Saving Sex: Sexuality and Salvation in American Evangelism by Amy DeRogatis “Saving Sex is a long-overdue exploration of evangelicals’ surprising and often-misunderstood beliefs about sex–who can do what, when, and why–and of the many ways in which they try to bring those beliefs to bear on American culture.” Oxford University Press Main Argument In Saving Sex,Continue reading “American Christianity’s Connection with Sexuality”

After the Wrath of God: AIDS, Sexuality, and American Religion “The ability to shape notions of morality in American discussions of AIDS, sexuality, and public health has grown into a source of religious power in modern America” (4). By Anthony M. Petro Main Argument Petro’s main argument explores the fact that the AIDS epidemic providedContinue reading “Religion and the Oppression of Sexual Societies”

After the Wrath of God: AIDS, Sexuality, & American Religion “In After the Wrath of God, Anthony Petro vividly narrates the religious history of AIDS in America. Delving into the culture wars over sex, morality, and the future of the American nation, he demonstrates how religious leaders and AIDS activists have shaped debates over sexual moralityContinue reading “The Functionalist Approach to American Christianity”

“The claims of religion were actually symbolically coded claims about the social group itself… since the practices we call religions are none other than members’ efforts to assemble and experience the group as an empirical reality.” The above quote reference Emile Durkheim’s philosophy. Taken from Russel McCutcheon’s work, The Function of Religion, the social aspectsContinue reading “Freudian Manifestations: Sinful by Practice or Product?”

In After The Wrath of God, Anthony Petro uncovers narratives of the relationship between Christianity and AIDS activism in America during the 1980s. Focusing primarily on Evangelical, Mainline Protestant, and Catholic contexts, he depicts the ways in which religious discourse surrounding sexual ethics has affected American and international policies. Petro argues that by framing discourseContinue reading “Book Curation: Religion as Social Organizor”

The Gods of Indian Country is a book about the relationship between the Native American populations of the West, specifically the Kiowa people, and the United States during the 1800s, the height of the era of westward expansion. It specifically focuses on religion in the context of this conflict. The Kiowa people “adapted their ritualContinue reading “Religion as a Tool of the Nation”

Singing Yoruba Christianity  By Vicki R. Brennan  Summary  “Singing the same song is a central part of the worship practice for members for the Cherubim and Seraphim Christian Church in Lagos, Nigeria. Vicki L. Brennan reveals that by singing together, church members create one spiritual mind and become unified around a shared set of values.Continue reading “Durkheim, Marx, and Freud in Modern Literature “

Holy Terrors: Thinking about Religion after September 11 In his preface Bruce Lincoln, a professor of religion and a prize-winning scholar at the University of Chicago, describes Holy Terrors as his “attempt to think through the nature of religion, to identify its core components (discourse, practice, community, institution), and to specify its historically changing relation to otherContinue reading “Religious Perspective: Changing the Status Quo”

“Using a diverse set of case studies that range from medieval banquets to professional wrestling, African kingship and Lakota Sun Dances to the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre and atrocities of the Spanish Civil War, this volume explores the way myths, rituals, and other privileged acts of symbolic discourse actively produce, reproduce, and occasionally modify socialContinue reading “Discourse and the Construction of Society: Comparative Studies of Myth, Ritual, and Classification”