ABSTRACT
To close this collection of scholarship and criticism at the intersections of “religion” and contemporary art, we, the editors, invited four prominent scholars – working from different disciplinary frameworks, and who have made significant contributions to the field themselves – to participate in a conversation. We asked them to take stock of the current state of art practice and scholarly/critical discourse in this expansive field of inquiry. We provided them with drafts of our contributors’ chapters and posed several initial questions, inviting them to respond to each other’s comments. Their reflections included looking back to trace some of the critical developments that paved the way for the wide-ranging and diverse work being produced today. Finally, we asked them to cast an eye forward to consider the future trajectories of scholarship and other engagements at the nexus of art and religion. We are grateful for their willingness to participate in this project and for their deeply informed and thoughtful responses that resulted in the rich and insightful colloquy found below. Our roundtable scholars and their institutional affiliations (as well as the abbreviations used to identify them in the conversation) are as follows:
