New Issue of Practical Matters: On Ethnography in Religious Studies and Theology

Issue six of Practical Matters is now online. It has a special focus on the use of ethnography in religious studies and theology. I highly recommend that those interested in such work go check it out.

Excited about the 2013 Christian Scholars’ Conference

I’ve been to the Christian Scholars’ Conference a few times over the last several years and I’ve always found it to be a wonderful experience. I’ll be there again this year and am convening, presenting a paper, or sitting on a panel in FIVE sessions! This means it’s going to be a busy weekend for me, but it is one that I am sure will be a worthwhile experience. You can find a list of sessions here, abstracts here, and the registration page is here. If you can be in the Nashville area during the conference I encourage you to join us. The sessions I’ll be a part of are listed below. Hope to see you there!

“Augustinian Thoughts for the Twenty-First Century: A Panel on the Political Theology of Charles T. Mathewes.”

James W. McCarty III, Emory University, Convener

· Jeanine Thweatt-Bates, Theologian-at-Large, Evil and the Augustinian Tradition

· John Senior, Wake Forest School of Divinity, A Theology of Public Life

· Victor McCracken, Abilene Christian University, The Republic of Grace: Augustinian Thoughts for Dark Times

· Charles T. Mathewes, University of Virginia, Respondent

Recent years have seen a retrieval of Augustine for doing political theology, and no one has been more prominent in this retrieval than Charles T. Mathewes. This panel proposes to consider Mathewes’s work on this subject by critically engaging his arguments for contemporary Augustinianism. Each panelist will present a fifteen minute paper on one of Mathewes’s books on the Augustinian tradition and its contemporary import while keeping an eye toward the broader scope of his work on the subject. Mathewes will then provide a fifteen minute response to the panelists. The session will conclude with a public Q&A.

“The Business of War: Assessing the Ethics of the Military-Industrial Complex and Faithful Christian Witness” Matt Tapie, The Catholic University of America and Justin Barringer, Independent Scholar, Co-Conveners

· Kara Slade, Duke University, “Dilbert Agonistes: War and the Business of Engineering Education”

· James W. McCarty III, Emory University, “‘They Got Money for Wars, but Can’t Feed the Poor’: Martin Luther King Jr. on the Interdependent Violence of Racism, Poverty, and Militarism.”

· Logan Mehl-Laituri, Duke University, “Minding the Prophet Margin: Just War, Accountability and the Private Military Contract”

· Justin Barringer, Independent Scholar, “‘I Ain’t No Fortunate One’: Christian Responses to the Business of War”

War is big business, especially for the United States. The cost of war, and preparedness for war, has effects on the economy, education, collective moral formation, and churches. Drawing upon theology, ethics, and military strategy, the panelists, including a former soldier, a former military contractor, a mechanical engineer, a theological educator, and a Christian writer/editor, will address questions like: “What sort of ethical standards should apply to the business of war?” “Can citizens hold military leaders, business executives, and politicians accountable?” and “What does a distinctly Christian witness look like in a world where war is big business?”

“The Fierce Urgency of Now: Strategies for Social Change Within the Churches of Christ.”

Jeffrey R. Baker, Jones School of Law, Convener

· James W. McCarty, III, Emory University

· Jennifer Jeanine Thweatt-Bates, Theologian-at-Large

· Travis Stanley, First Christian Church, Abilene, Texas

· Natalie Magnusson, Rochester College, Panelist

This panel will examine issues of justice and social change in the Churches of Christ. When perceiving a need for change, how should congregants, ministers, and leaders act to move their communities to change in favor of justice? Panelists and participants will examine philosophies, strategies, and tactics for social change within congregational Churches of Christ, including observations of culture, tradition, and structures of the people and their congregations, and examination of different theories and means of effecting change and movements within the peculiar structures of the tradition.

“Law and the Bible: Justice, Mercy, and Legal Institutions.”

Robert F. Cochran, Jr., Pepperdine University, Convener

· Randy Beck, University of Georgia, “Creation, Fall, and the Patriarchs”

· William Brewbaker, University of Alabama, “The History of Israel”

· Robert F. Cochran, Jr., Pepperdine University, “Jesus”

· James W. McCarty III, Emory University, “The Early Church”

This session is developed from the book project, Law and the Bible: Justice, Mercy, and Legal Institutions. The forthcoming volume examines how Christians have historically understood scripture’s teaching on positive/civil law and what those scriptures might teach us today. The focus will be on the positive/civil law – law that is adopted and enforced by governments, rather than the moral law. Chapters will concentrate on different sections of scripture and will be co-authored by a law professor and a theologian. In this session several authors present brief summaries of issues raised in their essays.

“Doing Theology and Ethics in Churches of Christ: Three Proposals.”

Matthew Tapie, Catholic University of America, Convener.

· Spencer Bogle, Southern Methodist Univerity, “Theology at the Margins in the Churches of Christ.”

· James W. McCarty III, Emory University, “The Case for Christian Social Ethics in the Churches of Christ.”

· David Mahfood, Southern Methodist University, “What Shall We Restore? Canonical Theism and Theology in Churches of Christ.”

Rest in Peace, Dr. Beverly Wildung Harrison

Beverly Harrison, mother of feminist Christian social ethics and the first woman to do many things in the theological academy, passed away over the weekend. It is a sad occasion for many reasons, but one is that she will not be present to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Society of Christian Ethics (only the second person to receive the honor) in just a few short weeks. I never met Dr. Harrison, but her influence upon me (indeed, upon all of Christian ethics) is large.

Her student, Elizabeth M. Bounds, is one of my mentors. In Dr. Bounds’ doctoral seminar “Twentieth Century U.S. Christian Social Ethics” we concluded the course by reading Dr. Harrison’s edited collection Justice in the Making. One of the early “honors” of my academic career was having Prof. Bounds think highly enough of my written response to that book that she said she’d send it along to Dr. Harrison because she thought she’d appreciate my interpretation of and response to her work. At that moment I thought to myself, “Hey, I might just make it in this funny world called the academy!”

While Dr. Harrison’s written corpus is not as large as one might think, her influence is large because of the impact her students have had and are having on the field. (And the few things she did write had a large impact on the field as well. For instance, her essay “The Power of Anger in the Work of Love” is still a foundational text around the world thirty years later.) She trained a generation of some of the most creative thinkers in social ethics today. Their work on racial and economic justice using feminist methodologies in light of globalization is wide-ranging and is used in seminary classrooms across the country. Indeed, through her students and their students Prof. Harrison continues to influence the field of Christian ethics even in death.

The world is not as bright a place with Beverly Harrison’s passionate fire for justice burning bright in the mountains of North Carolina. May she rest in peace.

Stop! Collaborate and LISTEN! On Gendered Absences in the Theological Blogosphere

After the most recent meeting of the American Academy of Religion Anthony Baker posted this on The Theology Studio: Gender and the Studio. In it he basically asked about the lack of participation from women who are theologians in the work of the informal group he helped begin and in the theological academy more generally (and provides a problematic possible solution). In response, Brandy Daniels posted this blog post. After which much conversation, some constructive and some reinforcing the problems raised by Ms. Daniels, happened on The Theology Studio Facebook page. Since then, Dr. Baker posted this and Ms. Daniels has posted this (with a promise of at least one more post to come).

THEN, today Tony Jones asked this question: Where are the women? Which is confusing considering a recent row he had over how he and his commenters were talking about women. See here. Here. Here. Here. And here.

In other words, there’s been some angst/worry across the theological blogosphere over the last couple of days over the lack of participation by women in domains that are sponsored by, and have come to be dominated by, white men. And the material reality of the lack of women in these discourses IS a strong critique of some (much?) of the theological work being done in these spaces. So, what do these men do? They write about it. Which is natural since these people are writers. However, this seems to me to be misguided. (Importantly, despite the tone of some commenters, it appears that both Baker and Jones are sincerely interested in understanding and changing this phenomenon).

The solution to this problem is clearly complex, and I won’t provide a thoroughgoing analysis. Clearly, some things raised in posts and comments – i.e. male-dominated nature of blogosphere in general, tone of arguments, public/private issues, types of questions asked, etc. – each play a part. However, one thing that seems to be missing from the analyses I see is the lack of listening by said male bloggers to the women they want listening to and engaging with them.

So, here’s my suggestion to my fellow male bloggers:

1. Be quiet. Seriously, stop talking long enough to listen. And then …

2. Listen to women. And listen in a way in which you can learn from them. Seriously. Read Women in Theology and Profligate Grace and Per Caritatem and Feminism and Religion and former AAR president Kwok Pui Lan. And don’t argue with them right away (as many did with Ms. Daniel’s post and Jones and commenters did with his critics). Listen deeply. Meditate upon those things that don’t resonate with your experience and give them a charitable interpretation. Think about the questions that women ask which you never think to ask. Take those questions seriously and recognize your need to learn from women to answer them.

3. Collaborate. Seriously. First, learn from women by studying under them. Then teach WITH women. Write WITH women (when you do they won’t let you get away with some of the ridiculousness that sometimes gets published by us). Think WITH women.

And then more women may begin to think, write, and agree with you. Or at least you might be able to have fruitful rather than dismissive online conversations with women when you do, and will, disagree.

(And then – MAYBE – we can address the lack of engagement with non-white persons in these online conversations!)

An Endorsement for Emory’s Program in Religion, Ethics, and Society

Graduate school application season is upon us and quickly drawing near its conclusion. It is in this context that I recommend Emory University to all those interested in pursuing a doctorate in Religious or Christian Ethics.

There are many ways to measure the value of a doctoral program. However, one important way is to look at the number and quality of publications produced by a program’s (recent) graduates. While not yet a graduate of Emory University’s program in Religion (Ethics and Society), I was fortunate enough to be included in the latest issue of one of the premier journals in the field, Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics. In addition, three other recent Emory graduates are featured in the most recent issue of the journal (32.1). The articles are:

Pae, K. Christine and James W. McCarty III. “The Hybridized Public Sphere: Asian American Christian Ethics, Social Justice, and Public Discourse.”

Senior, John. “Cruciform Pilgrims: Politics between the Penultimate and the Ultimate.”

McCracken, Victor. “In Defense of Restraint: Democratic Respect, Public Justification, and Religious Conviction in Liberal Politics.”

O’Brien, Kevin J. “La Causa and Environmental Justice: Cesar Chavez as a Resource for Christian Ecological Ethics.”

And I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that another recent Emory E&S graduate had an article in the previous JSCE issue (31.2): Levad, Amy. “”I Was in Prison and You Visited Me”: A Sacramental Approach to Rehabilitative and Restorative Justice.”

The variety of topics and approaches represented in these articles is a testament to the breadth of Emory’s program. Those seeking to pursue doctoral work in religious ethics or Christian ethics would do well to consider Emory’s program. As the most recent issue of the JSCE demonstrates, Emory is consistently producing scholars who do high quality work respected by their peers in the guild.

Connecting at AAR/SBL 2012

Like thousands of others who are devoted to the academic study of religion, ancient and modern, I will be attending and participating in the annual joint national conferences of the American Academy of Religion and the Society of Biblical Literature. I will be participating in two sessions at this year’s AAR.

The first:

Law, Religion, and Culture Group
Theme: International Law and Human Rights
Cassie Adcock, Washington University, St. Louis, Presiding
Saturday – 9:00 AM-11:30 AM

This session considers diverse approaches to religion and human rights in the context of international law. The session begins with an ethnographic study of indigenous Protestants among the Bunong people of Cambodia, exploring how the politics of international aid and development have impacted that community’s negotiation of its Christian identity. The rest of the session moves away from the ethnographic to evaluate wider trends in international law, examining the work of the Sri Lankan jurist C.G. Weeramantry as a resource for Catholic and non-Eurocentric approaches, along with the implications of “transitional justice” as a paradigm for human rights in global contexts.

Catherine Scheer, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales
How to Be a Good Protestant and an “Indigenous” Bunong

William George, Dominican University
Vitoria, Weeramantry, and a Catholic Re-Conception of International Law

William Danaher, Huron University College
Re-membering: Responding to the Critical Turn in Transitional Justice

James McCarty III, Emory University
A Genealogy of Religion and Transitional Justice

Responding:
Douglas Cassel, University of Notre Dame

And the second:

Animals and Religion Group
Theme: Thinking Animals, Rethinking Race, Ethnicity, and Religion
James W. McCarty III, Emory University, Presiding
Monday – 4:00 PM-6:30 PM

To correct the widespread but mistaken view that animal studies only attracts white and privileged scholar-activists, this panel grounds its reflections from our experiences within and concerns for Native American, Latino/a, Asian American, and African American communities. Specific topics include: 1) Colonialist wildlife management policies in the Yellowstone National Park region that privilege some (e.g., whites and cattle) over others (e.g., indigenous peoples and bison); 2) How consuming animals in the United States contributes to oppressive structures in Latin America; 3) Institutional racism surrounding the planned building of a factory farm near a historic Japanese American internment camp; 4) Exoticization and stigmatization of certain Asian ethnicities following animal activist campaigns against the consumption of dog meat or recent statewide bans on shark fins; and 5) The role that the legacy of slavery and the cultural significance of food in the black church plays in preventing many African Americans from caring about animal rights.

Panelists:
Michelene E. Pesantubbee, University of Iowa
Miguel De La Torre, Iliff School of Theology
Grace Yia-Hei Kao, Claremont School of Theology
Christopher Carter, Claremont Lincoln University

Responding:
Rosemary R. Ruether, Claremont School of Theology

I would love to see some of you at either of those sessions or at another time during the conference.

Of course, there is never enough time to connect with everyone or participate in sessions to the extent we would like. For that reason I am grateful to Chris Dowdy for coming up with his Missed Connections idea. He has volunteered to facilitate, through his blog, continuations of conversations initiated at this year’s conferences. If you provide the questions he’ll do the legwork.

I am hopeful that people take him up on his offer as a way to make AAR/SBL more than a few days of stressful interactions with colleagues. Rather, his idea is a potential form of collaborative scholarship that takes advantage of new media and could help make this year’s conferences even more productive and intellectually stimulating than it would normally be. Kudos to you, Chris!

Again, continue the conversation here.

My Review of the 2012 Christian Scholars’ Conference

Historically, attempts at ecumenical and interreligious dialogue have focused on finding common ground, shared beliefs, or analogous practices as ways of bridging the divide between communities that have found themselves in conflict with, or at best suspicious of, each other. These meetings often conclude with trite affirmations of sameness or claims that “all religions teach peace” or “each tradition is a different path up the same mountain.” In doing so the assumed solution to conflict is the promotion of generic sameness. This is not unlike well-intentioned attempts at “color-blindness” in American social life that often hinder more than help in overcoming the negative legacy of racism in the United States.

In contrast to this approach, scholars and practitioners have begun to emphasize the uniqueness of religious communities as a resource for mutual learning and social transformation. In its own way, the Christian Scholars’ Conference is an exemplar of this approach to dialogue and learning …

So begins my review of this year’s Christian Scholars’ Conference at Religion Matters. You can read the entire review here.

When White Guys Play the Race Card

I am grateful to Cynthia R. Nielsen for her recent post on the academic job market and current hiring practices re: race and gender, especially in the humanities. Like Prof. Nielsen, I’ve also encountered embittered white males who feel that women/POC receive an unfair advantage in academia.

For example, I’ve been told by a white male (WM) friend who is enrolled in an Ivy-league doctoral program that upon his acceptance he had other white males tell him something along the lines of, “Thanks for letting us know that we, i.e. WMs, can still get into a program – sheesh!”

Or, having known several WMs who have been on the job market who have struggled to find work I’ve heard something like, “Yup, EVERY position is going to a minority these days,” on several occasions. (Specifically, I know of a fellow Asian American colleague who had these frustrations expressed to him by a WM colleague on a number of occasions. And this WM ended up receiving a job this year.)

Or, having known WMs applying for fellowships or postdocs say something like, “It’s hard out here for a WM these days. No one’s interested in the kind of work we do anymore. All they want is race, feminism, sexuality, social change, blah blah blah…”

And having said all of this, the WMs who have said these things to me have usually prefaced it by saying something like, “I know academia needs to diversify, and there are good historical reasons for the preference which I agree with, but it sucks when it’s you.”

I can only speak from my experience, as a biracial Asian American (with as white a sounding name as a person can have!), but I see no empirical evidence for the current mythology so helpfully exposed by Cynthia, and David in the comments on her post, that WMs are at a disadvantage in the academy.

I’m a doctoral candidate in Religion and Social Ethics at Emory. In my discipline, counting up the two years before and after me, in the Religion (Ethics and Society) program, Emory’s student population has had: five WMs, two white females, one black male, one Hispanic female, and me. That’s 50% WMs and 50% non-WMs (which is still, looking at national numbers, a disproportionately advantageous number of WMs). Of those WMs in my discipline at Emory who have gone on the job market since I’ve been around, that I know about, 100% received jobs. (And they wrote dissertations on things like political theology and ontology in Augustine, Luther, and Calvin.) Emory’s ethics faculty is 50% WM and 50% white female. At my seminary the last two Ethics hires have been one WM and one non-WM (AA female). At my undergraduate institution the last several hires in Religion have been three WMs, one white female, and one black male.

This is anecdotal evidence, but it highlights the same reality the numbers show (cited in the comments on Cynthia’s original post): WMs are not, systemically, discriminated against in academia nor are they at a disadvantage because of their gender and/or race. This false myth must stop being perpetuated.

Here’s the deal: the academic job market is a bear and has been for awhile. It’s especially a bear for those of us in the humanities who find it hard to quantify our “product” in financial terms. It sucks for EVERYONE. And lots of qualified people don’t make it into doctoral programs, receive fellowships, or get hired. Like nearly everything else (like starting a small business, let’s say), entering academia is a risky endeavor. Some will “succeed,” and some who should won’t. Hard work and qualifications will often get you “in the door,” but not always. But they are necessary to get in. Folks don’t get hired as a professor who aren’t qualified. No one gets a “pass.” It’s a part of our society that sucks, but not everyone who should succeed will.

To be one of those who has met the qualifications but can’t seem to make the “leap” and get hired is not a good place to be in. It sucks. And it’s natural to place blame elsewhere. However, please don’t do it by blaming women and minorities for getting a pass. In doing so you dismiss their accomplishments, perpetuate unhelpful and false stereotypes, and add one more slight and indignity to their experience in a world that they have historically been excluded from.

Blame the market. Blame the economy. Blame the always ambiguous but highly influential qualification of “fit” (which often works to the benefit of WMs, by the way). Just don’t blame those whose bodies are different than yours. You’ve got a Ph.D. You can do better than that.

Thinking Theologically about Social Media

The New Media Project at Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York is pleased to announce the publication of six theological essays and four sets of recommendations about using social media in ministerial, congregational, and institutional settings. Together the material—located under the Findings tab on the project website —provides a one-of-a-kind resource for religious leaders seeking to interpret new media in creative and theological ways.

This looks quite interesting and includes essays from friends and colleagues, including Monica Coleman and Lerone Martin.

See the announcement and links to essays here.

I defended my dissertation proposal!

Today I successfully defended my dissertation proposal on the ethics of transitional justice. After nine years in higher education (four as an undergraduate, two in seminary, and now three in graduate school) studying religion and ethics I have finally reached the last phase of my formal education. Below is a wordle of that proposal. Thanks to everyone who has supported me up until this point.