The Scripture&Theology Forum

CfP S&T 2022: The Diversity of Hermeneutical Approaches

The call for papers for “Scripture & Theology 2022” is now out. We are looking forward to receiving potential contributions for our next meeting at the conference of the European Academy of Religion (Bologna, June 20-23, 2022) with a focus on the diversity of hermeneutical approaches.

Hermeneutics can be understood as the art of bringing past hearing, events, texts, and contexts into new ways of speaking, new ways of address. In another sense, hermeneutics can also be understood such that everything is a matter of interpretation. In any case, the complexities of hermeneutics, be it theological, scriptural, scientific, or philosophical, bring with them various approaches and presuppositions to the art of interpretation. Exploring the various ways in which theology interprets Scripture and Scripture interprets theology using their own hermeneutical lenses is an exciting area of research and leads to further defining questions. In what ways does the past speak afresh in contemporary life? How might one interpret the ongoing effects of historically determined events, discoveries, and innovations? What are the ways theology and Scripture have been misinterpreted or misrepresented due to a lack of sufficient hermeneutical reflection?

The Scripture and Theology panel will reconvene in Bologna, Italy on June 20-23, 2022, at the 5th European Academy of Religion (EuARe) annual conference with the overarching topic of “Religion and Diversity.” Our panel will address a wide range of hermeneutical challenges facing contemporary biblical interpretation and theology. At its core, the hermeneutical challenges about how one speaks or narrates the Christian tradition opens up new possibilities for further fruitful engagement with how one reads Scripture and its embedded context with application in the 21st century. From the outset, theology has stemmed from such hermeneutical pursuits. Even Scripture itself can be understood as a collection of hermeneutical attempts to understand the events of God and humans’ experiences of God. The multivarious ways of practicing hermeneutics provide an excellent opportunity for the S&T panel to gain new insight, explore new ideas, and learn how to bring the past into new ways of speaking. For this reason, we hope to further dialogue between various fields and areas of research on hermeneutics to spur on constructive and critical engagement.

This year, we invite contributions which are related, but not limited to, one or more of the following guiding questions:

  1. How can historical approaches to scriptural interpretation enrich contemporary biblical exposition? Papers might engage with patristic, medieval, and early modern or reformational approaches to reading the Bible, as well as the ways in which scripture interprets scripture, e.g., the use of the Old Testament in the New Testament.
  2. What role should reason and experience, science and/or social imaginaries, tradition(s), and/or community play in interpretation?
  3. What does or should it mean, for the gospel to guide or direct interpretation?
  4. How does one move from the interpretation of data to the construal of theory in the realm of hermeneutics? In what ways do the doctrine of scripture and hermeneutical theory relate to one another?
  5. How do psychological and sociological factors shape interpretation?
  6. What is the relationship between dogmatics and exegesis? What are the gains and/or liabilities of dogmatically oriented exposition?
  7. How might a diverse set of religious approaches to interpretation benefit the study of Scripture?

We invite contributions from a diverse set of backgrounds, contexts, and traditions, particularly from underrepresented groups in the respective academic fields. Interdisciplinary research and co-authored submissions are encouraged. Submissions are not limited to theological or biblical hermeneutics. Researchers from scientific or artistic backgrounds are encouraged to bring new insights and scrutiny to existing fields of research. Transdisciplinary contributions are possible as well. In any given case, we ask potential presenters (a) to present original research in the context of the given state of the arts and sciences; and (b) prepare papers that make their content accessible to an audience consisting of people with various levels of expertise. Thus, accessibility of content is a critical component to any given submission. 

The Scripture & Theology Panel

The first meeting of the study group Scripture & Theology was part of the 2nd annual conference of the European Academy of Religion (EuARe) in 2019. Given the pandemic, the second meeting of the panel was moved online in 2020. The panel attracted a diverse and broad range of contributors given the format. The fruits of the panel(s) are under contract with de Gruyter and will be published in an edited volume in 2022. In 2021, the S&T Panel reconvened at the annual EuARe conference in Münster, Germany. We enjoyed two days of presentations and papers consisting of both on-site and online participation, not to mention internal and external participants. There was a relative balance of presentations dealing with the general topic of scripture and theology (track 1 of the panel), and theology and science (track 2 of the panel). In Bologna in 2022, the panel will reconvene for another round of critical dialogue and discussion regarding diverse hermeneutical approaches.

Organizational Team for S&T 2022

  • Michael Borowski (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
  • Elisabeth Maikranz (University of Heidelberg, Germany)
  • Roger Revell (University of Oxford, United Kingdom)
  • Brandon Watson (University of Heidelberg, Germany)

S&T Advisory Board

  • Nikolaos Asproulis (Volos Academy for Theological Studies, Greece)
  • Tomas Bokedal (NLA Bergen, Norway & University of Aberdeen, United Kingdom)
  • Gijsbert van den Brink (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
  • Hans Burger (Researchgroup BEST, Theologische Universiteit Kampen, The Netherlands)
  • Mark Elliott (University of Glasgow, United Kingdom)
  • Georg Fischer (Universtiy of Innsbruck, Austria)
  • Arnold Huijgen (Researchgroup BEST, Theologische Universiteit Apeldoorn, The Netherlands)
  • Ludger Jansen (University of Rostock, Germany)
  • John Milbank (University of Nottingham, United Kingdom)
  • Thomas Söding (Ruhr University Bochum, Germany)
  • NEW Donald Wood (University of Aberdeen, United Kingdom)

Format of the panel

This year, the panel hopes to enhance the discussion around papers delivered and promote greater interchange between sub-panels. Therefore, we strongly encourage all presenters to consider offering a semi-formal response to the paper of another presenter. These responses need not require substantial preparation time; rather, they simply invite the following and should be no more than five minutes in duration:

  • a careful reading of an assigned paper in advance of the conference (the Organizational Team will make these assignments several weeks before we convene in Bologna);
  • a brief statement of your major learning or take away from the paper;
  • a point of disagreement or uncertainty about the paper’s argument; and
  • a question or two that remained unanswered.

We plan for 20 minutes of presentation, followed by 20 minutes of discussion (including up to 5 min of a formal response). Discussion segments may be merged with related presentations.

NEW: Given the development of the Covid situation in some countries, we will try to implement online-presentations.

Submission guidelines

The panel welcomes contributions from all theological traditions and academic fields. Proposals should be no more than 250 words and will be assessed based on their relevance to the aims of the panel and their scholarly quality and promise.

Please email the following information in the form of a single PDF document to sandt.euare2022@gmail.com by April 3 20, 2022:

  1. an abstract of no more than 250 words, including your name, institutional affiliation (university, church etc, if you have one) or position, and contact details (email and phone);
  2. an indication to which guiding question(s) (above) your submission hopes to contribute;
  3. a short-form Academic CV (no more than two pages);
  4. and an indication whether you are willing to offer a brief semi-formal response to another paper which is delivered. NEW We decided not to ask for items 3 and 4 any longer in order to facilitate last-minute submissions!

We will notify authors of the acceptance of their paper by April 24, 2022.

To provide the responder(s) with sufficient time to prepare, we are asking for the accepted papers, at least in initial draft form, to be submitted by June 6, 2022. To further the interaction and quality of discussion, abstracts of accepted contributions will be made available to participants to be pre-read before the panel.

We intend to publish a selection of the papers together with other contributions in a collected volume edited by the organizational team.

Please direct all questions regarding the workshop to elisabeth.maikranz@oek.uni-heidelberg.de.

For registration and other organizational matters regarding the conference of the European Academy of Religion, and for information about the academy itself, please refer to: https://www.europeanacademyofreligion.org/euare2022.

Updates on the S&T panel are posted on https://scriptureandtheology.home.blog/.

Important dates

  • April 3, 2022: Deadline for submissions of abstracts
  • NEW April 20, 2022: Deadline for submissions of abstracts
  • April 24, 2022: Acceptance notification
  • June 6, 2022: Deadline for submitting papers
  • June 20-June 23, 2022: EuARe 2022 (in Bologna, Italy)
  • Dec 31, 2022: Submission of finalized version of essays for edited volume

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