Rethinking American Religions: Failing to Explain America or Continually (Re)Shaping It?

Posted on by Richard Newton

This week we feature the work of Andie Alexander, a Religious Studies graduate student at University of Colorado-Boulder. She challenges us to probe narrations of the history of “American Religions.” With cutting insights into the scholarly literature, Alexander surveys scholarly claims on the past to question the politics of sophisticated selective memories. This post has been … Continue reading Rethinking American Religions: Failing to Explain America or Continually (Re)Shaping It?

The Tenure of Scriptures: Interpreting Wheaton College (Illinois)

Posted on by Richard Newton

Do Christians and Muslims worship the same god? The answer matters at Wheaton, but why does the question?

“A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away,”… but probably reflecting a specific context.

Posted on by Richard Newton

I am not so much interested in what religions exist in Star Wars but why they may be there and why we read the “texts” the way we do. Although space is a vacuum, Star Wars was not constructed there. Instead it was constructed in a context that influenced Lucas and the rest of the moviemakers.