Editor’s Note: The Gay Divide This article was one of five articles Got Cool This article was one of five articles submitted. submitted. No issue is as divisive among Christians as homosexuality. President Bush no longer seems able to restrain anti-Islamic The stories told here aren’t about people who make headlines. rhetoric Susan Hogan/Albach Deborah Caldwell Dallas Morning News Beliefnet Reprinted by permission of the Dallas Morning News This article appeared originally on www.beliefnet.com, the leading multifaith Web site for religion, spirituality, inspiration, and more. Used with permission. All rights reserved. HEY AREN’T THE LEADERS of The church closet the conservative or liberal factions. He’s a gay Protestant pastor in North N THE LAST SIX WEEKS, a major rhetoric. But now, conservatives seem to T They aren’t the ones turning church Texas. If he came out publicly, he’d lose Protestant leader has described the be increasingly ignoring Bush’s approach. conventions into war zones. his job. I Prophet Muhammad as “demon-pos- “The White House has lost control of the sessed pedophile;” a well-known conserva- issue,” says John Green, an expert on reli- These are the people who get lost behind He’s fearful that will happen anyway. tive columnist suggested that Muslims get gion and politics at University of Akron. the debates over policy. They’re the ones “some sort of hobby other than slaughter- “Islam-bashing has become more public, wounded in the battle over Bible verses. His denomination teaches that God loves ing infidels;” the head of a conservative and it seems to be more accepted.” homosexuals but frowns upon their sexual activist group suggested American Homosexuality isn’t just an issue to them. activity. Abstinence is the only acceptable Muslims should leave the country; and And there is a limit, Green notes, to how They live it. lifestyle, it says. evangelist Franklin Graham described vehemently Bush is likely to disagree with Islam as inherently violent. these conservatives and Christians, since The endless fighting over the issue hurts This pastor has never been in love with they make up his political base. them. But they’re also bruised by the another man. Meanwhile, the University of North silence. Carolina is being sued by the Family The latest round began in June, when the “I was 36 before I’d even get together with Policy Network, a conservative group, for Rev. Jerry Vines, the former president of Some believe that God says homosexuals other gay people,” he said. “It was scary asking incoming freshmen to read a book the Southern Baptist Convention — the are people of sacred worth but same-sex just to let some other gay person know called Approaching the Qur’an: The Early nation’s largest Protestant denomination, relations are wrong. They have the weight that I was gay.” Revelations, an assignment Fox News with 15 million members — described of Christian tradition on their side. Network’s Bill O’Reilly compared to Islam’s founder as a “demon-possessed It took him a long time to realize his sexu- teaching Hitler’s Mein Kampf in 1941. On pedophile.” Vines, pastor of the 25,000- Others say it’s time for tradition to al orientation. In grade school, then high Wednesday, a North Carolina state legisla- member First Baptist Church in change. Some of them suffer openly, some school, then college, he waited for attrac- tor told a local radio station his view: “I Jacksonville, Fla., added that “Allah is not secretly because they differ with church tions to women to kick in. don’t want the students in the university Jehovah either. Jehovah’s not going to turn teaching. system required to study this evil.” you into a terrorist that’ll try to bomb They never did. He was devastated when people and take the lives of thousands and Faith has led these Christians down differ- he realized he was gay. Islam-bashing, it appears, is suddenly not thousands of people.” Days later, the ent paths. But each has a common plea to just acceptable, but almost fashionable SBC’s current president, the Rev. Jack churches. “I was pretty much into biblical literal- among conservatives. This isn’t a matter of Graham, pastor of the 20,000-member ism,” he said. “My whole understanding commentators criticizing Muslim extrem- Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Be compassionate. Be loving. Reach out. of homosexuality was that the Bible said it ists. These are remarks that attack Islam, Texas, agreed with Vines. was sin.” Muslims, the Qur’an, and the Prophet These are people whose stories are seldom Muhammad as pervasively and inherently Ari Fleischer, the President’s spokesman, heard. They share them with great fear of When he felt called to seminary, he fig- bad. was compelled to differ with the SBC backlash. ured God would “fix” him. leaders, even though in remarks to the President Bush’s repeated attempts since convention a day after Vines’ comment, But their hope is to bridge understanding. See HOGAN/ALBACH p.28 Sept. 11 to describe Islam as a “religion of Here are their stories: peace” initially helped quell anti-Muslim See CALDWELL p.27

Winner of the contest for journalists at news outlets under 100,000 circulation Editor’s Note: Local Kurds United Against Saddam This article was one of five articles submitted. Simpsonville offers young families a future on a street Most of the young men heading the families “We thought we were doing good job, drilling ‘that God built’ ran afoul of Saddam by drilling wells for wells for the people,” Swar said. “But when Deb Richardson-Moore Global Partners, an international relief agency we got to Turkey, they treated us like we’re aided by a Simpsonville well-boring company. prisoners, like we’re going to prison for Greenville News Saddam thought anyone working with crime.” Reprinted by permission of the Greenville News Americans was spying for them, said Swar Zubeer, and the dictator offered rewards for The United States flew thousands of Kurds to IMPSONVILLE — Deep in the They know that many of their 20 million to killing the Kurdish workers. Anderson Air Force Base in Guam for refugee green pastures of southern Greenville 25 million fellow Kurds blame America for processing, before dispersing them across the SCounty is a dead-end street where 30 withdrawing support in 1975, when the So when the American military pulled out of country. ebony-haired children from nine households Kurds allied with neighboring Iran over a northern Iraq in 1996, Lutheran Family scamper from yard to yard, porch to porch, territorial dispute. Services brought 10 families to Greenville In Greenville County, Fork Shoals Baptist as at home with Mama Bahar as with Mama County, where six Baptist churches took them took in four families, and Cedar Shoals, Jalila. They know that after the 1991 Gulf War, in and helped them find jobs, enrolled their Augusta Road, Taylors First, Greenville First the CIA backed a Kurdish uprising to children in school and English classes, taught and Brushy Creek, another six. Kurdistan Way, residents call it. Flanked by remove Saddam from power. them to drive, to shop, to open bank 23 acres of grass and hardwoods, it is as accounts, to fill out papers. Joyce Medlin of Augusta Road remembers the unlike the sand and rugged mountains of Its failure led to thousands being killed by day Ramadan Omer and his family arrived their native Iraq as possible. But it is now the Saddam’s forces and thousands more fleeing It’s not been easy, not a moment of it. with fewer English skills than any of the oth- Kurdistan where they will live out their lives. into Turkey and Iran, littering the roads of ers. northern Iraq with abandoned clothes and Swar and Parween Zubeer fled in mid-winter As the rest of the United States debates mili- possessions. 1996 to a refugee camp in Turkey, where it “When we picked them up at the airport,” tary action against Saddam Hussein, the was so cold the young parents feared their 3- Medlin said, “he had a cardboard box with all neighborhood of Iraqi Kurds speaks with But these families were also rescued by month-old daughter, Suham, would die. one voice: Remove him, whatever the cost. Americans, and it is with their new country See RICHARDSON-MOORE p.30 that they are casting their future.

October 2003 AAR RSN • 13 Religious Studies News, AAR Edition AAR Surveys of Religion and Theology Programs in the U.S.: Numbers Count

Carey J. Gifford Lilly Endowment–funded Strengthening lyst to conduct a second phase of analysis of programs and that need to be addressed as College and University Programs in Religion the data. In this round of analyses we they promote and advance the academic American Academy of Religion and Theology (SCURT) initiative. (More sought out various relationships by affilia- study of religion in the U.S. and Canada. information on this census can be found at: tion (particulaly information regarding The results of this discussion will assist us as www.aarweb.org/department/RSNAARCensus. adjunct faculty and women in the profes- we prepare future studies and surveys of the VER THE PAST THREE years pdf.) The preliminary results of this large- sion) and aggregate numbers regarding reli- field. the Academy has undertaken two scale census, with nearly nine hundred pro- gion majors, courses, departmental charac- large-scale surveys of the academ- O grams responding, were published in the teristics, and enrollment. The results of this At a Special Topics Forum at the 2003 ic study of religion, one at the undergrad- Fall 2001 issue of Religious Studies News — analysis will be the focus of a Special Topics Annual Meeting we will present the prelimi- uate level and one at the doctoral level. AAR Edition. Forum at the 2003 Annual Meeting and at nary results of the data analysis of the The data that we have collected and ana- a special forum held in Atlanta in early Graduate Survey as well as further analysis of lyzed will serve as the foundation of our Additional presentations of the preliminary October (see below). The full data analyses the data that has been collected in our under- continuing efforts to ensure that local and results were made at a Special Topics Forum of the undergraduate census (without any graduate census. The meeting is entitled national leaders have the information they at the 2001 Annual Meeting. The Special institutions being identified) will eventually “Numbers Count: Gathering, Managing, and need to (1) assess the state of the field; (2) Topics Forum included a report on what be posted on the AAR Web site so that Using Census Data in a Program Review and analyze established patterns and emerging had been learned from the census about interested parties can review the data for Enhancement” (A229). An accompanying trends; and (3) secure the future of the field programs, faculty, and enrollments at the their own purposes. slide show will demonstrate how to use com- through strategic decision making based on undergraduate level; a summary of the thir- parable data to help review a given depart- accurate, comprehensive, and reliable infor- ty-seven-item research design and the data ment or program and compare it with similar mation. collection strategies deployed; reflections on Graduate Departments of ones among the nearly nine hundred under- what the data reveal about the state of the Religion and Theology in the U.S. graduate departments and sixty-two doctoral field; and a discussion of measures needed programs that reported. There will also be a Undergraduate Departments of In the next phase of the AAR’s initiative, we for filling lacunae in our knowledge. presentation on gathering, managing, and conducted a survey of all fully accredited col- Religion and Theology in the U.S. Panelists included Edward R. Gray, using data in a program review. The panelists leges, universities, and seminaries in the American Academy of Religion; Lance include Terrence W. Tilley of the University and Canada United States which offer academic doctoral Selfa, National Opinion Research Center; of Dayton and Carey J. Gifford of the From September 2000 to April 2001, over degrees in religion or theology, such as the Jonathan Z. Smith, University of Chicago; American Academy of Religion. eleven hundred department chairs and pro- Ph.D., Th.D., S.T.D., and D.H.L. The and Linell E. Cady, Arizona State gram heads in religion and theology at fully intent of the survey, conducted in the fall of University. Additional presentations were Taken together, these two surveys of the accredited colleges and universities across 2002, was to poll those institutions that pre- made to several regional groups in the demography, students, faculty, and programs North America received the AAR’s Census pare candidates for the terminal degree neces- spring of 2002. of the undergraduate and graduate study of of Religion and Theology Programs, which sary for their professional careers as academi- religion will provide invaluable data for all was supported by a grant from the Lilly cians and scholars, hence we only surveyed With the core findings of this census having those interested in the contemporary state of Endowment, Inc. This census mapped the academic doctoral programs (rather than been published, we realized a need for a the field and its future development. The comprehensively the undergraduate aca- professional doctoral programs such as considerable amount of relational data surveys have provided a plethora of informa- demic study of religion in the U.S. and D.Min. programs). We received a very analysis. In the spring of 2003 we commis- tion regarding the types and number of Canada. It was the signature program of the encouraging response rate, with sixty-two of sioned an Emory University statistical ana- courses offered at the undergraduate level, eighty-seven institutions participating. In the the number and types of fields of concentra- near future we will be conducting yet anoth- tion being studied at the graduate level, and er survey, this time of terminal masters-level faculty tenure and salaries — to name only a programs in the U.S. few of the hundreds of categories of data. The 210-item Graduate Survey garnered The Academy’s overarching intention is to information regarding: collect and analyze longitudinal data from undergraduate and graduate academic units • General information about the instruc- with the purpose of identifying and pub- tional program; number of applications lishing trends. When both data collections and percent admitted have been fully analyzed, and as we contin- ue to do further data collections on a regu- • Student recruitment and admission; their lar basis, we will see what trends can be course of study: curricula, exams, disserta- identified. Such trends will assist in develop- tion, and teaching; doctoral students as ing effective plans and programs to improve teachers; student funding and financial the field. They will also provide a base for support; completion and attrition patterns; future longitudinal surveys. With this type placement and employment of historical knowledge, the academic study of religion will be better equipped to under- • Faculty: number tenured, ranks, and stand itself and to present its case. With the salary support of the Lilly Endowment, Inc. and the endorsement of major societies in the • Departmental resources study of religion, we can now begin to effectively use this accurate, reliable, and We have retained Richard Rubinson, useful information. ❧ Professor of Sociology and Interim Associate Dean of the Graduate School at Emory University (Ph.D., Stanford University, 1974) to gather and analyze the survey data, to do a causal-comparative analysis, and to The Committee on Teaching derive correlations of the quantitative data. and Learning seeks He is the author of “The Sociology of Educational Expansion,” Sociology of nominations for the 2004 Education (1999) and “Class Formation, AAR Award for Excellence Political Organization, and Institutions,” in Teaching. American Journal of Sociology (1986); co- author of “Education and the Economy,” Nominations of winners of Handbook of Economic Sociology (1995); and editor of The Political Construction of campus awards, or any other Education (Praeger, 1991). awards, are encouraged.

Combined Results Analyzed Procedures for the nomination process are As the capstone of these two surveys, we are gathering a small group of distinguished outlined on the individuals in the field, as well as in higher AAR Web site at education, who will meet for a daylong dis- cussion on October 4 in Atlanta. The meet- www.aarweb.org/ ing will examine the core questions and awards/teaching.asp. issues that are faced by departments and

14 • October 2003 AAR RSN NEWS REGIONAL NEWS

CV of the author, and four copies of the Religion; Gay and Lesbian Studies in MAR–SBL essay. We ask that submissions to this con- Religion; History of Christianity; Islamic test NOT be submitted by e-mail, but Studies; Jewish–Christian Dialogue; Judaica; President: Julia O’Brien, Lancaster through regular mail to Professor Jane Latino/Latina Studies in Religion; Theological Seminary Marie Law, to the address listed below. Philosophy of Religion; Religion and Regional Coordinator: Christina Bucher, Psychology; Religion and the Arts; Religion Elizabethtown College ABOUT THE LOCATION in America; Religion and Spirituality; Religions of Asia; Religious Ethics; Social Cornell University is located in Ithaca, New Scientific Study of Religion; Theology; and York, which has its own airport with limited Women and Religion. air service. Syracuse and Elmira are other nearby regional airports with ground trans- Please e-mail your proposal as an attachment portation to Ithaca (one hour away for to Dr. Frank Connolly-Weinert at Syracuse, about forty-five minutes for [email protected]. The deadline for proposals is Elmira) available through Ithaca Airline November 15, 2003. All proposals should Limousine at 1-607-273-3030. We suggest include full name, title, institution, phone Eastern International people price all three cities, as travel to number, fax number, e-mail, and mailing Ithaca is often considerably more expensive. address. For individual papers we require an Eastern International Regional Meeting Midwest Rooms will be reserved for this conference abstract (five hundred words) describing your April 30 – May 1, 2004 at both the University Inn and the Ithaca projected work. If you have not presented a Midwest Regional Meeting Cornell University Quality Inn, and a notice about these reser- paper before a learned society you must send April 2 – 3, 2004 Ithaca, New York vations will be released in early February. your entire paper in advance by November DePaul Center Bed and breakfasts in the area, quite lovely 15, 2003. In your cover letter please add any Chicago, Illinois CALL FOR PAPERS this time of year, are often comparable in other information that may help us weigh price; a guide will be sent upon request. For your submission. Proposals for panels should The Religious Studies Program at Cornell those participants traveling to Ithaca by car, include abstracts and contact information for CALL FOR PAPERS University announces the regional AAR- we will post travel information on the AAR each individual participant. Proposals for an The theme Religion and Education is intend- EIR conference April 30 and May 1, 2004, Web site in early February 2004. entire session should also list the name of the ed to solicit papers and panels exploring the to be held on the Cornell University cam- designated session head and individual par- varied intersections between religion and all pus in the historic A. D. White House. The NOTE: All presenters at the Spring 2004 ticipants. Ordinarily we expect presenters to types and levels of education, largely but not theme for this year’s conference is “Religion regional conference must have active mem- supply their own audiovisual equipment, exclusively in North America. Papers/panels and War” and although the sessions are bership in the AAR. ALL participants must however we will consider requests for extraor- on other topics are also invited. The title of soliciting papers on this broad topic, we are preregister for the conference. Deadline for dinary a/v support on a case-by-case basis. each proposed paper/panel, an abstract of not also open to other topics. We are also conference registration is April 1, 2004. more than 250 words, and names and affilia- interested in panels combining activism or All presenters must preregister for the confer- tions of presenters/ panelists should be sent to performative dimensions with scholarly DEADLINE FOR PROPOSALS: ence in order to appear in the program book. the appropriate Section Chair (available on inquiry. Furthermore, we encourage inter- Please mail your preregistration form to Dr. our Web page www.albion.edu/midwest- disciplinary panels which maintain religion Deadline for paper and panel proposals is Frank Connolly-Weinert, Department of aar). Proposals on the practical aspects of as a central theme. Scholars from any region January 15, 2004, with notification of Theology and Religious Studies, St. John’s teaching about religion should be sent directly may apply to participate. acceptance by early February. A complete University, Jamaica, NY 11432, USA; to the program chair for possible inclusion in proposal should include the names, address- Phone: 1-718-380-5723/7143; FAX: 1-718- a special section. Submissions should be made Papers and panels are being solicited on the es, and current CV’s or resumes of all pro- 990-1907). Please note that we have negoti- as early as possible, but before December 15, following issues: posed participants, and a description of the ated a special AAR hotel room rate. You 2003. Younger scholars and graduate students proposed paper or panel, complete with must make your reservations by March 1, are especially encouraged to submit proposals • Revisiting classical scholarship in working titles for all talks. Send all neces- 2004, to obtain this discounted rate, no and participate in the conference. Senior religion and violence/war sary information (if sending hard copy) to: exceptions! Please call the Radisson Cross scholars are encouraged to serve as respon- • Historical case studies of religious Professor Jane Marie Law, Department of Keys at 1-410-532-6900 to make your reser- dents for sections and panels. The meeting validation of war Asian Studies, Cornell University, 350 vations as soon as possible. will be held Friday afternoon through • New theoretical developments in Rockefeller Hall, Ithaca, NY 14853-2502, Saturday evening, April 2–3, 2004, in critical ideology which address USA. Electronic submissions for panel pro- This year the MAR–AAR will award $200 to Chicago. religion and state sponsored violence posals (but not student paper competitions) the most innovative proposal for a group ses- • Technology, media, and ritual are preferred. Please send ALL electronic sion (or panel) dealing with peace issues or spectacle implicating religion, as used submissions to Mark McGuire (co-director women’s studies; the deadline for submission to gain support for war, or used in with Professor Law, Masaki Matsubara, and is November 15, 2003. To help foster gradu- times of war Lisa Kuly) at [email protected]. ate student participation, the Executive • Religious resistance movements Committee of the MAR–AAR will again responding to war; resistance or award the Robert F. Streetman Prize of $100 reconciliation for the best student paper presented by an • Case studies of rituals of AAR regional member. Those interested in remembrance after war the Streetman Prize should submit their full • Case studies of religious conflicts as a paper by November 15, 2003, and indicate root cause of war they are submitting the paper for prize con- • Contemporary case studies of sideration. religious ideology in the U.S.-led “war on terror” Thanks for your interest in the Mid-Atlantic AAR and SBL annual meeting. We look for- STUDENT PAPER COMPETITION Mid-Atlantic ward to your participation in 2004! Undergraduate and graduate students resid- Mid-Atlantic Regional Meeting 2003–2004 REGIONAL PLANNING ing in the EIR region are invited to enter March 18–19, 2004 COMMITTEE the student paper competitions. Please note Radisson Hotel at Cross Keys that to be eligible for submission, the stu- Baltimore, Maryland MAR–AAR dent must reside in the Eastern International Region. Furthermore, the President: Michael Kogan, Montclair State paper must be accepted for reading in the CALL FOR PAPERS University conference to be eligible for the competition We invite you to submit proposals for the Regional Secretary/Treasurer: Jacqueline Pacific Northwest and must be presented at the conference by 2004 AAR Mid-Atlantic Regional Meeting Pastis, LaSalle University the student. The committee will give prefer- Pacific Northwest Regional Meeting on March 18 and 19. Our location this year Regional Meeting Director: Frank Connolly- ence to work which is new at this confer- May 7–9, 2004 is the Radisson Hotel at Cross Keys, just six Weinert, St. John’s University ence. Two $100 awards are reserved for Simon Fraser University and University of miles north of Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. We Regional Representatives: Rose Ann winning papers (although in some cases the British Columbia will jointly host this meeting with the region- Christian, Towson University; F. David committee can decide to award up to Vancouver, British Columbia al SBL. We welcome your proposals for indi- Kievitt, Bergen Community three). The awards will be formally present- vidual papers, panels, workshops, or other College; Habibeh Rahim, St. John’s ed at the business meeting on Saturday, presentations. While open to solid proposals University, NY; Mikhail Sergeev, University CALL FOR PAPERS May 1, during lunch, and all attendees who in any area, our planned MAR–AAR sec- of the Arts; Carmen Nanko, Trinity College Submit a 150-word abstract for each pro- entered the competition are encouraged to tions are: Academic Study of Religion; Student Representatives: Sigridur posed paper by January 16, 2004, to the attend the awards luncheon. To enter the African Religions; African-American Gudmarsdottir, Drew University; Erin appropriate chair listed below. Participants competition, please send a letter of intent Religious Studies; Appropriation of Sacred Lothes Biviano, Princeton University. along with the essay being presented, a full Texts; Comparative and Historical Studies in See CALL FOR PAPERS p.31

October 2003 AAR RSN • 15 Religious Studies News, AAR Edition The Entrepreneurial Chair In Memoriam, Howard L. HE ACADEMIC RELATIONS The chairs heard William Green speak Harrod 1932–2003 Task Force conducted a successful on “The Role of the Chair: Building, T chairs workshop at Georgetown Sustaining, and Developing a University in July. Nearly thirty chairs Department”; Jane McAulifffe speak on RSN invited two colleagues to write tributes about Howard Harrrod, who died attended the two and one-half day event “Working with the Dean”; and February 2, 2003. at the Georgetown Conference Center. Raymond Williams speak on “Creating The workshop, entitled “The an Enabling Environment for Excellent Entrepreneurial Chair: Building & Teaching and Learning.” During the day Joseph C. Hough, Jr., Douglas A. Knight, Professor Managing Your Department in an Era of the chairs divided up into breakout ses- President of Hebrew Bible and Chair, Shrinking Resources and Increasing sions by interest and by institutional Demands,” was led by three speakers: type to discuss areas of common concern Union Theological Seminary Graduate Department of William Green (Dean of the College at such as retention/promotion/tenure, cur- writes... Religion, Vanderbilt the University of Rochester), Jane riculum development, funding, faculty Dammen McAuliffe (Dean of the evaluation, and mentoring faculty. OWARD HARROD was my University writes... College at Georgetown University), and friend of forty years, and he was OWARD HARROD, Oberlin Raymond Williams (Founding Director The workshop received high marks: my colleague at Vanderbilt H Alumni Professor of Social Ethics of the Wabash Center for Teaching and “The best part of the workshop was that Divinity School for nine years. He died on and Sociology of Religion emeri- Learning in Theology and Religion). it allowed so much interaction with February 3, 2003, after a long illness. As a H tus at Vanderbilt University, has died at The workshop was made available by a other chairs”; “I found all of the speakers friend, he was intensely loyal, and as a col- the age of seventy. Only last year he retired grant from the Lilly Endowment, Inc., to have been helpful in very different league he was an important faculty leader. after thirty-eight years of teaching, the last in support of the Academy’s ways”; “The variety of styles and per- Howard was one of the most effective thirty-four at Vanderbilt. He was looking Strengthening College and University spectives enhanced the overall effective- teachers I have known. He brought to his forward to many more years with his wife Programs in Religion and Theology ness of the workshop.” ❧ classroom a mastery of his materials, Annemarie, his children and grandchil- (SCURT) initiative, a benefit of the whether in theological ethics, sociology of dren, his friends, his writing projects, and Academic Relations Program. religion, or studies of Native American his treasured home in the northern religions. He had the capacity to elicit Montana woods. Instead, cancer took him from his students their best work. He and his dreams. He saw it coming and worked with them tirelessly and effectively. Letter to the Editor managed to beat the odds several times, The student response to him cannot be securing for himself additional years of life fully measured, but the fact that he served through courageous medical intervention A Response to “From the Heart of on dissertation committees for more than and sheer will to live. eighty Ph.D. students at Vanderbilt is the Qur’an Belt” some indication. The huge number of for- As an educator, Howard had a style of his mer students attending his retirement cele- own, a rare combination of nondirective- Kevin R. Lewis bration in 2002 was yet another. He was ness and respect. Undergraduate, divinity, highly regarded by his colleagues in the Marine on St. Croix, MN and graduate students alike benefited from Divinity School, having served in nearly his mentoring, as did younger faculty every leadership position in that faculty, Editor’s Note: members, myself included. At Vanderbilt’s and he was equally well regarded by his Graduate Department of Religion he RSN received this Letter to the Editor in response to the “In the Public Interest” colleagues in the wider faculty circles of served on, at last count, eighty-seven dis- feature “From the Heart of the Qur’an Belt” which appeared in the May 2003 issue Vanderbilt University. He regularly sertation committees — the second high- of Religious Studies News — AAR Edition. reached across the disciplines for his est number of any faculty member in the research and often taught in the religion department’s history. He loved to teach, program of the Arts and Sciences faculty Kind Sir: pro-Bin Laden crowds gathered in and students felt it. of the university. Pakistan with posters of Bush and Blair, First, I agree entirely with the thrust one with a large swastika across his Throughout his career Howard sought to Howard was a recognized major authority of Professor Ernst’s piece that it was brow, the other with a Star of understand the nature of human communi- on Native American religions. He reasonable, indeed wise, for the UNC David. Months later, as the Iraq con- ties and moral action within them. In the authored several books that have become to assign the Qur’an as student reading flict was about to, or was beginning, 1960s he focused on poverty issues and civil classics for students interested in the inter- and conduct its seminar, and that the this exact imagery was repeated on the rights, eventually turning to the situation of pretation of those religious traditions. He Islam bashing about the UNC program San Francisco bridge, and the folks Native Americans and devoting four of his also wrote widely in theological ethics, is very sad, and a little bearing, or next to those posters, were books to their history and traditions: Mission having published a number of articles and dangerous. Counterintuitively, it is wearing collars we all recognize. If there among the Blackfeet (1971); Renewing the two books in the field as well. His last because we Americans have so many is a struggle over the heart of Islam, World: Plains Indian Religion and Morality publication was a sensitive and original xenophobic myths (as all immigrant what does collar-wearing emulation (1987); Becoming and Remaining a People: article in which he reflected on his chang- nations do) which work to cancel each of Bin Laden-supporting imagery mean Native American Religions on the Northern ing self-consciousness and his evolving other out in the body politic, rather . . . is it mean . . . is it dangerous . . . or Plains (1995); and The Animals Came view of the world as he fought a seven- than a few dominant hateful merely stupid? Dancing: Native American Sacred Ecology and year battle with cancer. That article was myths, that the Islam bashers are only Animal Kinship (2000). His special interest the first of its kind and was published after slightly dangerous. Praise God. But Is there any anti-Semitism in rallying was the Northern Plains Indians, especially his death in the prestigious Journal of the their danger warrants exposure… and I for a Palestinian State (which I support) the Blackfeet, among whom he was known American Medical Association. thank and appreciate Professor Ernst for, in part, excellent Jew bombers, say- and appreciated. His work will now be con- and your editors for doing so. ing in essence that the Palestinians tinued in the form of a new annual lecture Howard received a B.A. degree from the deserve a state even though they inten- series in the Vanderbilt Divinity School and University of Oklahoma, a B.D. degree However, my problem is with senti- tionally target civilians, while demand- Graduate Department of Religion, the from Duke Divinity School, and both a ments that I have recently seen and ing that regime killing is wrong, in Howard L. Harrod Lectureship, which will S.T.M and a Ph.D. degree at Yale heard from the religious and anti-estab- essence, no killing is justified, to give highlight the fields of ethics, the sociology of University. Before he came to Vanderbilt, lishment left that have some of the Kurds and Shiites a vote? Is there any religion, and the study of Native American he taught at Howard University and then same dangerous characteristics of the racism in the thinking that Arab religious traditions. at Drake University. He was a faculty Islam bashers. Ernst states that “anti- Muslims are too tribal, too this, that or member at Vanderbilt Divinity School for Muslim prejudice goes back centuries” too anything, to be able to handle the His last years of life posed painful problems thirty-four years. and “has much in common with anti- responsibilities of democratic citizen- that he tackled in characteristically Harrodian Semitism and racism.” Quite true, but ship? Would the left have been so will- manner. Needing to articulate the effects of it silently infects those who speak loud- ing to discount the suffering of the prostate cancer on his very being, he turned est against it (reminiscent of academia Iraqi oppressed had they been white, Washington, D.C.’s Holocaust museum.) to writing, producing what is now titled “An in the 1960s speaking out against Christian Franco- or Anglophiles? Is Essay on Desire,” a remarkably perceptive, racism in America while producing there any hint of racism and/or reli- Kind sir, I see introspection on the part of the moving account that appeared two weeks only a handful of black Ph.D.s). So I gious bigotry there? American far left almost non-existent outside after his death in the Journal of the American challenge your institution, your news- of Paul Berman, Nat Hentoff and Christopher Medical Association (vol. 289/7, 19 Feb 2003, paper, and Professor Ernst to end this When is the last time you heard some- Hitchens… even as this pp. 813–14). The JAMA editor reportedly silence that fosters complicity at worst, one on the left point out the vast over- exercise has thankfully begun in said it should be required reading for all men. or merely the perception of complicity, lap in the thinking of some in the Europe. Please use your moral authority to at best. (obviously bad because it’s Republican) demand or provide such introspection, not to Happily, despite his struggle with the illness, Administration about how to deal with render different thinking or outcome, but Howard was able in his final years to find If Bin Laden and his movement repre- rogue states and terrorism with the because it is justified by and through what we great satisfaction in what he had accom- sent a corruption of Islam, sharing his thinking of those that work to prevent all hold dear. plished, and he came to realize how very movement’s imagery is also corrupting, genocide. (See, e.g., the Clinton much others appreciated him and what he or is perceived as complicity. As the Administration’s representative’s speech Many Thanks, and With Much Respect, had done. Can any of us wish for more? ❧ bombing commenced in Afghanistan, commemorating the opening of Kevin R. Lewis ❧

16 • October 2003 AAR RSN FEATURES An Interview with Bruce Cole, the Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities

pleased that NEH’s We the People initiative, during World War II, do you think they will The Informed Eye: Understanding announced by President Bush in September long remember what happened on Masterpieces of Western Art. 2002, has received strong support from September 11? A nation that does not know Cole was born in Ohio and attended Case members of Congress, humanities organiza- why it exists, or what it stands for, cannot be Western Reserve University. He earned his tions, and the American public. We the People expected to long endure. We have to know master’s degree from Oberlin College and is meant to address what I call the crisis of our past, and we believe that the his doctorate in 1969 from Bryn Mawr our “American amnesia.” Over the past few Endowment’s We the People initiative can help College. For two years he was the William years, several very good surveys and polls Americans learn more about our nation’s his- E. Suida Fellow at the Kunsthistorisches clearly demonstrate that Americans don’t tory and culture. (Your readers can find more Institut in Florence. He has held fellowships know their own history. In one case, more information about NEH and its We the and grants from the Guggenheim than half of the high school seniors surveyed People initiative online at www.NEH.gov.) Bruce Cole, a scholar of Renaissance art, is Foundation, the American Council of thought that either Italy, Germany, or Japan the eighth chairman of the National Learned Societies, the Kress Foundation, the was an ally of the United States during World RSN: How can We the People benefit the Endowment for the Humanities. He came American Philosophical Society, the Center War II. In another, one-third of seniors at the academic study of religion? Or vice versa? to the Endowment in December 2001 from for Medieval and Renaissance Studies at the top fifty-five colleges and universities couldn’t University of California, Los Angeles, and Indiana University in Bloomington, where identify the Constitution as the document Cole:So many of the early colonists who he was professor of art history and of com- the National Endowment for the Humanities that established the division of powers came to the “New World” did so seeking parative literature. between branches of government. freedom to worship and practice their faith Cole has published fourteen books, many of At Indiana, Cole was distinguished profes- without fear of reprisal or repression often them about the Renaissance. They include sor of fine arts, professor of comparative lit- Unlike a monarchy or a dictatorship, democ- found in their former homelands. This most The Renaissance Artist at Work; Sienese erature, and chair of the department of the racy is not self-sustaining. After the 1787 basic principle is truly central to the history Painting in the Age of the Renaissance; history of art at the Hope School of Fine Constitutional Convention, Benjamin of the United States, so much so that the Arts. He is a corresponding member of the Italian Art, 1250-1550: The Relation of Franklin was asked if the framers had created Founders affirmed it with the very first words Art to Life and Society; Titian and Accademia Senese degli Intronati, the oldest learned society in Europe, and a founder a monarchy or a republic. “A republic,” he in the Constitution’s Bill of Rights: “Congress Venetian Art, 1450-1590; and Art of the replied, and then added, “if you can keep it.” shall make no law respecting an establish- Western World: From Ancient Greece to and former co-president of the Association for Art History. From one generation to the next, we need to ment of religion, or prohibiting the free exer- Post-Modernism. His most recent book is renew our knowledge of American history, cise thereof…” The Endowment’s We the our knowledge of our founding documents, People initiative welcomes proposals — in all and our understanding of what it means to our eligible grant programs — that explore be an American. We cannot neglect the great and examine freedom of religion and reli- RSN: Can you tell us what types of initia- new technologies, museum exhibitions, and democratic imperative: to give each succeed- gious expression and the role they have tives you expect to undertake at the National programs in libraries and other public venues. ing generation a brighter light, a broader per- played in weaving the fabric of our nation’s Endowment for the Humanities, especially the The Endowment’s competitive grant process spective, and an enriched legacy with which history. We the People project? contributes to our long-held goal of sustained to face the future. Citizens kept ignorant of excellence in the humanities. As the major their history are robbed of the riches of their The We the People initiative will open up new Cole: As you know, the National source of humanities funding in the United heritage and handicapped in their ability to grant competitions as well as extend existing Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) sup- States, we will continue to support the full understand and appreciate their own and ones, including: ports learning in history, literature, philosophy, spectrum of humanities disciplines in the other cultures. Citizens who do not know religious studies, and other areas in the months and years ahead. their rights are less likely to protect them. A dramatic expansion of NEH’s summer humanities. NEH grants also enrich classroom Seminars and Institutes program to benefit learning, create and preserve knowledge, and In addition to the Endowment’s broad-based And if Americans cannot recall whom we bring ideas to life through television, radio, support for the humanities, we are particularly fought — and whom we fought alongside — See COLE p.30 Editor’s Note: Member-at-Large Holmes Rolston will speak on “Caring for Nature: from Fact to Value, from Respect to Reverence” (A277) on Sunday, November 23 from 4:00 PM – 6:30 PM at the Annual Meeting in Atlanta in the Hilton Hotel, Monroe room.

An Interview with Holmes Rolston, RSN: First of all, congratulations on address him as “Your Royal Highness”; receiving the Templeton Prize! This is and we were lined up to be presented to Colorado State University, and quite an honor. Can you tell us how you him (about two dozen of us were present). first learned that you received the award? Templeton Prize Laureate 2003 Shortly Prince Philip appeared, walking Rolston: Thanks. Yes, it is an honor, down a long hall, and Jack Templeton (son but for me it is just as big a surprise. This of Sir John), accompanied by the prince’s prize wasn’t anywhere on my horizon. I equerry (I had to look that word up), pre- was sitting at my travel agent’s desk last sented us each to the prince. The ceremo- January and got a page from my wife. I ny proceeded; the prince was gracious and answered it on my agent’s phone and my cordial. Afterward, rather to everyone’s wife said, “I just got a phone call from surprise, he lingered to converse for a Jack Templeton, who says he needs to get time. Remember that he was honorary in touch with you urgently.” I called him director of the Worldwide Fund for and he broke the news, and made me Nature for fifteen years. He gave me a set promise not to tell anybody else (except of speeches he had made on the conserva- my wife) until the press conference March tion of nature. 19 in New York. RSN: Your generosity in donating the RSN: You received the award at a private prize money to Davidson College is mag- ceremony in Buckingham Palace at which nanimous. Can you give us any insight the Duke of Edinburgh presented the into your decision to donate the prize Rolston receives Templeton Prize from the Duke of Edinburgh at Buckingham Palace. award. Can you describe the event? money to your alma mater?

Holmes Rolston III is University Distinguished Professor and Professor of Philosophy at Rolston: They put my wife and me up Rolston: Davidson is an excellent lib- Colorado State University. He has written seven books, most recently Genes, Genesis, in the fanciest hotel I have ever stayed in eral arts college, and self-consciously a and God (Cambridge University Press), Science and Religion: A Critical Survey (Claridge’s in London), and we left from Christian institution. That’s where my (Random House, McGraw Hill), Philosophy Gone Wild (Prometheus Books), there in a cavalcade of five of the fanciest intellectual life got started fifty years ago, Environmental Ethics (Temple University Press), and Conserving Natural Value cars I have ever ridden in. We were halted particularly my interests in science and (Columbia University Press). He gave the Gifford Lectures, University of Edinburgh, by guards at the palace gate, cleared securi- religion and in the concept of nature. I’m 1997–1998. Rolston has spoken as distinguished lecturer on seven continents. He is ty, and were shown into the Chinese mortal, and, though still in good health featured in Fifty Key Thinkers on the Environment, edited by Joy A. Palmer, and is room, handsome with Chinese art. We and still on the job, I realize I am drawing past and founding president of the International Society for Environmental Ethics. He is had been given protocol about not speak- toward the end of my career. I’d like to a founding editor of the journal Environmental Ethics and has served on the Zygon ing to the prince until spoken to, how to editorial board for two decades. He is a founding member of the International Society for bow (optional for internationals), how to See ROLSTON p.24 Science and Religion.

October 2003 AAR RSN • 17 Religious Studies News, AAR Edition

procession for Pallas Athena. Most of my student. One of the best results for me has Passionate Uncertainty: Inside the American other work hangs or sits in our utility room. been getting to know faculty from many Jesuits (with Peter McDonough), I conclud- Passages: So I am a sewer and utility room painter, units of the university that I would not have ed a long research stint on the topic. I just expecting, of course, to be recognized met in my regular teaching years. We must received a Heilbrun Fellowship at Emory to posthumously as a kind of Howard be doing something right, because the write a spiritual memoir, and to put together Finster–Grandma Moses folk painter. Okay, Provost has now put our budget on a regular another book of interviews on personal spiri- Life in Retirement they laughed at Vincent V. G. I have also line, and we have been consulting with near- tual development of persons who mainly been writing poetry (I have a couple of by universities on how to set up similar pro- incorporate more than one wisdom tradition favorite coffee shops in Athens for this exer- grams at their schools. I am vice president of in their lives. I hope in my own book to join Eugene C. Bianchi cise), which I have much enjoyed. I’m just a relatively new national organization, concrete memoirist prose with the starting to take up hand drumming as my AROHE (Association of Retirement elaboration of my own humanist- nod to a desire to play a musical instrument. Organizations in Higher Education). Our naturalist religiosity. program at Emory was written up in the RSN: Could you give us some examples of Chronicle of Higher Education in February RSN: Do you do any teaching? your most enjoyable activities? 2003. Bianchi: I mentioned my one course a Bianchi: In addition to the activities RSN: Who have been your role models year at Emory. I’m invited to give lectures above, I enjoy travel, e.g., teaching in Rome during your retirement? here and there. But I have gained much in for a semester. I like to swim regularly, take life from the teaching by example of others. walks, work out on fitness machines, and Bianchi: I would have to describe a type, I hope I do that kind of teaching, too. visit friends. I enjoy working occasionally in of which there are many, rather than partic- our extensive garden. I try to make time ular individuals. I am inspired by older men RSN: If you could design your perfect each day for sitting meditation and yoga, and women who have looked into them- retirement, what would it look like? and I do Tai Chi with a group of friends selves enough to know how to balance their once a week. I read and listen to (while driv- inward search with outward creative actions Bianchi: If I could transfer everything I ing) novels much more than I used to, and that make a contribution to others. This bal- do now to the weather of coastal California appreciate a book group in Athens. I spend a ance will differ with individuals, but I seek or the Italian Riviera, that would be a bump little time with two friends in a Meals-on- the inner life more than the above activities up. It’s August in Atlanta, Hotlanta. When I Wheels program. might indicate. I am also impressed by those was a Jesuit theology student in Louvain, who know how to be powerful by giving up our school motto was igne probatum (tem- Eugene Bianchi, Professor emeritus, We understand that you have creat- power, such as Nelson Mandela. I would pered by fire); little did I think that would Emory University. With a B.A. and RSN: a M.A. from Gonzaga University ed the Emeritus College. Can you describe like to ease toward being a Taoist sage and a continue to be my motto. and a Ph.D. from Columbia this project and the activities it conducts? person of no account. Go figure. University, Eugene Bianchi began RSN: Knowing what you know now, what teaching at Emory in 1968. Among Bianchi: With the cooperation of a fac- RSN: What makes for a satisfactory might you have done differently during your his books are Aging as a Spiritual ulty group and of far-sighted provosts, I was retirement? academic career? Journey (1982); A Democratic able to start Emeritus College at Emory two Catholic Church, co-edited with years ago. Its purpose is to relate retired fac- Bianchi: Do some advance planning, Bianchi: In things academic, I would Rosemary R. Ruether (1992); and ulty to the life of the university in a win-win and not only about finances. Think about have been less concerned about academic Elder Wisdom (1994). He publish- context for all. We have launched many pro- options, involvements, avocations that reputation, acknowledging the various ways es, lectures, and conducts workshops grams such as monthly breakfasts and lunch- would really please you. You may want to of being scholarly. But I was lucky in this on the spirituality of aging, Christian es for emeriti(ae) and spouses with a short continue doing what you do now, but in a regard. Emory was very kind about letting theology, and institutional reform, as presentation and discussion; an Adopt-a- different mode and with less drudgery. Or me pursue my academic bliss in areas of well as in transtraditional and eco- Hall program with college students in their you might want to strike out on something teaching and writing. And my departmental logical spirituality. He has recently residences (informal discussions/refresh- quite different. I find satisfaction in the colleagues have been very supportive. concluded a major study of American ments with emeriti); seminars for senior fac- combination of things I do in “retirement.” Jesuits and former Jesuits. A new ulty on retirement; film forums twice a year; I put retirement in quotes because it is a RSN: What has been the most significant book from this study, Passionate two receptions a year with various award weary word; it sounds like retreaded tires: re- change in your life since you retired? Uncertainty: Inside the American ceremonies; regular meetings of senior facul- tire-ment. I much prefer the words reorien- Jesuits, co-authored with Peter ty women and emeritae on late-life transi- tation or revitalizing. Also cultivate a com- Bianchi: Only my critical hagiographer McDonough of Arizona State tions; an annual Alumni-Emeriti Teacher munity of friends. And focus a good bit on will know this posthumously. But my guess University, has recently been pub- Celebration which also honors the particular maintaining the best health you can. We is seeking a contemplative path that will lished (University of California, 2002). In addition to his professional department of the honoree; docent tours of think less about bodily well-being when we help me die well. Whether fast or slow, work, he is writing a novel, “The museums; a successful endowment fund are young, but aging well demands health expected or unexpected, il faut finir bien, Bishop of San Francisco.” Upon retir- campaign; a Great Lectures series done by awareness. I have found that regular exercise said Teilhard de Chardin. This shouldn’t ing in 2000 after teaching for thirty- emeriti Fall and Spring; a newsletter and a through swimming and fitness machines is sound morbid to you searchers of religious two years, he began the Emeritus Web site, a Living History program of by far the best medication for staying well. wisdom. So I’m in my pre-Bardo stage. College program at Emory University. audio-video taped interviews with retired Add to this the right diet and good supple- faculty; and an art gallery (doubling as part ments; nutritionists have taught us much of RSN: If you could give advice to your of our offices and conference room) for value in this realm. Exercise and diet are the younger colleagues who are still teaching, works by emeriti and senior faculty artists. very best health pills. I also have a sense of what would it be? RSN: Tell us about the types of activities continuing to make a contribution to others. that you have been involved in since you We are working toward a new program of Bianchi: At the risk of sounding too retired. off-campus lecturing by emeriti in local ven- RSN: What types of reading or research much like Joseph Campbell, keep checking ues, and we are planning an annual lecture are you doing in retirement? into your bliss; don’t ignore it. Play hooky Bianchi: With the help of other col- in honor of a substantial donor. And we are now and then on the inevitable contraints of leagues, I started the Emeritus College pro- reaching out to include spouses of deceased I talked about lighter reading above and a your work life to sit with your bliss (what gram at Emory (more below). I have contin- emeriti in all our programs. Up to this book discussion group. I write occasional you really want to do, to be). ❧ ued to teach one course a year in the point, our staff has been half-time: a direc- articles for publication in an essayist mode. Religion Department on a topic that relates tor, an administrative assistant, and a grad With the publication last year of my book, importantly to my own late life: Buddhist (with Taoist influence) and Christian mod- ern contemplatives. I find myself giving occasional talks on the Emeritus College and on topics from my areas in religious studies. For example, I have kept a foot in Catholic church reform issues with some publica- tions, but also by being on the board of the Association for the Rights of Catholics in the Church. I am also an officer of the Association of Retirement Organizations in Higher Education, which relates, of course, to my efforts with Emeritus College and continues my longstanding interest in cre- ative aging.

From a couple of years before retirement to the present, I have taken courses in painting and I have painted various pieces: one is a life-size sewer mural outside my home in AAR co-founders Harry Buck and Robert Smith talk about AAR beginnings at the inaugural session of the Oral History Project during the Athens very near the Oconee River, based 2002 Annual Meeting. From left to right are Esther Buck, Harry Buck, Bob Smith, Joyce Irwin, and Robert Orsi. on ancient Greek vases showing an annual

18 • October 2003 AAR RSN FEATURES

tenet of some but by no means all outcomes in Establishment Clause cases, Christian faiths, serves no identifiable sec- In the Public Interest but she has not adopted an accommoda- ular purpose. That fact alone compels a tionist approach. Neither has she criticized conclusion that the statute violates the the Lemon test; instead, she has advocated Establishment Clause.6 a modification. In her Jaffree concurrence, Changes in Court Membership Could O’Connor suggested that courts should A year later, in Cruzan v. Director, Missouri “examine whether government’s purpose is Department of Health, Stevens noted that Have a Significant Impact on Church- to endorse religion and whether the statute because “not much may be said with con- actually conveys a message of endorse- fidence about death unless it is said from State Relations ment.”4 While concluding that Alabama’s faith,” Missouri’s attempt to define the moment-of-silence statute was unconstitu- end of life was “not within the province of tional because its purpose clearly was to secular government” since it was an 1 endorse prayer, she suggested that statutes Eric Michael Mazur, Bucknell University and attempt “to circumscribe the liberties of that did not endorse prayer over other 2 the people by regulations designed wholly Joyce A. Baugh, Central Michigan University alternatives such as meditation or reflec- for the purpose of establishing a sectarian tion would be valid. Her “endorsement” definition of life.”7 While it is often the test subsequently was adopted by a majori- case that authors of dissenting opinions ty in 1989. While this approach has led have greater freedom to express themselves her to join the liberals in decisions striking because they are not writing a consensus down government-sanctioned prayers at document, nonetheless, in both instances, public school commencement ceremonies Stevens was willing to move beyond tradi- and football games, O’Connor also has tional, institution-based notions of reli- voted to uphold policies that permit gov- gion in cases where no First Amendment ernment funds to be distributed to reli- religion claim had been raised. As we gious schools (school vouchers, allowing noted above, we have chosen these three public school teachers to provide remedial justices because of their seniority; com- education to disadvantaged children, and bined they have over eighty years of serv- providing secular educational equipment ice on the Supreme Court. But every jus- and materials). tice has, in one way or another, had some impact on the issue of religion and On Free Exercise Clause issues, O’Connor American government, meaning that any is an advocate of the compelling interest new member of the Court could be as test from Sherbert v. Verner (1963), which EOPLE FOR THE AMERICAN is one of the Court’s most conservative influential as the person being replaced. requires that if a government policy sub- Way, the organization founded by justices on religious liberty issues, particu- For that reason — even given the usual stantially burdens religious freedom, the television producer Norman Lear in larly regarding the Establishment Clause. caveats about the value of such speculation P government must demonstrate that it is response to Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority, He has voted to uphold policies that pro- — it is worthwhile to consider possible pursuing a compelling interest through conducted a fundraising campaign this vide various forms of government aid to appointees. And while there are any num- narrowly tailored means. In Employment past summer that centered around the parochial schools, permit religious displays ber of people who could be nominated, Division v. Smith (1990), the Court created possibility that President Bush could on public property, allow for government- there is one person on the horizon who an alternative test, holding that laws that replace as many as three Supreme Court sponsored prayers at public school gradua- has attracted the attention of various are neutral and generally applicable need justices who were about to retire. This was tion ceremonies and football games, and organizations — including those repre- not be justified by a compelling interest. not an unusual tactic; similar organiza- provide for the opening of state legislative senting ethnic communities, women’s and O’Connor criticized the majority for tions on both ends of the political spec- sessions with prayer by publicly funded abortion rights, civil rights and individual retreating from the longstanding test, trum have often used the month of May chaplains. Most recently, he wrote the liberties, etc. — as well as those interested emphasizing that it “reflects the First as an opportunity to capitalize on retire- majority opinion in Zelman v. Simmons- in religious liberty, public life, and the Amendment’s mandate of preserving reli- ment speculation. But this year, more than Harris (2002) upholding Cleveland’s state. gious liberty to the fullest extent possible others in the recent past, the energy school voucher program. Rehnquist is a in a pluralistic society.”5 In applying the behind the speculation is powerful, in part critic of the Lemon test, which requires Michael McConnell, formerly a law pro- test to the facts of this case (Oregon’s because of a coincidence of factors: that a statute may be upheld only if it has fessor at the University of Utah, is a well- denial of unemployment benefits to per- a secular legislative purpose, its principal respected (and oft-feared) conservative sons fired because of using peyote in reli- 1. The Court’s current membership has or primary effect neither advances nor scholar of the First Amendment. Before gious ceremonies), O’Connor found no remained unchanged since Justice inhibits religion, and it does not foster an being nominated by President Bush in constitutional violation. Breyer was sworn in (1994), making excessive government entanglement with 2001 to fill a vacancy on the United States it one of the most stable (in terms of religion. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit Justice John Paul Stevens (born in 1920; membership, at least) in years; (which includes Colorado, Kansas, New appointed by Ford in 1975) has earned a In his lone dissent in Wallace v. Jaffree Mexico, Oklahoma, Utah, and Wyoming) reputation of being an independent mind 2. With all due respect to the health and (1985), Rehnquist provided his most — putting him among Bush’s first nomi- on the Court — he has seemed more long life of the justices, this is an aging comprehensive analysis of the nations for a federal judgeship — moderate as the Court has become more crowd; eight of the nine are sixty-four or Establishment Clause. Here the Court McConnell had argued eleven cases before conservative — and he has shown that to older (Justice Clarence Thomas, born in struck down Alabama’s moment-of-silence the Supreme Court (winning nine of be the case in issues related to religion. 1948, is currently the youngest), and statute on the grounds that it violated the them) and had authored more than fifty Usually making his presence known four are seventy or older; purpose prong of Lemon. After rejecting law review articles (and countless op-eds). through concurring or dissenting opin- Lemon, Rehnquist discounted Thomas Because he was considered a controversial ions, he has authored just a few majority 3. The Court has been closely divided Jefferson’s views on church and state and figure, his nomination was delayed for opinions related to the First Amendment’s on a number of important issues in reinterpreted James Madison’s role in the eighteen months; he was opposed by religion clauses, although he was the the recent past, so any change in adoption of the Clause. He advocated women’s and abortion-rights organiza- author of the Court’s decision in the membership could change the out- what some scholars refer to as an “accom- tions, as well as Americans United for moment-of-silence case already men- come of any given decision; and modationist” approach: Separation of Church and State and the tioned, Wallace v. Jaffree. New York Times, among others. However, 4. There is a growing interest in who The Framers intended the Establishment he was supported by over three hundred Instead, Stevens has provided a creative President Bush might nominate, par- Clause to prohibit the designation of any law school professors who signed a letter approach to religion outside of cases relat- ticularly as his reelection campaign church as a “national” one. The Clause on his behalf to the Senate Judiciary ed directly to the religion clauses. As exerts pressure on his ideology. was also designed to stop the Federal Committee. (He was finally confirmed in Phillip Hammond illustrates in With Government from asserting a preference November 2002.) In his work, McConnell Liberty for All, Stevens has argued that While we do not want to contribute to for one religious denomination or sect has been proaccommodationist, has sup- questions of ultimate concern — that is, the retirement speculation, it is worth- over others. As its history abundantly ported government funding for parochial those questions having to do with the while to take a moment to examine the shows, however, nothing in the education (in many, but not all, circum- beginning and end of life — should be records of the three most senior members Establishment Clause requires govern- stances), and was a strong critic of the understood as inherently religious, and of the Court — we have chosen three ment to be strictly neutral between reli- Supreme Court’s decision in Bob Jones therefore beyond the authority of legisla- only because we were intrigued by the gion and irreligion, nor does the Clause University v. United States (1983), in which tion. In a dissenting opinion in Webster v. claims of People for the American Way — prohibit Congress or the States from pur- the Court approved the removal of the Reproductive Health Services (1989), he not only because of their length of service suing legitimate secular ends through school’s tax-exempt status based on its seg- noted that on this Court, but also because each of nondiscriminatory sectarian means.3 regationist policies. Terry Eastland, pub- them has had a profound impact on the lisher of the Weekly Standard, has suggested the absence of any secular purpose for the relationship of government to religion In some recent cases, however, (including that “To the extent the High Court has legislative declarations that life begins at (and vice versa). The retirement of any Zelman) Rehnquist wrote or joined opinions become less hostile and more accommo- conception and that conception occurs at one of them could significantly alter the purporting to be based on neutrality, but the dating to religion in public life, you can fertilization makes the relevant portion of role of religion in American public life. analyses led to accommodationist results. credit McConnell as much as anyone.”8 the preamble invalid under the Establishment Clause…. This conclusion Chief Justice William Rehnquist (born in Justice Sandra Day O’Connor (born in See MAZUR/BAUGH p.25 … rests on the fact that the preamble, an 1924; appointed by Nixon in 1971; pro- 1930; appointed by Reagan in 1981) unequivocal endorsement of a religious moted to chief justice by Reagan in 1986) often agrees with the conservatives on the

October 2003 AAR RSN • 19 Religious Studies News, AAR Edition Department Meeting University of California, Santa Barbara Religion Department Wade Clark Roof, Chair

our reach intellectually by engaging issues RSN: What are your core or introducto- surrounding such topics and helping stu- ry courses, the courses that year after year The University of California at Santa Barbara is the only institution within the UC dents discover the hidden dimensions of seem to attract the most students? How System that offers a full set of undergraduate and graduate programs including the Ph.D. religion. In so doing, we’d like to think we many students take introductory courses? degree in religious studies. The Department of Religious Studies was founded in 1964, and have had some success in integrating since the early days of its inception has been committed to crosscultural studies of religion knowledge and experience for undergrad- drawing off multidisciplinary perspectives. In addition to having faculty trained in both Roof: Undergraduate courses on reli- uates, to the extent such is possible in the the humanities and the social sciences, we encourage joint appointments with other depart- gion at UCSB are popular. We have sever- intellectually fragmented worlds of the ments across the campus. al core, or introductory, courses that modern university. My own view is that repeatedly attract large numbers of stu- Wade Clark Roof received his B.A. from Wofford College (1961), a M.Div. from Yale we often expect students to arrive at an dents. Our “Religion and Western Divinity School (1964), and a M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina integrated world view which we as highly Civilization” courses (ancient, medieval, (1971). He has taught at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and, since 1989, at specialized professors often fail to do our- modern) are part of the General the University of California at Santa Barbara. A sociologist by training, he focuses on reli- selves, so anything we can do to order Education program of the university, and gion and society in the North American context. Much of his work in the past has looked knowledge in a more thorough way is are immensely popular — each drawing at generational trends within religion. His most recent books are Spiritual Marketplace: laudatory. Baby Boomers and the Reshaping of American Religion and Bridging Divided 300 to 450 students every quarter they are offered. Our “Religious Approaches to Worlds: Generational Cultures within Congregations (co-authored). His current Our thinking about ordering knowledge Death” course attracts an equal number of research is on religious pluralism in southern California, funded by the Ford Foundation. builds off a grid — first, there are reli- students. Other courses sought after gions and traditions thought of largely in include “Introduction to Native American terms of geographical areas; second, there Religions,” “Introduction to American is an overlapping set of disciplinary per- Religion,” “Introduction to Judaism, spectives important to their study; and RSN: How long have you been in the turers. We also have a search underway at Christianity, and Islam,” and “Religion third, there are languages essential to seri- Religious Studies Department? How long present for a junior appointment and and Psychology.” We also get good enroll- ous work in any given area. Hence, for the have you been the chair? expect to fill a newly endowed chair in ments in our “Introduction to the Study student interested in Medieval Catholic Studies within the next two of Religion,” and we no longer require Christianity (Western) there are insights Roof: I have been at Santa Barbara four- years. Our strengths historically have been that course for students thinking of to be gained from historical, philosophi- teen years and am now in my fifth year as in the American and South Asian areas, as becoming majors. We look upon all of our cal, and sociological perspectives, and chair. Some days I barely remember a time judged especially by graduate student lower-division courses as introductions to competency in Latin is a must. Of course, when I wasn’t chair, but there’s enough interests. At present, our largest concen- the study of religion for undergraduates. we cannot provide as thorough a combi- memory left that I can look forward to tration of faculty is in South Asian studies. nation of traditions, perspectives, and lan- just being a professor once again. Over the past five years we have estab- Because our department is known on guages as we might wish, but we work at lished two endowed chairs in that area, campus as interdisciplinary, we have many it. Generally, our policy is to focus on RSN: How many full-time and adjunct one in Sikh Studies (with Global and double majors. We work very deliberately major world religious and cultural tradi- faculty do you have in your department? International Studies) and the other in at relating to other fields of study. The tions and to build up the disciplines and Can you tell us a bit about the depart- Tibetan Studies, and hired Stanley nice thing about religion is that it pops up languages necessary to excellence in those ment’s strengths? Tambiah as a Distinguished Visiting in so many discussions in the university in areas. At present, we offer a large number Professor. But we also have substantial literature, art, and film, and in conversa- Roof: The UCSB department currently strengths in Islam and the Mediterranean tion about global events, terrorism, cos- See ROOF p.26 has eighteen full-time faculty and six lec- traditions. mology, and popular culture. We expand

Research Briefing Guarding Sacred Things: Medieval Women and Their Holy Objects Anne L. Clark University of Vermont The research that I undertook while the source of tension about the nature of gious life. My research in Rome last sum- abroad is part of a larger project on women’s religious life. Focusing on these mer then focused on looking at some of medieval women’s religious communities. objects, this study also aims to contribute documents not directly related to the con- I am examining convents and beguinages to the examination of material culture in vent per se. Rather, these were documents that owned objects of significant religious religious life. that shed some light on the public under- value. All such communities owned prop- standing of the icon: was it still a living erty; my focus is on property that was Within that larger project, the work sup- part of the devotional possibilities in deemed by the women themselves and ported by this grant was research on two Rome? The documents I examined were people outside the community as being particular convents, Sancta Maria Tempuli manuscripts, mostly of the thirteenth and important in their devotional lives. This in Rome and Notre-Dame in Soissons. fourteenth centuries, found in the Vatican external appreciation of the object is cru- Sancta Maria Tempuli owned an icon of Library. For example (and this is a classic cial, because I am particularly interested in the Virgin Mary that was venerated not example of the vagaries of working with the ways in which religious women of this only by the nuns of the convent, but that sources written before the use of print, but period managed local cult sites, i.e., how also was used in one of the major religious it may seem tedious to scholars who do professed women served their own reli- celebrations in the city of Rome, the pro- not work with manuscripts), one of the gious needs and those of the broader com- cession on the Feast of the Assumption. best-known texts of this period is the munity outside their own walls. My However, when the nuns of Rome were Golden Legend, a large collection of saints’ research focuses on the twelfth through targeted by Pope Innocent III, Pope lives. In a story about Gregory the Great’s fourteenth centuries, a period in which Honorius III, and Saint Dominic as in use of an icon of the Virgin Mary to end a sometimes intense pressure was exerted on need of “reform” by being moved to a sin- plague, some manuscripts say that this women’s communities to conform to stan- gle monastery that was more conducive to icon still exists in Rome; in some manu- dards of strict claustration, which would radical claustration, the nuns of Sancta scripts the Roman basilica of Santa Maria usually involve cutting ties to the broader Maria Tempuli and their icon “disap- Maggiore is given as its location, and in N OCTOBER 2001 I was awarded an community outside their walls. Further- peared” from the public devotional life of others, the convent of San Sisto is men- Individual Research Assistance Grant more, this was a period in which the theo- Rome. Or did they? My earlier research tioned. Searching through multiple manu- from the AAR for my project, I logical and legal efforts to define priest- had focused on the legends about the icon scripts of ostensibly the same text for a “Guarding Sacred Things: Women’s hood were paralleled by efforts to curtail and had indicated that the claustration of variation of a few words is one way that I Communities in Rome and Soissons.” women’s liturgical roles. Thus a convent’s the nuns in the new Dominican convent was able to trace the ongoing connection This grant of three thousand dollars was ownership of an icon or a relic that was of San Sisto was “successful” in rendering of the people of Rome to the nuns’ icon. awarded to support a research trip to the object of local or even regional devo- both the women and their icon cut off Also at the Vatican Library, I was able to Paris, Soissons, and Rome in the summer tion could — and often did — become from the wider currents of Roman reli- of 2002. See CLARK p.25

20 • October 2003 AAR RSN FEATURES

There is thus also an imperative to wholeness poric and convert Orthodox students in the From the Student Desk in the curricular way the Western academy Americas, Western Europe, and Australia responds to non-Western traditions and stu- would argue otherwise. dents. Clash-to-creativity movement within higher education means concrete inclusion. Even torched and tagged houses of worship From Clash to Creativity: Reflections of Specifically, I would stress that it is imperative and heckled processions argue otherwise. for theological, biblical studies, and religious an Orthodox Student’s Experience studies to include Orthodox texts/voices in Clashes are fueled by ignorance, and educa- required readings and bibliographies. Course tors have the sacred responsibility of replacing in the Western Academy offerings can no longer afford to silently over- that ignorance with respectful awareness. If look the historic-and-living religiocultural we rise to that task, clashes can be resolved worlds of Russia, the Balkans, the Middle through creativity, through the deepening Elias Kyprianos Bouboutsis East, the south of India, and northeast Africa. creativity that is cultivated by genuine and Seminaries, in particular, risk producing spiri- sustained dialogue. intellectual energy of CTS and the whole tual leaders without the resources and balance University of Chicago world — was invigor- evoked by familiarity with ancient Eastern So I enter the liminal space of a “postdoc” ating. In addition to words of welcome, there Christian traditions. Indeed, students on all and rookie academic with a mix of feelings were also words of challenge and contesta- levels have a right to be sensitized to the his- — with gratitude, with vigilance, with cau- tion, words of critique and tension. tory and life of “the other half” of the tious optimism. My intercultural/interreli- Christian world. gious encounter at Chicago Theological But the tension proved to be creative, the Seminary and other ACTS schools leaves me challenge and critique bidirectional. The This curriculum point may seem convenient with a sense of abiding gratitude — gratitude insights of Bonhoeffer and Tillich had to be or even group/self-serving for an Orthodox for those communities’ welcome and chal- taken seriously. The critiques of Rosemary student/academic. But we Orthodox might lenge, gratitude for the creativity that real dia- Reuther and James Cone demanded respond that it is no more so than Latinas logue produces in them. At the same time, thoughtful response. But so did the theologi- seeking inclusion of mujerista voices, or my student experience leaves me with a sense cal genius of Makrina of Cappadocia and Muslims seeking inclusion of Islamic voices. of mission and vigilance, knowing that the John of Damascus, of Lossky and Zizioulas. The “margins” tend not to be heard by the unwitting exclusion of Orthodox voices and So did Orthodox challenges to the “myth of “center” unless they themselves speak up and visions plays directly into the hands of essen- progress,” to the profound presumption of demand a hearing. tializing and destructive clashes. Elias Kyprianos Bouboutsis was awarded subjecting the divine to the principles of the his Ph.D. from Chicago Theological “enlightenment” and its offspring ideologies. On the other hand, curriculum inclusion In all, though, this doctoral student’s Seminary in Spring 2003. He teaches Similarly, the piercing vision of postcolonial may seem obvious, like “preaching to the Orthodoxy-West encounter has bred a graduate Hellenistic Greek at the South theory would be brought (uncomfortably) to choir.” But almost without exception, the syl- cautious optimism. If we academics culti- Florida Center for Theological Studies and bear as much upon Byzantium and Czarist labi and coursework that I encountered in vate the humility needed to authentically is currently visiting Professor of Religious Russia as it would be upon (the familiar the Association of Chicago Theological respect difference, to welcome and to chal- Studies at DePaul University. He can be Orthodox trope of) the Crusades and the Schools (ACTS) cluster would argue other- lenge, to include diverse voices in concrete reached at [email protected]. Ottoman Empire. wise. Again, concrete CPE curricula, as well curricula, to teach and to live these princi- as theology and religious studies offerings in ples, then optimism is warranted. We owe Countless classroom and coffeehouse discus- other places I have experienced as varied as it to our students. We owe it to each other HOUGH BORN AND RAISED just sions worked to bring all voices to the table. metropolitan Denver, northwest Indiana, and as communities of scholars. And we owe it a few miles away, I felt like something The East’s Trinitarian way could ground the south Florida, would argue otherwise. The to a world that desperately needs to move Tof an immigrant when I first entered West’s doctrine of God formulations, while experience of hundreds of thousands of dias- from clash to creativity. ❧ the historic Chicago Theological Seminary the West’s liberation theologies could be free- (CTS). At the time, I had completed the ing to the churches of the East as well. The Boston-based Greek Orthodox divinity pro- East’s iconographic tradition offered an aes- gram, a harrowing CPE residency, and was thetic wholeness to the West, while the West’s pastoring the vibrant little St. Iakovos higher critical and homiletic traditions could Orthodox mission parish in northwest bear much fruit in the East’s intellectual and Indiana. I would commute/migrate back and ecclesial life. There were many complementa- forth between that little Greek and Arab ry, mutually edifying and enriching points, enclave of ancient/living tradition and the precisely because we found ways to move sprawling University of Chicago “world,” a from clash to creativity. Gothic bastion of the modernist West. Like much of CPE, the CTS doctoral program There were also many points of tension, but was for me a sustained encounter between these too (or perhaps especially) proved cre- two very different “civilizations,” separated by ative. Maybe the West was forever reinvent- just an hour’s ride on the South Shore com- ing the wheel of worship, but the East would muter train. have to face the mummifying effects of its own ceremonial formalism. Perhaps the West My own parish experience that first year of had finally invested every believer with an study had heightened my awareness of the individualistic “infallibility,” but the East real potential for “civilization clash” (I know, could be seen as summarily succumbing to Huntington red flags). The old “Pokrov” socialist totalitarianism, precisely because of Russian Orthodox church in nearby Gary, its individuality-minimizing collectivism. Indiana, had been firebombed and vandal- Perhaps the activism and rationalism of the ized repeatedly, its graceful walls mindlessly West were a little over the top, but so, too, tagged with swastikas and other hate rhetoric. was the almost sectarian “Athonitism” of the At St. Iakovos, our Holy Friday street proces- (more recent) East, with its too-frequent dis- sion had been heckled by local intolerants, dain for activism and critical thought alike. whose shouts of “Go back where you came Maybe there was a grain of truth in Victoria from!” cut to the heart of our proud immi- Clark’s rather orientalizing reflection on mod- grant parish family. The irony and anger ern Orthodox cultures in Why Angels Fall evoked by those taunts was only heightened (2000) that “the East might have lost its for the many U.S.-born converts, children mind, but the West has lost its heart.” and grandchildren of immigrants, who chanted and processed with us. What this Orthodox student discovered in openly encountering the Western academy, Coming from this blend of vibrant parish however, was that all the sharp binaries and life punctuated by clash, I found a rather “faultlines” and “otherings” are finally and different situation upon encountering “the profoundly self-defeating. That clashing western academy” at CTS. Arrival evoked groups between and within civilizations des- welcome — welcome as only the second perately need each other in order to become Orthodox student in the school’s one-and- whole; that any semblance of oikoumene a-half-century existence (our numbers needs both East and West, South and North; have since quadrupled). that any semblance of whole persons, whole disciplines, whole academies, whole societies Of course, this “parish” of the Western theo- needs both heart and mind. That the theo- logical academy met an Orthodox believer logical, biblical, and religious studies acade- with more than words of welcome. The my, in particular, needs the voices of the non- whole process — reading modernity’s theolo- West in productive dialogue with those of the gians, the level of dialogue and inquiry, the West to become a creative whole.

October 2003 AAR RSN • 21 Religious Studies News, AAR Edition The AAR is grateful for these loyal contributors whose gifts support our goals. This list reflects donations received from July 1, 2002, through June 30, 2003. (We strive for accuracy in our records. Please notify the AAR office of any incorrect listings.) An asterisk indicates the donor is a current member of the AAR Board of Directors.

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22 • October 2003 AAR RSN FEATURES

Jun Fukaya Jeffery D. Long Gene Reeves WALTON, from p.12 tions. Professor Walton’s publications, Francisco O. Garcia Lois Lorentzen Alejandro Reyes including Art and Worship: A Vital K. Healan Gaston Michael B. Lukens William Rich about liturgical and congregational Connection and Feminist Liturgy: A Matter James V. Geisendorfer Matthew Lundberg Svein Rise issues. of Justice, reflect both a concern for Alexander Gendler F. Stanley Lusby Gloria Joy Ritson grounding her teaching in sustained Felicia George Sally Noland MacNichol Erin Roberts She has presented lectures and conducted reflection and a dedication to bringing her C. Denise Gillard Tim Macquiban Nancy A. Robinson a variety of workshops about art, worship, reflection to bear upon practical issues in Martina S. Gnadt Aditya Malik Friedrich Roeschlaub ritual change, and other topics at churches worship and practice. Naomi R. Goldenberg Ruth Mantin Robert G. Rogers and synagogues, including the Robert Elizabeth Goodine Paul Martin Kathryn Rosensteel Perry McAfee Lectureship at the First Professor Walton is a fine example of Robin Hawley Gorsline Lee Roy Martin Celeste J. Rossmiller Presbyterian Church in Palo Alto, innovative teaching, both in the classroom David Gould Timothy Mathis Nancy M. Rourke California. Over a recent two-year period, and beyond it. Along with the three previ- David Gray Carol Anne Mathner Kenneth Runcie in a program supported by Auburn ous winners of the AAR Excellence in Charmaine Grey Gillian McCann C. T. Rupert Seminary, she taught six congregations Teaching Award, Tina Pippin, Eugene V. John A. Grim Kathryn McClymond Donald T. Russo about imagination, improvisation, and Gallagher, and William Placher, she Constance D. Groh H. John McDargh Thomas Ryba liturgical change. Professor Walton served demonstrates the creative and deeply Michael Gueno Peter McEnhill Robert Sagerman as President of the North American engaged teaching found among so many Andres G. Guerrero Alexander C. McKay Yoshihide Sakurai Academy of Liturgy from 1995 to 1997 members of the Academy. The Colin E. Gunton James J. Megivern Acacia Bamberg Salatti and in 1997–1998 was a Henry Luce III Committee on Teaching and Learning has Jannette Gutierrez Morton J. Merowitz Erik E. Sandstrom Fellow in Theology and the Arts. been impressed by the fine candidates Benjamin Guyer Jerry D. Meyer Shaktey Sanghakorn who have submitted materials for consid- Rosalind I. J. Hackett Catherine R. Michaud Timothy Schehr Both her academic colleagues and those eration; the commitment and energy that Conrad R. Haglund Reinhold Miessler Shawn Schuyler with whom she has worked in congrega- these candidates devote to their vocations Mark Hanshaw Gordon S. Mikoski Barbara J. Searcy tions remark that Professor Walton “loves are a testament to the range, pedagogical Elizabeth Marie Harmatys Park Merrill P. Miller Miguel Segovia the interaction that teaching inspires” and sophistication, and intellectual vitality that Joan R. Harrell Kenneth H. Miller James J. Seymour she strives in all of her teaching to foster a members of the Academy bring to the Beverly W. Harrison Francez H. Mitchell Ingrid H. Shafer wide range of interactions. Professor teaching of religion. Diana L. Hayes Yuki Miyamoto Zinai Shi Walton says that her primary goal in Sarah Haynes Ann Mongoven Linda Shubert teaching is “to model the importance of Eugene V. Gallagher, Chair of the Roy Leslie Heller Elizabeth Moore Farrukh Siddiqui listening to what is going on and of taking Committee on Teaching and Learning, Joan M. Henriksen Hellyer Marili Moore Dean S. Skelley risks in response.” Among other teaching encourages chairs and colleagues to send H. Chad Hillier Juan Carlos Morales Mary J. Slavin strategies, she has developed an interactive letters of nomination for this significant Yasuhiro Hirai Gwyn Moser Patrick Scott Smith CD that allows students to explore how award to Carey J. Gifford, Director of Mary Hnottavange Lucinda Allen Mosher Angella Son different ways of arranging a worship Academic Relations at the American R. Ward Holder Christiaan Mostert Mira Sonntag space can influence the experience of wor- Academy of Religion, [email protected]. Basye Holland-Shuey Eric Mount Michael L. Spezio ship. During a sabbatical she studied both The guidelines for this award are listed on Harold Horell Ian Muhlhauser Joann Spillman jazz piano and improvisational acting. She the AAR Web site at www.aarweb.org/ Sue Horner Nathaniel S. Murrell Charlene M. Spretnak has collaborated with a pianist, a juggler, awards/teaching.asp. ❧ Karen Howard Paul Nagy Janet R. Stafford and a space painter in public presenta- C. Julia Huang Mary Kaye Nealen Dennis L. Stamps Krista Hughes Scott Nesbitt Brent Steiner Mary Huie-Jolly Steve Neumeister Stephanie Stillman Michael Humphreys Patrick O’Donnell Dan R. Stiver Matthew Hunter Jea Suk Oh Timothy T. Stoller Nan Hutton Irfan A. Omar Ken Stone Gheorghe Ille Thomas Oord Michael F. Strmiska Massimo Introvigne Salvador Orara Gayla Sturbaum Amy Elizabeth Jacober Trevor O’Reggio Laura S. Sugg Denton Jacobs Patricia O’Sullivan James Swan Tuite Elizabeth Jarnagin Douglas F. Ottati Richard N. Taliaferro Alison Jasper Douglas M. Padgett Anthony J. Tambasco Jeffrey Jensen Seungyong Paek Florante Tangonan Terrence Johnson Mark Pagano Phyllis J. Taylor Nancy Johnson Andrew Sung Park James F. Thomas Celeste A. Johnson Kil Jae Park Sigurdur Arni Thordarson Stephen Jones Sang-un Park Rebecca Thurman Tod Jones Michael Pasquier Hojo Tone Mun Sun Kang Parimal G. Patil Ramón Trevijano Stephen Kaplan Christiana Peppard Robert Turner Mary Keller David Perrin Toshifumi Uemura Aaron Kerr Hans Pfeifer Gabriele Uhlein Kabamba Kiboko Mary Lou Pfeiffer Yoshimi Umeda Stephen Kidde Jack Phillips Grant Upson Heerak Christian Kim Clark H. Pinnock Anne Vallely Un Hey Kim Tina Pippin Judith Van Herik Nathan Kirkpatrick Don A. Pittman Andrei Vashestov Keith Knapp S. Brent Plate Kocku von Stuckrad David Koloszyc Mark F. Plaushin Steven Vose Kelly Koonce Katrina M. Poetker Charles D. Walters Seth Kunin Gaile M. Pohlhaus Edward Warner Janet Kvamme Cousins G. Philip Points Greg Watkins Hyuk-Been Joshua Kwon Kim Elaine Power Andrew Watts Maureen Kyer Anne Pryor Love Henry Whelchel James W. Laine Marc Pugliese Caroline Becker Whipple Jonathan Lanman Rodney Purvis Roger Willer Adam Larson Dianne Quigley Anthony Willms Emmanuel Lartey John Quinn Alex Wright Margaret Leask Johnny Ramirez Kenneth F. Yossa Karen Lebacqz Naveen Ramnanan Mario Zani Blake Leyerle Virginia Kaib Ratigan Mary Ann Zimmer Paul C. H. Lim Jennifer D. Raymond Robert Zinke Irene Lin Lallene Rector Zion Zohar Grace Cumming Long Kenneth Redheffer

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October 2003 AAR RSN • 23 Religious Studies News, AAR Edition

Editor’s Note: Sexual Harassment Policy At the request of the Status of Women in the Profession Committee, RSN publishes the AAR’s Sexual Harassment Policy every year to ensure that each member has an opportunity to read it. gion. This environment must be free of This same statement is always available online at http://www.aarweb.org/about/board/ T ITS NOVEMBER 1996 meet- sexual harassment. Sexual harassment is a resolutions/sh.asp. ing, the AAR Board of Directors discriminatory practice which is unethical, adopted a policy condemning sex- A unprofessional, and threatening to intel- members of the Academy maintain the 8. pressure to accept unwelcome social ual harassment in academic settings. lectual freedom. It usually involves per- integrity of an environment which is not invitations Building upon the Equal Employment sons of unequal power, authority, or influ- coercive, intimidating, hostile, or offensive. Opportunity Commission’s definition of ence but can occur between persons of the Sexual harassment occurs from these sexual harassment, the statement is same status. The work of the Academy is best carried behaviors and other verbal or physical designed to elevate members’ awareness of out in an atmosphere that fosters collegial- conduct of a sexual nature when any or all the range of behaviors that can be Sexual harassment is illegal under Title ity and mentoring. Sexual harassment can of the following conditions apply: described as sexual harassment, and to VII of the 1980 Civil Rights Act and Title destroy or undermine this relationship. articulate the AAR’s own commitment to IX of the 1972 Educational Amendments. The impact of this on the life and future 1. Submission to or rejection of such ensuring that its own activities and opera- Sexual harassment is a gross violation of of the Academy cannot be belittled or conduct by an individual is used, tions are free from the pernicious effects professional ethics comparable to plagia- ignored. When our actions are in violation implicitly or explicitly, as a basis for of such behavior. rism or falsification of research. It should of the dignity and integrity of another employment decisions or academic be regarded and treated as such by mem- person, these actions are a profound viola- decisions affecting such individuals; The AAR’s Status of Women in the bers of the Academy. The policy of the tion of professional and human relation- Profession Committee drafted the state- American Academy of Religion is to con- ships. These are violations because they or ment which also draws from statements by demn sexual harassment. Members of the are exploitative and abusive. a number of other learned societies that Academy are encouraged to file com- 2. Such conduct has the purpose or have established similar policies. When plaints about sexual harassment with the effect of unreasonably interfering asked why it was important for the AAR appropriate administrative office of the Descriptions with an individual’s work or academic to put forward such a statement, Emilie institution where the harasser is employed Sexual harassment includes all behavior performance or creating an intimidat- Townes, a former chair of the AAR’s or where he or she is enrolled, or with that prevents or impairs an individual’s ing, hostile, or offensive working or Committee on the Status of Women in appropriate law enforcement authorities. full enjoyment of educational or work- academic environment. the Profession, said, “It is important to place rights, benefits, environments, or match the high standards the American opportunities. These behaviors include Such an atmosphere cannot and does not Academy of Religion has for scholarship Background but are not limited to: foster intellectual rigor or valuable, trust- and research with a policy that calls forth The Equal Employment Opportunity ing human relationships. Both are neces- the best of each of us professionally and Commission (EEOC) of the United States 1. sexist remarks, jokes, or behavior sary ingredients for good scholarship and interpersonally. It is important for AAR to government defines sexual harassment in professional excellence. The impact on the make a clear and unambiguous statement the workplace or in the academic setting 2. unwelcome sexual advances, includ- victim of sexual harassment can be pro- against sexual harassment and provide all as “the use of one’s authority or power, ing unwanted touching found. Studies on the effect of sexual of the membership of the Academy either explicitly or implicitly, to coerce harassment reveal disturbing conse- resources for understanding and combat- another into unwanted sexual relations or 3. requests for sexual favors quences, such as loss of self-confidence, ing such dehumanizing behavior.” to punish another for his or her refusal; or decline in academic performance, and the creation of an intimidating, hostile, or 4. sexual assault, including attempted or inhibited forms of professional interac- Sexual Harassment offensive working environment through completed physical sexual assault tion. Sexual harassment has no place in verbal or physical conduct of a sexual the American Academy of Religion at any Policy for the nature.” 5. the use of professional authority to organizational level — formal or informal. American Academy of inappropriately draw attention to the It is behavior that we must seek to identi- Religion Having friendships with students is com- gender, sexuality, or sexual orientation fy and eradicate. mon for teachers. It is also possible that of an employee, colleague, or student teachers will experience attraction to stu- For information on AAR’s Grievance and Introduction dents and experience students’ sexual 6. insults, including lewd remarks or Complaint Procedure, please go to: The American Academy of Religion is attraction to them. This cuts across gender conduct www.aarweb.org/about/board/resolutions/shg. committed to fostering and maintaining and sexual orientation. Because of the asp. ❧ an environment of rigorous learning, inherent power differential between 7. visual displays of degrading sexual research, and teaching in the field of reli- teacher and student, it is imperative that images or pornography

ROLSTON, from p.17 recent book Genes, Genesis, and God (1999)? to steady research, I am pressing the ques- strongly with the developing world; the tion of how humans are like and different rich get richer, the poor stay poor. think the inquiries I have found worth- Rolston: Some splendid reviews by from wild nature, the nature-culture ques- Consumerism escalates, populations esca- while can go on another fifty years and some people who really count, both tion. Most of my environmentalist friends late, quite dramatically over the last centu- more, indeed it is urgent that they should, philosophers and biologists. I could cite think I ought to be a deep ecologist and ry. This has produced an environmental and Davidson is as good a place as I know some great praise (and I suppose my nom- place humans firmly in nature. I do think crisis. We face huge and complex prob- for that to happen. inator did, since I did win this prize). But that humans evolved out of nature, but I lems, and often they need to be solved I also think that both theologians and also think they did just that, made some together. I was presented the check, which, convert- biologists should take the book more seri- exodus from nature. ed from sterling, came to between $1.1 ously than they have. Too many theolo- RSN: If you were able to change any- and 1.2 million, about noon and at a larg- gians don’t want to work through hard Humans are the only species with a cumu- thing regarding the global environment, er reception at the Oxford and Cambridge argument with biologists. Too many biol- lative transmissible culture, and I think what change or changes would you make Club that evening I presented it to ogists don’t know how to handle hard crit- that is something novel on Earth. We and why? Davidson College’s vice president for icism when they extrapolate too far from decoded our genome only to find that, development, so I say I was a millionaire their biology and make claims about reli- although we are not much different from Rolston: There was great insight in the for six hours. Maybe that’s long enough gion and ethics. Biologists aren’t that com- the primates genetically, there is still a rad- Hebrew prophets, who preached that for a religious type and a tree-hugger like fortable with philosophy of science. ical difference in our brain power. We are Israel was given a land flowing with milk myself. reflectively, self-consciously moral, and we and honey, but if, and only if, they lived RSN: Can you tell us about your current are religious. We have “spirit” (if you like); in the land with justice and charity. I’d RSN: Can you tell us about your work academic life? What are your current areas we debate good and evil and the meaning like to expand that vision to the whole in environmental ethics? What has been of research? of life. With our current technological Earth. We live on a promising planet, a the greatest influence on your notions of power, the future of Earth is in our hands. promised land, if you will, but we can the natural world? Rolston: I’ve been pulled off course by No other species is like that at all. I’m try- inherit this Earth only if we learn to live two things. One is that people keep asking ing to link and to discriminate human on it with justice and charity. Global capi- Rolston: Three things: First, a lot of me to do things again that I have already nature, culture, and wild spontaneous talism holds as much threat as promise, immediate experience in nature. I’m a pret- done before, and, while I enjoy making nature. unless and until it can learn this lesson ty good naturalist, and over the years I’ve lectures as widely as I do, this takes time. from religion. So I need to keep faith in spent a lot of time in nature, often back- Typically, people want articles that only RSN: What are your ideas about the cur- the picture; science can’t teach us what we packing, and often alone. Secondly, I’ve rework what I have already done. rent and future condition of the global most need to know about nature: how to taught for a third of a century here at Secondly, the Templeton Prize has pro- environment? value it, and how to encounter it for more Colorado State University, with a lot of duced an avalanche of activity. Again, you abundant living. world-class biologists with whom I have are glad to have attention called to your Rolston: At the turn of this millenni- interacted. And third, down at my roots, I work, but when you answer all the um, I see four main problems on the Maybe my getting the Templeton Prize grew up in the Shenandoah Valley of requests for lectures or for interviews (like world agenda: war and peace, develop- will draw some attention to these critical Virginia, with Scots Presbyterians, who this one!!), there isn’t much time left over. ment, population, and environment. They issues on which our destiny and the fate loved the gospel and their landscape. Remember, I still need to get outdoors. are all related. Nations struggle for power, of Earth depends. If that happens I will for control over markets and natural really be a winner, and everybody else RSN: What has been the reception of your When life settles down and I can get back resources. The developed world contrasts (human and nonhuman) will win, too. ❧

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American Religion in Popular Culture (with Kate MAZUR/BAUGH, from p.19 McCarthy, Routledge, 2001). He is co-chair of the Religious Freedom, Public Life, and the State On the other hand, according to fellow con- Group of the AAR. stitutional scholar (and regular ideological opponent) Douglas Laycock, McConnell 2 Joyce A. Baugh is Professor of Political Science opposed the impeachment of President at Central Michigan University, where she has Clinton, and would have given Florida more taught since 1988. She teaches courses in time to conduct a recount in the 2000 presi- American government, constitutional law, civil dential election.9 rights and liberties, judicial process, and the civil rights movement. She is the author of Supreme There is little doubt that McConnell is a well- Court Justices in the Post-Bork Era: Confirmation trained and articulate scholar who has much Politics and Judicial Performance (Peter Lang, support. Unlike some nominees to the federal 2002), and co-author of The Changing Supreme bench in the past two decades, he has a long Court: Constitutional Rights and Liberties (West “paper trail,” which means that there are also Publications, 1997) and The Real Clarence Thomas: a number of people who would oppose his Confirmation Veracity Meets Performance Reality nomination to the Supreme Court. In any (Peter Lang, 2000). She serves on the steering case, a nomination such as McConnell’s could committee of the Religious Freedom, Public Life, have a profound impact on how the role of and the State Group of the AAR. religion is understood in the United States. As 3 Wallace v. Jaffree, 472 U.S. 38 (1985), at 113 the years pass and the terms of the justices (Rehnquist dissenting). grow longer, the speculation about retirement will only intensify, and with it the speculation 4 Ibid., at 69 (O’Connor, concurring in the judg- over possible replacements. And as the role of ment). religion in American public life continues to 5 Employment Division v. Smith, 494 U.S. 872 be the source of public and political debate, (1990), at 903 (O’Connor, concurring in the judg- the Court’s part in helping define that role ment). will only continue to grow, and the member- ship of that Court will be a continuing focus 6 Webster v. Reproductive Health Services, 492 U.S. for a growing number of Americans. 490 (1989), at 566-67 (Stevens dissenting). Quoted in Hammond, With Liberty for All: NOTES: Freedom of Religion in the United States (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1998), 69. 1 Eric Michael Mazur is Associate Professor of Religion at Bucknell University, where he has 7 Cruzan v. Director, Missouri Department of taught courses in religion and American culture Health, 497 U.S. 261 (1990), at 343 (Stevens dis- since 1997. He is the author of The senting). Quoted in Hammond, 71-72. Americanization of Religious Minorities: Confronting 8 Eastland, “A Bush Nominee Ted Kennedy the Constitutional Order (Johns Hopkins University Likes,” Weekly Standard (30 September 2002). Press, 1999); co-author of Freedom of Conscience in America: Its Evolution and Challenges (with Phillip 9 Douglas Laycock, “Forging Ideological E. Hammond and David W. Machacek, Alta Mira Compromise,” New York Times (18 September Press, forthcoming); editor of Art & the Religious 2002): A-31. ❧ Impulse (Bucknell University Press, 2002) and The Encyclopedia of Religion & Film (Greenwood, forth- coming); and co-editor of God in the Details:

CLARK, from p.20 dral. This text suggests some of the compli- cated dynamics of the relationship between consult several rare early modern histories of the nuns of Notre-Dame and the bishops of the icon, which surprised me in suggesting Soissons. that the issues that I am examining in the twelfth through fourteenth centuries seemed In the Bibliothèque Municipale of Soissons, to have been revived in the seventeenth I consulted early modern histories of century. Soissons and the convent, several of which have never been published and exist only in The other case study that I worked on this manuscript. These are crucial sources, par- summer was Notre-Dame de Soissons, a ticularly because of the destruction of the Benedictine convent that owned what was convent after the Revolution, and thus believed to be a slipper of the Virgin Mary. almost total loss of any archaeological evi- This relic became a significant devotional dence about the establishment. (I did see object and the convent church became a site and photograph the very limited archaeo- of regional pilgrimage. However, the con- logical remains.) The Bibliothèque vent existed — literally — in the shadow of Municipale also owns a missal of the con- the cathedral in Soissons, and its fate was vent, one of its few extant codices, which I tied up with the work of the bishops to examined while there. I also made a day trip expand and consolidate their control over to nearby Laon to check a collection of the religious activities of the diocese. In the charters from Notre-Dame now in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, I examined Archives de l’Aisne. several medieval manuscripts transmitting various miracle stories associated with the This report on my grant activities sounds Virgin’s slipper at Notre-Dame. I also exam- rather spare to me. While it is in fact a ined some other manuscripts of miracles of record of what I did with the support of this the Virgin and found several examples of grant, the real “pay-off” to this trip comes the legend about the Sancta Maria Tempuli in two other ways. The first is simply the icon that had made its way into these opportunity to immerse myself in working French collections. (This will become part with these manuscripts, which keeps me of the larger question about how both of honed as a medievalist and reminds me of these convents with their Marian objects the basic materiality of memory created and became remembered in the de-localized cult preserved through textualization. The sec- of the Virgin Mary). I consulted several ond is the writing I am now engaged in, manuscripts associated with the cathedral, which draws upon the materials I was able including a narrative about the crusading to examine. I am grateful to the AAR for Bishop Nivelon of Soissons, who in 1205 supporting this invaluable research, which brought many relics taken from allowed me access to materials that are avail- Constantinople, several of which he donat- able nowhere else but the sites I was able to ed to Notre-Dame, but most of which he visit on this trip. ❧ used to enrich the collection of the cathe-

October 2003 AAR RSN • 25 Religious Studies News, AAR Edition

WATANABE, from p.10 Institute agreed to have the annual meet- in Tokyo in late March 2005. I am on ing of JARS in 1999. Then, we began to the steering committee in Japan, and I relationship with academic associations have contact with the AAR ICC. One of hope many of you will take this opportu- abroad. us visited the committee meeting in nity to come to Tokyo. You are also wel- Atlanta, and another one participated in come to visit the Nanzan Institute for In 2001 I presided over a special topics the Annual Meeting in San Francisco in Religion and Culture. forum sponsored by the ICC titled 1997. Finally, my colleague Paul “Religion and Society after the Aum Swanson and I met President Margaret RSN: It seems obvious, but please let Affair.” I remember it was especially diffi- Miles and Professor Lawrence Sullivan at me ask, what makes the work of this cult for me to invite scholars from Japan, the Annual Meeting in Orlando in 1998 Committee important for the AAR? because there were repercussions from to finalize our plan to sponsor the inter- the 9/11 tragedy and it was during the national symposium at Nanzan Watanabe: First, the ICC is an war in Afghanistan and just after the University in 1999. It took almost two open window between AAR and the plane crash in New York. I was not in the years for us to be able to host it. global community of scholars of religion. place to assure them of their safety, but I It is the vital force to internationalize had to encourage them, and urge myself, The symposium was titled “New Trends religious studies in the U.S. As in the to participate in the forum. in the Religious Studies.” We invited case of Canadian and Japanese focuses, it Professors Margaret Miles, Lawrence heightens the awareness of other people’s This year, at the Annual Meeting of the Sullivan, and Davíd Carrasco from AAR. contributions. When I began to study AAR in Atlanta, we have a focus on It was held on the first day of the annual about Saigyo, American contributions to Japanese contributions to religious stud- meeting of JARS at Nanzan University in its study were a great stimulus for me, ies. It is the fruit of what I have prepared 1999. It was a phenomenal success and and I hope that I helped open a discus- with my colleagues in the ICC since there was such a crowd there. We felt sion between the U.S. and Japan when I 2000. Twice last January, at the Nanzan that a more stable relationship between wrote my article on Saigyo in the History Institute, we had introductory meetings AAR and JARS should be pursued in the of Religions in 1988. I was happy to be for Japanese scholars about the participa- future. invited to give a talk on him at the tion and presentation at the AAR Annual University of Philadelphia in 1996. It Meeting. We are happy to find more And, as I reflect on it now, it was just the was a part of the long international dis- than thirty scholars from Japan on the beginning. Since 2000 I have come to cussion on Saigyo. The study on Aum program this year. the U.S. twice a year to participate in the Shinrikyo is also the case. It was illumi- ICC meetings and discuss the focus on nating for me to have had the special The special topics forum sponsored by the Japanese contributions to religious topics forum on it in 2001. For me, the ICC this year is titled “Religious studies at the AAR Annual Meeting. Of working for the ICC is the continuation Studies in the Japanese Context.” I hope course, I also participated in the board of my desire to internationalize academic a number of scholars come to listen to meetings and the meetings of the com- discussions. the panel and have a lively discussion. mittee on the international relations at JARS three times a year. I feel like Second, it also serves the needs of the RSN: You have been working for the becoming an academic diplomat by now. international members of AAR. We initi- AAR–JARS project since 1997 from the It is my great joy that I was able to work ated the room-sharing project especially Japanese side. Could you please tell our for both AAR and JARS on this project for the international participants at the readers about your work? for almost six years. It would have been Annual Meeting after listening to them impossible without the support of my at an International Breakfast sponsored Watanabe: It is a pity that Professor colleagues from the AAR International by the ICC. Fujio Ikado, former president of JARS, Connections Committee, the Japanese cannot come to the Annual Meeting in Association of Religious Studies My term at the ICC will end at the end Atlanta this year. He gave us the idea to International Relations Committee, and of this year. But I will cherish what I internationalize religious studies in Japan the Nanzan Institute. have learned from it and the friendship and to invite scholars from the AAR. We with my colleagues at the ICC. I will do invited him to our colloquium in 1997, After the Japanese focus at AAR this fall, my best on the committee on interna- when I came back from the sabbatical my next project is to host the quinquen- tional relations at JARS. You have your leave at Harvard University. At that time nial meeting of the International friends there when you visit Japan. ❧ he and the permanent fellows at Nanzan Association for the History of Religions

ROOF, from p.20 which they are pitched. Our undergradu- and developing more global perspectives ing a public lecture that is well received, ate program thrives in part because of our on religion. Even in the American area, for or seeing a colleague receive the promo- of languages including Arabic, Persian, large graduate program. To be sure, our example, we are paying greater attention tion he or she deserves. Getting the Walter Turkish, Hebrew, Greek, Syriac, Tibetan, undergraduate majors at times feel a bit now to the presence of the world’s major H. Capps Center for the Study of Religion Punjabi, Hindi, and Sanskrit. overshadowed by the graduate students religions and the diasporas created by mass and Public Life established with funding and all the energy and time that the facul- movements of peoples and cultures in from the National Endowment for the Our undergraduate major consists of ty devotes to working with them, but the recent times. California is of course just Humanities has brought me immense forty-four units in religious studies, not payoff is an intellectually stimulating envi- the place for this emphasis, a laboratory pleasure. I think departments of religious counting the introductory course. We ronment for all students. no less for the study of religious pluralism studies ought to engage the public on require two courses in “Methodological in the early twenty-first century. issues where the role of values, beliefs, and Approaches to the Study of Religion,” six RSN: What distinguishes your depart- ethics are crucial, and our new Capps courses in “Cultural Areas and Traditions,” ment from other departments on campus? RSN: What problems will your depart- Center seeks to do just that. Aside from two courses on “Topics in the Study of What is distinctive about the teaching that ment be facing in the near future? community programming, a Capps Religion,” and a capstone course team- you and your colleagues do? Visiting Professor, and sending interns to taught by our faculty on “Problems in the Roof: Like so many universities, we are Washington, we look forward to bringing Study of Religion.” The major is designed Roof: Clearly, we function in a public facing serious financial problems at the Senior Fellows to the Capps Center in the to provide breadth of coverage on cultural university as a “religious studies” depart- moment. California’s economy is in sham- very near future. and religious traditions, and the opportu- ment and, as mentioned above, take seri- bles and, as I write, the world is watching nity to explore topics of interest, yet also ously utilizing the methodologies of the political carnival surrounding the RSN: What advice would you give to requiring some depth of analysis and research as found elsewhere in the human- movement to recall our governor. It is any- faculty members as they deal with a chair? understanding of the logic of inquiry. We ities and social sciences. We undertake one’s guess when we can expect our uni- have 150 to 200 majors at any given time. comparative, historical, philosophical, tex- versity budget to return to anything that Roof: I’d say that faculty should not for- We have not sought to expand the num- tual, and social scientific modes of analysis looks normal. Fortunately, our department get that chairs operate in a context dealing ber of majors and have opted instead for a in a manner allowing us to connect with has substantial endowments that help to not just with faculty and their wants, but high-expectation, intellectually demanding other departments and programs on cam- tide us through such times. Despite finan- with students, staff, and of course admin- program aimed at the serious student. pus. In the years ahead, we will be estab- cial constraints, we remain able at present istrators who wield power above them. A lishing a Catholic Studies program and to fund graduate students at the same level chair works as a double agent, represent- All combined, we have about 2000 to expanding our coverage of Islam and as in the past. ing one party to another, and is funda- 2500 undergraduates enrolled in our hopefully a divisionally based program in mentally engaged in a negotiation process. courses per quarter. We also have approxi- Jewish studies. RSN: What gives you the greatest satis- Chairs want to see good things happen mately 70 graduate students in a program faction as a chair? within their departments, and it helps if that is highly interdisciplinary. The struc- We benefit from a close working relation- faculty start with that assumption while ture of course material covered is remark- ship with a growing Global and Roof: I think it is helping to make recognizing there are limits to what they ably similar for both undergraduates and International Studies program at UCSB. things happen — be it creating a new can actually do. ❧ graduates, differing only in the level at We are internationalizing our programs experimental course that succeeds, arrang-

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CALDWELL, from p.13 the United States. The agent was put on asking media outlets or commentators to he started showing up at worship services at leave pending the investigation, and offi- retract comments Muslims perceived as mosques that would be another thing.” Bush praised Baptists for being “among cials said he could be fired and face crimi- unfair. Now, Hassan says, the anti-Islam fer- the earliest champions of religious toler- nal charges. Around the same time, Peter vor is too widespread to deal with. Green says Bush remains in a tricky political ance.” Of the Muhammad comment, Kirsanow of the U.S. Civil Rights position with conservatives for the foresee- Fleischer said: “It’s something that the Commission suggested that another ter- “It seems to have gone beyond the evangeli- able future. president definitely disagrees with. Islam is rorist attack on U.S. soil could stir public cal sector and to some of the political com- a religion of peace, that’s what the presi- support for ethnicity-based internments as mentators,” she says. “We routinely get “To the extent that this grousing becomes dent believes.” during World War II. “If there’s another emails from Muslims around the country common, this presents a problem for the terrorist attack and if it’s from a certain complaining about their local talk radio President with the war on terrorism,” Green A week after Fleischer’s remarks, the huge- ethnic community . . . that the terrorists basically demonizing Islam. That’s been wor- says. “It’s important for him to maintain this ly popular televangelist Benny Hinn said are from, you can forget about civil rying. What’s new is the viciousness of it and distinction between Islam and terrorism. If a during an appearance at a Dallas arena: rights.” the fact that it’s spreading to relatively well- very important part of his political base “This is not a war between Arabs and established leaders.” equates them, that makes the President’s job Jews. It’s a war between God and the Says Salam Al-Marayati, executive director very difficult.” devil.” of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, a Asma Gull Hasan, author of American lobbying group: “It is the fad now to bash Muslims: The New Generation, says she’s And Bush can’t exactly repudiate conserva- Evangelical Christians have always Islam and Muslims.” noticing an uptick in hate mail at her Web tives, because he needs them politically. believed that Islam is a wrong religion, site these days. Some are from evangelical and refuse to accept Allah as the same as As these events unfolded, representatives Christians, but many are what she calls “live “It may have been that these people were the Christian God. Conservative from the American Muslim Political free or die” Americans — secular conserva- held in check by the President’s request that Christians actively proselytize among Coordinating Council wrote a letter to the tives who believe all Muslims are inherently they behave themselves [early on]. I suppose Muslims in this country and abroad. But President, begging for a meeting with the anti-American. you could fault Bush to some extent” for not lately, many Christian commentators are Administration. AMPCC, which includes keeping the lid on the dissent, Green says. pushing these views in broader, secular both Democrats and Republicans, is com- “There’s really no convincing any of these formats. prised of representatives of the Muslim people,” says Hasan, who appears frequently And here, he repeats what most Americans, Public Affairs Council, the American on cable and radio talk shows. “It’s pretty at heart, believe: Sure, there are legitimate Shortly after the attacks, Franklin Graham Muslim Council, the Council on nasty email. There’s definitely a movement religious differences between various faiths, was forced to apologize for describing American-Islamic Relations, and the happening.” but the genius of the United States is that Islam as a “wicked, violent religion.” But American Muslim Alliance. Last week, the we tolerate each other. And so, Green says, if in his new book, The Name, released President’s scheduler responded — Bush Hasan traces the upsurge in anti-Islam rhet- we’re going to deal with terrorism and Monday, he writes: “Islam — unlike said he was too busy to meet, according to oric to the escalation of the war in Israel. threats to our freedom, people who hate Christianity — has among its basic teach- Al-Marayati. each other’s beliefs in this country are simply ings a deep intolerance for those who fol- “From the beginning, the evangelicals didn’t going to have to make an effort to under- low other faiths.” On Fox News Network’s “Either there’s negligence or deliberate exclu- like the things Bush said about Islam, and stand each other. Hannity & Colmes program this week, sion,” says Al-Marayati, a Democratic insid- talk show conservatives didn’t either. But Graham said: “I think it’s [terrorism] more er and moderate Muslim. “There needs to when the Middle East violence happened, And in the end, that means they’re going to mainstream. And it’s not just a handful of be unequivocal denunciation of these state- they felt they could connect it all together,” have to put up with Islam, and with extremists. If you buy the Qur’an, read it ments. The President needs to make a deci- she says. “It made it very easy for people to American Muslims — whether they like it for yourself, and it’s in there. The violence sion to clear himself of this kind of vitriol, make a neat parallel that we were attacked or not. ❧ that it preaches is there.” or basically say he agrees, because I don’t by suicide bombers, and Israel was, too.” think there’s any room for having it two Hannity responded: “But this then raises a ways on this issue.” Hasan says she has appeared numerous times question. If this is not, Reverend, the recently on talk radio shows where the inter- extremist fanatical interpretation of the Of course, whenever an Administration loses viewer says the purpose is to teach the audi- Qur’an, then we do have a big problem.” control of an issue, it’s not good news for a ence about Islam. “Then I get on and it’s a Graham replied: “Big problem.” This President. But usually, “losing control of an blood bath,” she says. And the rhetoric has week, in an interview with Beliefnet he issue” means an Administration is losing ratcheted up in recent weeks, Hasan says. reiterated his opinion, saying, “I believe traction as a President moves ahead with the Qur’an teaches violence, not peace.” policies, or has lost control of a legislative Last week on a Denver radio show, for agenda. instance, the interviewer asked Hasan if she At the Christian Booksellers’ Association is a Muslim first or an American first, and meeting in Anaheim last month, retailers The problem for this Administration is that she said she is both. Soon after, a caller said sold an array of books and tapes describ- Islam is a much bigger issue. “It is really a he is Catholic first and that being American ing Islam as a violent religion — and different thing because the President can’t is a distant second. Hasan said she then many of these books will be marketed not control the agenda the same way,” Green asked the caller to give an example of ways just in Christian bookstores, but also in says. “What the President wanted to do his religion conflicts with being American. malls nationwide. For instance, Hal after Sept. 11 was persuade Americans, par- His response was that he wants to be able to Lindsey, author of the 1970s best-seller, ticularly conservatives, to behave them- protest peacefully at abortion clinics; the The Late Great Planet Earth, has come out selves and be civil and restrained about host asked if he would blow up a clinic. And with a new book called The Everlasting Islam because our domestic and foreign the caller said yes, if he thought it would do Hatred: The Roots of Jihad. Titles by other policy is very delicate right now. Here we more good than harm. authors include Religion of Peace, or Refuge are making war on Afghanistan and talking of Terror; War on Terror: Unfolding Bible about making war on Iraq, so it’s important “Can you imagine if a Muslim said such a Prophecy; and Islam and Terrorism. Among to make a distinction between terrorists thing?” Hasan wonders. the tapes available was Terrorism: The New who happen to be Muslims, and Islam,” War on Freedom. Green says. “Having a positive rhetoric on The problem, say Muslims like Hasan, is Islam is pretty important.” that moderate voices like hers aren’t heard But it’s not just Christians. Soon after enough. That seems to be the viewpoint of Vines’ comments, a new cascade of public American Muslims say they’re feeling the the Bush Administration, even if the White anti-Muslim comments poured forth. change in Americans’ attitude toward their House isn’t meeting with American Muslim faith in the last year. After Sept. 11, most leaders. Richard Land, a prominent In a late June interview with NBC’s Katie Americans swallowed hard and — with Southern Baptist with close ties to the Couric, columnist Ann Coulter said of President Bush leading the way — decided Administration, says “one of our basic strate- Muslims: “I think it might be a good idea that anti-Muslim bigotry was wrong. gies should be to damage the radical to get them on some sort of hobby other During the fall, he repeatedly called Islam a [Muslim] voices and support the moderate than slaughtering infidels.” That comment “peaceful religion,” hosted a Ramadan din- voices… My perspective is that the President followed Coulter’s comments about ner at the White House, and described the did what he probably had to do in the wake Muslims last September: “We should Muslim scripture as the “holy” Qur’an. of Sept. 11. He grew up coming to under- invade their countries, kill their leaders, stand what happened to Japanese-Americans and convert them to Christianity.” “That helped to tone down a lot of the ani- after Pearl Harbor and not wanting that to mosity,” says Hodan Hassan, communica- happen again.” Last month, William Lind of the Free tions coordinator for the Council on Congress Foundation suggested that American-Islamic Relations, a Washington Land says he doesn’t disapprove so far of “Islam is, quite simply, a religion of war,” lobbying group. “But now, when you have Bush’s stance toward Muslims. and that American Muslims “should be the ratcheting-up of anti-Islam rhetoric and encouraged to leave. They are a fifth col- a continuing state of alert and continual “He’s supposed to be President of all the umn in this country.” warnings from the FBI about Muslim terror- people,” Land says. “As far as I’m concerned, ists — that combination is worrying for us. what he’s done to date has not been a prob- Also in July, a Secret Service agent admit- When you dehumanize a whole sector of lem. But I’m afraid that his comment that ted scrawling “Islam is Evil” and “Christ is society, it’s a lot easier to lash out.” Islam is a religion of peace is more a wish King” on a Muslim prayer calendar while than a fact. I don’t think evangelicals are searching the Michigan home of a man Until recently, CAIR members handled the very happy about it, but there are so many charged with smuggling bogus checks into backlash with letter-writing campaigns or by other things they are happy about. Now, if

October 2003 AAR RSN • 27 Religious Studies News, AAR Edition

HOGAN/ALBACH, from p.13 “I felt she was trying to please us,” said Ms. He pleads with the gay community not to discovered a spiritual hunger and stayed Alford, whom Wynndee calls her stepmoth- hate the church. for eight years. “If it’s so wrong, so horrible, and so against er. “I discouraged it because it’s such a God to be gay, then God will certainly tough life.” “You are part of the church,” he said. But as he grew in faith, he longed for a change me before calling me to be a pas- “Please don’t push away Christians who broader message. tor,” he said. Wynndee’s persistence changed her mind. cannot bless your lifestyle.” But Wynndee’s grandmother is convinced “Week after week, it seemed like the ser- Not until his fourth and final year did he it’s just a phase. He also says churches must do more to wel- mons were always about homosexuality,” realize his sexual orientation wasn’t going come the gays and lesbians who fill their he said. “What got to me was that some- to change. Maybe it wasn’t supposed to, he “I think she was taught that lifestyle,” said pews. times they tried to make characters in the thought. Pat Thiessen, 61, of Eakly, Okla. “I pray Bible out to be gay.” God will send her a Christian friend to “They’re people. They’re not going to con- He found books that caused him to rethink insulate her against the evil she’s surrounded taminate us,” he said. “We must love them He has found a home in mainstream Bible passages used to condemn homosexu- with.” every bit as much as God loves them.” Christianity by ignoring his denomina- als. He also discovered that many homosex- tion’s policy battles over homosexuality. uals weren’t promiscuous — a prevalent Wynndee’s mother and stepmother have His words were muffled by tears. A long stereotype in churches. been together nearly 12 years. As former silence passed. “I had to weigh what’s important,” he said. Baptists, they said they’re sensitive to the “My local family is sufficient.” “It came to me in prayer that I was called mixed messages that Wynndee hears. “Our lives were drenched in pain,” he said. to ministry, not in spite of my homosexual- “There are other parents sitting in the pews ity but, in part, because I am a gay man,” “We assure her that God loves her as we right now hurting just as bad.” A New Outlook he said. are,” Ms. Wynn said. Randy Thomas used to be a party-happy After so many years, his grief is still a gaping gay man. But getting to that point was a lonely, iso- “I tell her God blesses sexuality,” Ms. Alford wound. lating process. It only grew more intense said. “It’s a gift to be celebrated.” He frequented gay bars. He dated men. He after ordination. “He’s still my son,” he whispered. “I’ve balked at religion. For Wynndee, God is like the lava lamp in never stopped loving him.” He lives chastely by choice, not because her bedroom. It’s not just his thinking that’s changed of church law. He hopes to fall in love today. someday and live in a monogamous rela- “Everyone who looks at it sees something Finding a home tionship with complete sexual expression. different,” she said. It’s said that Sunday morning worship is the He says his sexual orientation has shifted, most segregated hour in America. too. Being gay has made him a more compas- sionate minister, he said. Still, he seldom A Parent’s Story Gays and lesbians go to their churches. “I could be married and have children has breathed a word to anyone about his His is a parent’s anguish. His only son is Straight people go to theirs. someday,” said Mr. Thomas, 33, of inner turmoil. dead. Arlington. “For now, I’m choosing absti- David Allen tired of the divide. nence.” He doesn’t feel safe doing so, especially in A decade has passed, but the pain is as his denomination. sharp as ever. Two years ago, he quit a mostly gay church He said that before his orientation changed, that he had gone to for years. he first had a spiritual conversion. “If people knew who I really was, they When word came that his son lay dying would despise me, let alone fire me,” he in a California hospice, Len Layne hus- “I just got tired of everything being about “I invited Jesus into my heart and immedi- said. “I’ve lived in constant fear that it may tled to catch a plane. But he was told not being gay,” said Mr. Allen, 41, of Dallas. ately felt peace,” he said. all end because of church policy.” to come. So, how does an openly gay man choose a But the homosexual attractions didn’t stop. His son didn’t want to see him. For years, church? A Teen’s Tale his son had been angry with him because he That has been a 10-year journey aided by Her father is straight. Her mother is gay. couldn’t endorse homosexuality. Most mainstream churches don’t ordain Living Hope Ministries in Arlington, an gays and lesbians, or bless their relation- outreach of Exodus International, the He says homosexuality is sin. She says it’s “I couldn’t tell him what he wanted most to ships. Mr. Allen didn’t put much weight on largest of the ex-gay organizations. blessed by God. hear,” said Mr. Layne, 88, of Fort Worth, official policy. “that a gay lifestyle was acceptable.” The ministry teaches that homosexuality is Each side uses Scripture to sway Wynndee “I looked for a church that accepted me,” a sin that can be overcome. Thiessen. Dudley Layne died of complications from he said. “I wanted a family.” AIDS in 1990 at age 43. He didn’t allow a “In Jesus, we find the freedom to change,” “My dad’s family says the Scriptures were family funeral. His friends scattered his He tried other gay churches at first. Mr. Thomas said. written by God, and homosexuals are ashes. going to hell,” said Wynndee, 16, of Fort “More gay rhetoric,” he said. He said he became aware of his homosexual Worth. “The last time I talked with him, he told attractions at age 10. By the time he gradu- me he had made peace with God,” said Len Then he tried black churches. ated from high school, he was immersed in “My mom says the Scriptures were written Layne, a retired United Methodist pastor. the gay culture. by men who put their own beliefs and “The services were so long.” opinions into it.” But the son never made peace with his “I heard pro-gay theology, and I heard Jerry father. He found a home in a small, multi-ethnic Falwell,” he said. “I thought that’s all there Wynndee is pulled both ways. United Methodist congregation less than was to Christianity.” Dudley was 18 years old when he burst into two miles from his home. She lives with her mother, Deedra Wynn, his parents’ bedroom and told them he was He ran from Christianity because he 36, the three children whom Ms. Wynn gay. He sobbed. They sobbed. They held “Most people are white,” he said. “But there thought it meant condemnation. At Living had by artificial insemination, and her each other tightly. are blacks and refugees, straight people and Hope, he said he found healing. mother’s partner, Tammy Alford, 35. gay people. You have all ages.” “It ripped us open,” said Len Layne, now a Today, he’s a Southern Baptist and director They attend the Cathedral of Hope, a widower. “From that night onward, we con- He likes the mix. of Living Hope. mostly gay and lesbian church in Dallas. stantly sought God’s help.” Wynndee said she likes it because no one is “Everybody is very accepting,” he said. “If The ministry’s approach is criticized by shocked her “parents” are lesbians. He bought a shelf of books on I felt the members were against me, I those who don’t feel sexual orientation homosexuality. would leave.” can be changed. They point to Exodus “I can talk about it and not worry that kids chapters that closed after leaders returned are going to beat me up at the dumpster “They told me that homosexuals can’t help Not that he knocks gay churches. They’re to a gay lifestyle. afterward,” she said. “People will be friends it,” he said. “There’s no need to try to talk important, he said, particularly to people with you, and it’s not scary.” them out of it. What you have to do is love struggling with their spirituality and sexuali- Mr. Thomas is aware of the criticism but them.” ty. says he knows firsthand there can be free- Her father’s family lives in Oklahoma and dom from homosexuality with Jesus. attends a Pentecostal church that teaches He tried to love his son unconditionally, And without those churches, he might against homosexuality. without condemnation. It wasn’t enough. never have found faith. “A lot of times people want to portray us as The tension grew. simpletons or right-wing fanatics,” he said. “You can’t talk about homosexuality A decade ago, Mr. Allen didn’t attend “We are people with particular convictions, because everybody thinks it’s a sin,” “I never knew what my son expected of church. Then he joined a tennis league at trying to live out our lives as peacefully as Wynndee said. me,” he said. “I couldn’t, in good con- a gay church and became curious about possible.” science, tell him I approved of his lifestyle. the worship. Three years ago, Wynndee declared that she But I never rejected him, either.” As his faith grows stronger, the temptations was a lesbian. Both sides of the family were He initially went to worship because of grow weaker, he said. skeptical. He hopes others find a lesson in his story. the friendships that he formed. Then he

28 • October 2003 AAR RSN NEWS

“The temptation still comes from time to He tries to follow his denomination’s strict were afraid people would think they were allowed to wed in their faith tradition, but a time,” he said, “but it doesn’t have any teaching on homosexuality and still minister gay.” Catholic priest said he co-led the ceremony power over me. I don’t miss it. I don’t want to gays and lesbians who turn to him. “as an act of pastoral care” despite church it. I don’t long for it.” And some didn’t approve. prohibitions against officiating. At times, it feels impossible to do both. But Mrs. Alfaro and her family stayed. Two “It’s not every day you stand up and com- Nowhere to go “Personally, I do not feel comfortable in a years ago, when her brother died of AIDS, mit every bit of your life to someone,” Mr. Lynn McCreary came out to her church. homosexual situation,” he said, “but I never she thinks she received more compassion Petillo said. turn anybody away. Nor do I use those situ- than she might have at other churches. Then she found herself without a church. ations to condemn. I don’t see Christ doing “We could have done it on a mountaintop,” that.” “People who reject gays and lesbians don’t Mr. Robertson said, “but we wanted it in a Everything changed four years ago, when know them personally,” he said. “When church because we have such deep feelings she began to think of herself as a lesbian. His church draws 2,500 people to weekly you see them as people, you see what good about our spirituality.” She was 41 years old and had never dated. worship. It’s a mostly white, middle-class, hearts they have.” heterosexual congregation. She said she finally knew why. Pastor Alatorre said gay Hispanics and their Celibacy brings peace Some parents who seek his counsel don’t see families — even those at other churches — Faith was as important to Tracy Hummel as “It’s a whole lot better being honest with their gay or lesbian children’s sexuality as an seek his counsel because he’s at Bethany. breathing. yourself,” she said. issue. Church policy bothers them. His attitude toward homosexuals changed But finding himself attracted to men was She said she had good reason to feel safe Others struggle to accept their children. in seminary. A Hispanic man was dying of crushing. telling her church. She was a founding Pastor Rucker says he counsels them to love AIDS, but his family or church wouldn’t member, a lifelong United Methodist and a their sons and daughters as children of God. visit. How could he love God and have homosex- dedicated Sunday school teacher. ual feelings? How could God possibly love “Some Protestants would have kittens if “It wasn’t right,” he said. “The Bible says to him? United Methodists affirm homosexuals as their kids married a Catholic, or certainly a love your neighbor.” children of God but teach that same-sex Muslim,” he said. “I council parents upset In college, as a Baptist, he tried to suppress relations are sinful. Ms. McCreary, who about their kids’ sexuality just as I would the feelings. But he eventually tired of the doesn’t have a partner, views the teaching as any other parents who had children not liv- Bound for life struggle. a double standard. ing the life they wanted for them.” “Dearly beloved, we are gathered here in the sight of God ...” He went to gay bars, then felt empty and “To me, that’s like God playing a trick on He supports his denomination’s stance ashamed after sexual encounters. He prayed you,” she said. “To say you can have these against ordaining noncelibate homosexuals The ceremony was under way. It looked harder. feelings but not act on them is not consis- and blessing same-sex unions. But if the just like a wedding. tent with the way I understand God’s love.” policies changed, he said, he would try to His searching led him to a mostly gay support them. Fresh flowers. String quartet. Ave Maria. church that told him God blesses monoga- Her troubles started three years later, after mous gay couples. That didn’t fit his view of the leadership changed at her church, Trinity “Many people would leave the church, but The grooms, dressed in gray tuxedos, Scripture. United Methodist in Denton. Sunday I wouldn’t,” he said. swapped nervous smiles. school teachers were asked to sign an affir- “It sounded nice, but deep down I felt I had mation to live by the denomination’s beliefs He said he welcomes gays and lesbians to Scriptures were read. A sermon delivered. to choose between God or the gay lifestyle,” and “highest ideals” of the Christian life. church, though he doesn’t condone their Rings exchanged. said Mr. Hummel, 41, of Hurst. sexual activity. His goal is to model Jesus’ The word “homosexuality” wasn’t used. But love without being strident. And in the end, a kiss. He became a Catholic and in the church Ms. McCreary said she was told by a church discovered Courage, a support group that staff member that she had to remain celibate “When they come to the Lord’s Supper, I It was a February afternoon at the teaches people with homosexual attractions to continue teaching. serve them Holy Communion just like Cathedral of Hope in Dallas, one of the few to live chastely, whether single or married. everybody else,” he said. “That’s between spiritual places where gay and lesbian cou- It felt like a slap. them and God.” ples can exchange vows of commitment. He says he’s finding peace as a celibate man.

She said she was made to feel suspect, all Years of debate over homosexuality have The church calls it a holy union because “I have sexuality, but that doesn’t mean I because she had shared an intimate discovery fractured United Methodists and other couples can’t legally wed. But to Larry have to perform sexual acts,” he said. “Jesus about herself. denominations. Pastor Rucker is sick of it Robertson, 35, and Patrick Petillo, 42, of didn’t, and he was truly a man.” but sees no end anytime soon. Grapevine, this was their wedding day. “It’s not right that we have to fear coming to Courage doesn’t pressure participants to terms with who we are,” she said. “Every year, the battle just gets uglier,” he “The only difference was that no one was change or deny homosexual attractions. But said. “It’s definitely the hardest thing. You fitted for gowns,” Mr. Robertson said. it encourages them not to identify as “gay,” The Rev. Steven Davis said the affirmation have people pulling you on either end.” “lesbian” or “homosexual.” had nothing to do with homosexuality. Many Protestant denominations are embroiled over whether to allow the cere- “We teach people to be chaste out of a love “Everyone is welcome at our church,” he The greatest taboo monies. Most teach that the Bible only for Christ,” said Father John Harvey of said. “The question is how do we help peo- Some Protestant churches make a point of sanctions heterosexual marriages. New York, founder of Courage. ple who disagree with teachings on homo- publicly declaring that homosexuals are sexuality understand that there is still a place welcome. “Other churches will say gay and lesbian He said homosexuality is a “condition” that for them.” people are people of sacred worth, but they can be controlled through spiritual disci- Bethany Presbyterian Church in Dallas was won’t bless their relationships,” said the Rev. pline. His approach is sanctioned by the The church backed down after Ms. nearly half gay and lesbian when a straight Michael Piazza, cathedral senior pastor. church but criticized by Catholics who McCreary’s protests. But the hurt never Hispanic group asked to join them three approve of gay relationships. went away, and she left the church. years ago. During the ceremony, he spoke about the story of David and Jonathan as biblical evi- Mr. Hummel attends weekly Courage She tried a nearby Presbyterian church that Rosa Alfaro, one of the Hispanics, said she dence for same-sex commitments. meetings — a time of prayer and sharing welcomes gays and lesbians, but it didn’t feel had never been around openly gay people led by Father Mark Seitz of Waxahachie. like home. before. “We’re not talking about sex,” he said, “but they were people of the same gender who “I see a radical honesty in their desire to live “I’m a born-and-bred Methodist,” she said. “Homosexuality is taboo in our communi- entered a sacred covenant.” a holy life,” Father Seitz said. “It’s my identity. That’s very important to ty,” she said. “Families feel ashamed. They me in connecting to the church.” don’t talk about it.” The 40-minute ceremony was witnessed by “He keeps reminding us that saints are not 125 guests — friends, co-workers and three made overnight,” Mr. Hummel said. “It’s a But in her city, she has nowhere to go. Bethany’s gay and lesbian members also Catholic priests from out of state. journey, and we have to keep pressing on in were hesitant. faith.” Mr. Robertson said he didn’t invite his par- Caught in the middle “We were a congregation where people felt ents “out of sensitivity for their struggle” Mr. Hummel said his prayer life has deep- Like many pastors, the Rev. Harold Rucker safe holding the hands of a partner during with his sexuality. Mr. Petillo’s parents flew ened. His sexual attractions have waned and is caught in the middle. worship,” the Rev. Todd Freeman said. in from New Jersey. no longer have the power they once held. “People needed assurances that wasn’t going He’s tugged in one direction by those in his to change.” “It was beautiful!” Patrick’s mother, Joan, “I used to hope that God would perform denomination who affirm gay couples and said afterward. “I hope that people become a miracle and I wouldn’t have these in another by those who condemn them. A quarter of the Hispanics left. more open-minded and accept the lives that feelings anymore,” he said. “Now I feel God gives people.” God’s mercy and his presence more “Years ago, pastors weren’t put in this posi- “They said they didn’t want their children than ever.” ❧ tion,” said the caring ministries pastor at First around gay people,” said Pastor Daniel The Grapevine couple, both Catholic, fell United Methodist Church in Richardson. Alatorre, the associate pastor, “or they in love more than a year ago. They aren’t

October 2003 AAR RSN • 29 Religious Studies News, AAR Edition

RICHARDSON-MOORE, from p.13 But Parween Zubeer, a former high school respectively, so that one is always home More important, their children wouldn’t be safe. teacher in their hometown of Zakho, didn’t with Rejan, 6, and Faner, 4. of their belongings. The only thing he could waste a lot of time worrying. She got her dri- “When you don’t have safe in your home and say was ‘Thank you’ and ‘I don’t understand.’ ver’s license on her first try, while Swar, a uni- Halfway down the street, Muhsen and Aysha you come somewhere you feel safe,” Zubeer versity-educated mechanical engineer who Othman live with 10 children, with names said, “you’ll know what I’m talking about. “He was so humbled that people would help had to unlearn Middle Eastern driving habits, such as Shilan and Nizar, Hawar and Hishyar. Just sleep safe and don’t think about tomor- him, but he wanted to be a man and wanted took three. row. That’s the good thing, I think.” to help himself… Now they own their own But their youngest child — born the summer home (off Poinsett Highway), which is One day, while driving through Simpsonville, after they arrived — is Susan, named in Perhaps that’s one reason why they have no remarkable.” they passed a Publix with a Help Wanted sign honor of their Greenville First Baptist friend, criticism for American military policy. in the window. Parween told Swar to stop. Susan Shelley. Zubeer said U.S. soldiers helped protect Village life Not wanting his wife to work, he stopped Next door are the Zakholis — Salam, 44, and northern Iraq until 1996, and then evacuated Four families, including the Omers, are scat- only because he was sure the grocery store Bahar, 29, and their three daughters and those who would be targeted because of their tered across Greenville. But another nine — wouldn’t hire her. But the next thing he knew, infant son, Moses. A visitor approaching at association with Americans. some of the originals plus later-arriving rela- Parween was a Publix baker, a job she’s held mealtime will not get away without a plate of tives — find that Kurdistan Way provides the ever since. tapoli and kabobs — even if a guest’s presence “It wasn’t that they left Kurdish people alone,” village-style life they crave. deprives Salam of a kitchen chair and he has he said. “They still got (no-)fly zone. They Now Swar, 36 and recently laid off from to eat standing. still protect them… . Saddam Hussein, he A couple from nearby Fork Shoals Baptist Hitachi, is studying for a master’s degree at can’t go to northern Iraq.” was able to buy the property at a price that Clemson University. His daughter Hibba, 9, Salam loads boxes at Hitachi. Bahar cooks at surprised them and made lots available to the wants to be a teacher. Suham, 6, wants to be Chick-Fil-A. Their oldest child, Sundus, 11, The Kurds, too, say they support President Kurds at affordable rates. The Kurds pitched a dentist. is a voracious reader with her eye on Harvard Bush’s campaign against Saddam, though in to renovate as each pre-built home was Law School. they know bombing will mean deaths among brought to the street, one after another. Both are possibilities, he knows. Real possibilities. friends and family back home. Like waves of immigrants before them, such “This is the street that God built,” said the second-generation dreams make return to “If they bomb over there, they’ll kill a lot of former landowner. Families have dreams Iraq unlikely. people,” said Shivan Abdulziz. “But we need Kurdistan Way is, most likely, the only street to do that. We need Saddam Hussein to go This is also the street that gave the Iraqis cul- in the Upstate on which every adult is fasting “Kurdish people, they don’t have future,” away from there. Nobody has no freedom ture shock. for Ramadan, the 9th month of the Islamic Salam explained in his halting English. “No over there, no jobs, no food… . I’m sure all year observed as sacred with fasting practiced have safety. We need to be free.” the people who live over there, they want the Swar Zubeer remembers his wife’s disbelief daily from dawn to sunset. United States to do that.” when they moved into the first house on Oaklawn Road, the country lane that leads And on March 21, the neighbors will gather At home now Their biggest fear, said his wife, Jalila, is that if into Kurdistan Way. Quite correctly, she for a huge bonfire and picnic in honor of the None of the residents of Kurdistan Way Saddam is not taken out quickly, he may turn protested they were in the middle of nowhere Kurdish New Year. expects to see the real Kurdistan again. on the Kurds, as he has in the past. — a location, explained Swar, that would invite danger back home. The residents watch out for each other, and Almost every family has one or more U.S. The residents of Kurdistan Way will watch most fiercely, for their children. citizens, born after their arrival in Greenville. intently on the Kurdish and Arabic channels It took Swar some time to persuade her that Even the older children, the parents say, they receive by satellite dish. sheriff’s deputies and EMS squads were only Up near the cul-de-sac, Shivan, 32, and would no longer enjoy educational opportu- minutes away. Jalila Abdulziz, 30, work opposite shifts at nities if they returned to war-blasted Iraq. But for them, the Kurdistan they call home is South Carolina Box and Chick-Fil-A, a street in Simpsonville. ❧

COLE, from p.17 gious studies recognize the importance of And second, one of the things I’ve brought Cole: Similar to studies in the discipline of memory, the importance of communication, with me to this job is the desire to make the religion, a true liberal education prepares one hundreds more university and secondary and, most of all, the importance of values. humanities available to as wide an audience for life — civic, private, and personal, as well as school teachers each year; as possible. NEH has a wonderful staff, very spiritual. The liberal arts and the humanities At some point, every person must face the experienced, very intelligent, and very capa- help us answer the fundamental questions of A new grant program for model curriculum question of what it means to live a “good” ble. With their hard work and support, we who we are, where we came from, and where projects to help schools establish or improve life. That’s one of the most basic humanities continue to disseminate the humanities in we are going by revealing meaning, truth, sig- course offerings in American history, culture, questions — what does it mean to be many ways, through projects that result in nificance, existence, and so on. and civics; human, what really is the best of human books, exhibitions in museums and experience, and how shall we live? libraries, programming on radio and televi- Furthermore, the humanities and the liberal Expanded local and statewide projects on sion, public programs in communities arts are not the luxuries of an indolent aris- American history, culture, and civics spon- It has been said that a good education is like across the nation, and our own bimonthly tocratic class; they are the democratic cata- sored by the fifty-six state humanities coun- a travel guide to life, infusing all that one magazine Humanities. Scholars play key lysts of the good and examined life, bring- cils; and sees, hears, and experiences with enriched roles in the success of all these projects, and ing us back, time and again, to what we meaning and significance. The humanities NEH takes pride in supporting their efforts. have learned and continue to learn through Enhanced support for American editions and teach us about being human — the best the journey of life. reference works. New funding will also sup- and worst of human experience, the highest But I’ve also found that the Endowment port the digitization of these volumes. We and greatest of human thought, the sturm plays a significant role in making good citi- A good life is an examined life. It is also will work to ensure that anyone with und drang of human history. zens. As our mission suggests, one of the rea- reflective and remembering. It is informed Internet access will be able to plumb the sons that we are appropriated federal funds by the past, nourished by the wisdom of the depths of these intellectual gold mines. The range of the humanities disciplines is is to bring the wisdom of the humanities to ages, bolstered by the legacy of those who wide; their impact deep. The classics and our citizens, to inform them, to help them have gone before, and sustained by the Projects in religious studies are welcome, and archaeology show us from whence our civi- make good judgments, and to help them courage of past examples. encouraged, in all of the Endowment’s grant lization came. The study of literature and participate in our democracy. I think this is programs, and We the People will offer addi- art shapes our sense of beauty. The knowl- a very important role of our Endowment. A good life is also a connected life. The tional opportunities for support. edge of philosophy and religion gives mean- great poet John Donne once said that “no ing to our concepts of justice and goodness. RSN: What are your ideas about the cur- man is an island… we are each a piece of RSN: What is the most beneficial role rent and future condition of the humanities? the continent, a part of the main.” A funda- that religious studies can play within the The humanities reward study with an mental part of human experience is to con- humanities? enlarged imagination, a broadened perspec- Cole: As I said earlier, NEH was founded nect to something greater than ourselves, tive, and a critical intelligence. These quali- both to promote excellence in humanities and to serve a cause larger than self-interest. Cole: One of the common threads of great ties may appear ethereal, but they have pro- scholarship and to disseminate the fruits of civilizations is the cultivation of memory. found practical implications. Like a good that scholarship as broadly as possible to the RSN: What can the NEH do to promote Many of the finest works of antiquity are map, they help direct our journey, explain American people. I am very proud of a better understanding of the role of the transcribed from oral traditions. the signposts, distinguish between destina- NEH’s recent record in meeting these goals. humanities in our nation’s current climate? tions, and teach us along the way. Examples of NEH-supported projects can From Homer to the Beowulf epic, such tales be found on the “News & Publications” Cole: The Endowment’s mission state- trained people to remember their heritage Cultivating a knowledge of history, a recog- area of the Endowment’s Web site ment clearly defines our role: “Because and history through story and song, and nition of past sacrifices and contributions, (www.neh.gov). democracy demands wisdom, the National passed those stories and songs throughout and an appreciation of our legacy of free- Endowment for the Humanities serves and generations. Old Testament stories repeatedly dom and justice both expands one’s vision In broader terms, the state of the humani- strengthens our Republic by promoting depict prophets and priests encouraging peo- and enriches one’s mind. This is the gift ties has real implications for the state of our excellence in the humanities and conveying ple to remember, to “write on their hearts” bestowed by a liberal education. union. Our nation is in a conflict driven by the lessons of history to all Americans.” the events, circumstances, and stories that religion, philosophy, political ideology, and make up their history. RSN: What are some ways in which the views of history — all humanities subjects. First of all, the Endowment remains deeply discipline of religion can help promote the committed to excellence in the humanities. See COLE p.34 Like other disciplines in the humanities, reli- humanities?

30 • October 2003 AAR RSN NEWS

CALL FOR PAPERS, from p.15 from Buddhist, Christian, Jewish, Islamic, and Chinese religious perspectives in dia- in the Pacific Northwest AAR Regional logue with the natural on such broad top- Meeting may present only one paper and ics as cosmology, evolution, stem cell must be registered for the meeting to par- research, ecofeminism, the relation ticipate. Papers not fitting into any of the between mind and body, the problem of categories below should be sent directly to suffering in light of the theory of evolu- Linda S. Schearing, Religious Studies tion, the anthropic principle, and the Department, Gonzaga University, problem of consciousness are especially Spokane, WA 99258-0001, USA; schear- welcome. This section is co-chaired by [email protected]. Panels and special topics Paul Ingram, Department of Religion, sessions are welcome! Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma, WA 98447-0003, USA; [email protected]; and Special Topics: In addition to the usual Mark Unno, Department of Religious call for papers through the existing pro- Studies, 1294 University of Oregon, gram units, the PNW AAR/SBL and Eugene, OR 97403-1294, USA; ASOR invites proposals for a series of [email protected]. interdisciplinary sessions on the general topic “Religious Ideology, War, and National Identity.” The ideal would be to have a number of thematic sessions with papers from a variety of methodological approaches and disciplines (archaeology, biblical studies, ethics, religion and socie- ty, theology and philosophy of religion, comparative religions) in each session. Themes might include: American and Canadian religion post-9/11; Gulf War II and its aftermath (its impact on Iraqi archaeological collections; indigenous peo- ples and the war); warfare and religious texts; rituals of war and peace; George Bush, Saddam Hussein, and religious ide- ology; and so on. Please send papers to Mark Lloyd Taylor, School of Theology Rocky Mountains-Great Plains and Ministry, Seattle University, 900 Broadway, Seattle, WA 98122-4340, USA; Rocky Mountains-Great Plains Regional [email protected]. Meeting March 26–27, 2004 Theology and Philosophy of Religion: Brigham Young University Norm Metzler, Concordia University, Provo, Utah 2811 NE Holman, Portland, OR 97211, USA; [email protected]. CALL FOR PAPERS The Regional Program Committee cor- History of Christianity and North dially invites you to submit proposals for American Religions: Papers are welcomed papers and panels for the 2004 Regional in any area of History of Christianity and Meeting. The deadline for submissions is North American Religions. Proposals are Also, if you require any technology Wednesday, October 15, 2003. Each pro- especially solicited on the following (Internet, projection equipment, overhead posal should consist of a one-page abstract themes: projectors, etc.) to support your presenta- describing the nature of the paper or • Local religious history tion, you MUST request it with your pro- panel. Proposals are welcome in all areas • Archival and other resources for posal or it will not be provided. of religious and biblical studies. The religious history in the Pacific Program Committee also is interested in Northwest The Program Committee is pleased to panel proposals and thematic sessions in • Religion and public culture in the invite undergraduate papers for a “Theta the following areas: American West Alpha Kappa Undergraduate Panel” on one • Indigenous peoples and religion of the topics listed above or on a topic of • Technology and Religion • Reformation or early modern period interest to students. There will also be an • Law and Religion • Cross-chronological themes or topical award (the “Theta Alpha Kappa • Religion and the Southwest sessions Undergraduate Essay Prize” — • Teaching Pedagogies and Robert Hauck, Religious Studies www.thetaalphakappa.org/) for the best paper Technologies Department, Gonzaga University, in the panel. Please encourage your students • Specific Religious Traditions Spokane, WA 99258-0001, USA; to submit proposals. (Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, [email protected]. Christianity, Islam, Native American, Southeastern The Program Committee will meet during etc.) Women and Religion: This section is co- the AAR/SBL Annual Meeting in Atlanta, Southeastern Commission for the Study chaired by Ardy Bass, Religious Studies GA, on Saturday, November 22, 2003, of Religion Regional Meeting Only those proposals received by the Department, Gonzaga University, from 9–11 PM in the Program Unit (AAR/SBL/ASOR/SE) deadline will be considered for inclusion Spokane, WA 99258-0001, USA; Chair’s Lounge, Marriott Bordeaux Room March 5–7, 2004 in the program. Presentations are limited [email protected]; and Kathlyn Breazeale, to determine the final program. All regular Atlanta Marriott Century Center to twenty minutes. Proposals should be Department of Religion, Pacific Lutheran members of the AAR/SBL Rocky Atlanta, Georgia submitted by e-mail in Microsoft Word University, Tacoma, WA 98447-0003, Mountain-Great Plains Region who are format. Send proposals to USA; [email protected]. willing to serve on the Program [email protected]. CALL FOR PAPERS Committee and review proposals are asked The 2004 Regional Meeting will be held Asian and Comparative Studies: Nicholas to notify Thomas Wayment, the Vice- Graduate students are encouraged to submit at the Atlanta Marriott Century Center, F. Gier, Philosophy Department, President and Program Chair, by October proposals. There will be awards for the best March 5–7. Registration information will University of Idaho, Moscow, ID 83844- 1, 2003. It is hoped that at least one facul- AAR and SBL student papers. The awards, be available on the SECSOR Web site 3016, USA; [email protected]. ty person from each of the participating which are presented during the after January 1, 2004, www.utc.edu/~secsor. schools in the region will serve on the luncheon/business meeting on Saturday, Religion and Society: Gary Chamberlain, Program Committee. carry a stipend of $100 each. To be consid- The following sections and program units Department of Theology & Religious ered for this award, students should submit invite members who wish to present a Studies, Seattle University, 900 Broadway, Please send all proposals and inquiries to: a copy of the completed paper, along with paper or coordinate a session to submit Seattle, WA 98122, USA; an abstract, by October 15, 2003 (papers proposals (one to two pages) or completed [email protected]. Thomas A. Wayment, Ph.D. not chosen for an award will be considered manuscripts to the appropriate section AAR/SBL Regional Meeting for the program). A student’s name should chairs by the call deadline, October 1, Interreligious Dialogue with the Natural Department of Ancient Scripture appear only on the cover page of the paper; 2003. Each member is limited to one pro- Sciences: Papers for this section should Brigham Young University student papers will be judged anonymously. posal. Please use the proposal submission focus on conceptual dialogue with the 210J JSB Completed papers should be no longer than form available on the SECSOR Web site, natural sciences from the perspective of Provo, UT 84602 twelve to fifteen pages double-spaced (for a www.utc.edu/~secsor. the traditions normally included under TEL: 1-801-422-6401 twenty-minute presentation). Please submit the academic discipline “history of reli- FAX 1-801-422-0616 the paper as an e-mail attachment in MS See CALL FOR PAPERS p.32 gions.” Accordingly, papers written E-MAIL: [email protected] Word format to [email protected].

October 2003 AAR RSN • 31 Religious Studies News, AAR Edition

CALL FOR PAPERS, from p.31 (AAR) Arts, Literature, and Religion (2 Shields; [email protected]. Completed manuscripts of papers selected open sessions, 3 open joint sessions) for presentation (maximum twelve d.s. Please note that unless otherwise indicat- (AAR) Religion, Ethics, and Society (2 pages) should be submitted to the appro- ed, papers must be of such a length as can Themes: (1) Open Call: “Tolkien in Text open sessions, 1 planned joint session) priate section chair by January 15, 2004. be presented and discussed within forty- and Film.” (2) Open call: any topic. (3) five minutes. Needs for audiovisual Joint session with American Biblical Papers on all topics will be considered, but (ASOR) The Joseph Callaway Prize for equipment must be noted on the sub- Hermeneutics and Hebrew Scriptures/Old the following themes are especially invit- Biblical Archaeology is a cash prize of mission form. Because of the very high Testament: “Representations of the ed: (1) Medical ethics. (2) Human rights $250 awarded to the student member who cost of renting digital video projection Biblical Story in the Arts. (4) Joint session and/or human flourishing. Submit two submits the paper judged best among equipment, presenters who wish to use with History of Religions: “Western copies of proposal to Toddie Peters, Elon those submitted for the 2004 program. such equipment must provide it them- Writers and Non-Western Religions.” (5) University, Campus Box 2260, Elon, NC Proposals for papers to be entered in the selves. The copying of handouts is also the Joint session with African-American 27244, USA, or e-mail proposal to competition should be sent to the responsibility of the presenter. All pro- Religions: “History, Memory, and Story in [email protected] and [email protected] SBL/ASOR section chair by the call dead- gram participants must be preregistered African-American Religions.” Chair: (Laura Stivers, Pfeiffer University). line, October 1, 2003. Completed manu- for the meeting. Carolyn Medine, University of Georgia; scripts for presentation (maximum twelve [email protected]. Send proposals for joint (AAR) Religion in America (3 open d.s. pages) should be submitted to the Suggestions for new program units or spe- sessions to all chairs. sessions) SBL/ASOR section chair by January 15, cial speakers should be sent to SECSOR’s 2004. executive director or to the vice presi- (SBL) Hebrew Scriptures/Old Testament Open call with special interest in dent/program chair of the respective socie- (3 sessions) Pentecostalism; Law and American Regional Officers and Program Chairs ty (see list of regional officers below). Religion; and Religious Practice and 2003-2004 Themes: (1) Invited panel discussion cele- Material Culture. One session will be (AAR) Academic Study of Religion and brating the life and work of the late devoted exclusively to the best papers SECSOR Pedagogy (1 open session, 1 planned Roland Murphy. (2) Open topics. received on any other subject related to session) Proposals addressing the theme “The the study of American religious history. Chair Hebrew Scriptures, Nationalism, and the Chair: Kathleen Flake, Vanderbilt Herbert Burhenn, University of Tennessee, Themes: (1) “Tools for Teaching”: Open Politics of Social Distancing” are especially Divinity School; kathleen.flake@ Chattanooga call for papers and/or participatory units encouraged. Please send proposals (or vanderbilt.edu. on strategies and techniques for teaching completed papers if you have never pre- Vice Chair religious studies. (2) Joint planned session sented) to Christine Yoder, Columbia (AAR) Women and Religion (2 planned Jerry L. Sumney, Lexington Theological with Religion, Ethics, and Society: “A Theological Seminary; [email protected]; sessions, 1 open session) Seminary Workshop on Human Rights Education as and Don Polaski, Department of a Framework for Teaching Religious Religious Studies, University of Virginia; Themes: (1) “Women Writers and Secretary Studies,” facilitated by members of [email protected]. Spirituality: A discussion with Valerie Diane Wudel, Wake Forest Divinity School Human Rights Atlanta/National Center Boyd about her new autobiography of for Human Rights Education. Interested (AAR) History of Christianity (2 open Zora Neale Hurston.” (2) “Theology in Treasurer participants will need to register with the sessions) Story Form”: Sarah Gordon, Flannery William K. Mahony, Davidson College chair at least a week before the meeting. O’Connor scholar, will discuss theology in Chair: Tina Pippin, Agnes Scott College; Themes: (1) Open topics with special her short stories. (3) Open call with par- Executive Director [email protected]. interest in women, men, and gender in ticular interest in women and war or Herbert Burhenn, Department of the history of Christianity. (2) Papers on women’s religious leadership. Co-Chairs: Philosophy and Religion, (AAR) African-American Religion (2 conference theme, such as narratives of Lori Getz; [email protected]; and Sonya University of Tennessee, Chattanooga, open sessions, 1 open joint session) martyrdom, lives of the saints, or spiritual Jones; [email protected]. Please send pro- Chattanooga, TN 37403, USA; autobiography. Chair: Richard Penaskovic, posals to both co-chairs. 1-423-425-4635; FAX 1-423-425-4279; Themes: (1) Open call. (2) Joint session Department of Philosophy, Auburn [email protected]. with Arts, Literature, and Religion: University; [email protected]. “History, Memory, and Story in African- New Session for Undergraduate AAR/SE American Religions.” Chair: (AAR) History of Judaism (2 open sessions) Students SandyDwayne Martin, University of President Undergraduate students at institutions in Georgia; [email protected]. Send pro- Themes: (1) “Teaching Judaism in the Kevin Schilbrack, Wesleyan College the Southeast Region are invited to sub- posals for joint session to both chairs. Academy in the South.” (2) Open topics. mit papers for a new special session. Open Chair: Gilya Gerda Schmidt, Department Vice President/Program Chair to all topics, the session will be composed (AAR/SBL) American Biblical of Religious Studies, University of Corrie Norman, Converse College, of the papers considered the best submis- Hermeneutics (2 open sessions, 1 open Tennessee, Knoxville; [email protected]. Spartanburg, SC 29302-0006, USA; sions by an interdisciplinary committee. joint session, 1 planned session) [email protected]. Students should submit completed papers (AAR) History of Religions (2 open ses- of an appropriate length for presentation Themes: (1) Open call, suggested topics: reli- sions, 1 open joint session, 1 planned Vice President-Elect only. Please include contact information gion and sports or postmodern theory. (2) session) Tina Pippin, Agnes Scott College for the student and the faculty sponsor on Open call. (3) Joint Session with Arts, a cover page. Electronic submission pre- Literature, and Religion and Hebrew Themes: (1) Open call: “Myth and the Secretary/Treasurer and Representative to ferred. Send submissions by January 15, Scriptures/Old Testament: “Representations of Critical Study of Myth.” (2) Open call: AAR National 2004, to Dr. Bernadette McNary-Zak, the Biblical Story in the Arts.” (4) Workshop any topic. (3) Joint planned session with William K. Mahony, Davidson College Rhodes College; [email protected]. with the Children of Abraham Institute. Chair: Arts, Literature, and Religion: “Western Brian Britt, Virginia Tech; [email protected]. Send Writers and Non-Western Religions.” (4) Note: Undergraduates may still submit proposals for joint session to all chairs. Symposium on Bruce Lincoln and the proposals to other sections as well. Study of Myth. Chair: Brian K. (SBL/ASOR) Archaeology and the Pennington, Maryville College; brian.pen- Ancient World (3 sessions) [email protected]. Please submit Student Awards proposals for joint session to both chairs. (AAR) A cash prize of $250 will be award- Themes: (1) “Archaeology and the Biblical ed to the student member of the Academy World.” Open call for all papers related to (SBL) New Testament (2 or 3 open who submits the best paper accepted for archaeology in the biblical world. (2) sessions, 2 invited panels) presentation at the 2004 Regional “What’s New in Archaeology?” Meeting. A separate prize of $100 will be Participants are asked to submit reviews of Themes: (1) Invited panel discussions on given for the best paper by an under- books published in 2001 or later that “Narrative in the New Testament” and graduate student. Proposals for papers to should be particularly helpful for the pro- “The New Revised Standard Paul.” (2) be entered in either competition must be fessional development of regional mem- Open call for up to three sessions in New submitted to the appropriate section chair bers or useful in college teaching. (3) Testament and Christian Origins. Please by the call deadline, October 1, 2003. “After the Excavation.” Because of the cur- send abstracts (150-200 words) or com- Southwest Notification of acceptance will be mailed tailment of so many excavations in the plete papers (required of first-time presen- by November 1, 2003. Papers accepted for Southwest Commission on Religious Middle East, this session will turn to the ters) to F. Scott Spencer, Baptist presentation, and thus for the competi- Studies Regional Meeting important task of analyzing the artifacts, Theological Seminary at Richmond; tion, must be submitted in final form (AAR/SBL/ASSR/ASOR/IBR) ecofacts, and data yielded by the sites [email protected]. (maximum twelve d.s. pages) by January March 6–7, 2004 themselves. Presentations may include, 15, 2004. Harvey Hotel-DFW Airport among other things, those related to (AAR) Philosophy of Religion and Irving, Texas ceramics, coins, metal, glass, bones, seeds, Theology (3 open sessions, 1 planned (SBL) The Kenneth Willis Clark Student geological samples, geomorphology, session) Essay Award for 2003 was won by Mary CALL FOR PAPERS hydrology, geography, and ethnoarchaeol- Kay Dobrovolny of Vanderbilt University. The following is a listing of the chairs of the ogy. Please send abstracts by e-mail or Themes: (1) Open call. (2) Issues in Another cash prize of $250 will be award- various societies and a description of pro- hard copy to Jim Pace, 2266 Campus Science and Religion. (3) Varieties of ed to the student member of the Society gram specifics. Box, Elon University, Elon, NC 27244, Postmodernism. (4) Invited symposium who submits the paper judged best among USA; [email protected]. on David Ray Griffin. Chair: George those accepted for the 2004 program. Submit proposals to the person designated in

32 • October 2003 AAR RSN NEWS each section. Indicate if the proposal is being History of Christianity (AAR) USA Commission on Religious Studies. Selected submitted to more than one section. TEL: 1-501-450-3631 (Office) papers submitted to the ASSR are published The History of Christianity section has an FAX: 1-501-450-3284 in the Proceedings of the Association for the Proposal Deadline: Chairs or section leaders open call for papers. All submissions in the E-MAIL: [email protected] Scientific Study of Religion. The deadline for must receive proposals no later than October field of History of Christianity will be consid- submitting proposals is October 6, 2003. The 6, 2003. Please note this earlier deadline. ered, but papers in the following areas are of And deadline for submitting finished papers for special interest: Augustine of Hippo; war and publication is February 10, 2004. Paper pro- AMERICAN ACADEMY OF RELIGION peace issues; ecumenism; church and state Steve Oldham posals should be sent to: issues; Christianity in the Southwest (region University of Mary Hardin-Baylor Proposals must be sent directly to section of the U.S.); Hispanic Christianity; historical Box 8369 UMHB Station Richard Ambler chairs. Anyone submitting proposals to more methodology and historiography. For a joint 900 College ST Sociology Program than one section of the AAR or unit of the session with the Philosophy of Religion and Belton, TX 76513 Southern Arkansas University SWCRS should indicate this on all of the Theology section, we invite submissions on USA SAU Box 9368 proposals. No proposal will be ruled out the impact of eschatology on the develop- TEL: 1-254-295-4171 (Office) Magnolia, AR 71754-9368 because the presenter hopes to do other ment of Christian thought and practice. Send E-MAIL: [email protected] USA papers, but the hope is that schedule conflicts proposals for this joint session to the chairs of TEL: 1-870-235-4204 (Office) can be avoided. both sections. Send proposals to: SOCIETY OF BIBLICAL TEL: 1-870-234-5507 (Home) LITERATURE E-MAIL: [email protected] Arts, Literature, and Religion (AAR) Jerry L. Faught II Department of Religion Hebrew Bible (SBL) AMERICAN SCHOOLS OF Proposals are invited for presentations on the Oklahoma Baptist University ORIENTAL RESEARCH following themes: world religions and world Box 61261 Members of the society are invited to submit literature; Dante and interpretations of Dante 500 W. University proposals for papers on a variety of topics The American Schools of Oriental Research in literature, art, and film; religion, ethics, and Shawnee, OK 74804 related to the Hebrew Bible, e.g., narrative, invites paper proposals on any topic related film; sacred space and architecture; contested USA prophets, psalms, wisdom literature, to biblical archaeology and the history of the representations (or misrepresentations) of reli- TEL: 1-405-878-2218 (Office) hermeneutics and theology, feminist interpre- ancient Near East. Sessions on “Hebrew gion in media and film; utopia, apocalypse, E-MAIL: [email protected] tation, the relation of modern literary criti- Bible & Archaeology” and “Teaching and the eschaton in art, literature, and film. cism to the study of the Hebrew Bible (the Archaeology & Biblical Studies” are planned. We also welcome papers for an open session Reflections on the Teaching of Religion list is intended to be suggestive rather than Excavation reports are encouraged and there in arts, literature, and religion. All presenta- (AAR) exhaustive). Please send all Hebrew Bible will be one session of student papers. (A let- tions should be twenty-five to thirty minutes. proposals to: ter of recommendation from a sponsoring Please send multimedia requests with your Proposals are invited for presentations during professor should accompany a student pro- proposal. E-mail submissions strongly encour- a Sunday morning session on the topic of Mathias Henze posal.) Please send proposals to: aged. Send proposals to: pedagogical innovations and strategies for Rice University incorporating the study of women, gender, MS-15 Stephen Von Wyrick Rachel Wagner and/or sexuality into religious studies class- P.O. Box 1892 University of Mary Hardin-Baylor Department of Religion and Philosophy rooms. Especially welcome are proposals con- 6100 Main ST UMHB Station Box 8422 Box 7408 cerning creative classroom exercises/assign- Houston, TX 77005-1892 900 College ST Southwestern University ments, effective curriculum design, negotiat- USA Belton, TX 76513 Georgetown, TX 78626 ing student resistance, and navigating rela- TEL: 1-713-348-5201 USA USA tionships between advocacy and objectivity FAX: 1-713-348-5486 TEL: 1-254-295-4568 (Office) TEL: 1-512-863-1663 in the classroom. Submit proposals to: E-MAIL: [email protected] TEL: 1-254-939-0206 (Home) E-MAIL: [email protected] FAX: 1-254-295-4943 Claire L. Sahlin New Testament (SBL) E-MAIL: [email protected] Comparative and Asian Studies in Religion Texas Woman’s University (AAR) P.O. Box 425557 Members of the society are invited to submit Institute for Biblical Research Denton, TX 76204-5557 proposals for papers on any topic related to The Comparative and Asian Studies in USA the New Testament, e.g., Paul, the Johannine Members of the Institute are invited to Religion section has an open call for papers. TEL: 1-940-898-2255 (Office) literature, Luke-Acts, hermeneutics and the- submit proposals for any topic in biblical Papers and proposals in relation to all aspects FAX: 1-940-898-2101 ology, feminist interpretation, the relation of studies. Proposals should include the of Asian religious practice and thought, both E-MAIL: [email protected] modern literary criticism to the study of the paper’s title and an abstract of 250-300 historical and contemporary, are invited. New Testament (the list is intended to be words. Proposals from doctoral students However, papers in the areas of “Asian Philosophy of Religion and Theology suggestive rather than exhaustive). Please are encouraged but must include a draft of Religions and Medicine” and continuing our (AAR) send all New Testament proposals to: the paper. Send proposals to: discussions on “Islam after September 11” are of special interest. Papers related to reli- Proposals are invited in all areas in philosophy Jeff Peterson Clay Alan Ham gious art in Asia and those that employ of religion or in theology. Possible topics Austin Graduate School of Theology Department of Bible audiovisual equipment are also welcome. include, but are not limited to, the following: 1909 University AVE Dallas Christian College (Overhead projectors and slide projectors theology of gender or sexuality, the interac- Austin, TX 78705 2700 Christian PKWY may be available if requested before March 1, tion between philosophy of religion and phi- USA Dallas, TX 75234 2004. If using a Power Point presentation, losophy of science, and the theological TEL: 1-512-476-2772 (Office) USA please make your own arrangement for a dimensions of Christian dialogue with other FAX: 1-512-476-3919 TEL: 1-972-241-3371, x. 118 (Office) data projector). Send proposals to: religions. For a joint session with the History E-MAIL: [email protected] FAX: 1-972-241-8021 of Christianity section, we invite submissions E-MAIL: [email protected] M. Alejandro Chaoul on the impact of eschatology on the develop- Theta Alpha Kappa Department of Religious Studies, M.S. 15 ment of Christian thought and practice. Send Southwest Commission on Religious Rice University proposals for this joint session to the chairs of Student members of Theta Alpha Kappa Studies 6100 S. Main ST both sections. Proposals involving multiple chapters in the Southwest Region are invited AWARDS ANNOUNCEMENTS Houston, TX 77005 presentations or panel discussions (no more to submit papers for presentation at the 2004 MEETING USA than three participants) focused upon a single regional meeting. Open to all topics. One E-MAIL: [email protected] topic, figure, or publication will be especially session will be devoted to the best papers. The Southwest Commission on Religious welcome (either have each panelist provide an Submissions must come from the chapter Studies is pleased to announce two award Ethics, Society, and Cultural Analysis abstract, which is preferred, or supply creden- advisor and include the presenter’s name, the programs for faculty serving in sponsoring (AAR) tials of panelists). Proposals featuring interdis- entire paper (preferred) or an abstract of the institutions. We invite your participation ciplinary or interinstitutional participation, paper (acceptable), and name of the school. either by way of nomination or application. Papers or panel discussion proposals are and which promise to stimulate productive Submissions must be made electronically to: invited on any topic in ethics or cultural discussion, will be favored. Proposals for indi- JOHN G. GAMMIE DISTINGUISHED analysis including: social ethics, biomedical vidual presentations will also be given serious Dr. Nadia Lahutsky SCHOLAR AWARD ethics, theological ethics, the history of consideration. Proposals should be brief (not Texas Christian University ethics, ethical issues in church-state relations, more than two pages), with the title of pres- E-MAIL: [email protected] In order to honor noted scholars in the the use of Scripture in ethics. Also of interest entation and some sense of the argument. field of religious studies in the Southwest are reflection on the global military situation, Include a return address, contact number, ASSOCIATION FOR THE and to recognize their work, the globalization, and issues of just-war and paci- and, if possible, an e-mail address. Please do SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF RELIGION Commission funds an annual John G. fism. Send proposals to: not submit proposals as e-mail attachments; Gammie Distinguished Scholar Award. paste them into the body of the e-mail. The Association for the Scientific Study of The recipient will receive a $2,000 cash Tracey Mark Stout Submit proposals to: Religion invites paper proposals on any topic award. Department of Religion concerning the scientific study of religion, Baylor University Donna Bowman particularly those dealing with the sociologi- JUNIOR SCHOLAR GRANT P.O. Box 97284 Honors College cal, philosophical, economic, historical, psy- Waco, TX 76798-7284 University of Central Arkansas chological, and political considerations of reli- The purpose of the Junior Scholar Grant USA UCA Box 5024 gion in society. The ASSR also welcomes is to encourage and support the scholarly E-MAIL: [email protected] Conway, AR 72035-5000 papers from other affiliates of the Southwest See CALL FOR PAPERS p.34

October 2003 AAR RSN • 33 Religious Studies News, AAR Edition

COLE, from p.30 CALL FOR PAPERS, from p.33 Summit AVE, St. Paul, MN 55105, USA includes undergraduate papers, reflecting E-MAIL: [email protected] the preponderance of undergraduate insti- Our tolerance, our principles, our wealth, work of newer scholars who are in the field tutions in the region. The papers may be and our liberties have made us targets. of religious studies and who live in the RELIGIONS IN NORTH AMERICA integrated into topical sessions or grouped Southwest region. The grant may provide into sessions devoted to undergraduate pre- Defending our democracy demands seed money for an initial project or sup- Debra Mubashshir, Department of sentations. Members are encouraged to more than successful military cam- port for a project pursued by a Junior Philosophy and Religious Studies, Beloit nominate outstanding papers (maximum paigns. It also requires an understanding Scholar whose research agenda is already College, Beloit, WI 53511, USA of two) from each institution. The pro- of the ideals, ideas, and institutions that becoming established. E-MAIL: [email protected] gram committee asks that faculty from have shaped our country. The humani- each institution help with the screening by ties tell us who we are as a people and Submission of Nominations and RELIGION AND SCIENCE sending nominations to: why our country is worth fighting for. Applications Tom Reynolds, Department of Religious Greg Peterson, South Dakota State Studies, St. Norbert College, 100 Grant Despite the many challenges faced by Both the John G. Gammie Distinguished University, Scobey 336, Box 504, ST, De Pere, WI 54115-2099, USA; humanities institutions and the many Scholar Award and the Junior Scholar Brookings, SD 57007, USA E-MAIL: [email protected]. researchers, teachers, and other specialists Grant are awarded at the discretion of the E-MAIL: [email protected] in the humanities, today’s world offers Southwest Commission on Religious MULTIPLE SUBMISSIONS tremendous opportunities for those of us Studies. Both honors will be announced at RELIGION AND CULTURE in the humanities to make significant the reception during the annual meeting of It is the policy of the region that no mem- contributions. As a result, I would have the Commission. Larry Harwood, Viterbo University, ber presents more than one paper at a to say that I’m very optimistic about the 815 S. 9th ST, La Crosse, WI 54601, USA given meeting. Should a member submit future for the humanities. Send nominations for the Gammie Award E-MAIL: [email protected] more than one proposal, it is the responsi- and applications for the Junior Grant by bility of the member to so inform the con- RSN: What individual or movement October 31, 2003, to Professor William RELIGION, GENDER, AND SEXUALITY veners. has been the most influential in your Pitts, Secretary and Treasurer, Southwest Susan Hill, Department of Philosophy & intellectual life? Commission on Religious Studies, Religion Religion, Baker 135, University of OTHER TOPICS Department, Baylor University, P.O. Box Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, IA Cole: My sainted Aunt Gertrude 97284, Waco, TX 76798-7284, USA, 50614-0501, USA Papers in other categories are welcome. Kaufman introduced me to the TEL:1-254-710-6321, or FAX: 1-254-710- E-MAIL: [email protected] Proposals should be sent by December 15, Cleveland Museum of Art, where a 3740. 2003, directly to Deanna A. Thompson, medieval knight’s magnificent suit of PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION Hamline University, 1536 Hewitt AVE, St. armor captured this young boy’s interest SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY Paul, MN 55104, USA; in learning more about the past. My Tatha Wiley, United Theological Seminary [email protected]. interest grew with subsequent trips to of the Twin Cities, 2200 Princeton AVE, the Western Reserve Historical Society, St. Paul, MN 55105, USA Upper Midwest Regional Officers: with its dioramas of early American pio- E-MAIL: [email protected] neer life. As I like to say, “You don’t AAR learn history; you catch it!” My Aunt WORLD RELIGIONS President: Gertrude played a singular role in help- James Robinson, Department of Susan Hill, University of Northern Iowa, ing me “catch” history. ❧ Philosophy and Religion, Cedar Falls, IA Baker 135, University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls, IA 50614-0501, USA Vice President: E-MAIL: [email protected] Daniel McKanan, St. John’s University, Collegeville, MN SBL SESSIONS: Program Committee: OLD TESTAMENT/HEBREW BIBLE Amos Yong, Bethel College, St. Paul, MN Rolf Jacobson, Augsburg College, 2211 Riverside AVE, Minneapolis, MN Regional Secretary: 55454, USA Deanna A. Thompson, Hamline E-MAIL: [email protected] University, 1536 Hewitt AVE, St. Paul, MN 55104, USA; NEW TESTAMENT [email protected]. Jeanine Brown, Bethel Seminary, 3949 Bethel DR, St. Paul, MN Upper Midwest 55122-6999, USA E-MAIL: [email protected] AAR/SBL Upper Midwest Regional Meeting LIBERATION THEOLOGIES, April 16–17, 2004 LIBERATION HERMENEUTICS: Luther Seminary LATIN AMERICAN, FEMINIST, St. Paul, Minnesota BLACK, OTHER Elizabeth G. Burr, University of St. Thomas, 2025 Fairmount AVE, CALL FOR PAPERS St. Paul, MN 55105, USA The program committee invites members E-MAIL: [email protected] of the societies to submit proposals for Western papers at the meeting. Please send title, RELIGION IN THE ANCIENT AAR Western Regional Meeting abstract (150-200 words), and any audio- WORLD March 20–March 22, 2004 visual needs along with your name and Glen Menzies, North Central University, Whittier College address (e-mail/snail mail), by December 910 Elliot AVE South, Minneapolis, MN Whittier, California 15, 2003, to the appropriate conveners or 55404, USA use the Web-based form at umw-aarsbl. E-MAIL: [email protected] org/proposal.htm. [Form available after CALL FOR PAPERS September 15.] EARLY JUDAISM AND JUDAIC The focus of this year’s conference is STUDIES “Embodied Knowledge.” AAR SESSIONS: Michael Wise, Northwestern College, 3001 Snelling AVE North, The Call for Papers will be sent to all AFRICAN-AMERICAN RELIGION St. Paul, MN 55113, USA members of the Western Region Debra Mubashshir, Department of E-MAIL: [email protected] that are in good standing with the AAR in Philosophy and Religious Studies, Beloit early September 2003. College, Beloit, WI 53511, USA ARCHAEOLOGY AND EXCAVATION E-MAIL: [email protected] REPORTS For more information and updates, please (sessions co-sponsored by ASOR) visit the regional Web site: ETHICS Mark W. Chavalas, www.sjsu.edu/wecsor/Call2004.htm. Phillip Rolnick, Theology Department, Department of History, University of University of St. Thomas, 2115 Summit Wisconsin–La Crosse, This site will be updated with the 2004 AVE, St. Paul, MN 55105, USA La Crosse, WI 54601, USA Call for Papers during the first part of E-MAIL: [email protected] E-MAIL: [email protected] September 2003. HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES ON UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH You may also contact Miri Hunter Haruach, RELIGION (JOINT AAR/SBL) Vice President/Program Chair of the Western Sherry Jordon, Theology Department, Region; [email protected]. ❧ University of St. Thomas, JRC 153, 2115 The Upper Midwest regional meeting 34 • October 2003 AAR RSN