Seventieth Annual Convention 2024

“Vulnerability & Flourishing"

John N. Sheveland (Gonzaga University) & Cristina Lledo Gomez (BBI-The Australian Institute of Theological Education), Volume Editors

In the wake of various sexual abuse crises and patterns of abuse and cover-up which deny voice and agency to many (such as children, women, elderly, migrants and refugees, people of color, indigenous, other vulnerable persons and creations of God), an important work of a post-traumatic church and society is to become more attuned to the various and evolving ways vulnerability is experienced. How might society and church then understand vulnerability today, deconstruct and analyze its various manifestations and build up a way of life that cares for and protects the vulnerable, even paving ways forward for their flourishing? How might the church reimagine itself if its preferential option for the poor expressed itself more intentionally as a preferential option for the vulnerable? Moreover, how might flourishing be understood within Pope Francis’ push for integral human development, integral ecological conversion, and synodality, enabling an ethic of flourishing in church and society, rather than persistent vulnerability to abuse, harm, or re-traumatization?

This conference theme centers experiences of vulnerability and abuse but also protection, healing and resilient living with ongoing illness and contradiction, and the possibility of flourishing in various religious, cultural, and political contexts. It aims to develop theological and multidisciplinary resources for responding to vulnerability to violence and abuse, in support of the flourishing of all of God’s creation. The theme welcomes examples of comparison and contrast between and within religious communities, cultural and global contexts of vulnerability, and acknowledges that vulnerability to violence occurs on many levels and at intersections such as race, sex, gender, and ability-disability. The recovery and healing of personal and communal agency is one aim of this conference but it also aims to explore the roles of both theological and non-theological disciplines in the formation of flourishing and vulnerability-centered cultures. The theme welcomes constructive work from all disciplines represented in the College Theology Society, and it welcomes diverse and interdisciplinary methodologies including from law, law enforcement, education, trauma-informed pedagogy, psychology, safeguarding, migration studies, and queer studies, to name a few.