7 Women Scholars On the Gender Divide in Religious Studies, the Power of Mentors, and Leading While Female
This weekend, downtown Atlanta is entirely overrun by scholars of religion. Thousands have gathered for the…
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“Who Is This God?”: The Controversial Sequel to the Jesus Seminar
Perhaps, like me, you’re the right age and religious sensibility to have worn a WWJD…
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“Saving the Planet” Sounds Strangely Religious: A Response to Ivan Strenski
The ongoing debate regarding activism and the academy: climate change edition.
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Can Religion Professors Save the Planet?
Prof. Zoloth’s proposal tells us everything we need to know about the malaise poisoning the study of religion.
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Silver Bells and Atheist Billboards
Dawkins points out in The God Delusion that many clergy are closet atheists. If they come out of the cupboard, they lose a career that they have spent many years and many thousands of dollars to attain. Isn’t it just easier to pretend? Considering that most career options to defrocked clergy (mainly unemployment) are hardly palatable, who can blame them? Statistics from Denmark and Sweden reveal what might never be politically correct among the United Saints of America—practical atheism abounds among churchgoing Christians and clergy.
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Why the World Needs Religious Studies
The first time I went to the American Academy of Religion conference it really got my hopes up. This was the fall of 2006 and, with only a summer in between, I’d just finished college and begun my first year of a PhD program in religious studies…
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Talking Religion at 30,000 Feet
As I learned in college, religious studies is predicated on a notion of bracketing. “When we study religion academically,” professors tell students every semester, “we bracket our own beliefs and ideas so we can better understand others.” When I tell a stranger that I study religion in America the first question is always “What do you plan to do with that?” But the second question always begins, “so, what do you think about…” Sometimes I try to bend the question to some neutral space where I can offer a well-informed opinion that brings historical clarity without actually taking a side. Other times I just mutter something and go back to my book and wonder if this bracketing is rude, unnecessary, and silly. Shouldn’t I just tell the tourist in seat 17B what I really think?
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Are Christians Theologically Prepared to Accept Torture?
The results of a new Pew survey indicate that going to church increases the likelihood that people will support torture, especially if they are white evangelical Protestants. This is not good news.
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History in Real Time: Teaching Obama
A professor of African-American religious history talks about teaching with a heavy heart, year after year, about the truths of racism. With the election of Barack Obama, this year will be different, but the journey of healing has only just begun.
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