(This post was taken entirely from the S&T website here.)

Christianity relates to the Bible. Yet here the questions begin: How have the Christian Scriptures been received theologically throughout the Christian tradition? How can biblical studies and systematic theology fruitfully interact and produce tenable arguments for the Christian faith in the context of the 21st century? What is the theological status of the Bible? How does the Bible function as a norm for theological reflection and within theological construction?

The 2021 panel of the study group, “Scripture & Theology,” aims to address questions like these with a particular focus on the relevance of science (or: the sciences). While there is a long-standing tradition of exploring the relationship between theology and science, there has been a lack of attention to the role of science in the triad of scripture, theology and science in general. In the 2021 panel, the Scripture and Theology study group will bring together scholars from a wide range of countries to focus on questions pertaining to the unique relationship of theology and science.

We invite contributions to two tracks:

#1: The general track is for contributions reflecting the relation between scripture and theology in general.

#2: The focus track for contributions reflecting on the role of science(s). Contributions to this track could, for example, address any of the following questions:

• Can theology live up to the demands which science imposes on theology?
• How can theology incorporate current research in the fields of evolutionary biology or the neurosciences?
• How are scripture and theology informed by the sciences? How can the philosophy of science help to understand this process?
• Can scripture or theology provide a grammar or paradigm for science?
• In what way does theology presuppose and underlie current scientific endeavours?
• What does scripture/theology say about the origin and perception of knowledge?
• How does one’s methodology influence the conclusions drawn from a biblical or theological perspective?
• From a historical perspective, how have biblical scholars and theologians interacted with science?
• What are challenges and/or critiques from various scientific fields to scriptural interpretation, theology, and hermeneutics?
• How does the scientific field understand the role and contribution of Biblical Studies and Theology?

Interdisciplinary research is encouraged as well as contributions from particular disciplines, given the connection to the general issues (track 1) or the relationship between science and religion (track 2) is evident. Contributions from the theological disciplines, such as biblical studies, historical theology, or systematic theology are welcome, as are contributions from the philosophy of science, neurosciences, biology, chemistry, physics and other fields of study. Transdisciplinary contributions are possible as well. In any given case, we ask that potential presenters (a) present original research in the context of the given state of the art(s) and sciences; and (b) prepare papers that make their content accessible to an audience consisting not only of experts in the given field(s).

History of S&T

The first meeting of the study group “Scripture & Theology” was part of the second Annual Conference of the European Academy of Religion, EuARe 2019. The second meeting took place in 2020. Currently we are preparing a first publication, based on the papers presented in the last two years.

In 2021, the study group again convenes scholars from various countries, denominations and fields for research at EuARe 2021. We continue to aim at a critical-constructive dialogue regarding how to be responsible practitioners of theology in dialogue with the entire scientific field.

S&T Steering Committee

• Tomas Bokedal (NLA Bergen, Norway & University of Aberdeen, United Kingdom)
• Michael Borowski (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
• Ludger Jansen (University of Münster & University of Rostock, Germany)

S&T Programme Committee

• Nikolaos Asproulis (Volos Academy for Theological Studies, Greece)
• Gijsbert van den Brink (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
• Hans Burger (Researchgroup BEST, Theologische Universiteit Kampen, The Netherlands)
• Mark Elliott (University of Glasgow, United Kingdom)
• Georg Fischer (Universtiy of Innsbruck, Austria)
• Arnold Huijgen (Researchgroup BEST, Theologische Universiteit Apeldoorn, The Netherlands)
• John Milbank (University of Nottingham, United Kingdom)
• Thomas Söding (Ruhr University Bochum, Germany)

Organizational Team of S&T 2021

• Michael Borowski (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
• Brandon Watson (University of Heidelberg, Germany)

Submissions                                                         

The panel welcomes contributions from all theological traditions. Papers will be selected via a peer-review process based on scholarly quality and relevance for the panel. Given that the panel will consist of several slots, we will assemble sub-topics for each slot.

If you wish to present a paper at the workshop, please submit a PDF file with an abstract of 500 to 1000 words, plus a short summary of up to 150 words, plus references via Easychair (https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=st2021) before March 21. We will notify authors of the acceptance of their paper before April 21.

Abstracts of accepted contributions will be made available to participants to be pre-read before the panel, in order to allow better preparation and feedback for the presentations.

We intend to publish a selection of the papers together with other contributions in a collected volume edited by the study group.

Please direct all questions regarding the workshop to Michael.Borowski@gmx.de.

For registration and other organisational matter regarding the conference of the European Academy of Religion, and for information about the academy itself, please refer to https://www.europeanacademyofreligion.org/euare2021.

Updates on the panel are posted on https://scriptureandtheology.home.blog/

Formal Requirements

• Abstracts for review: PDF file with 500 to 1000 words, plus a short summary of up to 150 words, plus references
• After acceptance, abstracts may be revised and extended.
• Papers for publication: 5000 to 7000 words
• Oral presentations: 20 minutes, followed by 20 minutes discussion (including up to 5 min response by an invited respondee).

Important Dates 

March 21: Deadline for submissions of abstracts

April 21: Acceptance notification

June 6: Deadline for submitting revised (and possibly extended) abstracts

Aug 30 – Sep 2, 2021: EuARe 2021 (in Münster or – if necessary – online)

Dec 31, 2021: Submission of camera-ready version for collected volume