The Science of Aesthetics: Rethinking Religion with the Five Percent Nation - The way a person perceives a sensory stimulus may result from that person’s cultural arrangements, suggesting that perception is trained or nurtured... If someone has been taught and surrounded by the belief that a certain sensory stimulus is powerful, then that person will continue to believe it.
Where’s the Beef? The (A)politics of Cow Vigilantism - From how I see it, the Dalit community is making a statement by wanting to renounce the Hindu religion in large numbers. It is a way of saying, if being Hindu means marginalizing people based on ancestral jobs and societal bounds one cannot break out of, then we don’t want to be Hindu.
Dan Brown’s “Origin” and the Art(ifcial) of Religion - In this series, “Sensations of Religion,” students from Dr. Richard Newton introductory religion class explore the difference people make with “stuff” in discourses pertaining to religion.  The first piece in our series questions author Dan Brown’s claim that artificial intelligence may supersede religion’s facility for connecting individuals. Elizabethtown College student E. Rider Brandau suggests that…
A Byte of Apple: Identifying Religion as a Social Technology - The issue in this discussed example is that if an identity is so ubiquitous as Apple’s enthrallment was, it can prevent us from realizing our conversion.
Reading “The African American Bible” on Paper and in Class - The Journal of Biblical Literature recently published a series on ways that biblical scholars have engaged with #BlackLivesMatter in their work.
Blessings:Reprise–Chance the Rapper, Religion, and the Senses - Students in Dr. Richard Newton’s Signifying Religion: An African American Worldview course were invited to employ tools and theories from religious studies to explore how meaning making works. Miriam Balasundram took a phenomenological approach to consider religion and the senses. She was taken by the rhythms of Chance the Rapper and reflected on what led her to…
Christian Support for the Black Lives Matter Campaign - Hannah Ciocco examines Black Lives Matter’s recent overtures among Christian communities, drawing parallels to the role of religion in the Civil Rights Movement. Ciocco draws upon the work of Broadcast Seeding guest, Drew G.I. Hart for insight on the role of religion in social activism and engagement.   “Every 28 hours, a black person is murdered…
A Passionate Education?: The Creation of Boko Haram - Sam Epps explores the formation of Boko Haram and the lesser publicized effects it has had on Nigeria.
Boko Haram and the Aesthetics of Violence - Garrett Clark considers the overlapping sensory experiences represented by Boko Haram’s flags, arguing that this synesthesia facilitates deep psychological violence.
Going through the Emotions: Islamic Calligraphy in a Public School - In the example below, parents at an American public high school balk at the secular study of Islamic calligraphy because the writing’s legacy is sacred for Muslims. Emily Egolf helps us think through the dispute.
The Tenure of Scriptures: Interpreting Wheaton College (Illinois) - Do Christians and Muslims worship the same god? The answer matters at Wheaton, but why does the question?
Christianity Before and After Charleston - ...one of the most vivid accounts of baptism in the Black Church tradition while contextualizing the role of race and Christianity in American life.
REL 101 (WCH): Signifying Religion: An African American Worldview - What if the study of religion started with the African American experience? Instead of privileging a specific tradition, this course examines the history of a people who came to a new world compelled to quickly learn the significance of “religion” itself. We will follow along by plumbing the depths of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, listening to…
Beatdowns and Downbeats: America as a Hip Hop Nation–#EtownEngage - In REL 170: Signifying Religion: An African American Worldview, I gave a talk called “Beatdowns and Downbeats: America as a Hip Hop Nation.” We began with a free association exercise about what could be signified by call America a “Hip Hop nation.”
Teaching Religion 101 –The Old School and the New School - On August 29, 2014, members of the Society of Biblical Literature and the American Academy of Religion shared tweets on what they had been taught as students and what they are teaching now as professors. Thanks to everybody who was a part of it. And a special thanks to the Forum for Theological Exploration, Seminarium, and the…
Signifying on the World Religions Paradigm: My Introduction to Religion Course - This fall I joined Elizabethtown College as an Assistant Professor of Religious Studies. The department is situated in a comprehensive liberal arts college with historical roots in the Church of the Brethren. Students of all disciplines may take Religious Studies courses in fulfillment of an elective, core curriculum, or degree requirements. The varied intellectual interests…