AAR in Chicago: A Fire and Rose Guide

Tomorrow I leave for Chicago to attend the 2008 AAR Meeting. I love Chicago, so I’m glad the conference is being held there this year. What I don’t love is the stress of traveling. In any case, the main reason I am going this year is to present a paper in the session on “Religion, Film, and Visual Culture.” My paper is entitled, “A Beautiful Anarchy: Religion, Fascism, and Violence in the Theopolitical Imagination of Guillermo del Toro.” The only difference from the original proposal is that I will not be discussing Hellboy in the paper due to time and space constraints. If you are attending AAR this year and are interested in hearing my paper in person, here is the relevant information:
Religion, Film, and Visual Culture
Saturday - 4:00 pm-6:30 pm
CHT-Boulevard A
Theme: Visual Imageries of Reality and Fantasy
There are some other sessions well worth attending. Here are a few that I recommend:
Karl Barth Society of North America
Friday - 4:00 pm-6:30 pm
CHT-International Ballroom South
  • Keith Johnson, Wheaton College: “The Invention of the Antichrist?” Reconsidering Barth’s Rejection of the Analogia Entis
  • Kevin Hector, University of Chicago: Election and the Trinity: How My Mind Has Changed
North American Paul Tillich Society
Saturday - 9:00 am-11:30 am
PH-Clark 1
Theme: Evangelical Responses to Tillich

Wildcard Session
Saturday - 1:00 pm-3:30 pm
CHT-PDR 2
Theme: On the Relation between A/Theism and the Political; or, The Political Theology of the Void, Parmenides, and St. Paul
NB: Alain Badiou and Slavoj Zizek have both withdrawn from this session.

Theology and the Political Consultation and Theology and Religious Reflection Section
Sunday - 3:00 pm-4:30 pm
CHT-Marquette
Theme: Evangelicals and Empire: Engaging Hardt and Negri

The Centre of Theology and Philosophy
Sunday - 6:45 pm-9:15 pm
CHT-Waldorf
Theme: The Return of Metaphysics: A Dialogue on the Occasion of the Publication of Belief and Metaphysics
  • John Betz, Loyola College
  • Sarah Coakley, Cambridge University
  • Paul DeHart, Vanderbilt University
  • David Bentley Hart, Providence College
  • John Milbank, University of Nottingham
Christian Systematic Theology Section
Monday - 9:00 am-11:30 am
CHT-International Ballroom North
Theme: The Torah and the Continuity of Scripture in Jewish Christian Dialogue

Comments

Unknown said…
I hope you have a great time. I would love to read your full paper. Any chance that you would post it?
Anonymous said…
Great! I'll see you there. I look forward to meeting you!
Anonymous said…
By the way, my book says the Karl Barth Society of North America is meeting on Saturday morning 9-11:30AM. Has this changed? If so, that sucks. Friday!?
best wishes on your paper, David. If you get stressed by traveling, pull over to the side and watch everyone else stressing out instead - that is, if you're not in an immediate rush to catch a flight. ;-)
Anonymous said…
Don't forget the discussion of Lewis Ayres book Saturday morning from 9:00-11:30 at the Karl Barth Society.
Anonymous said…
David,

Great to see you in Chicago! I wish we could have had a beer together; but perhaps up in the Twin Cities? All the best to you, your wife, and the little one on the way.
Christian
MM said…
David,

Congrats on your presentation,and hopes to meet at a future AAR- I was at the 'The Return of Metaphysics' panel, and it was truly amazing.
MM,

What did you find "amazing" about the panel? I only ask because a person can either find Hart, Betz, and Milbank amazing, or find Coakley and DeHart amazing. I fall squarely into the latter group.
MM said…
David...

I'm afraid I'm not quite familiar with your categories... Catholics don't tend to do either/or terribly well.

Apart from Coakley's rather jarring questions about authority near the end, I kept thinking that the whole thing seemed a bit like a theological lullaby-but then listening to Hart always makes me feel that way!
Yeah, I don't share that opinion. I felt like Milbank, Betz, and Hart were an embarrassment. Betz gave probably the most facile and naive support of metaphysics and the analogia entis. Milbank and Hart were just arrogant jerks and said nothing of substance. Sorry to be a downer, but I feel pretty strong about this.
MM said…
David,

...I said theological *lullaby,* not 'masterpiece.' I don't think our opinions of the panel are all that different.

Hang in there-