Members of the Perkins and SMU communities were well-represented when the world’s largest gathering of scholars interested in the study of religion convened November 23-26 in San Diego.
The 2024 Annual Meetings, hosted by the American Academy of Religion and the Society of Biblical Literature, featured more than 900 academic sessions, workshops, meetings, receptions, tours,
and other events. Approximately 7,000 attendees participated. The Annual Meetings provide opportunities to engage with leading scholars and scholarship within the field of religion.
As the gathering concluded, alumni and friends reconnected at a reception hosted by Southern Methodist University and Perkins School of Theology.
One session, hosted by the Society of Buddhist-Christian Studies (SBCS), was a special tribute to former SBCS president, Perkins faculty member and Zen Rōshi, Ruben Habito, for his many significant contributions to Buddhist-Christian Studies. Panelists addressed various aspects of Habito’s work, such as multiple religious belonging, the healing character of Buddhism and Christianity, Zen and the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises, as well as the intersection between Zen, spirituality, and Christian trinitarian reflection. A response-reflection from Habito himself concluded the session.
In total, faculty and students from Perkins School of Theology and Moody School of Graduate Studies at SMU presented, presided, responded, or served as panelists at more than two dozen sessions at the meeting. They included:
Hymn Society in the United States and Canada
Theme: Pub Sing!
Fernando Berwig Silva, Southern Methodist University
Niebuhr Society
Theme: Book Panel on The Future of Christian Realism: International Conflict, Political Decay, and the Crisis of Democracy (Lexington, 2023)
Rebekah Miles, Perkins School of Theology | Southern Methodist University – Responding
Ethics Unit
Theme: Technology as an Existential Threat
Lindsey Johnson Edwards, Southern Methodist University — Presenter
Oh Death, Where Is Your Sting: Medical Aid in Dying as an Ars Moriendi
Teaching Religion Unit
Theme: Teaching Tactics
Jill De Temple, Southern Methodist University — Presenter
Teaching Tactic/Gift Exchange: Dialogic Moment
Women and Religion Unit
Theme: Feminist Intersectional Approaches to Transforming Violence: Perspectives from Emerging Scholars
Natalie Readnour, Southern Methodist University — Presenter
Connecting to God After Abuse: Altars of La Virgen de Guadelupe Among Survivors of IPV
Open and Relational Theologies Unit
Theme: Author Meets Readers: Tom Oord’s The Death of Omnipotence and Birth of Amipotence
Karen Baker-Fletcher, Perkins School of Theology | Southern Methodist University – Panelist
Practical Theology Unit
Theme: Re-membering the Pioneers: Honoring Feminist and Womanist Practical Theologians
Jeanne Stevenson-Moessner, Perkins School of Theology | Southern Methodist University – Panelist
Evelyn Parker, Perkins School of Theology (Emeritus) | Southern Methodist University – Panelist
Pragmatism and Empiricism in American Religious Thought Unit and Transformative Scholarship and Pedagogy Unit
Theme: Pragmatism and Empiricism in American Religious Thought Unit and Transformative Scholarship and Pedagogy Unit Papers Session
Jill De Temple, Southern Methodist University — Presenter
Dialogic Classrooms as Pathways to Democratic Habits in Uncertain Times
Hymn Society in the United States and Canada
Theme: Singing Peace to Violence
Fernando Berwig Silva, Southern Methodist University – Panelist
Society for Buddhist-Christian Studies
Theme: Reflecting on Buddhist-Christian Double Belonging: A 2024 Update
Ruben L.F. Habito, Perkins School of Theology | Southern Methodist University – Presenter
Problems and Perils of Multiple Religious Belonging
Postcolonial Studies and Biblical Studies / Asian and Asian-American Hermeneutics / African Biblical Hermeneutics
Theme: Bible Translation and Decolonization in Global Contexts
Abraham Smith, Perkins School of Theology | Southern Methodist University – Panelist
Book of Acts / African-American Biblical Hermeneutics
Theme: Book Review of Jeremy Williams’s “Criminalization in Acts of the Apostles: Race, Rhetoric, and Christian Prosecution”
Abraham Smith, Perkins School of Theology | Southern Methodist University – Panelist
Bible and Film
Theme: Bible, Genre, and Film
Rob Kranz, Southern Methodist University – Presenter
The Perils of Jephthah’s Daughter
Latina/o Religion, Culture, and Society Unit
Theme: Borderlands, Liminal Spaces, and Religion: Latinx/Caribbean Perspectives on Gender, Sexuality, Violence, and Identity
Natalie Readnour, Southern Methodist University — Presenter
Women Giving Birth to Themselves: Liminal Motherhood and Liberation in the Work of Ada Maria Isasi-Diaz and Frida Kahlo
Hinduism Unit
Theme: New Books in Hindu Studies
Steven Lindquist, Southern Methodist University – Panelist
Bible in America
Theme: The Christian Nationalist Agenda for Bible in Public Education
Mark Chancey, Southern Methodist University – Panelist
Feminist Hermeneutics of the Bible / LGBTI/Queer Hermeneutics
Theme: Masculinity Studies in Biblical Scholarship: Feminist, Womanist, and Queer Assessments
Susanne Scholz, Perkins School of Theology | Southern Methodist University – Panelist
Society for Buddhist-Christian Studies
Theme: Honoring Ruben Habito’s Many Contributions to Buddhist-Christian Studies
Karen Baker-Fletcher, Perkins School of Theology | Southern Methodist University – Presenter
Ruben Habito on Zen, Spirituality, and Christian Theology
Ruben L.F. Habito, Perkins School of Theology | Southern Methodist University – Responding
Bible in America
Review Panel: Claudia Setzer, The Progressives’ Bible (Fortress Press, 2024)
Mark Chancey, Southern Methodist University – Presiding
South Asian Religions Unit
Theme: Life Stories in the Lives of Texts: Reconsidering Biography and Hagiography in South Asian Religions
Steven Lindquist, Southern Methodist University – Presenter
Lifestyles of the Rsi and Famous: Proto-Biographical Narrative in Late Vedic Literature
Wesleyan and Methodist Studies Unit
Theme: The Reception History of the Wesleys
Emily Nelms Chastain, Perkins School of Theology | Southern Methodist University – Presenter
Reviving the Radical: The Legacy of the Methodist Student Movement within Wesleyan Tradition
Priscilla Pope-Levison, Perkins School of Theology | Southern Methodist University – Responding
Bible and Visual Art
Theme: Bible and Visual Art
Susanne Scholz, Perkins School of Theology | Southern Methodist University – Presenter
The Eyes of Leah (Gen. 29:17) in the Abstract Artwork of Yehuda Levy-Aldema
Economics in the Biblical World
Theme: Open Session
Jon Carman, Southern Methodist University – Presenter
The Denarius Wasn’t Worth a Day’s Wage
Critical Carceral Studies and the Bible
Special session exploring scholarship at the nexus of critical carceral studies and biblical studies
Abraham Smith, Perkins School of Theology | Southern Methodist University – Panelist