Did you read what our recent guest lecturer had to say about her time in REL? […]
Women’s Places
The Gideons are on campus today, like every Fall, handing out copies of the New Testament. While I leave it to others to debate the place of such an activity on a US public university campus, I thought I’d relate a conversation I had with a gentleman just outside my parking deck this morning. Me: Are there female members of the Gideons? Him: Yes, there’s a women’s auxiliary. Me: I ask because I’ve never seen women handing out New Testaments […]
Survey Says…?
Have you seen this new Pew Foundation survey on being Jewish in America? Like all surveys it raises some interesting questions, such as whether it simply describes an already existing object of study (one that nicely divides into a variety of easily and clearly distinguishable sub-types) or whether the questions, categories, and sub-divisions actively constitute an object of study. What’s more, who is doing that constitution: group members themselves or the people who study them? For a survey such as […]
A Few Moments with Monica Miller
Dr. Monica Miller, of Lehigh University, recently delivered the inaugural Day Lecture — an annual lecture in memory of one of our graduates, and generously established this year by his family and friends. Our own Dr. Merinda Simmons sat down and talked with Dr. Miller about her work and the field of the study of religion. A video of Dr. Miller’s lecture will also be posted soon…. A Few Moments with Monica Miller from UA Religious Studies. […]
Ritual Fail
Several of our students and faculty members were at the College of Arts & Sciences’ tent this past Saturday for Homecoming, when Departments are invited to staff a table or two for a few hours and do something creative for fans and alumni attending the football game. There’s face painting and beanbag games, lots of candy and performances by students from the School of Music. While we can’t compete with the huge snakes that the Department of Biology always brings, […]
Biased or Balanced?
So, did you catch that Prof. Altman‘s recent post on Mircea Eliade (which was linked here) was just quoted on Andrew Sullivan’s blog. Maybe you’ve seen Sullivan on TV as a political commentator or maybe you follow his blog — he’s certainly got a national media profile. But did you read Mike’s original post? If so, what do you think of the particular quote from it that appeared on The Dish? Is this what Mike’s article was about…? Was it […]
“The Shiny Thing Out the Corner of Your Eye”
Heard Tim Minchin‘s recent address at the University of Western Australia…? […]
Inspired?
Have you heard of FOX News host, Bill O’Reilly’s new book, Killing Jesus: A History? Seen the “60 Minutes” interview? […]
Time for an Eternal Return?
It’s Eliade day here at the REL faculty blog… Did you see Prof. Altman’s post? […]
Eliade Has Not Left the Building
There’s been lots of buzz, over the past decade or so, about material religion or embodied religion, as if this apparent emphasis on the empirical, the contingent, the historical, somehow gets us out of what many now see as the old rut of studying disembodied beliefs alone. […]