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Some Thoughts on Richard Dawkins’ Terrible Tweet

By Haroon Moghul

…o justify their sadism, barbarism and immorality in the name of Islam. The best response to Richard Dawkins is not a history lesson, nor an appeal to specific verses, but a calm perusal of the newspaper. How can the Arab world, for example, technologically progress when its most populous state was kept under our thumb for decades? It is easy for Americans to forget that we supported Egypt’s dictator for thirty years, and happily welcomed Qaddafi b…

As Transition Looms, Jewish Studies is Mired in Controversy

By Shaul Magid

…to be serious problems in Jewish Studies more broadly. The question of how best to respond to this situation is not only a matter of discussing the best institutional policies in cases of sexual harassment; it pertains to the values at the very heart of Jewish Studies as an academic field, including its relationship to Jewish communal life and what it includes (and excludes) from its articulations of Jews and Jewishness. In conversation with their…

You Are Being Organized by Something: 10 Questions for Kathryn Lofton on Consuming Religion

By Kathryn Lofton

…g imperative as those older ones. I don’t think it’s coincidental that the best voices in pop criticism are more diverse than the best voices in the American academy. The materials of mass culture are simply more accessible to a wider population, and when you create a fairer space for competitive possibility, you’ll find a more diverse set of people at the top. That said, I am a big fan of academic nerds, and I openly borrow from the creativity an…

Mitt, Moochers, and Mormonism’s “Other” Legacy

By Mary Barker

…st as it does Tea Party platitudes, and the two are not unrelated; for the best of conservatism isn’t about astringent Calvinism, but rather the efficacy of private action. Even critics of Mormonism attest to this spirit of King Benjamin in their characterization of them as “unceasingly kind.” Matt Stone, co-creator with Trey Parker of South Park, whose episode on the Joseph Smith story is punctuated with the musical refrain “dumb, dumb, dumb, dum…

Beliefnet’s Oscars

By Gabriel Mckee

…than a little random. In each of the three categories—Best Spiritual Film, Best Spiritual Performance, and Best Spiritual Documentary—there are some puzzling choices, and some even more puzzling omissions. Take the Best Spiritual Performance category. The judges picked Emile Hirsch for Into the Wild, which is a pretty sensible choice, though his character’s spiritual quest ends in tragedy. But the People’s Choice winner was Will Smith for his role…

2011’s Best Books—
Or Just a Great Reading List

By Haroon Moghul

…ally, Marable himself passed away only days before the publication of this bestselling work, but the impact it made—settling on the bestseller lists, for example—only underscores the scale of his scholarship, and the relevance it has to our world. Growing up, Haley’s Autobiography was profoundly influential in the formation of my own identity—along with Muhammad Iqbal’s own works, both sustained me when Maryam Jameelah and the Islam of ideology wa…

The Conservative Bible Project: Looking for Conservative Diamonds in a Liberal Dung-Hill

By Thomas Fabisiak

…Jesus taught parables about the “free market” (a late-medieval concept at best), and that the Bible includes “later-inserted liberal passages.” In describing the project, Schlafly has repeatedly cited two such “liberal” passages: the story of Jesus saving an adulteress from being stoned in John 7:53-8:11, and Luke 23:34, where Jesus asks God to forgive his crucifiers, “for they know not what they do.” Schlafly is right to point out that neither p…

Religion Profs Critique PBS’ God Documentary, Call it Simplistic

By Matthew Avery Sutton

…ple and more themes and more issues into the curriculum. But we don’t. Our best books and our best courses articulate clean, sharp arguments, have lively and engaging narratives, and are relevant. PBS is shooting for exactly the same thing. I hope that academics will view this documentary as a step in the right direction. PBS has spent millions of dollars and solicited the advice of many of the best scholars in the nation in search of God in Ameri…

But ‘Natural’ is Better, No? ‘How Faith in Nature’s Goodness Leads to Harmful Fads, Unjust Laws, and Flawed Science’

By Andrew Aghapour

…I think it’s incredibly important with food to realize that perhaps what’s best for the world is not best for our individual health, or perhaps the thing that tastes best is not the most natural thing or the most beautiful thing. I actually found that the people who understand [this] most are the food producers… I went to Polyface Farms, the most organic farm you could possibly imagine. [Owner/operator Joel Salatin] really is trying to harmonize w…

Year-End Best Books in Race and Religion in American History

By Paul Harvey

With all the memes wishing a good riddance to 2016, and John Oliver’s epic send-off to this annus horribilis, it may seem small comfort that this was a year that might be remembered as one of the most important in a long time in my corner of the scholarly universe: for works that illuminate race and religion in America, and for books reinterpreting African American religious history for a new, more disillusioned generation. If you surmise this co…