UPCOMING CONFERENCES
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Dreams, Fears, and Transformation: Theological Roots in Literary Mythologies
Hope International University | Fullerton, CA
March 20-21, 2025
Many works of literature are also mythologies—orienting (or disorienting) narratives that establish a worldview or community identity. Mythologies may depict origins and apocalypses, dreams and fears, transformation and redemption. Amidst a spectrum of literary mythologies (“The Dream of the Rood,” Shakespeare’s Tempest, Hawthorne’s Puritan stories, Joyce’s Ulysses, Eliot’s Waste Land, Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, etc.), the threshold between theology and literature often blurs. In such texts, dreams and visions sometimes fill the liminal space between religious belief and the mythological narrative. In others, fear shapes religious limitations and ideals. And transformation often lies at the center of such narratives. Where, then, is the intersection between theology and representations of dreams, fears, or transformation in literary mythologies? How might integrating these parts help us understand Christian thought and practice?
Hope International University invites you to contribute your original research on the topic of Dreams, Fears, and Transformation: Theological Roots in Literary Mythologies through an examination of these themes in literature and storytelling. We welcome papers, panels, creative works, and presentations that include theological or philosophical insights into these themes provided the primary grounding is in and through literature.
The conference aims to address questions that include, but are not limited to:
- What is the relationship between faith and fear in literary mythology?
- How might readers’ religious beliefs alter their interpretation of a mythological narrative?
- How do stories of transformation affect readers’ openness or resistance to religious thinking?
- How do stories of transformation or redemption shape cultural mythologies?
- What role does religion play in origin narratives? In apocalypse narratives? In eschatological narratives?
- How are postmodern mythologies influenced by spirituality, Christianity, or religious practice?
- How do postcolonial readings view Christianity in mythological narratives?
- How does religious belief influence dreams or visions for a community? Which literary forms serve this function well? Poetry, short fiction, etc.?
- How do dreams function in literary mythology? Do they answer questions, raise more questions, or lead to transformation?
Keynote Speaker – Lori Anne Ferrell, PhD is the dean of the School of Arts & Humanities at Claremont Graduate University, and the director of the Kingsley & Kate Tufts Poetry Awards. She is also a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and was a 2018–19 Dana and David Dornsife Fellow at The Huntington Library. Ferrell is the editor of volume 11 of The Oxford Edition of the Sermons of John Donne (Oxford University Press, 2016), and author of The Bible and the People (Yale University Press, 2008). Her research concentrates on the effect of religious and political change on early modern texts—theological, literary, theatrical, and practical.
Conference Registration Links:
Presenter - https://forms.office.com/r/spXRJzuRj4
Guest - https://forms.office.com/r/nL7zsUVbDg
REGIONAL CONFERENCES
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Call for Papers
Imaginative Reading: Walking Into the Wardrobe
Southeast Regional Meeting of the Conference on Christianity and Literature
Anderson University | Anderson, SC
October 23-25, 2025
In 2024, The Atlantic published a widely discussed article entitled “The Elite College Students Who Can’t Read Books” in which author Rose Horowitz grapples with the fact that more and more college students, and adults in general, are reading less, either because they can’t perform the sustained reading that an entire volume requires or because other distractions are more appealing to them. And yet reading, particularly longer works, has many benefits: deepening empathy, strengthening neural pathways, and even lowering blood pressure. Many adult readers discovered their love of reading in childhood when they encountered imaginative worlds and characters through books. One of those enthralling novels that many discover their reading love through is C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Coinciding with the 75th anniversary of its publication, this conference welcomes papers relating to C.S. Lewis and The Inklings, as well as inquiries into the topics of imagination and reading. Some areas of inquiry could include, but are not limited to:
The Inklings
Where is reading seen in the Inklings’ work–in their personal papers and/or fiction? How does reading, or the imagination at work in the act of reading, enlighten or change the ways these works are read? What do the Inklings’ views (or any author’s views) on imagination tell us about their own acts of creation in writing? There have been works written about Lewis’ and Tolkien’s reading practices, but what about the other lesser-known Inklings?
Imagination
Is imagination only for certain types of people or age groups? How might the human imagination fit into a theological framework? Is imagination important (or even necessary) for spiritual formation? If children have the most familiarity with the imagination, how should we interpret Jesus’ message that unless “you become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven”? How does imagination fit into this call? Does imagination have a place in liturgy or in the corporate church setting? With many rediscovering the Ignatian practice of lectio divina, how does the spiritual application of imagination affect reading practices or vice versa?
Reading
Are there any ways to encourage students and adults to do “deep reading”?Can the novel form be rescued from extinction? Where does reading appear in novels, poems, plays, and short stories? How does the act of reading inform the characters or other elements of the genre? Does the popularity of “BookTok” hold any promise for the act of reading? How does positive social peer pressure encourage the act of reading? What about the lack of reading? Are there characters or themes that highlight a society or world without the act of reading? Is there a placement for reading? What does this replacement say about imagination, in turn? What is the connection that we have between reading and imagination? Can one be present and not the other?
Our speakers will include Dr. Austin Carty, author of The Pastor's Bookshelf: Why Reading Matters for Ministry (Eerdmans); Dr. Rachel M. Roberts, co-author of Deep Reading: Practices to Subvert the Vices of Our Distracted, Hostile, and Consumeristic Age (Baker Academic); and our keynote speaker will be NY Times bestseller Patti Callahan Henry, author of Becoming Mrs. Lewis and Into the Wardrobe.
Please submit abstracts of 250-300 words to Dr. Katherine Cooper Wyma at by June 15, 2025. Undergraduate students must submit their entire paper for consideration; eligible undergraduate papers will be entered into the national CCL Undergraduate Writing Contest for a cash prize and publication on the CCL website. Graduate students are encouraged to apply for the CCL Travel Grant. Presenters should be members of the Conference on Christianity and Literature prior to presenting.