Monthly Archives: November 2014

Death by Area Studies

by Aaron W. Hughes and Randi R. Warne A worrying trend is gaining momentum in the academic study of religion.  There appears to us to be an increasing tendency toward filling professorial vacancies with individuals with PhDs in area studies … Continue reading

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“We are there to be there”: More Reflections from Sullivan’s A Ministry of Presence

by Charles McCrary This post’s titular sentence, quoted in Winnifred Sullivan’s new book A Ministry of Presence, is how a hospice chaplain summarized the purpose of his job (185). Sullivan brilliantly explains how, through legal and cultural history, simply “to … Continue reading

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Theory & Religion Series: Reflections on Fieldwork in Morocco by Paul Rabinow

by Travis Cooper Paul Rabinow’s Reflections on Fieldwork in Morocco (1977) was a game changer. As a novice anthropologist of religion, picking my way slowly through the history of American anthropology—and conducting fieldwork at the same time—encountering Rabinow was nothing less … Continue reading

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SBL – Metacriticism of Biblical Scholarship: November 21-25, 2014, San Diego, CA

SBL – Metacriticism of Biblical Scholarship November 21-25, 2014, San Diego, CA Metacriticism of Biblical Scholarship critically evaluates suppositions in and underlying biblical scholarship, including how an explicitly non-religious approach differs from what is even now represented as historical-critical scholarship, … Continue reading

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AAR Cultural History of the Study of Religion Group: November 21-25, 2014, San Diego, CA

AAR Cultural History of the Study of Religion Group  November 21-25, 2014, San Diego, CA The Cultural History of the Study of Religion group is devoted to historical inquiry into the social and cultural contexts of the study of religion … Continue reading

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SBL – Re-describing Early Christianity: San Diego, November 21-25, 2014, San Diego, CA

RE-DESCRIBING EARLY CHRISTIANITY The Redescribing Early Christianity Seminar contributes to the study of early Christian history by problematizing current consensus views, unexamined assumptions, and categories; recontextualizing and redescribing the key data through comparative analysis; and accounting for the configurations of … Continue reading

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Call for Papers: The Psychology of Religion/The Religion of Psychology, The University of Chicago, March 6, 2015

The Psychology of Religion/The Religion of Psychology The University of Chicago Friday March 6, 2015 Both to the discomfort and excitement of psychologists, scholars of religion, and religious practitioners, the overlap between the histories of psychology and religion is rather … Continue reading

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