Society of Pentecostal Studies 2004 Meeting, Marquette University March 11-13, 2004, Call for Papers

Pentecostalism is a religious movement marked by its concern with the body in all of its meanings. The body can refer to in Pentecostal studies as the physical body of the person that worships, suffers from illness, desire, pain, or joy. The body can be the mirror of Pentecostal belief, through, worship, discipline, fasting, and deportment. The body of Pentecostalism can be the body of Christ, the church, mystical, temporal, variegated, and divided.

Whatever the definition, Pentecostalism is intimately concerned with the “body” in all its definitions and forms. This year’s call for papers encourages an investigation of the body and Pentecostalism, and Pentecostalism as a body of information about a specific religious movement, broadly defined.

To frame our discussion of the body, The 2004 keynote speaker will be Phillip Jenkins, author of The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity, a book that explores the implications of the prominence of the ecclesial body of Pentecostalism as a global movement.

Some suggestions as to areas of interrogation are as follows:

• Pentecostals and the body in worship (Tongues, Dance, music, anointing, for example)
• Pentecostals as a worldwide body: The largest bodies of Pentecostals are from outside of the U.S. How will this impact the future of Pentecostalism as a movement?
• Pentecostals and bodily disciplines in practice. (Fasting, regulations in dress, prohibitions against smoking, drinking, and Worldly Amusements for example.) What do biblical prohibitions, and their influence on cultural practices mean for Pentecostals?
• Pentecostals and the body of Christ: What are Pentecostals views toward Ecumenism, and Ecumenical bodies? Denominational constructs? Theological boundaries? How do Pentecostals negotiate these “bodily boundaries?”
• Pentecostals and the racialized body: How does Pentecostalism navigate, close, or open discussion on ethnicity and race?
• Pentecostalism and the gendered body: How does gender and sexuality affect the personal bodies of Pentecostals as well as influence the ecclesial body of Pentecostalism (ordination vs. non-ordination of women, policies enforcing prohibitions on homosexuality and pre-marital sex)
• Pentecostalism as a historical body: How have Pentecostals viewed the movement historically as a body that was not to be an organizational body, but a latter day movement that would remove the need for “organizational” bodies?

Proposals should be 400 words. It should include a working title, the statement of the problem, the scope & outline of the paper, methodology and a tentative conclusion. Confirm that your name, title and organization is as it should appear on the program.

To be given consideration for a plenary session, a proposal must address the conference theme in some significant way. Paper sessions do not necessarily need to relate to the theme, but should cover some area of Pentecostalism.

Sessions can include presentations in several forms: sermon, panel discussion, round table, book review, testimony as well as traditional academic formats. All sessions will allow opportunity for dialog.

Proposals are due August 1, 2003. Detailed information on the call for papers and proposal submission can be found at the website below, or by emailing Conference Chair, Anthea Butler: