| The Wesleyan Studies Group of the American Academy of Religion will have three program sessions during the 2010 AAR Annual Meeting, 30 October-2 November 2010, in Atlanta, Georgia. Session 1: Methodism and the Civil Rights Movement Saturday, Oct. 30, 4:00-6:00 pm, Location TBD Presiding: Douglas M. Strong (Seattle Pacific University) Methodists such as James Lawson and Joseph Lowery were among the activists who helped launch the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Martin Luther King, Jr., generally regarded as the chief spokesman of that movement, was a Baptist but was educated at Boston University School of Theology, a Methodist institution. Methodist Bishops Paul Hardin and Nolan Harmon were among the religious leaders in Alabama who signed the letter to King that provoked King’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail in 1963. In the same year, a group of twenty-eight Methodist pastors in the Mississippi Conference issued the landmark “Born of Conviction” declaration, condemning racism and affirming the statement of the Church’s Social Creed that “all men are brothers”; the hostility they experienced as a result forced most of them to leave Mississippi within the year. The papers presented in this session will explore the complex and conflicted engagement of individuals and groups of Wesleyan and Methodist heritage with the theological, ethical, and social issues posed by the Civil Rights Movement. Papers: • Ellen J. Blue (Phillips Theological Seminary), “That White Preacher Who Took His Daughter to School: Andy Foreman and the New Orleans School Desegregation Crisis of 1960” • Kevin M. Watson (Southern Methodist University), “In the Shadow of Segregation: Methodist Seminaries and the Civil Rights Movement” • Joseph T. Reiff (Emory & Henry College), “’Born of Conviction’: Methodist Ministers Provoking Civil Rights Debate in 1963 Mississippi” Respondent: F. Douglas Powe, Jr. (Saint Paul School of Theology) Business Session will follow, 6:00-6:30 pm Presiding: Priscilla Pope-Levison (Seattle Pacific University) Session 2: The State of Wesleyan and Methodist Studies (90-minute session) Sunday, Oct. 31, 1:00-2:30 pm, Location TBD Presiding: Jason Vickers (United Theological Seminary) The recent publication of several substantial reference volumes, particularly the Cambridge Companion to John Wesley (2009) and the Oxford Handbook of Methodism (2009), along with the T & T Clark Companion to Methodism (forthcoming in July 2010), provides an occasion to consider the current state and the future of Wesleyan and Methodist Studies. An invited panel of scholars will assess not only the present contribution of these volumes but also what they portend concerning the future direction of the discipline. Panelists: • Reginald Broadnax (Hood Theological Seminary) • Thomas E. Frank (Candler School of Theology, Emory University) • Douglas Koskela (Seattle Pacific University) • Rebekah Miles (Southern Methodist University) • Susie Stanley (Messiah College) Session 3: The Legacy of Edinburgh 1910: Wesleyan Trajectories of Ecumenism, Mission, and Inter-religious Relations for the 21st Century [joint session with the World Christianity Group] Monday, Nov. 1, 9:00-11:30 am, Location TBD Presiding: Jane Carol Redmont (Guilford College) and Priscilla Pope-Levison (Seattle Pacific University) Over 1,200 delegates gathered in Edinburgh for the World Missionary Conference of 1910, which has been described as providing a major impetus for the Protestant mission movement and the ecumenical movement in the twentieth century. The conference was chaired by the American Methodist and ecumenical leader John R. Mott, who served as General Secretary of the World Student Christian Federation from 1895 to 1920, and who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1946 for his work in establishing and strengthening international Christian organizations that worked to promote peace. The papers to be presented in this joint session of the Wesleyan Studies Group and the World Christianity Group will explore the trajectories of ecumenism, mission, and inter-religious relations from Edinburgh 1910 into the future, with particular attention to Wesleyan/Methodist traditions. Papers: • Philip Wingeier-Rayo (Pfeiffer University), “Edinburgh 1910: A Reflection on Missions and World Christianity” • Benjamin L. Hartley (Palmer Theological Seminary), “A Re-examination of John R. Mott’s Contributions to Methodist Missions, Inter-Religious Dialogue, and Race Relations after Edinburgh 1910” • Kevin York-Simmons (Georgia Gwinnett College), “Morality and Missions After Edinburgh: From Rethinking Missions to Rethinking Ethics” • Glory Dharmaraj (Women’s Division, General Board of Global Ministgries, The United Methodist Church ), “Interfaith Relations, Edinburgh 2010 And a Monitoring Tool” Please note that the annual WSG business session will take place at the conclusion of the first program session, Saturday Oct. 30, 6:00-6:30 pm. For further information, contact: Prof. Rex D. Matthews Candler School of Theology Emory University 1531 Dickey Drive #324 Atlanta, GA 30322 (404) 727-6345 rex.matthews@emory.edu |
Methodist Review, ISSN: 1946-5354 (online), copyright © by The Methodist Review, Inc.