Fall 2017 Classes
What’s on tap for REL’s Fall 2017 undergrad classes? Get a PDF of the course flyer here. […]
Author: Russell McCutcheon
Posts by Russell McCutcheon
Purity and Danger
If you know of the Panera chain of soup & sandwich shops then you might know about their latest marketing campaign — they sell clean food. I guess that means that other menus — those of their competitors in the fast food industry, that is — are populated by, well, dirty food. Apart from the curiously anti-intellectual theme to the campaign (if you can’t easily say the name then it must be bad for you), the initiative makes evident that […]
On the Right Track
Did you happen to see the job ad posted for a position at the National Humanities Center (in North Carolina)? […]
Pagan Rites in Space
Yes, cosmonauts apparently all pee on the back right tire of the bus that carries them to the launch pad, before they take off. At least the guys do; but the ladies are said to bring a vial of urine to pour on the tire. It’s a ritual. […]
It’s Alive!
Yes, the application system for REL’s new M.A. degree has gone live. Visit here to learn more about the materials needed for an application. Or speak with Prof. Simmons (REL’s Grad Director), if you have questions or visit the UA grad school’s online application to learn more. […]
Faculty Reading Group: Transitions
On page 117, in the essay entitled “Historicism, History, and the Figurative Imagination,” we read the following: But if my hypothesis is correct, there can be no such thing as a non-relativistic representation of historical reality, inasmuch as every account of the past is mediated by the language-mode in which the historian casts his original description of the historical field prior to any analysis, explanation, or interpretation he may offer of it. We read this classic Hayden White piece (originally […]
“My Excitin’ Life”
That’s an historic picture — you can tell by the hair, the typewriter, and, yes, the size of the collar — that ran on the Fall 1994 front page of Samsara, what was then the annual newsletter of the University of Tennessee’s Department of Religious Studies (see the issue here and 1993’s here); it ran along with an article entitled “A Report from the Head.” Charlie Reynolds (1938-2017), who earned his Ph.D. in religious ethics from Harvard in 1968 and […]
Readying the Ground for Us
I’ve got some plants in my office that William Doty gave me back in 2001. Peace lilies. I was thinking about that yesterday, during a memorial service for William (who passed away on January 2, 2017, at the age of 77), at which people said some kind words and told a few stories — some of which were about his passion for cooking and, yes, gardening. When I moved into my new office, here in historic Manly Hall (once belonging […]
For Members Only
I recall, in the Fall of 2015, a job ad appearing on our main professional online site for a pastor for a church. Then, not long after, I saw an ad there for someone to co-write a “15-20 page paper … on the theology and praxis of the engineering profession for it’s Christian members.” Both times I wrote our association’s leadership questioning why our site was judged a relevant place for such a listing. And now, not long ago, news […]
REL Peer Mentor Program Launched
This semester we’re trying something new in REL — we’ve developed a peer mentoring program whereby a small number of students who excelled last semester in a 100-level course are being invited to stay involved in the same course this semester, as a peer mentor. For we tend to think that studying by yourself, especially when you find the course challenging, isn’t the most effective strategy. […]