Annual General Meeting
Canadian Theological Society/Société théologique canadienne
Dalhousie University, Halifax, 29-31 May 2003
Thursday, 29 May
9:00 am
Management Building, Room 112
Welcome
Eric Beresford, President, Canadian Theological Society
9:15 am-10:15 am
Management Building, Room 112
George Grant and the Challenge of Theology as Public Discourse
in a Post-Christendom, Post-Modern World
Harris Athanasiadis (Knox College)
As perhaps the most significant Canadian public philosopher, George Grant is a well known thinker to many. But while his work on political philosophy and, in particular, his engagement of issues such as globalization and technology, nationalism, euthanasia and abortion catapulted him into the public sphere, Grant claimed to be a Christian whose fundamental orientation was grounded in faith and the theological tradition of the a "theology of the cross." Further, Grant claimed that everything about which he thought and wrote had God and the fate of God's creation as its primary concern. Indeed, from his earliest experiences culminating in the Second World War, as well as studies in theology and philosophy at Oxford shortly thereafter, Grant made some choices in how to effectively communicate the truth of the love of God and the creational condition as both tragically fallen and graciously redeemable, in a world increasingly discounting the church and any absolute foundations for establishing truth and right. Grant criticized much of modern theology as too ghettoised or too accommodating to the spirit of the times. In this paper I hope to offer challenges for the doing and discoursing of theology in and for the world, attentive to the concerns and dangers George Grant identified and sought to overcome.
10:15 am-10:30am
Break
10:30 am-12:00 pm
Management Building, Room 112
Critical Theologies in Canadian Contexts
Donald Schweitzer (St. Andrew's College), Convenor; Gregory Baum (McGill University); Monique Dumais (Université de Québec à Rimouski); Carolyn Sharp (Université Saint-Paul); and Cristina Vanin (St. Jerome's University)
Critical theologies seek to unfold the public meaning of the gospel in relation to surrounding social institutions, values and trends in a way that will engage and transform society. In this panel, four theologians will track the development and recent history of critical (emancipatory, feminist and cultural-political) theologies in Canada, assessing their strengths, weaknesses and contributions to church and society. Gregory Baum (in a paper to be read by David Seljak, St. Jerome's University) will discuss critical theologies in English-speaking Canada; Carolyn Sharp will discuss critical theologies in Quebec; Cristina Vanin will discuss critical feminist theologies in English-speaking Canada; and Monique Dumais will discuss their counterparts in Quebec.
11:30 am - 1:00 pm
Management Building, Room 102
Annual General Meeting, Canadian Corporation for Studies in Religion
1:30 pm-2:30pm
Management Building, Room 112
Canadianization Revisited: Theological Canadianism
Philip Griffin-Allwood (Brooklyn Pastoral Charge, Nova Scotia)
The third element of John Moir's definition of Canadianization was "psychological Canadianism--the acquisition and manifestation of attitudes reflecting identification with the land and the people of Canada and with the Canadian outlook--in a word the growth of a Canadian sentiment or identity in the life of the churches." I have explored the theological aspects of this by defining theological Canadianism as Mission (drawing on the work of Jürgen Moltmann and J. C. Hoekendijk). Changes during the last decades of the twentieth century have necessitated modification of Moir's typology. This paper is an attempt to define theological Canadianism for the late twentieth century/early twenty-first centuries, particularly in light of the theological and cultural changes in Canada during the 1960s and 1970s. Canadianism today is fractured, reflecting what I define as "the integrity of solitudes" within the country. The paper will attempt to define the theological contributions of each solitude and define a national theological Canadianism.
2:30 pm-2:45 pm
Break
2:45 pm-3:30 pm
Management Building, Room 112
Prayer on the Giant Screen
Charles Fensham (Knox College)
Video clips of news footage of prayer in the public sphere aired after the Swiss Air Disaster, the death of Pierre Elliot Trudeau, and September 11 coverage will be used to examine the media coverage of prayer, and the theological role of prayer in the light of such prominent events. The news clips will be discussed in terms of the impact and role of television as medium on prayer as well as the phenomenon of prayer as "news" in these contexts. David Lyon's concept of "the world as a giant screen," will be used as a dialogical tool to enable theological reflection on prayer as projected on this "screen."
3:30 pm-4:30 pm
Management Building, Room 112
The New Political Theology of Metz: Confronting Schmitt's
Decisionist Political Theology of Exclusion
Derek Simon (McGill University)
The New Political Theology has always raised questions regarding the contrast implied by its qualification as "new." The qualification "new" suggests a comparison resulting from an innovation, a departure. Precisely which comparison, however, is at stake? Various kinds of readings assume that the innovation of Metz's political theology is established in relation to Rahner's transcendental theology, in relation to left-Hegelian and neo-Marxist influences, or in relation to the voices of Jewish testimony after Auschwitz. Taken alone these lines of interpretation are valid yet insufficient and therefore potentially misleading in following the development of the New Political Theology. A different reading, therefore, proposes that Metz's New Political Theology is specifically constituted as an effort to delegitimate and deliver an alternative to the antidemocratic and antisemitic political theology of Carl Schmitt. In diametric opposition to the violent identity politics of exclusion defining Schmitt's decisionist political theology, the New Political Theology proposes an identity politics of difference, orienting deliberative social democracy towards solidarity through the memory of the suffering of others.
5:00-7:00 pm
Dalhousie Arts Centre, Sculpture Court
Dalhousie University President's Reception
7:30 pm-9:30 pm
Management Building, Room 112
Joint Session with CSSR and CSBS: A Non-Violent Future: Means and Ends
"Non-Violent Apocalypse: The Church's Witness Among the Warring Nations," Doug Harink (King's University College); "Secret Violence: Caputo, Kierkegaard, and the Im/possibility of Religion," Shane Cudney (Institute for Christian Studies and Canisius College); "Divine Deception and Violence: The Christus Victor Theme in Gregory of Nyssa and Kathleen Darby Ray," Hans Boersma (Trinity Western University); and Respondent, Alyda Faber (Atlantic School of Theology)
How can a non-violent future can be sustained through religious (theological) discourse? Participants in this panel address this question from different philosophical and theological angles. We have emphatically not attempted to arrive at a unified position. In fact, as the individual paper proposals make clear, a variety of positions is represented with regard to the kind of discourse that can sustain a less (or non-) violent future and with regard to the justifiability of violence as a means for the attaining of a non-violent messianic future. Doug Harink argues that a political reading of the New Testament implies that the church be regarded as the people of God that provides a non-violent witness to the future healing of all peoples. Shane Cudney analyzes the Kierkegaardian background to the distinction between the "messianic" and "messianisms" in Jacques Derrida and John Caputo in order to open up the possibility of a less violent future. Hans Boersma argues that "redemptive violence" is to be accepted in our understanding of the Christus victor theme of atonement; while the resurrection, as the divine future, is entirely non-violent in character. Alyda Faber will reply to the three speakers, and each speaker will reply to the others.
Friday, 30 May
9:00 am-10:30 am
Management Building, Room 112
The Challenge of Making a Theological Contribution to End-of-Life Decision-Making
John Berkman (Catholic University of America); Rebecca Davis Mathias (St. Joseph's College); and Kate Arthur (University of St. Michael's College)
Possibly no topic relevant to the individual person is more consistently debated in public dialogue than moral questions about health care (bioethics). The field of bioethics first evolved within the context of theological ethics. Despite recent medical interest in "spirituality" and in palliative care, bioethics is stubbornly resistant to theological contributions. Theological critique is stigmatized, particularly when the conversation turns to end-of-life issues. The irony of this is a rich source of theological reflection. The result has been that the dying process is dominated by mechanical and medical concerns, and death has been separated from its mystery. Our approach to dying has become furtive and, often, contradictory. Death has become the enemy in medicine's war while public discourse includes an escalating call for access to means to hasten death. This panel will reflect on these contradictions by examining legal, ethical, and anthropological perspectives on death and dying, emphasizing where theological reflection has been circumscribed but could be helpful.
10:30 am-10:45 am
Break
10:45-11:45 am
Management Building, Room 112
Spirituality in Medicine: Therapeutic Benefit or Self-Transcendence?
Brenda Appleby (St. Francis Xavier University)
"Spirituality" has become a major topic of interest, certainly within North American consumer culture, as many people have turned to "spirituality" as an antidote to their loneliness, isolation, and emptiness. Within medicine, research on spirituality has come from two main sources. Nurses have made significant contributions to the exploration and evaluation of spiritual distress among their patients, and medical doctors in collaboration with specialists in religion have explored the causal links among health and illness, recovery and mortality, belief and non-belief, and religious rituals. Much of the literature on spiritual assessment and interventions, however, presupposes an evangelical Christian religious background, or is humanistic, rather than religious. A recent article by members of the McGill Programs in Integrated Whole Person Care Working Group notes that "while medicine has a shared vocabulary for the discussion of clinical and research issues relating to body and mind, the language of spirituality is often an obstacle to communication rather than an aid to understanding." Lacking are basic concepts that are relevant to both spirituality and health, and that are respectful of religious, cultural, and secular traditions. This paper searches for the specifically theological and transcendent components of "spirituality," and seeks to frame them in a discourse that will be intelligible and useful within the world of healthcare.
1:30 pm-2:30 pm
Management Building, Room 112
Sex in Public: The Challenge of HIV/AIDS to Canadian Theologies
Marilyn Legge (Emmanuel College)
Millions of people are dying from the AIDS pandemic which threatens to destroy global development and efforts for building cultures of peace. The pandemic is also part of a public storm that has capacity to redefine values, practices and relationships. Allan Brandt, AIDS historian, states: "In the years ahead we will, no doubt, learn a great deal more about AIDS and how to control it. We will also learn a great deal about the nature of our society [and churches] from the manner in which we address the disease. AIDS will be the standard by which we measure not only our medical and scientific skill but also our capacity for justice and compassion." This paper will explore some theological and ethical ramifications of listening to those who are affected by HIV/AIDS whose "diseased bodies" carry socially dangerous memories. It will locate the issue with special attention to HIV/AIDS in Canada; it will examine how the pandemic confronts churches with three terrifying realities: death, sexuality and otherness; and it will consider what churches should teach and do to encourage public discourse and practices of cooperation, justice and mercy.
2:30 pm-3:30 pm
Management Building, Room 112
Canadian Theological Society Student Essay
There is Nothing Outside the Text: Intratextual Theology and Worlds
within World in Lindbeck's The Nature of Doctrine
David Tiessen (Wycliffe College)
3:30 pm-3:45 pm
Break
3:45 pm-5:30 pm
Management Building, Room 112
Canadian Theological Society Annual General Meeting
8:00 pm -9:15 pm
Marion McCain Building, ScotiaBank Auditorium
Canadian Society for Biblical Studies Craigie Lecture
"Sacred Prostitution" in History and Rhetoric: Constructing
the Religious World of the Hebrew Bible
Phyllis Bird (Garrett Evangelical Seminary)
reception following lecture in Marion McCain Building Atrium
Saturday, 31 May
9:00 am-10:00 am
Management Building, Room 112
Luther on Ubiquity: Real Presence, Gracious Absence, and Being Public
Allen Jorgenson (University of St. Michael's College)
Proponents of Radical Orthodoxy suggest that theology cannot benefit from a retrieval of Reformation insights due to the Reformers' uninformed adoption of nominalist sensibilities. As such a critique of Martin Luther can only be sustained by doing violence to his sacramental theology, I will attempt to retrieve certain themes in Luther's theology of the Eucharist of import for a theology of the public. The paper will first consider the charge that Luther was a nominalist and briefly explore critiques of this charge by contemporary Luther scholarship. Emphasizing Luther's rejection of an instrumental reason and his consideration of the possibility of a "baptized" ratio, I will advance the thesis that Luther's doctrine of ubiquity is intended to function doxologically in that it demonstrates the non-manipulability of Christ in even his most objective mode of presence. In short, ubiquity asserts that real presence precludes any orchestration of the advent of Christ in the Eucharist. The promised nature of that presence, however, underscores that it is the graciousness rather than the sovereignty of God which elicits the faith that apprehends absence as the cruciformed mode of promised presence. In conclusion, I will note that a retrieval of a notion of presence which embraces absence as the condition for its possibility provides contemporary theology with a critical hermeneutic for understanding its marginalization in the public sphere as a gift to be embraced rather than a loss to be lamented.
10:00 am-11:00 am
Management Building, Room 112
Towards More-than-Secular Liberalism: William Connolly and
Rowan Williams on Faith and Public Discourse
Kathleen Skerrett (Grinnell College)
This paper compares proposals by American political theorist William Connolly and Anglican theologian (now Archbishop of Canterbury) Rowan Williams, respectively, to move beyond secularism as the common denominator of political liberalism. I outline Connolly's and Williams's proposals in order to delineate three areas where theologians can make constructive contributions to public discourse in pluralistic liberal democracies. First, theologians can delineate those spiritual and visceral registers that enliven "beliefs" as they are contested in the public sphere. Second, they can explore local ritual and spiritual disciplines as means of resistance to secular disciplinary regimes. And third, they can remember and analyze the recurrent dangers of anathema and persecution of unorthodox members of a community. Both Connolly and Williams have, in different ways, already made contributions in these areas. My goal will be to show how a post-secular atheist and an orthodox theologian each invite and exemplify constructive engagement with faith commitments in the arena of public discourse.
11:00 am-11:15 am
Break
11:15 am-12:15 pm
Management Building, Room 112
Jewish and Christian Fundamentalisms Compared
Jackie Kuikman (Campion College)
"Jewish fundamentalism" is a misnomer in that various characteristics that seem to fall within the purview of the term "fundamentalism" such as opposition to modernity, a literalist approach to the reading of sacred texts, an ideology of gender control and a perception of being besieged cannot accurately be applied to Christianity and even less so to Judaism. This paper will critique the word "fundamentalism" itself and the identity politics surrounding it based on the work of Jonathan Sacks.
1:30 pm-3:00 pm
Management Building, Room 112
For the Sake of the World?: Why Natural Science Matters for Theology
Anne Marie Dalton (St. Mary's University); CristinaVanin (St. Jerome's University); and Michael Bourgeois (Emmanuel College)
One area where theological discourse has been inescapably public is its conversation with the natural sciences, a conversation in which theology regularly faces questions of how to relate its distinctive ways of knowing to those of the sciences, the extent to which public scientific discourse may appropriately influence theological discourse, and the extent to which theological discourse bears on issues of public concern. Three panellists--one of whom teaches in religious studies in a Roman Catholic university, another of whom teaches religious studies in a public university, and a third who teaches theology at a Protestant theological college--will engage in conversation, from their different religious and institutional perspectives, on these and other questions such as: What is the theological rationale for theology's attention the natural sciences? What issues in the theology and science conversation today are most interesting or promising and why? How might theological discourse inform and influence scientific research and technology that affect the development of just social structures? The panel participants will engage in a conversation, presented in the form of a dialogue intended in part to foster further conversation among those attending the session.
3:00 pm-3:15 pm
Break
3:15 pm-4:15 pm
Management Building, Room 112
Transformative Suffering, Destructive Suffering, and
the Question of Abandoning Theodicy
Michael Stoeber (Regis College)
Traditional theodicies attempt to justify God in the face of the horrors of this world. In Becoming Divine (1999), Grace Jantzen is critical of the ways in which theodicies tend in that process to downplay negatively and even disparage the incredible suffering that human beings experience. Theodicies, she writes, divert attention "away from what human beings are doing or might be doing to inflict or prevent evil, away from the earth and into the transcendent realm. [Theodicies are a] study in necrophilia" (261). Drawing especially on the work of Kenneth Surin, Jantzen advocates the abandonment of the practice of theoretical theodicy. Against such a call, I will defend in this paper the striving for effective theoretical theodicies. Essential to my argument is a distinction between the themes of "transformative suffering" and "destructive suffering." In light of the issues that Jantzen and Surin raise against theodicies, I will develop and explore the relevance of these themes for effective theodicies.
4:15 pm-5:15 pm
Management Building, Room 112
Canadian Theological Society Presidential Address
Eric Beresford (Anglican Church of Canada)
7:00 pm
Canadian Theological Society Dinner
Cafe Chianti
5165 South Street, (902)423-7471