I am pleased to annouce that the Department of Religious Studies at the Unviersity of Alabama is hiring, and that I am chairing the search for a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the Computational Study of Religion.
On April 11-13, 2024, the Institute for Signifying Scriptures will be hosting a special annual meeting to commemorate two momentous occasions: The 20th Anniversary of the Institute for Signifying Scriptures and the 25th Anniversary of the African Americans and the Bible Project. Over the next few weeks, I'm going to be highlighting some media to … Continue reading 20 Years On… Theorizing Scripture: New Critical Orientations to a Cultural Phenomenon
My penchant for backward course design impresses the need to consider method more and more. I'm asking myself what kind of work do I want students to be able to do by course's end. How will they know what they know?
In his 1974 essay, ""One of the Many Faces of China: Maoism as a Quasi-Religion," Joseph M. Kitagawa acknowledges Chairman Mao’s movement to create a new culture as “Maoism.” Instead of calling this movement a “religion,” he refers to Maoism as a “quasi-religion.” In doing so, he attempts to avoid the clashing reactions that often comes along with referring to a movement as a religion. Yet, viewing the development of Maoism in terms of the sociology of religion can help us understand the way it has mapped the culture, ethnicity, and gender of today’s China.
A student asked me the other day whether King's legacy is something to be given up since it can be used for contrary ends. My piece doesn't answer this with a clear answer. I do hope that it leaves readers asking that question. To me that question is a prior step to ruthlessly careful and self-conscious criticism.
