Christianity
and Culture
Organised
by
Theological
Research And Communication Institute (TRACI)
&
Union
of Evangelical Students of India (UESI)
Date:
15-16th
November, 2017
Concept
Note:
If
culture is the characteristics and knowledge of a particular group of
people that encompasses language, religion, cuisine, social habits,
music and arts, then it may be fair say that culture is about one's
way of life. However, the collective way of life of a people's group
does not remain static; it is dynamic. Like a river bed that shifts
its position over a period of time, cultural elements shift over a
period of time. As it shifts it may shed a harmful element and gain a
beneficial one; or it may shed a beneficial element for a harmful
one.
Christianity
as a monotheistic religion believes in a God who incarnates and
dwells with humans. The incarnate God – Jesus Christ – lived,
taught, died and was raised in a given culture. This belief in Jesus
Christ engenders Christians to say that the religion must incarnate
to every culture. Therefore, rather than swallowing up the culture of
a people's group, Christianity must pitch its tent where its feet is
planted, and renews its culture. However, there is a web of
complexity in how Christianity and culture interact.
The
people who told the biblical story inhabited a culture, and the
primary audience of their story shared the culture of the story
teller. Christianity is thus not a religion developed in a vacuum;
it is – like every other religion – born in a specific culture
though the story invites global reading and appropriation. Thus
transposing the story-idea from the culture of the story teller, and
appropriating it in a context that is separated by time and distance
is a daunting task.
The
modern day messengers live within a given culture. The messengers are
not free from the influence of their given culture. Thus the
messenger may consider her given culture to be the biblically
inspired culture as she communicates the message to a culture that is
different from the culture in which the idea-story is born as well as
the culture of the messenger. This poses a serious challenge to any
messenger.
As
the messenger transposes the message to a culture, the question
whether the given culture needs renewal or subversion is the third
challenge in this enterprise. The need for subversion has on various
occasions being responsible for the messenger's culture erasing the
given local culture that is not necessarily ugly or bad. On the other
hand, there has also been occasions where the subversion has been for
good.
The
conference will engage on these various intersection of Christianity
with Culture, and also explore how this has taken place in the past
and how this may take place in our times. Writers are also urged to
examine any particular cultural elements that will require subversion
or renewal, and whether there are principles or guidelines on how
renewal or subversion must take place.
Some
possible topic/sub-themes for engagement are listed below, though it
is not an exhaustive one, and related topics may be explored:
- Old Testament and the Ancient Near East Culture.
- Understanding the Gospels and the Writers in their Cultural Context.
- Situating Jesus the Jew in his Hellinised Cultural Context.
- Paul as a Cultural Critic or a Cultural Preserver.
- Theology, Art and Imagination
- Christianity, Christians and Moral Norms
- Bible and the Renewal of Language/Dialects
- Biblical Theology for Guru, Baba and Yoga.
- Juxtaposing Theology, Rituals and Disgust with Kosher, Cows and Octopus
- Case study of Cultural Subversion: Past or Present.
- Theology and Women: Past, Present and Future
- Evangelism and Culture
- Cultural Nationalism, Multiculturalism and Cultural Relativism
- Hollywood and Bollywood on Language, Morals and Music.
Submission
Guideline:
- Papers for the conference must conform to the word limit of 3500-5000 words along with an abstract of 150-300 words.
2.
Provide 3-6 key-words at the end of the abstract.
3.
Do not quote from Wikipedia.
- Authors are requested to follow Chicago Manual Style for the purpose of referencing.
- Authors are requested to use TIMES NEW ROMAN font throughout the text.
- Paper should be submitted only in MS-Word format.
- Plagiarism or articles submitted or published elsewhere will not be accepted.
- Editors of the conference publication may edit the manuscripts for clarity and reduce the length of the paper if it exceeds the word limit.*Submission of the Abstract by September 25th, 2017*Intimation of Selection of the Paper by September 30th, 2017.*Submission of Full Paper by October 30th, 2017.*Date of the Conference: November 15-16th 2017.
Registration
Procedure:
For those intimated to write Full Paper, soft copies of Full Paper
along with Registration Form must reach by October 5th,
2017. Those who are presenting paper may stay in the official Guest
Room.
Papers
presented in the Conference will remain as the property of the
organisers, and will be published in the form of a book/booklet with
an ISBN No.
Limited
scholarship to meet the 3rd
AC train travel cost is available specially for those who are coming
from outside of Delhi NCR.
Venue:
TRACI, E-537, Greater Kailash, New Delhi
