Call for Paper on ''Christianity and Culture'', Nov 15-16, 2017

Christianity and Culture

Organised by

Theological Research And Communication Institute (TRACI)

&

Union of Evangelical Students of India (UESI)

Date: 15-16^th 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:

1. Old Testament and the Ancient Near East Culture.
2. Understanding the Gospels and the Writers in their Cultural Context.
3. Situating Jesus the Jew in his Hellinised Cultural Context.
4. Paul as a Cultural Critic or a Cultural Preserver.
5. Theology, Art and Imagination
6. Christianity, Christians and Moral Norms
7. Bible and the Renewal of Language/Dialects
8. Biblical Theology for Guru, Baba and Yoga.
9. Juxtaposing Theology, Rituals and Disgust with Kosher, Cows and Octopus
10. Case study of Cultural Subversion: Past or Present.
11. Theology and Women: Past, Present and Future
12. Evangelism and Culture
13. Cultural Nationalism, Multiculturalism and Cultural Relativism
14. Hollywood and Bollywood on Language, Morals and Music.

Submission Guideline:

1. 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.

4. Authors are requested to follow Chicago Manual Style for the purpose of referencing.
5. Authors are requested to use TIMES NEW ROMAN font throughout the text.
6. Paper should be submitted only in MS-Word format.
7. Plagiarism or articles submitted or published elsewhere will not be accepted.
8. 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 25^th, 2017
   *Intimation of Selection of the Paper by September 30^th, 2017.
   *Submission of Full Paper by October 30^th, 2017.
   *Date of the Conference: November 15-16^th 2017.

Registration Procedure: For those intimated to write Full Paper, soft copies of Full Paper along with Registration Form must reach by October 5^th, 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 3^rd 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

Inquiries and Papers to be sent to: jeremiahduomai@gmail.com ( +91-9821949211)