Call for Papers

“Saying No to Babylon” Today: Writings in Honour of Burchell Taylor

For over fifty years, Baptist pastor, biblical scholar and Caribbean theologian extraordinaire, Burchell Taylor, has been a voice crying out against the effects of Empire on the people of the region.  His seminal works – “The Babylonish Captivity of the Church” and “In the Shadow of Empire” – have laid down a challenge to the church and the Caribbean community to confront empire and unmask principalities and powers. Recognising the importance of reading strategies both for the text of Scripture and the text of experience as a means of pastoring, unmasking and disarming empire, Taylor has produced the important monograph, Saying No to Babylon.  With a world faced by new and evolving imperial powers, this festschrift, which honours Taylor’s work and ministerial practice, takes a critical look of what it means to face down empire today and boldly say, “No” to Babylon.

The Project

Submissions are requested from persons in the Caribbean and the Caribbean Diaspora for this festschrift in honour of Burchell Taylor.  These can be in the form of: essays, Bible Studies, and commentaries on a piece of art work, literature, poetry or popular music depicting the theme.

Proposed Themes

  • Religion/Church/Bible and Empire
  • Globalisation / Corporatization and Empire
  • Culture and Empire
  • Nation State as Empire
  • Ecological Devastation and Empire
  • Occupation / Land and Empire
  • Military / Security and Empire
  • Media as Empire
  • Church / Faith Communities as Empire
  • Politics and Empire
  • Gender / Caste / Inclusive Community and Empire
  • Struggles at the Margin and Empire
  • Economic Injustice and Empire

Submit your 300-500 word abstract via E-mail to btfestschrift@gmail.com (copied to drperks@gmail.com) no later than September 31, 2017.

Please include your name, contact information, and your affiliation (if any) with Burchell Taylor.

You will be notified by October 31, 2017 if abstract has been accepted and manuscripts will be due December 1, 2017.

~ Organizing Committee~: Rev. Dr Garnett Roper, Dr Anna Kasafi Perkins, Rev. Dr Byron Chambers