NABPR Region at Large – 2012

NABPR RAL 2012 Call for Papers

The NABPR Region-at-Large welcomes proposals from NABPR and CTS members on topics related to the conference theme, “Found in Translation:  Living Faith in Other Contexts.”  Possibilities for paper proposals include, but are not limited to, themes such as:

1. Immigration/Migration

Paper proposals might consider the following: the interconnections between race, immigration/migration, religion and politics; the interconnections between immigration/migration and the Eucharist; the interconnections between immigration/migration and eschatology; how the Christian tradition has addressed the duty to welcome the stranger and cultivated the virtue of hospitality; how immigration/migration affect the use of such terms as “aliens” and “exiles” in contemporary ecclesiology; the theological significance of the fact that the Holy Family were immigrants to Egypt shortly after the first Christmas; and, in a 21st century globalized world, can migration be considered a fifth mark of the church?

1. Missio Dei and Missiology in Postcolonial Perspective

In the last decade or so, theologians and missiologists have constructed various theologies of mission.  According to John Flett, the deeply ingrained Christendom habits of thought have often remained unchallenged in contemporary rethinking of the relationship between church and mission.  And Willie Jennings has challenged Christian theology (and mission) to take seriously its colonial history and its colonial sites for grasping the full range of its identity.  How can Christian theologians and missiologists construct a theology of mission in a postcolonial perspective? Why is it important for Christian theology and a Christian theology of mission to take seriously its colonial history?  What would it mean to refract the concept of the missio Dei through a postcolonial lens?  How might a postcolonial perspective reshape and transforms missional ecclesiologies in North America?

1. The Theology and Ethics of John Howard Yoder

Paper proposals might consider the following: interconnections between history and eschatology in Yoder’s work; the significance of memory in Yoder’s theology and politics; engagements with Yoder’s The Jewish-Christian Schism Revisited; conversations between Yoder and continental philosophy; engagements with recent, new readings of Yoder’s work.

1. Baptists and the Communion of Saints

Paper proposals might consider the following: Baptists and the communion of saints; Baptists’ scholarly engagements with particular saints of the church; Baptists and Mariology; theological reflection on Baptist commemoration of the saints;  the possibility of a Baptist sanctoral cycle; who are Baptist saints, and why?

1. Responses to David Bebbington’s Baptists through the Centuries:  A History of a Global People (Baylor University Press, 2010)

    Paper proposals should be critical engagements with and responses to Bebbington’s book.

Proposals on other topics not listed are also welcome. Please email your proposal of 250-500 words to Mark Medley ([email protected]) and Scott Bullard ([email protected]) by December 1, 2011 for full consideration.