Young Scholars

Theologies of Freedom and the Baptist Academy

June 27-July 1, 2012

Beginning in the 1960s, a renewal movement emerged in the churches of Latin America. The social mission of Christ and the church focused on work among the poor and calls for progress and national modernization. Leaders such Gustavo Gutiérrez, Segundo Galilea, Juan Luis Segundo, Lucio Gera intensified reflection on the relationship between faith and poverty, the gospel and social justice, and theology as critical reflection on praxis. The 1971 publication of Gutierrez’s Theology of Liberation and its incorporation into North American theological work brought the issues of freedom, liberty, and social effects of the gospel to the conversation. During roughly the same time, John Howard Yoder and Stanley Hauerwas, among others, have spoken forcefully about the intersection of practice, politics and the Body of Christ.

In the midst of those twentieth-century movements, Baptists have sustained a four-century-long theological and practical interest in freedom, expressed in such ways as the separation of church and state, religious liberty, autonomy of the church, and the priesthood of all believers. With the emergence of Liberation Theology, Baptist responses in North America and in Latin America to theologies of freedom and liberation reflect political and theological complexity in terms of praxis and scholarship.

Young Scholars in the Baptist Academy will convene a select group of participants across academic disciplines to explore topics related to theologies of freedom and liberation. We invite essays that explore this theme in various ways, including but not limited to:

• How should Baptist theological scholarship respond to issues of freedom?
• What can Baptist scholars contribute to Christians’ shared understanding of scriptural representations of freedom? For example, given St. Paul’s words to the Galatians–”For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery”–how ought we to understand St. Paul’s sense of Christian freedom as the exchange of bondage to sin for bondage to Christ?
• Since Baptists, for whom freedom looms large, have sometimes denied freedom (ecclesial, political, academic, etc.) to others, to whom and by what means might repentance be expressed and restoration sought?
• What are the primary intersection of Latin American theological concerns with Baptist thought and practice?
• In what ways do Church and state issues and conflicts of Baptists reflect concerns central to Latin America theologies of freedom?
• What historical ties bind Baptist theology and church practice to Latin American theologies of liberation?

Details

The seminar will be held prior to the Baptist World Alliance annual conference in Santiago, Chile. Prospective participants may apply by submitting a 750-word abstract and CV by March 1, 2012. Submissions are welcomed from any scholar identifying with the Baptist tradition, with preference given to junior level faculty at Baptist colleges and universities. Seminar participants will receive a $1000 stipend, lodging, and meals.  Further information is available by contacting:  Roger_Ward@georgetowncollege.edu.

Steering Committee

• Andy Chambers, Missouri Baptist University
• Douglas Henry, Baylor University
• Elizabeth Newman, Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond
• Sheila Klopfer, Georgetown College
• Roger Ward, Georgetown College
• Senior Scholar, Dan Bell, Lutheran Theological Seminary
• Consultant, Paul Fiddes, Emeritus, Regent’s Park College, Oxford