Monthly Archives: February 2012

SORAAAD BookNotes with the Bulletin: Randall Styers, Making Magic

Posted on February 29, 2012 by Kenny Paul Smith

This week’s book note looks at another discussion of magic, Randall Styers’ Making Magic: Religion, Magic, and Science in the Modern World (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004). Styers is an Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of … Continue reading →

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From the Anterior to the Posterior Focus in Studying Religious Texts: Rhetorical Arrangement and Ancient Letters Revisited

Posted on February 24, 2012 by Philip L. Tite

By Philip L. Tite As an historian of early Christianity, I love reading written works from late antiquity. I have a particular fascination with ancient letters, be they communications between ordinary people doing their daily business or personal interactions with … Continue reading →

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SORAAAD BookNotes with the Bulletin: Allison P. Courdet, Religion, Magic, and Science in Early Modern Europe and America

Posted on February 22, 2012 by Kenny Paul Smith

This week’s “book note” looks at a very recent attempt to locate the comparative category “magic” in larger historical and discursive contexts,  Allison P. Courdet, Religion, Magic, and Science in Early Modern Europe and America (Santa Barbara: Praeger, 2011). Courdet … Continue reading →

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Yogis and the Politics of Offense

Posted on February 21, 2012 by Kenny Paul Smith

By Matt Sheedy In a recent exchange over the “Shit Yogis Say”meme, I disagreed with a friend who argued that the clip was offensive to those who dabble in popular forms of Western yoga. My basic argument was as follows. … Continue reading →

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The Legacy of Structuralism: An Interview with Paul-François Tremlett (Part 3)

Posted on February 20, 2012 by Donovan Schaefer

I interviewed Paul-François Tremlett in early 2012, hoping to draw out some of the links between his 2008 book Lévi-Strauss on Religion: The Structuring Mind (Equinox Publishing) and the relevance of the anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss for the contemporary study of … Continue reading →

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Picture Book: Impervious Ideology

Posted on February 17, 2012 by Craig Martin

I found the following image at LOL god: This image more or less speaks for itself, so I don’t have much to say about it. It illustrates what I call an impervious ideology—it can’t be dented or contradicted by any … Continue reading →

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The Religious Studies Project: Podcasts and Resources on the Contemporary Social-Scientific Study of Religion

Posted on February 15, 2012 by Kenny Paul Smith

The Religious Studies Project, in association with the British Association for the Study of Religions and with some support from the University of Edinburgh, was launched in January 2012. This is a website and podcasting project featuring a weekly audio … Continue reading →

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