Theology Without Walls Group
American Academy of Religion 2025
November 22-25 – Boston, MA
M22-203
Theology Without Walls Group
Theme: Systematic: The Human Predicament
Date: Saturday, November 22
Time: 1:00 PM – 3:30 PM
Location: Hilton Back Bay, Maverick A (Second Floor)
Chair: John Thatamanil, Union Theological Seminary
Perry Schmidt-Leukel, University of Muenster:
“Defect of Insight and Defect of Will: Fractal Entanglements in Buddhism and Christianity”
Richard Oxenberg, Endicott College:
“Nullity, Ignorance, and Sin: Toward a Phenomenological ‘Diagnosis’ of the Human Predicament”
Jon Paul Sydnor, Emmanuel College:
“Toward a Nondual Christianity: Salvation as the Restoration of Loving Unity-in-Difference”
Jonathan Weidenbaum, Berkeley College (NYC):
“Between a Broken Cosmos and the Insulated Ego: Jewish Thought and the Drama of Reparation”
William P. Frank, Vanderbilt University:
“The Chronic Human Condition as Revealed by Plagues and Pandemics”
Ruben Habito, Santa Fe, N.M.:
“Our Current Global Polycrisis as a Spiritual Crisis: The Buddhist Four Noble Truths as a Path to Healing”
M22-301
Theology Without Walls Group
Theme: Book Panel
Date: Saturday, November 22
Time: 3:30 PM – 6:00 PM
Location: Hilton Back Bay, Maverick B (Second Floor)
This book panel on the first five books in the TWW series will present critical appreciations, including, of course, challenges and questions that remain to be answered.
Chair: Catherine Cornille, Boston College:
Hans S. Gustafson, University of St. Thomas:
Theology Without Walls Founding Essays, ed. Christopher Denny & Rita Sherma
Jeffrey J. Kripal, Rice University:
The Sacred/Secular Binary: Challenging the Divide in University Culture and Democratic Societies, by Rory McEntee
Jeffery Long, Elizabethtown College:
Radically Personal: God and Ourselves in the New Axial Age, by Jerry L. Martin
Trina Jones, Wofford College:
Confessions of a Young Philosopher, by Abigail L. Rosenthal
Mark Heim, Andover Newton Seminary at Yale Divinity School
Life Seeking Understanding: How Spiritual But Not Religious and Other Seekers Can
Construct Their Own Theology, by Hans le Grand
M24-200
Theology Without Walls Group
Theme: Open Topics In Transreligious Exploration
Date: Monday, November 24
Time: 1:00 PM – 2:30 PM
Location: Hilton Back Bay, Belvidere A (Second Floor)
Chair: Joyce Konigsburg, DePaul University
Kip Eliolia, Milligan University:
“Ethnography as a Theological Method”
Thangsan Mung, Yangon, Myanmar:
“Paradise Beyond Borders: Spirituality, Homeland, and the Transreligious Quest in Zomi Penecostalism”
Benjamin Chicka, Curry College:
“Videogames as Transreligious Experience: Breaking Down Barriers to Accepting Diversity”
M24-201
Theology Without Walls Group
Theme: Planning Session
Date: Monday, November 24
Time: 2:30 PM – 3:30 PM
Location: Hilton Back Bay, Belvidere A (Second Floor)
The planning meeting will assess where the TWW project stands at present, and what topics and activities will best advance it as we go forward. Everybody is invited.