CALL FOR PAPERS

Toronto School of Theology Graduate Students’ Association (TGSA) Conference
Spring 2022

Traversing Schemas of Normativity: Methodological Concerns in Theology
Friday, June 10th, 2022

Discussions on the effectiveness and potential limitations of critical theories in theological discourse have begun to receive an increasing amount of attention. These theories, which may seek to recontextualize, supplant, or dispel normative and archaic structures of thought, present new motivations, possibilities, and potential conclusions to the theological project. Normative claims can be defined as a specified judgment of value that acts as a controlling standard in a larger structure of thought typically enforced as a hegemonic ideal. “Traversing Schemas of Normativity: Methodological Concerns in Theology” seeks to be a forum where graduate researchers can present their work regarding the use and reception of normativizing and hegemonic claims regarding scripture, spirituality, and/or theological understanding. Presentations may demonstrate the pragmatic need for normative schemas or illustrate their cognitive and affective limitations. Normative schemas are laden in all forms of knowing; however, what we wish to ask is, how can recognition and critical engagement with normative structures/claims in the theological context inspire new methods for theological contemplation? The conference will also set out to examine how emerging critical perspectives (decolonial, feminist, contextualist, ecological, et al.) can engage with and recontextualize normative claims.

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Patriarch Kirill of Moscow (L), Priest Seraphim Holland of ROCOR (R)

Father Seraphim Holland (ROCOR) addressed the following comment to editor Giacomo Sanfilippo on his Facebook timeline in response to Patriarch Kirill’s justification of the joint Kremlin-Patriarchate invasion of Ukraine due to Kyiv Pride. Father Holland expresses no regret for the invasion or mentions it at all.

You are spending too much energy hating and too much energy for things which are unclean.

Because you are obsessed with those things, you hate those who teach Orthodox Doctrine regarding them.

Somehow I think you have a good heart, but you’re blinded by your obsession with LGBTQ.

And by the way, I don’t know exactly what [Patriarch Kirill] said. He might have said things that were not good to say; however you loathe anyone, it seems, who teaches Orthodox sexual ethics. Read More

Top: Besties Metropolitan Tikhon (L) of the Orthodox Church in America and Patriarch Kirill (R) of the Russian Orthodox Church

Bottom: Archpriest Chad Hatfield, President of St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary

The so-called “Patriarch Kirill Endowment for Biblical Studies” — “in recognition of Patriarch Kirill for his role in the remarkable revival of the Orthodox Church in Russia, universal church leadership, profound biblically oriented pastoral guidance, and support for the vision of the autocephalous Orthodox Church in America” — was a sick joke and the laughingstock of the Orthodox world when it was first announced.

Now you have an endowment named after the most genocidal hierarch in Orthodox history.

Give back the rubles. Refinance and rename your biblical studies endowment.

The whole world is watching to see what you do. Read More

(Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images)

NOTE: THIS CAMPAIGN HAS ENDED

PLEASE MAKE YOUR CONTRIBUTION DIRECTLY TO INTERNATIONAL ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN CHARITIES

In years past, Orthodoxy in Dialogue has conducted successful fundraising campaigns during Great Lent to feed the homeless on the streets of Toronto on Pascha.

This year, we propose to do the same for our Ukrainian brothers and sisters driven from their homes by the Russian invasion. Please give as generously as you can. On Holy Saturday, we will transfer all the funds collected, together with the list of donor names, to the International Orthodox Christian Charities for their humanitarian mission in Ukraine.

Send your contribution to editors@orthodoxyindialogue.com via PayPal. Include your name (or indicate if you prefer to be listed as Anonymous), place of residence, and in whose memory (if you wish) you make your offering. Names will be listed alphabetically. Individual amounts will not be publicly disclosed.

Return to this page often to see the total donations and list of names growing.

Whether you can give or not, join your prayers to ours for the suffering people of Ukraine and for the success of this year’s Lenten project.

TOTAL TO DATE: $443 CAD

✠   DONORS   ✠

Yvette Cuny
Sacramento, California

M.J.S.
St. Paul, Minnesota
In memory of James and Sandra Bergstrom and Alice Danyluk

Giacomo Sanfilippo
Toronto, Ontario
In memory of Archpriest Peter and Anna Lukashyk Turiansky

Bernard Stuckey
Indianapolis, Indiana

Anonymous
Toronto, Ontario

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Боже великий, єдиний, нам Украïну храни. Great and only God, protect Ukraine for us.