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Author: Russell McCutcheon

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Posts by Russell McCutcheon

Your Authentic is Illusory, of Course

Listening to a radio story this morning, on a church in Denver that prides itself on being diverse and on the social/political edge — one that, predictably, aims to “create an authentic Christian experience without the pretension that can come with church” — it occurred to me just how deeply reductionist, materialist theories of religion have seeped into daily life. For, despite how dangerous these theories are seen to be by some (when they’re applied to their own lives, that […]

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“We’re in a Tight Spot”

I once went to a presentation, delivered by a education consultant, on the history of MOOCs (Massively Open Online Courses) and how a university such as my own might utilize this technology. The irony was that the whole presentation, which didn’t so much argue as assert that “traditional” lectures are pedagogically uninspiring and unengaging for students, was a 90 minute lecture (I kid you not — I timed it) accompanied by routine PowerPoint bar graphs and Venn diagrams. That’s it. […]

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For Example…

What’s the relevance of the study of religion? Well, religious studies students know how to study things like myths and origins tales, right? And all of us tell origins tales, no? From Uncle so-and-so spinning an annual yarn at some family holiday to scholars trying to find the origins of civilization, we’re all doing it. So that suggests that we’re particularly well-equipped to say a fair bit about how these tales work and why we all tell them. For example, […]

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So, What Are You Doin’ These Days?

Check out this article, from the University of Virginia, which surveyed grads over the past decade with regard to: 1) what their undergraduate major was and 2) what career they went into. Above is a screen shot (from their interactive site) of what careers grads originating in what they group together as Philosophy & Religious Studies have gone into. A goal for our Department this year is to start tracking grads in much the same way — the graphic looks […]

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Heading to a Conference

Yes, it’s that time of year again — some members of the Department are off to attend annual conferences (in Baltimore this year). You’ll find them in sessions, running between sessions to get to a session, presenting their research at a session, or lost in the sea of humanity (pictured above) in the book display killing time between sessions. Did you catch the interviews from last year’s annual meetings in Chicago? We’ll be filming some more this year but until […]

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