If you’re paying attention to US news then you may have been seeing the recent stories leading up to the Senate vote that failed to pass the necessary financial deals to finance the federal government — which resulted in the shutdown that we’re now in. While some parts of the federal government are still open, […]
continue readingIn Other Words…
Like some of you, I woke today to an email soliciting submissions for a special issue of the open access online journal Open Theology. The email opened as follows: A person who reads texts from other religious traditions sometimes encounters what the reader understands to be a transcendent encounter with ultimacy. Encounters with the ultimate […]
continue readingGenerating Pain
A Pearson textbook Nursing: A Context Based Approach to Learning (reportedly published in 2014) has become a point of controversy after an outpouring of outrage over the culturally stereotyped discussion of “Cultural Differences in Response to Pain.” The publisher has apologized, is studying how this chart passed editorial review, and has “removed the material in question […]
continue reading“Both Sides”
I saw the above pic on a friend’s Facebook wall a few days ago — clearly lampooning President Trump’s recent comments following the violence a week ago at Charlottesville, VA, in which self-described white supremacists marched, protestors organized against them (one of whom, Heather Heyer, was killed when a car, driven by James Alex Fields, […]
continue readingCulture and Film-Making
Matthew McCullough is a junior from Huntsville, Alabama majoring in Religious Studies and Political Science. The following was written for REL 360: Popular Culture/Public Humanities.
continue reading‘Meaning’ Given to Objects in Museums
Ellie Ellie Cochran is a soon-to-be junior from Atlanta, Georgia, majoring in Religious Studies at the University of Alabama. The following was written for REL 360: Popular Culture/Public Humanities.
continue readingA Lesson in Comparison
Yes, that’s the reaction Symone Sanders had to her fellow CNN commentator’s comments favorably comparing Donald Trump to Martin Luther King. Didn’t catch this yesterday, or the fall out for much of the rest of the day?
continue readingHistory, Identity, and Memory: The ‘Melting Pot’ is Bubbling Over!
The recent flap over the January 27, 2017, official White House Press Release of President Trump’s Statement on International Holocaust Remembrance Day and its egregious omission of the primary victims of the Nazi genocide—the Jews—instead identifying and honoring “the [unnamed and unreferenced] victims, survivors, and heroes” beggars logic. Coming as it did on the heels […]
continue readingThe Devil’s in the Details
My early book was cited near the start of Chris Kavanagh‘s recent online essay, as an example of a work in the study of religion that — despite him agreeing that there is “much that is valid in such critiques” — seems to constitute “academic minutiae” that we should put behind us, so we can […]
continue readingThe Tremendous Irony of it All
Last week there was some chatter online about the nominations put forward for the leadership of our field’s main professional association. (Question: why does the nominating committee exercise a monopoly on determining the organization’s leadership?) Apart from a variety of posts on Facebook and Twitter, the blogs I saw were those by Mike Altman, Aaron […]
continue reading