Call for Papers 2012
The College Theology Society holds its fifty-eighth annual convention from May 31-June 3, 2012 at Saint Mary's University of Texas in San Antonio. The theme is Found in Translation: Living Faith in New Contexts. Professor Andy Getz of Saint Mary's University is our local coordinator and host. Mary Doak (University of San Diego) and Anita Houck (Saint Mary's College, Notre Dame) are co-editors for the annual volume.
Religious traditions live by translation, as religions are expressed not only in different languages but also in various social and cultural contexts. Artists, missionaries, public theologians, scholars, and teachers have always sought ways to communicate religious convictions and questions to new audiences. Those efforts at translation often bring controversy, as the recent history of Christianity, from Wyclif and Tyndale to the Roman Catholic Church’s new English translation of the Roman Missal, abundantly shows. Still, translation remains essential to religion, particularly in a globalized world that gives access to, and responsibilities toward, people whose voices would not have easily been encountered generations ago. This new access—through the proliferation media, greater ease of travel, and perhaps especially the extent of current migration—is changing daily lives throughout the world, challenging people to negotiate the differences that emerge. As people interact in new ways, dominant cultures find themselves not only translating, but translated into, new social realities. In these interactions, translation has served too often as a tool of colonization, including the destruction of languages and cultures. But it has served as well in the service of enculturation that enriches religious traditions, as in the artwork and vital community of San Antonio’s San Fernando Cathedral, and the transformative dialogues that can arise between religions. What new possibilities for our lives and our religious traditions are emerging through such translations? What valued wisdom of the past are we in danger of losing? Where might we need to acknowledge that different languages and worldviews are incommensurable, impossible to translate fully enough? And how, as teachers and scholars of religion, can we assist our students, our faith communities, and our world in the translations necessary to meet the challenges of our time?
The Call for Papers is now posted on the website. Proposals should be 250-500 words in length and include one’s current institutional affiliation and position. Proposals should be submitted to the appropriate conveners no later than Thursday, December 1st, 2011. Scholars will be notified of the status of their proposals by January 1st, 2012. Scholars who are invited to present their work at a national convention of the College Theology Society must hold membership in the Society when their work is presented. No person may submit more than one proposal for consideration nor may submissions to multiple sections be considered. These policies will be strictly enforced.
The program for the annual meeting with housing and transportation information will be posted on the CTS Website in early Spring 2012. The National Association of Baptist Professors of Religion will once again be joining us this year.
Executive Director, National Conventions:
Dave Gentry-Akin, Saint Mary's College of California, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , 925.631.4790