Anthropology, Psychology and Religion

2026 Call for Papers

Steve Calme, Carlow University

srcalme@carlow.edu

Wesley Sutermeister, University of Findlay

wesley.sutermeister@findlay.edu

The Anthropology, Psychology and Religion section is pleased to receive all paper proposals that address the 2026 College Theology Society conference theme: Reclaiming Faith Amid Christian Nationalism. We’re especially interested in proposals for panel discussions on a specific topic or event with a wide range of scholarly views represented or panel discussions on a recently published book that relates to our distinctive themes. The following questions include but do not exhaust the lines of investigation that this section is eager to explore:

• How do Christian nationalist movements utilize myths and the power of ritual to advance their cause? How are Christian themes, symbols, and practices appropriated within these modes of communication and performance? What service can religious studies and theology offer to counter the displays and enactments of Christian nationalism?

• What are the legitimate human psychological and social goods that Christian nationalism is attempting to fulfill, however distortedly? What would be an authentically Christian way to fulfill those psychological and social goods? 
• What creative insights related to confronting Christian nationalism can be gained from psychological work on cognitive bias or sociological theories of cultural power, especially in its embodied and institutionalized forms? What should a Christian’s (as individual, as Church) relationship to social knowledge and power be in this contemporary moment?

• In its vision of a certain type of society, what does Christian nationalism assert or imply about the nature of the human being? To what extent does this anthropological understanding align with or diverge from different proposed Christian anthropologies throughout the Church’s history?

• What is the psychological and social experience of rapid shifts in community demographics or culture, both for those rooted in the earlier form of that community and for those intentionally or incidentally driving the change? For individuals in each group, what is an authentic Christian response to that experience of change?

Please submit proposals to both conveners by December 15, 2025. They should be no more than 500 words in length and include the presenter’s institutional affiliation, position, and contact information, as well as any requests for AV support. Ordinarily, presenters should be members of the CTS at the time of the meeting in the summer of 2026.