The word in our midst CFP

The word in our midst:

dialogues between Christianity and history

A conference hosted by the Evangelical History Association

Friday 22 July 2011, Macquarie University, Sydney

Christianity is fundamentally concerned with logos. Its history and significance is inextricably tied up with the spoken, written and incarnate word. ‘The word was God’ and ‘the word was made flesh’ are among its central theological claims.

Historians, like theologians, deal with and in words. Particularly since the linguistic turn, they have embraced language a subject of inquiry and self-consciously reconsidered the nature and meanings of texts. This has exciting implications for the historical study of Christianity and the markedly Biblicist movement of evangelicalism.

In the four hundredth year of the King James translation of the Bible, the EHA dedicates its annual conference to the word in Christianity and history. It invites proposals for papers on all aspects of the relationship between word, God and history. We particularly welcome papers that engage with the following themes:

• The translation, propagation and interpretation of the Bible
• Sermons as sources and texts
• Language, literature and Christianity
• Biblicism and evangelicalism
• Christian voices in history
• Christ in Australian culture and society
• Christian concepts informing society and politics in general

In preparation for a revised and expanded edition of the Australian Dictionary of Evangelical Biography, the EHA also invites short biographical papers for a special ‘1000 words on a person’ stream.

Please send abstracts of no more than 250 words to Dr Meredith Lake (meredithelake[at]gmail[dot]com) by Friday 6 May 2011.

The word in our midst is open to scholars associated with theological colleges as well as universities. Students doing original research in history are especially welcome to contribute. The conference is also open to those who wish to attend without giving a paper.

Further details and registration options are available at http://www.evangelicalhistory.org/