theory – Page 4 – Studying Religion in Culture

A Response to “Responsible Research Practices,” Part 7: Methodological Pluralism

July 27, 2015 by Russell McCutcheon

This is an installment in an ongoing series on the American Academy of Religion’s recently released draft statement on research responsibilities. An index of the complete series (updated as each article is posted) can be found here. Hanabusa Itchō‘s (d. 1724) print of the well-known parable of the blindmen and the elephant seemed to me a fitting image to open this commentary on the sixth bullet point in this document. It reads: I won’t quibble as to why the word […]

“Well, Somehow…”

December 23, 2014 by Russell McCutcheon

Have you seen the new 1:25 video from Bill Nye, the science guy, explaining evolutionary theory with Emoji? It’s kind’a curious since it is clearly meant to persuade people inasmuch as it says complex things both fun and simply — hence the emojis popping in and swooshing and out — as if anti-evolutionary positions are inspired by their lack of understanding of complex matters. But here’s where, in the first 20 seconds, attempts like this fail… […]

Whence Mother Earth?

December 4, 2014 by admin

John D. James is a senior at the University of Alabama majoring in Religious Studies and minoring in General Business. This book review was written for Dr. Michael J. Altman’s REL 370: Empire and the Construction of Religion course. In Mother Earth: An American Story, Sam D. Gill begins to articulate and explain with physical evidence that the term “Mother Earth” is commonly misused and presented to audiences as some common knowledge involving Native American thought and belief. Gill takes […]

All Work and No Play…

November 13, 2014 by Russell McCutcheon

We’re experimenting with a new feature in our Department this year: Live Tweets form the Lounge. For we’re now on Twitter, and it occurred to us that periodically inviting a different faculty member to just hang out in our Department lounge for an hour and tweet about what’s going on, what they’re teaching this semester, or what they’re working on in their own research might be a way to engage students or any other Twitter followers. It’s fun, sure, but it’s […]

Authenticity and the Nation-State, Or Why Thai Food is a Lot Like ISIS

September 29, 2014 by Michael Altman

We love Thai food around here. But how do you know the food on your plate is actually Thai? What makes it Thai? The sign in the restaurant window? The “Thai tea?” What is “authentic Thai food?” Well, the government of Thailand is sick and tired of your sad excuses for Thai food and they have a plan to ensure you never settle for fake Thai food again. It’s not just a plan, it’s a robot. […]

Making the Familiar Strange

September 16, 2014 by Russell McCutcheon

A theme I’ve written on a time or two before is the inability (or unwillingness) of many scholars to entertain that, being themselves members of a particular social group, they tend to draw upon folk concepts popular among their own group and then project them outward (in space and time), as if they are universals that name and describe stable self-evidencies in the world at large. While we probably have no choice but to know the new by means of […]

The Rising Tide of Theory

August 13, 2014 by Russell McCutcheon

Iliff School of Theology is looking for a new colleague in what they term Religion and Social Justice (find the ad here). Two words in that ad stood out for me: […]

Owed to Murphy

August 8, 2014 by admin

John Parrish graduated from the Department of Religious Studies in 2004. He went on to pursue graduate study in Christian Origins at the University of Alberta, the University of Toronto, and Brown University, while maintaining his interests in 19th & 20th C religious thought. In the following, John reflects on the role played in his own undergraduate education by the late Dr. Tim Murphy, pictured above as he looked when he arrived in the Department in the Fall of 2002. […]

There’s Still Room

May 31, 2014 by admin

Registered for your Fall 2014 classes yet? There’s still room in some of the upper-level seminars…. Follow us on Twitter @StudyReligion […]

Praxising What We Preach: Kickball and the Communitas of an Academic Department

April 29, 2014 by Michael Altman

Why do we teach our students social theory? Why teach them about collective effervescence, habitus, and discourse? I think we do it because we find these theories to be useful tools for analyzing and explaining the world around us. But often, I think, we academics are wont to apply these same theories to our more intimate surroundings. Theory is often a tool for explaining that stuff out there and rarely do we see it as a tool that we can […]

Studying Religion in Culture

Ongoing Discussions at the University of Alabama

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