Call For Papers

The Center for Jewish Studies and the Department of Religion at Baylor University are pleased to announce an international conference, Honoring Heschel at 100, to be held at Baylor University, November 1-3, 2007.

Our conference will pay tribute to Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel on the centenary of his birth. Rabbi Heschel, perhaps the premier Jewish theologian/philosopher of the 20th century, was born in Poland, a descendant of an illustrious line of Hasidic Rabbis. Fleeing Europe during the Nazi years, he came to America, where he taught at Hebrew Union Seminary and Jewish Theological Seminary. Rabbi Heschel published widely on the prophets, on humanity's relationship to God, and the work of justice and reconciliation needed in the post-Holocaust era. Rabbi Heschel was a Civil Right's activist and a prime mover in the ecumenical, interfaith movement.

Rabbi Heschel's daughter, Professor Susannah Heschel will keynote our conference. Professor Heschel holds the Eli Black Chair of Jewish Studies at Dartmouth University and is the author of Abraham Geiger and the Jewish Jesus, winner of the National Jewish Book Award. Professor Heschel has edited a number of volumes of her father's work including Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity: Essays by Abraham Joshua Heschel, and is a widely known feminist speaker and writer with edited volumes On Being a Jewish Feminist and Yentl's Revenge: The Next Wave of Jewish Feminism.

We are delighted that Professor Clayborn Carson of Stanford University will also keynote our proceedings. Dr. Carson is a professor of history and founding director of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University. Under Dr. Carson's direction, the King Papers Project has produced five volumes of a projected fourteen volume comprehensive edition of King's speeches, sermons, correspondence, publications, and unpublished writings. He has also written and lectured on the subject of Black-Jewish relations, a relationship very dear to Rabbi Heschel's life and work.

We are also pleased to welcome Mr. Steve Brand, the award winning documentary filmmaker, whose docudrama Kaddish received the Best Documentary award at the Sundance Film Festival. He is presently working on a two hour documentary about Rabbi Heschel's life, "Praying With My Legs: Abraham Joshua Heschel and the Search for a Meaningful Existence." The film explores Rabbi Heschel's religious thought and life witness.

Also part of the conference are: Dr. Leora Batnitzky, Professor of Religion at Princeton University; Dr. Dan Conway, Head and Professor of Philosophy at Texas A & M University, Dr. Richard Cogley, Chair of the Religion Department at Southern Methodist University; Dr. Alvin Dueck, Evelyn and Frank Freed Professor of the Integration of Psychology and Theology Department of Clinical Psychology at Fuller Theology Seminary; Dr. Gregory Kaplan, Anna Smith Fine Assistant Professor of Judaic Studies at Rice University; Dr. Claire Katz, Associate Professor of Philosophy and Women's Studies at Texas A&M; Dr. Martin Kavka, Professor in the Religious Studies Department at Florida State University; and Dr. Admiel Kosman,. Professur für Religionswissenschaft (Schwerpunkt Rabbinische Studien - Halacha und Liturgie) Wissenschaftlicher Direktor des Abraham Geiger Kollegs in Berlin at the University at Potsdam.

In their spirit, we welcome Heschel scholars as well as those who are unacquainted with Rabbi Heschel's work but who work on the issues and topics which were central to his life.

Paper Topics:

• Exploring the Prophets, Then & Now
• Vatican II and the Jews
• Post-Holocaust Jewish Theology
• Jewish-Christian Relations Today
• The Spirituality of Prayer
• Jewish-Muslim Relations
• Civil Rights
• The God of Israel and Christian Renewal
• Repentance and Reconciliation
• Feminism and Spirituality
• New Testament and the Jews
• Jewish Philosophy and the Future

Please submit an abstract of 150 words on the one of the subjects listed above or another one that reflects the interests that Rabbi Heschel wrote about and witnessed to in his life.

Send abstract to: Dr. Marc Ellis

To register for the Conference click here

Conference Registration Fee: $150

Other co-sponsors include: the Department of Philosophy, Department of Journalism, American Studies and Gender Studies.