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forum forlively debate and productive/practical discussions about the

mission of Christiansworking in the historical profession. By extension, it

aspires toprovide an occasion to explore the meaning and purpose of the

Conference on Faith and History itself.

Sessions thatintend to offer formal papers will be limited to no more

than two participants and one discussant each, and each paperwill be

somewhat brief in the interestof allowing maximal time for audience

questions and discussion. Roundtables willinclude four or five participants

who will each offer brief commentary on the giventopic, primarily as grist

for audience participation and discussion.

The meeting will also include

several plenary sessions that intend to be provocative andgenerate

discussion both within and outside these sessions.

Suggested below are some sessions that:

-----Are devoted to how professors might use Christian perspectivesto shape

history curricula and/or guide the teaching of history

-----Discuss influential historicalmonographs by any author, on any subject,

written from any perspective;

-----Are organized according toone or multiple distinct confessional

frameworks or traditions of Christian belief that hope to explore the

unique contributions that each makes to the enterprise of studying and

interpreting the past.Such sessions may consider the possibility of

making discussions more concreteby organizing papers around a

common historical problem (i.e. revolution, war,gender, popular

culture, market capitalism, reform, ethnicity, liberty, poverty, etc.);

-----Generate discussion of particular non-historiographic "classic" texts that

may/have provide(d) insights into helping Christiansthink more

carefully about history (i.e. Niebuhr, CHRIST AND CULTURE;Yoder,

THE POLITICS OF JESUS; Volf, EXCLUSION ANDEMBRACE;

Ruether, SEXISM AND GOD-TALK; Tinder, THE POLITICAL

MEANING OF CHRISTIANITY;Gutierrez, A THEOLOGY OF

LIBERATION; Kuyper, LECTURESON CALVINISM; Neuhaus, THE

NAKED PUBLIC SQUARE; and many, many others!);

-----Question the value and even validityof providing a Christian account of

the past;

-----Invite non-historian theoreticians to offerinsights that may prove

valuable for Christian historical thinking;

-----Honor particularly notableChristian scholars by discussing their work

from various perspectives and seeking to determine theirunique

contributions to the enterprise of Christian historiography;