Reconciling Religion and Remains—Faith and Biblical Archaeology

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to invite you to submit papers for this Special Issue of Religions entitled “Reconciling Religion and Remains—Faith and Biblical Archaeology”. The aim of this Special Issue is to develop new ideas and research directions related to the history of the field of biblical archaeology. We seek studies that explore biblical archaeology’s most influential individuals and their philosophical underpinnings, whether that includes a faith commitment or not. Articles may analyse the many paradigm shifts, methodological approaches, or the current discussions in biblical archaeology about the role that faith plays in archaeology and the nature of evidence. This Special Issue is devoted to studies, current trends, and issues facing the field of biblical archaeology, such as funding, departmental organisation at universities and seminaries, and the future of biblical archaeology in the academic world. It is hoped that understanding the history and issues facing biblical archaeology will allow the field to grow in new directions, allowing scholars and lay people alike to have increasingly nuanced and accurate discussions about these matters.

This Special Issue requests article submissions on the following themes and article types:

• The role of politics and religion in the changing of names of historic research institutions such as ASOR, the OI (now ISAC), etc.
• Religious positivism of Albright, Yadin, Gluekc, etc.. vs. more critical stances of Kenyon, Finkelstein, etc.
• Changing trends in funding and participating in biblical archaeology.
• Biblical Archaeology and Anthropology—was religion removed from consideration?
• Biblical archaeology and biblical studies—reflections of refractions of faith (biographies of key figures).
• Faith and realia in biblical archaeology.
• Do New Testament/Second Temple archaeologists/historians approach the question of faith and realia differently than Hebrew Bible/Old Testament specialists?
• Questionaire for contributors outlining their faith affiliation (or lack thereof) and its impact on various aspects of its relationship to their field of inquiry.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but not limited to) the following:

• History of the Research of Biblical Archaeology;
• Shifting Methodological Approaches in Biblical Archaeology;
• Nomenclature of Archaeology in the Lands of the Bible;
• The Role of Faith in Biblical Archaeology;
• Apolegetics and Archaeology;
• Funding Biblical Archaeology;
• Biblical Archaeology (or the lack thereof) in the American university and/or seminary systems;
• Careers in Biblical Archaeology;
• Varying Religious (Jewish, Christian, Mormon, Islamic, non-religious) Perspectives on the Relationship between Archaeology and the Bible;
• The Future of Faith in the Field (or the lack thereof).

We request that, prior to submitting a manuscript, interested authors initially submit a proposed title and an abstract of 200-300 words summarising their intended contribution. Please send it to the Guest Editors, or to the Assistant Editor of Religions, Ms. Violet Li (violet.li@mdpi.com). Abstracts will be reviewed by the Guest Editors for the purposes of ensuring proper fit within the scope of the Special Issue. Full manuscripts will undergo double-blind peer review.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Mark D. Janzen
Dr. Kyle H. Keimer
Dr. Chris McKinny
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Religions is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• biblical archaeology
• biblical criticism
• fundamentalism
• positivism
• worldview
• apologetics
• funding sources
• history of research
• nomenclature