Call for Proposals

This Group invites papers on the relationship between music and religion in the context of contemporary or historical cultures. In particular, we seek proposals that bring innovative methodological considerations to the study of musical phenomena in relation to these themes:

• The role of “the religious” in popular music (for a possible cosponsorship with the Religion and Popular Culture Group)
• The implications for thinking about music using the aesthetic and theological resources of Paul Tillich (for a possible cosponsorship with the Tillich: Issues in Theology, Religion, and Culture Group)

Mission

The discipline of religious studies is expanding beyond linguistic rationality to include the importance of musical phenomena in the development of healthy religious communities and religious consciousnesses. Meanwhile, theological aesthetics is moving beyond the textual to include music as a resource in its own right for constructive and transformative meaning-making. Music, religiously speaking, is no mere adjunct to the study of sacred space, ritual, visual art, liturgy, or philosophical aesthetics; rather, it is a distinct field in its own right — with its own particular content, methods, and norms. By placing the relationship between music and religion at the center of our endeavor, this Group seeks to serve scholars who operate out of this ubiquitous, but ironically unrepresented, realm of academic pursuit within the guild.

Anonymity of Review Process

Proposer names are visible to Chairs but anonymous to steering committee members.

Questions?

Philip Stoltzfus
United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities
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Theodore Trost
University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa
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Method of Submission