I’ve often used Borges’s wonderful little piece, “Borges and I” in classes, as a quick way into the debate on the death of the author. If you’ve not read it, it’s worth taking a moment to look it over. Tackle Foucault’s essay, or Barthes’s for that matter, on much the same topic too, if you’re […]
continue readingBut First a Word From Our Students….
Keeley McMurray is a junior double majoring in English and Religious Studies. When she isn’t writing papers or contemplating the meaning of life, Keeley loves to travel, listen to Jeff Buckley and make art. We’re asking some current REL students to finish some sentences for us…. The first REL course I took at UA was: […]
continue readingThe Myth of Charismatic Visionaries
Let’s play a game Which one of these quotes is from New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, writing just the other day, and which is from William James, the American psychologist of religion, writing well over 100 years ago?
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 readingThe Wonderment of This Taxonomy
I’ve been putting quotation marks around the word religion for a long time now — some people dismiss them as affectations, others call them scare quotes.
continue readingSelf-Help Jesus in America
By Allie Rash Allie Rash is a rising senior double majoring in Mathematics and Religious Studies. She hails from Franklin, TN, but calls North Carolina and Kansas home as well. This Spring Allie completed an independent study with Prof. Mike Altman on ideas of self-help in American Protestantism. In this post she reviews the final […]
continue reading“How Old is That?”
Among the assorted knick-knacks that line my office’s shelves—ranging from such relics as photos of friends and family or gifts I’ve accumulated over the years to a selection of tattered romance novels shelved long ago among my books by mischievous students—is a nicely matted and framed “fossil” of Knightia, a long extinct genus of small […]
continue readingThe Nature of Truth, Categorization, and Other Blurry Matters
By Brooke Champagne Brooke Champagne is an instructor of English and the Assistant Director of First-Year Writing at The University of Alabama. She received her Master of Fine Arts degree in creative nonfiction from Louisiana State University. While she makes her living as a teacher, she is a perennial student of writing, religion, and language, […]
continue readingWorking Miracles
Did you catch Bart Ehrman’s interview about his new book on National Public Radio’s “Fresh Air” the other day? No? Then have a listen. While there’s lots here to consider if we want to entertain what a truly critical, historical study of religion might look like, what a critical approach to how we talk about […]
continue readingMaking Strange
With the release of “Noah” in theaters across the U.S. on the day that I’m writing this, an old thought occurred to me: wouldn’t it be interesting to use popular movies as a way to entertain how to see “their” local as “they” might see it? For the familiarity that we attribute to stories about, […]
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