Bible & Critical Theory Seminar 2012 -The Programme is Out

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Auckland, bible & critical theory, Frankfurt School, Robert Myles

Robert Myles has compiled the programme for the 2012 Bible & Critical Theory Seminar.  More details at Auckland Theology, Biblical Studies, et al. All Biblical Scholars, or card-carrying members of the Frankfurt School are warmly welcome, for the price of lunch at the Queen’s Ferry.

Bible & Critical Theory Seminar, Auckland

Queens Ferry Hotel, Vulcan Lane

1 & 2 September 2012

Saturday

10:00 – 10:10              Opening session

10:10 – 10:45              Elaine Wainwright, Of Borders, Bread, Dogs and Demons: Reading Matt 15:21-28 Ecologically

10:45 – 11:20              Rebecca Lindsay, Overthrowing Nineveh with Postcolonial Imagination

11:20 – 11:30              Break

11:30 – 12:05              Kirsten Dawson, Gender and Violence in the Book of Job

12:05 – 12:40              Robert Myles, Homelessness, Neoliberal Ideology, and Jesus’ “Decision” to go Rogue

12:40 – 13:50              Lunch at QFH

13:50 – 14:25              Roland Boer, A Dead Spouse, A Vegetable Garden and a Cousin’s Field: On Private Property

14:25 – 15:00              Christina Petterson, Writing Death, Writing Life

15:00 – 15:35              Deane Galbraith, Interpellation Not Interpolation in Num. 13-14: The Non-Instrumental Ideology of Louis Althusser and Half-a-dozen Ways to Avoid a Death Sentence from Yahweh

15:35 – 15:45              Break

15:45 – 16:20              Holly Randall-Moon, The Secular Contract: The British Monarchy and White Diasporic Sovereignty

16:20 – 16:55              Yael Klangwisan, Gift and The Song of Songs

16:55 – Late                Drinks & dinner at QFH

Sunday

10:00 – 10:10              Opening session

10:10 – 10:45              Don Moffat, Ezra 9-10: A Split Text?

10:45 – 11:20              Caroline Blyth, ‘Whatever you needed…she had it’: Deconstructing the femme fatale in Judges 16 and Raymond Chandler’s Farewell My Lovely

11:20 – 11:30              Break

11:30 – 12:05              Julie Kelso, Irigaray’s Virginity

12:05 – 12:40              Niall McKay, A Political Reading of Luke 1:51-52 And 3:8-9 in the Light Of Ezekiel 17 – Inspired by John Howard Yoder and a Poststructural Intertextuality

12:40 – 13:50              Lunch at QFH

13:50 – 14:25              Debra MacDonald, John Gray’s Straw Dogs and Luke’s Satan: An Exploration into Human Nature

14:25 – 15:00              Mark Manolopoulos, Jesus on Wall Street: Overturning Temples, Tables, Empires

15:00 – 15:15              Break

15:15 – 15:50              Sarah Curtis, Considering the presentation of Magdalene by Luke and John: Neither fetish nor phallic but feminine

15:50 – 16:25              Tim Stanley, What Is This Strange Technological Thing Called the Bible?

16:25 – 16:35              Closing session

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Religion and the Media: A New Project from the University of Sheffield

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Centre for Freedom of the Media, CFOM, James Crossley, Religion and the Media, sheffield

Professor James Crossley, in association with the Centre for Freedom of the Media (CFOM) at the University of Sheffield, has commenced a website to examine what goes on at the intersection of religion and media.

The Religion and the Media blog “will be dedicated to updates, news and analysis of a wide range of issues relating to religion and the media”. The critique of the media’s treatment of religion is especially welcome in a country like the U.K., where liberal sneering or feel-good reductionism usually substitutes for informed commentary or analysis. 

In Religion and the Media’s inaugural post, from 24 January 2012, James Crossley explains:

This new blog is going to be dedicated to all things media and religion, usually with some connection to issues relating to media freedom, linked as it is with the Centre for Freedom of Media at the University of Sheffield. In addition to news and updates, there will be regular analysis from a variety of people both linked to the Centre in someway and guest bloggers.

Professor James Crossley, International Biblical Scholar, Vienna 2007

James Crossley was recently appointed to a Chair in the Biblical Studies Department at the University of Sheffield. His title of Professor of Bible, Culture and Politics reflects his ongoing interest in the reception and effect of the Bible in society, in particular in late capitalism and under the global impact of neoliberalism. Among the books which he has authored or edited that reflect this particular research interest are Jesus in an Age of Terror: Scholarly Projects for a New American Century (BibleWorld; Sheffield: Equinox, 2008), Judaism, Jewish Identities and the Gospel Tradition: Essays in Honour of Maurice Casey (BibleWorld; Sheffield: Equinox, 2010); and Jesus in an Age of Neoliberalism: Quests, Scholarship and Ideology (BibleWorld; Sheffield: Equinox, forthcoming May 2012). Crossley also publishes widely in New Testament studies, including an important recent philological contribution concerning the semantic range of things able to be done with the human “fist”, in “Halakah and Mark 7.3: ‘with the hand in the shape of a fist'” (New Testament Studies 58 (2012), 57-68).

Strange Babbling Noises, or “Theological Argument”: David Attenborough’s “Primate Crisis”

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Anglican, David Attenborough, Presbyterian, primate, Primate Crisis

Listen for the first line by “The arch-enemy of the Anglican primate”. This is some funny, funny shit:

David Attenborough will be on the tele this week in New Zealand, in a series that sounds like it could be an expose of Presbyterian social life in Dunedin: “Frozen Planet”.

h/t: Barry

Bible, Critical Theory and Reception Seminar – Planned for Auckland, September 2012

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2012, Auckland, Bible Critical Theory and Reception, Caroline Blyth, conference, New Zealand, Robert Myles

Caroline Blyth and Robert Myles

The Australasian sector of the global Bible, Critical Theory and Reception Seminar is coming to New Zealand in 2012.

Robert Myles and Caroline Blyth (University of Auckland both) have offered Auckland as the venue for BCT&R, which will probably be staged in August from 1-2 September 2012. More details to come when available.

The Bible, Critical Theory and Reception Seminar has been running in Australia and New Zealand for over a decade, and in the United Kingdom since 2011. The Seminar showcases the cutting edge in the study of Theory and Reception in relation to biblical studies. In a worthy attempt to short-circuit daytime and evening conference activities, the venue for each BCT&R Seminar is a local pub. Robert Myles, queer theorist and Jesus scholar, has promised to carefully investigate, over a course of some months, possible locations for the 2012 Australasian BCT&R Seminar. I put in my vote for upstairs at the Empire.

ANZABS (Aotearoa-New Zealand Association of Biblical Studies) 2011 Conference – Abstracts Available

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ANZABS, Aotearoa-New Zealand Association of Biblical Studies

Derek Tovey has posted abstracts from the 2011 ANZABS conference at the ANZABS blog. The fourteenth annual meeting was held at Laidlaw College’s Christchurch premises, on 5-6 December 2011.

Next year’s meeting will be held jointly with The Systematic Theology Association in Aotearoa New Zealand (STAANZ), at Laidlaw College, Auckland, on 9-11 December 2012.

St Matthews Christmas Billboard Vandalised: Catholic Fundamentalist Portrays Animals Emerging Two-by-Two from the Virgin Mary

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Advertising, Arthur Skinner, Catholic Action, Christmas billboard, Church, Humour, St Matthew in the City, Virgin Mary

In what was an almost inevitable development, fundamentalist Catholic Arthur Skinner, of the reactionary Catholic Action group, has vandalised the Christmas billboard erected earlier this week by St Matthew in the City, Auckland, New Zealand. Taking a pair of scissors to the billboard to reveal another picture below, Skinner has made it appear as if the Virgin Mary is expressing shock at various animals proceeding forth from her eternally intact vagina:

Original St Matthews Christmas Billboard

Vandalised St Matthews Christmas Billboard: Arthur Skinner (Catholic Action) makes it appear as if the Virgin Mary is shocked at animals proceeding two-by-two out of her eternally intact vagina

 

Arthur Skinner’s unusual alteration to the Christmas billboard appears to be unintentional, rather than a work of artistic creativity. TV3 reports Skinner ranting, “Everyone knows instinctively, you don’t muck around with God’s mother. This is devil’s work. This is luciferian. The attack on the blessed virgin.” Stuff reports that Skinner called church vicar Glynn Cardy the day he cut the poster to tell him he would “roast slowly in hell” for the billboard.

As Eric commented in respect of a similar rant by Family First’s Bob McCoskrie against St Matthew’s 2009 Christmas billboard,

There is a long-standing tradition in Christianity to immediately condemn any connection between Jesus and sexual activity of any kind. Whether this is due to a perceived need to defend the ludicrous doctrine of the virgin birth from critique (is the NT wrong?) or simply another aspect of the long historical tradition that claims the elevated, the divine, or the righteous are not subject to the same bodily weaknesses and urges that the rest of us are endlessly plagued with (for Deane’s thoughts on this, see here and here), remains an open question.

Christmas Caption Contest from St Matthew in the City

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billboard, caption contest, christmas, pregnancy test kit, St Matthew in the City, virgin birth

The liberally minded Christians from St Matthew in the City, Auckland, New Zealand have pulled out another fine Christmas billboard design for Christmas 2011. With perhaps their best design since the controversial “Poor Jesus. God was a hard act to follow” billboard of 2009, St Matthew’s again pokes fun at the Christian virgin birth legend:

St Matthew in the City billboard, Christmas 2011

Now that’s nicely done.

If that weren’t fun enough, St Matthew’s are also running a caption contest for this one:

This billboard portrays Mary, Jesus’ mother, looking at a home pregnancy test kit revealing that she is pregnant. Regardless of any premonition, that discovery would have been shocking. Mary was unmarried, young, and poor. This pregnancy would shape her future. She was certainly not the first woman in this situation or the last.

As in the past it is our intention to avoid the sentimental, trite and expected to spark thought and conversation in the community. This year we hope to do so with an image and no words. We invite you to wonder what your caption might be.

Enter the caption contest here.

The Inauthenticity of Liberal Christian belief

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Andrew Levine, bad faith, Emile Durkheim, Friedrich Nietzsche, In Bad Faith, inauthenticity, liberal Christianity, Ludwig Feuerbach, Rodney Stark, secularisation, Sigmund Freud

On the one hand – given the pressures, pains and uncertainties of everyday life – it is hardly surprising that many people hold on so desperately to diluted forms of Christian belief, in particular “liberal Christianity”. On the other hand, such a position has long struck me as intellectually dishonest and morally questionable.

Here’s the interesting blurb for the latest book by political philosopher Andrew Levine, In Bad Faith: What’s Wrong with the Opium of the People (November, 2011):

“In this fascinating book, Levine combines an insightful analysis of important nineteenth-century thinkers who puzzled over why religion persists with a critique of twentieth-century liberal theologies as they have developed in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Levine argues that liberal theologies are intellectually flawed. They provide a means for those who cannot give up on religion to retain pale shadows of the traditions with which liberal believers try to remain in contact. Those shadows, Levine contends, are untrue to what liberal believers, in their hearts, already know.”

— Elliott Sober, author, Did Darwin Write the Origin Backwards?

In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, some of the most important and influential heirs of the Enlightenment tradition—Ludwig Feuerbach, Emile Durkheim, Sigmund Freud, and Friedrich Nietzsche—wondered, implicitly, why belief in God persists and even flourishes among those who should and in some sense do know better. Looking at aspects of their thinking through this prism provides fresh insight into their work, while advancing understanding of the puzzlement they addressed.

In this book, Andrew Levine reflects on the explanations proffered by these authors and on their very different explanatory strategies. He concludes that, for all their many differences, their respective explanations share a common core and that they are driven by a similar (largely unelaborated) normative commitment. On Levine’s account, believers today believe in bad faith—in other words, they evince a fundamental intellectual inauthenticity. If only for this reason, they merit reproach, even in the comparatively rare instances when their “faith perspectives” do more good than harm.

From the standpoint of this normative standard, Levine reflects on the liberal turn in the so-called Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam), arguing that a condition for its possibility is the waning of genuine (authentic) conviction. On this basis, Levine depicts liberal religion as a vehicle of exit for those who at some level acknowledge the untenability of the beliefs they profess while not yet being able or willing to face this reality squarely. He argues that liberal religion is therefore a transitory phenomenon, albeit one that has survived for a long time and that is not about to expire soon.

Levine then faults the religious left on this account, arguing that even in those historically rare conditions in which bad faith motivates welcome political engagement, it is nevertheless infirmed by its deep inauthenticity.

Finally, a defender of the secularisation thesis in some modified form – if only to counter all the monstrous and pious bullshit that Rodney Stark has been penning in his senility.

Words of Advice for SBL/AAR Conference Attendees

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AAR, American Academy of Religion, ETS, Evangelical Theological Society, Kim Il Jong, SBL, Society of Biblical Literature, University of Otago Reception

Berlusconi Youth has seven handy hints for anybody attending the SBL/AAR (and ETS) conferences in San Francisco in the next few days. It’s some of the most practical and sage advice ever. Be prepared. Read it.

ETS is rather broad in spectrum rather than monolithic on the gender issue

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AAR, American Academy of Religion, ETS, ETS is rather broad in spectrum rather than monolithic on the gender issue, Evangelical Theological Society, SBL, Snowy, Society of Biblical Literature, Tintin

“ETS is rather broad in spectrum rather than monolithic on the gender issue” – Michael F. Bird

Women at the American Academy of Religion (AAR) Annual Meeting 2011

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AAR, American Academy of Religion, ETS, Evangelical Theological Society, SBL, Society of Biblical Literature

Further to discussions about the low number of women presenting at the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL) conference, and the disgustingly low number of women presenting at the Evangelical Theological Society (ETS) conference in 2011 – what are the comparative figures for the American Academy of Religion (AAR) conference this year?

The names for the first 200 abstracts include 119 male and 81 female presenters.

So based on the samples carried out, the percentages of women presenting at the three largest annual religious studies conferences are:

American Academy of Religion (AAR): 41%

Society of Biblical Literature (SBL): 29%

Evangelical Theological Society (ETS): 1%

Women at the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL) Annual Meeting 2011

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Buffy the Vampire Slayer, ETS, Evangelical Theological Society, Michael Bird, SBL, Society of Biblical Literature, women

Michael F. Bird (Evangelion) notes that, of 700 papers to be presented at this month’s Evangelical Theological Society Conference, he recognises that only 8 are by women. There may be a few other women’s names that Michael acknowledges he does not recognise, but let’s not quibble over details. That’s 1%!

How does the Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meeting compare? Taking as a sample the first two pages of the Participant List, I get 40/137 on page one and 40/137 on page two. That’s 29%.

In most disciplines, that’s just below the percentage of women who are members of the faculty – and this with the inclusion of up-and-coming female students.

Why? Given the dominance of Christians at SBL, and the dominance of males in positions of authority within Christianity, is the percentage of women presenters a product of this demographic?

(And on a related issue: why is the local U.S. meeting considered the annual meeting of a purported global body, and not the international meeting?)

I prescribe a large dose of Buffy the Vampire Slayer for all attendees at ETS and SBL this year:

Plans to Occupy AAR/SBL Conferences Announced

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99%, congruence of possibility, ETS, Facebook, Occupy AAR/SBL, whip it jesus whip it real good

Hannah Hofheinz - Occupy AAR/SBL organiser

Plans to occupy the AAR/SBL Conferences have been announced on the social networking site, Facebook.

At this stage, no plans have been announced to occupy the ETS Conference. At present, ETS remains unoccupied.

Potential protestors are encuraged to join the Facebook group here:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/occupyaar/

A non-hierarchical planning meeting has been announced for Sunday, November 6 @ 4:00pm eastern/1:00pm, via web conference, details here: https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=168045063290422

Organisers have published the following questions for discussion at the web conference. They use the mellifluous phrase, “congruence of possibility”:

What would it mean to occupy at AAR/SBL?

Religion, in all of its diversity, has been and will continue to be integral to the occupations. Might we, a large community of scholars of religion, stand not only in solidarity but also as part of this congruence of possibility, which has named itself the 99%? What might this look like? What form(s) might it take? How do we harness ourselves and our resources to be present in the world as part of a community that stands for justice?

Remember: Jesus did it first:

Jesus occupies the Temple (artist: Berlusconi Youth)