AAR 2021 TWW Virtual Panels

Theology Without Walls Group

Below are the Theology Without Walls sessions for the upcoming national meetings of the American Academy of Religion.


Note: All Times are Listed in Central Standard Time (CST)

MV21-106
Theology Without Walls Group
Theme: The Theological Relevance of Ones Life Experiences
Sunday, November 21: -  9:00 AM-11:30 AM CST (Virtual)

Jeanine Diller, University of Toledo, Presiding

The preface to Thatamanil's Circling the Elephant, Paul Knitter's personal reports in Without Buddha I Couldn't Be a Christian, and, reaching back, even Karl Barth's horror at what the good citizen Protestantism of his day had resulted in and, even farther, to Augustine's Confessions. If the aim of theology is, to some extent, to be transformative, we might ask: Are these experiences "incidental" aspects of a theologian's work or themselves sources of insight that may be considered evidential? Would it be desirable to break down the boundaries, not only between traditions, but also between "academic" discourse and a more personal, embodied approach to knowledge?

Jeffery D. Long, Elizabethtown College
Embodiment, Experience, and Truth: A First-Person Approach to the Philosophy of Religion

Monica Coleman, University of Delaware
Theology is Public when Personal: Motivation, Conversion and Insider Knowledge

Francis X. Clooney, Harvard University
On Becoming a Priest-Scholar: An Inquiry into my Formative Years in New York and Kathmandu, Chicago, and Chennai

Jeffrey J. Kripal, Rice University
Working and Thinking with Extreme Experiencers: Some Personal Reflections on Why the Weird Remains Weird

John Thatamanil, Union Theological Seminary
Wonder and Practice: From Experience to Theology


MV21-205
Theology Without Walls Group
Theme: Spirit (Qi, Energeia) as a Transreligious Category
Sunday, November 21: 1:00 PM-3:30 PM CST (Virtual)

S. Mark Heim, Andover-Newton Theological Seminary at Yale University, Presiding

One thing TWW needs is concepts, not just for the purpose of comparison but for thinking that is not necessarily embedded in the religions. Hyo-Dong Lee and Amos Yong are among the theologians who have made use of this concept in a cross-cultural way and, of course, it can readily be related to the Eastern Orthodox use of energeia. This panel will explore possibilities for creative theological construction that this cluster of concepts might open up.

Robert C. Neville, Boston University
The Cosmological Use of Spirit

Hyo-Dong Lee, Drew University
Divine ki (qi)?: Musings on a Cross-Cultural Pneumatology

Grace Ji-Sun Kim, Earlham School of Religion
Spirit, Chi, and Christianity

David Bradshaw, University of Kentucky
The Divine Energy in Eastern Christianity

Benjamin Crace, American University of Kuwait
Stoic Cosmological Foundations for a Contemporary Pneumatology


MV21-303
Theology Without Walls Group
Theme: Discussion with Rising Scholars
Sunday, November 21: 4:00 PM-5:30 PM CST (Virtual)

John Thatamanil, Union Theological Seminary, Presiding

Panelists
Hans le Grand, Free University Amsterdam
Joyce Konigsburg, DePaul University
Benjamin Crace, American University of Kuwait


MV21-401
Theology Without Walls Group
Theme: Planning Meeting
Sunday, November 21: 5:30 PM-6:30 PM CST (Virtual)

Jerry L. Martin, University of Colorado, Boulder, Presiding

Panelists
John Thatamanil, Union Theological Seminary
Jeffery D. Long, Elizabethtown College
Jeanine Diller, University of Toledo
Kurt Anders Richardson, University of Toronto
Linda A. Mercadante, Methodist Theological School in Ohio
Bin Song, Washington College
Hans le Grand, Free University Amsterdam

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