REL 360–our one credit course–is hosting its first movie night of the spring semester. We will be showing Halleluja by King Vidor. The movie–released in 1929 and the first to attempt to portray a non-stereotypical view of African American life–follows Zeke, the young male protagonist, as he breaks away from a life of sharecropping to become a minister, only to throw away his new lifestyle in order to reconnect with an old flame, and this is where the trouble truly starts. […]
Month: January 2016
What’s in your pocket?
Did you see this clip from near the end of the President’s annual youtube interview? (See the full interview here.) […]
Should Sunday Schools Be Registered with the Government?
The head of the British government’s Ofsted — the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills — Sir Michael Wilshaw, was on the radio the other day, discussing a variety of things that scholars of religion might find interesting. […]
Read More from Should Sunday Schools Be Registered with the Government?
Making the Familiar a Little Stranger
Have you seen the reactions online to the release of a video of kids performing a warm-up number at a Trump rally held at Pensacola, FL, a couple days ago? If not, then I’ve seen a lot of social media jabs that insinuate that this bizarre routine is more akin to what we’d expect from modern-day North Korea or Nazi Germany in the late 1930s — after all, using kids in that way… Sheesh. And the lyrics…?! Freedom’s on our […]
Start 2016 Off Right With #LoungeTweets
The Spring semester begins this week and we want to start the new semester and the new year off with a bang! So, we’re brining back Live Tweets from the Lounge, that wonderful event where a faculty member sits in our student lounge and sends out tweets to you, our students and friends. This time, Prof. Nathan Loewen will be the one behind the keyboard bringing you hot takes from the lounge at 2pm on Thursday January 14th. Don’t miss it. […]
Spinning Comparisons
Events at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Oregon, where a group of armed adults seized a building, have generated lots of analysis (and comments on the analysis, including my colleague’s discussion of operative theories of religion). One common mode of analysis has been comparison, particularly comparisons of the media and law enforcement responses there to prior events at Waco, Occupy Wall Street, or Ferguson, among others. Within these comparisons, though, both self-identified conservatives and liberals have used the same […]
So what’s your theory of religion?
If you’ve been following what’s going on in Oregon over the past few days then you know about the armed stand-off that involves members of the Bundy family, among other ranchers, occupying the headquarters of a federal wildlife refuge, as their stand against the federal government’s land-use policies (maybe even the federal government’s legitimacy). […]
Classes Start in a Week
We just looked at the calendar and saw that classes start one week today… We’re sure you feel much the same. See you soon. […]
Potential Enemies
I’ve been watching some episodes from season one (2014) of “Madam Secretary” — the story of a CIA analyst turned UVA Poli Sci prof who gets tapped to become the US Secretary of State. Her husband, Henry, a former Marine pilot, is a theology prof at Georgetown — you know this because he’s earnest and seems to regularly talk about Thomas Aquinas and St. Augustine. […]
Time to tidy up
If you had a house party last night, to ring in the new year, then it’s likely time to do one of two things — either start cleaning it up or… Happy new year from REL. […]