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Sexuality, Relationships, Marriage, & Family Life
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Sexuality, Relationships, Marriage, and Family Life
2026 Call for Papers
Emma McDonald Kennedy, Villanova University (PA)
Julie Hanlon Rubio, Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University (CA), jrubio@scu.edu
This year’s conference theme, “Reclaiming Faith Amid Christian Nationalism,” invites us to reckon with Christian nationalism, both by “exposing its duplicity” and by furnishing “alternative theological perspectives grounded in a critical study of faith and ethics.”
The conference centers on three related questions:
● What is the theological and ethical nature of Christian nationalism?
● How does Christian nationalism impact ecclesial communities and theological institutions?
● How can theology respond effectively to the challenge of Christian nationalism?
Our session invites papers, panel proposals, and workshop proposals that take up one or more of these key questions as they relate to family, marriage, relationships, and sexuality. Preference will be shown to proposals that explicitly engage the conference theme.
Potential paper topics include (but are not limited to):
● Christian nationalism’s interpretations and distortions of Christian understandings of the family, relationships, and sexuality
● Implications of Christian nationalism for family formation, parenting, and families
● Implications of Christian nationalism for groups and individuals who are vulnerable on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation
● Ties between Christian nationalism and pronatalism
● Linkages between Christian nationalism, public education, and religious freedom
● Theological responses to Christian nationalism’s entanglement with family life, marriage, sexuality, and relationships
● How Christian nationalism’s consolidation of power via exclusion based on hierarchies of race, gender, ability, class, and sexuality are found in – and/or are challenged through – families and relationships
● Resistance to Christian nationalism in communities, families, and relationships
Proposals should be 250-500 words in length and must include:
● Presentation title
● Presenter name and email
● Presenter’s institutional affiliation/position (and/or independent scholar)
Email both conveners proposals by December 15, 2025. Notifications by mid-January 2026
The College Theology Society is a registered, non-profit professional society and a Related Scholarly Organization of the American Academy of Religion. |
