Subverting the Norm, Drury University, MO

Subverting the Norm is a three-day event that brings together pastors, theologians, philosophers, church practitioners, researchers in religion and all those interested in exploring the relationship between postmodern theologies and church practice. Some of the questions that will be considered at the third Subverting the Norm include:

- Is postmodern theology and religious practice insufficiently political, at least insofar as it plays out in academic and church circles?
- In what ways is the work of religious thought offered by postmodern theologies also a work of political thought?
- Can these theologies open theoretical and practical possibilities for collective resistance and for social, political, economic and ecological transformation?

- Are religious collectives and churches contributing to a new and distinct approach to socio-political transformation? Or do postmodern religious collectives and communal practices mimic rather than challenge the contemporary political, social and economic cultures they intend to avoid?

- Why do so many strains of the postmodern religious conversation (death of God theologies, postsecular philosophies, radical theologies, and emergent church practices) – despite emphases on the other – tend to be dominated by white male voices that are usually from significant privilege? And what might these postmodern theologies learn from theological traditions that more often place questions of power and politics at their centre, such as liberation, feminist, queer, and postcolonial theologies?

- If established churches and collectives are to be faithful to the revolutionary event that gave birth to Christianity, how might they be informed by such approaches to political theology?

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