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NB: Alain Badiou and Slavoj Zizek have both withdrawn from this session.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