[Asec] Call for Chapters: Anthropologies of Orthodox Christianity

[Eugene Clay]

Greetings,

Please widely share the following Call for Chapters to the volume, "Anthropologies of Orthodox Christianity: Theology, Politics, and Ethics." Attached is the volume flyer. We look forward to receiving your submissions for this timely volume.

Best regards,
Sarah Riccardi-Swartz (ASU) and Candace Lukasik (WUSTL)

                   Anthropologies of Orthodox Christianity:
                          Theology, Politics, and Ethics
Orthodox Christianity possesses a living theology that is not static but in perpetual engagement with the social and cultural constructions of communities. Yet, Orthodox theology has yet to embrace the need for the ethnographic method as a way to help flesh out the social, cultural, and political dimensions of lived theology. Conversely, the anthropology of Orthodox Christianity, on the whole, is often reluctant to engage deeply with the theological ideas present in Orthodox communities. In tension with community engagement, anthropology has tended to eschew the inclusion of Christian theology, in part, because of the Protestant (elite) roots of the discipline. This volume dwells in the radically inclusive and interdisciplinary space where anthropology and theology are in conversation with each other. It unpacks how and why theology matters to global Orthodox Christian communities. In order to more fully engage the lifeworlds of Orthodox Christians, anthropologists of Orthodoxy need to be literate in Orthodox theology, with particular attention to the ways in which historical contexts such as Byzantium, the Council of Chalcedon, and legacies of Islamic empires, continue to shape political subjectivities and ethical commitments between homeland and diaspora. While the anthropological study of Christianity has expanded greatly in the last 10-15 years there still seems to be a disconnect, as social scientists contend with “taking seriously” the social life of theology within the communities we study and in many cases are a part of. The exclusion of Orthodox theology in social science research has left the field with a less than thorough understanding of contemporary Orthodox practices and cultures. Yet our research as anthropologists of Orthodox Christianity demands that we take theology seriously.
We intend to forge a new and expansive way to understand the lifeworlds of Orthodox practitioners that does not shy away from theology but rather embraces it as a vital part of what it means for our interlocutors to live and be in the world. The idea of living theology requires us as scholars to be well versed in the theological histories, ideas, and controversies that are integral to Orthodoxy in its various global formations. We must attend to the divergent histories of empire and memory in order to illuminate Orthodoxy’s contentious imperial historical imagination and discuss the ways these histories shape theological study and religious practice today. By taking theology seriously among interlocutors, social scientists can better interrogate the ways such things as Orthodox prayer and ecumenical tension have the potential to be geopolitical spaces of religious mediation. To decouple our secular sensibilities from what is understood to be “religion,” we must be able to inhabit a space where theology is inseparable from the everyday--shaping aesthetics, publics, and politics.
Yet this need not be a one-sided endeavor. Theologians of Orthodoxy have much to learn from anthropologists (not to mention sociologists, historians, and other scholars who work in Orthodox Studies). While Orthodoxy might keep its theological mind’s eye fixed on the early Church fathers, and persecuted pasts (and presents), it must also integrate political conflict, social change, and cultural discontinuity into its field of analysis. The social and political complexities of the current moment, require theologians to address deeply human problems in global contexts. If Orthodoxy possesses a living theology, then it must be interwoven with the fabric of contemporary society, which means it needs to be holistic in its approach. In doing so, Orthodox theology can become more attune to the needs of its practitioners by examining how faith is lived out, not simply studied in seminaries or educational institutions.
To that end, we seek contributions for this volume that address Orthodox Christianity in tension with theological and anthropological perspectives. We anticipate including scholars from across disciplines who are working in the contemporary period. We are particularly interested in works that interrogate how theology is manifested, embedded, enlivened, and negotiated in the social, political, and racial lifeworlds of Orthodox Christian interlocutors situated in both homelands and diasporas. We especially welcome chapters that look at the following topics:
Race/BIPOC/Ethnicity/Whiteness/Identity Politics
Sexuality/Gender Politics/ LGBTQ+ topics
Disability/Exclusion and Inclusion
Social Politics/Political Ideologies
Law/Legal Issues/Mistrust/Conflict/Governmental Policies/Church and State
Diaspora/Migration/Conversion Conflicts
Boundaries/Borderlands/Barriers
Empire/State/Neocolonialism
To have your work considered for inclusion, please submit the following documents by July 1, 2021 to riccardiswartz at gmail.com<mailto:riccardiswartz at gmail.com> and cblukasik at wustl.edu<mailto:cblukasik at wustl.edu>.
Abstract (500 words)
Bio and Institutional Affiliation
CV
If selected, the deadline for full chapter submission (approximately 13,000 words inclusive of notes and cited texts) is December 1, 2021.
--
Dr. Candace Lukasik
Postdoctoral Fellow
John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics
Washington University in St. Louis
candacelukasik.com
<https://urldefense.com/v3/__http:/candacelukasik.com/__;!!Mih3wA!SSl1OBgv5hjFL93UFdUu0tK-MKJ2SPMTZ7qGZaNWiWypbHV2U9TQRJgxKx4IwN9Bkwbk$>
[https://berkeley.mxspruce.com/api/track/v2/9NnSlCHXfTDSOzCV3/iUHZl5SelxWZrJXZiB0apNXYrVHbiNmI/iUHZl5CZzNWdu4WYtxWah1GQs1ichNnI/?sc=false]
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