Spirituality

2024 Call for Papers

Amy Maxey, Oblate School of Theology (TX)

amaxey@ost.edu

Sandra Yocum, University of Dayton (OH)

syocum1@udayton.edu

The Spirituality section of the College Theology Society is seeking paper and panel proposals that explore this year’s theme—“Vulnerability and Flourishing”—within the context of the study, teaching, and practice of spirituality. As this year’s volume editors note, the conference “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.” We welcome submissions on the following topics:

• Communal spiritual practices and rituals which facilitate reconciliation and healing within groups where vulnerabilities were exploited (e.g., sex abuse scandals, identity-motivated violence) 

• Communal spiritual practices and rituals which embody a synodal way of “enlarging the space of [our] tent” to encourage flourishing among the vulnerable and excluded

• Critique or deconstruction of aspects of traditional spiritualities which have been detrimental to the promotion of human flourishing or have masked sexual, psychological or spiritual abuse 

• Constructive engagements with other disciplines (e.g., psychology, gender studies, social sciences) which offer new insights for spiritualities aimed at promoting human flourishing

• Eco-spiritualities which promote cosmic visions for the flourishing of creation

• Analyses of approaches to the themes of human vulnerability and/or human flourishing from classic mystical and spiritual texts from the tradition which can be fruitfully retrieved for contemporary theology and spirituality

• Constructive proposals for practical and pastoral spiritualities which promote human flourishing in the midst of human conditions of vulnerability (such as illness, persecution, poverty)

• Constructive proposals for practical and pastoral spiritualities which promote human flourishing in a time of impasse 

We also welcome other proposals on topics related to spirituality more generally, while giving priority to those that engage the conference theme.