Religion Dispatches
…YDUM, PATRICIA MILLER, HAROON MOGHUL, KAYA OAKES Associate Editors: ANDREW AGHAPOUR (THE CUBIT), PETER MONTGOMERY, SARAH MORICE-BRUBAKER, MICHAEL SCHULSON (THE CUBIT) Contributing Editors: CANDACE CHELLEW-HODGE, AUSTIN DACEY, NATHAN SCHNEIDER, DANIEL SCHULTZ Executive Board: UMBREEN BHATTI, ANTHEA BUTLER, ERIC GUTIERREZ, BRIE LOSKOTA, JAMES MORICE, GARY WEXLER _____________ Advisory Board: Rachel Barenblat Congregation Beth Israel, North Adams MA…
Read More
A funny thing happened on my brain’s way to the dentist. It began this morning when my brain was asleep, having a frightful dream about an evil wisdom tooth. In my dream I was running away, when in reality I was kicking my wife! Thanks a lot, special bundle of neurons in my brainstem that’s supposed to block motor signals during slumber. I woke up to Beverly’s screaming and, let me tell you, her limbic system was in high gear. In a few minutes I…
Read More
Like marijuana, affect theory seems to pop up at parties, where it circulates within small groups that keep to the periphery. While it isn’t illegal in any of the 50 states—it’s an intellectual approach to emotions, after all, not a controlled substance—it has the aura, especially at academic conferences, of an exciting and risky way to reshuffle your faculties of perception. Also like marijuana, affect theory produces esoteric insights that can…
Read More
New York Times science columnist George Johnson had the epistemological grumps last week, about what he titled “The Widening World of Hand-Picked Truths.” It once seemed inevitable that science would replace our faith-based understanding of the world, he argues, but “that dream seems to be coming apart.” The culprit? It’s not organized religions— though they’re trying their best— it’s our postmodern acceptance of “alternate” and “personal” truths…
Read MoreLet’s say you’re a prominent climate change denier. And then Pope Francis comes along and announces that climate change is going to be a major item on his agenda for the coming months. What do you do? Do you: (A) Hold a press conference in Rome and tell the Church it has no business meddling in science; (B) Accuse Pope Francis of being misled by charlatan UN experts; or (C) Liken climate-deniers to Galileo, as part of a long line of truth-tellers…
Read More
Go to the grocery store to buy vanilla extract and you’ll be faced with an ontological choice: natural or artificial? The real stuff—expensive “pure vanilla extract”—is made from the beans of a vanilla orchid that was painstakingly harvested, cured, a shipped across the globe. Artificial vanilla extract, on the other hand, uses synthesized vanillin derived from wood pulp or petroleum. Natural: How Faith in Nature’s Goodness Leads to Harmful Fads,…
Read More
Jazz, like religion, eludes strict definitions. It overflows boundaries of genre and form, and, when improvised, is unpredictable and ephemeral. As Jason Bivins documents in his latest book, Spirits Rejoice!: Jazz and American Religion, jazz musicians share with religion scholars certain anti-essentialist leanings. Spirits Rejoice!: Jazz and American Religion Jason C. Bivins Oxford University Press (May 1, 2015) The similarities run deeper. Jazz…
Read More
In a recent BBC documentary, Secrets of the Superbrands, presenter Alex Riley attended the opening of a London Apple store and noted the “evangelical frenzy” of the fans lining the block. At first Riley stayed mostly at the periphery of the crowd, shooting sarcastic looks to the camera and lobbing one-liners about the seemingly religious ecstasy of the “glassy-eyed” consumers being ushered in by a team of Apple’s blue-shirted “preachers.” Enterta…
Read More
Rob Bell is on the move. In 1998, as a 28-year-old evangelical pastor in Michigan, Bell founded Mars Hill Church. The community swelled into a megachurch, and Bell gained a national reputation among evangelicals anxious about their ability to reach Millennials. But Bell stayed in motion. He developed a stylized image of a progressive, hip, open-minded Christianity. He preached social justice and pluralism, encouraged doubt, and supported gay marr…
Read More