Sunday Newscape Magazine

Chicago, Illinois - The Divinity School's Martin Marty Center will host a two-day conference on April 22-23 that will explore a topic of growing scholarly interest in an increasingly globalized world: the interplay between religion and culture.

It's long been observed that culture shapes religion; for example, Buddhism in China isn't the same as Zen Buddhism in San Francisco; and Christianity practiced in South Africa is very different from Christianity in Oxford, England. And scholars have long examined the other side of the exchange—how religion shapes its culture.

But interest in understanding the dynamics between religion and culture is accelerating in the 21st century. "To understand the world today, to understand particular places, " said William Schweiker, Director of the Marty Center of the Divinity School and the Edward L. Ryerson Distinguished Service Professor of Theological Ethics, "it's crucial to explore the dynamics between religion and culture."

"Culturing Theologies, Theologizing Culture" will showcase the work of a diverse group of scholars; their work pulls from such varied sources as ethnography, linguistics, culture studies and post-colonial studies to build a better understanding of religion and culture.

A major goal of the conference, said Garry Sparks, a Divinity School Ph.D. student, is to announce to other disciplines that religious scholars are a valuable resource. There's a lingering misperception, Sparks explained, that theologians studying local culture are doing so "with an aim to convert the natives."

"That's not the case at Chicago," said Sparks. Renowned for its interdisciplinary approach, the "Chicago School of Theology" -- whose best-known exponent is Paul Tillich, the "Divinity School doesn't really do dogmatic or confessional theology," Sparks said. "It's a theology of culture. It's scholars who have recognized that theological reflection is embedded within the particularities of specific cultures."

"Culturing Theologies" will begin in the third-floor lecture room in Swift Hall (1025 E. 58th St.) with a lecture from Kathryn Tanner, the Dorothy Grant Maclear Professor in the Divinity School, who will provide a frame for the conference.

The first day's lecturers will include the University's Jean Comaroff, the Bernard E. and Ellen C. Sunny Distinguished Service Professor in Anthropology; and Robert Franklin, President of Morehouse College. A noon panel discussion will present the research of Divinity School graduate students, who will examine such topics as Palestinian theological cartography and how ethnography has shed insight into local theologies in South India and Guatemala.

Wednesday's program will conclude with the conference's keynote lecture from Webb Keane, Professor of Anthropology at the University of Michigan, and Chicago alumnus (PhD, Anthropology). He will present the 2009 D.R. Sharpe Lectures on Social Ethics, titled "Life with Others in Three Ethical Modalities," which focuses on the importance of facets of "modernity" introduced into Indonesia by Dutch Reformed missionaries.

The conference's second day will feature lectures by Souleymane Bachir Diagne, Professor of French and Philosophy at Columbia University; the University's Robin A. Shoaps, Assistant Professor of Anthropology; and Larry Bouchard, Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia. A luncheon panel will feature the work of graduate students on such topics as legal rhetoric and theological critique, and theological etiology in Senegal. Schweiker will close the conference with a lecture at 4 p.m.

"Culturing Theologies, Theologizing Culture" is sponsored by the D.R. Sharpe Lectures at the Divinity School, the William Henry Hoover Lectures at the Disciples Divinity House, the Divinity Students Association, and the Chicago Center for Contemporary Theory.