Call for Papers

Current Themed Call for Papers: Religious Life at the Peripheries

Submission deadline: rolling, with preference given to those received by June 30, 2022.

Jorge Mario Cardinal Bergoglio, SJ, in a 2013 speech to the conclave that was to elect him as pope, reportedly said: “The Church is called to come out of herself and to go to the peripheries, not only geographically, but also the existential peripheries: the mystery of sin, of pain, of injustice, of ignorance and indifference to religion, of intellectual currents, and of all misery.” 

Review for Religious welcomes submissions on the topic of religious life at the peripheries for a special themed issue. As the quote above suggests, there is no single periphery, but many to consider. What peripheries exist? How are they related to each other? How do they relate to religious life? 

Submissions on concrete and practical questions are also welcome. How does a periphery influence a charism, apostolate, and mission of a religious institute? What are the current responses or what ought to be the response to peripheries by institutes?

Two contextual factors provide further topics to consider: first, the 50th anniversary of the emergence of liberation theology is an excellent moment to reflect on the new borderlines of religious life. Second, the COVID-19 pandemic and other wide-spread social problems like racism and economic inequality may have revealed previously unknown peripheries of our religious lives; grappling with these realities are welcome, too. 

Submissions from a broad range of disciplinary perspectives (theology, history, sociology, anthropology, psychology, pedagogy/education, canon law, economics) are encouraged, as are interdisciplinary submissions.

Questions should be directed to editor@reviewforreligious.com.