E-SUPPLEMENT TO THE JOURNAL FOR CULTURAL AND RELIGIOUS THEORY
The following is the second of a two-part series. The first can be found here. In a chapter titled “The Magic of Being Mormon”, [1] Stephen H. Webb presents us with an account on magic within Mormonism and its theology. Within Christianity, calling something magical, or the magic label itself, clearly, can only serve as […]
The following article is published in two parts. God is the Future Itself: From Ruyer to Mormonism God, if we hold to this word, is the future itself, or rather the eternal reservoir beyond time and creating time, who constantly projects himself or pours himself into the present (…).[1] In this essay on the futurity […]
The following is the second of a two-part series. The first can be found here Is it not true, though, that many individuals of different races, creeds, and identities do live together in our cities? Against the backdrop of everyday life is there not a true plurality of subjects and ways of being? According to […]
The following is the first of a two-part series. In her 1992 masterpiece, The Broken Middle, the philosopher Gillian Rose explored what she saw as a baleful crisis of ethics in modern political discourse playing itself out in the malaise and violence of contemporary urban life. Rose believed the root of this crisis was a […]
The following is the third of a three-part series. The first and second can be found here. It Was Only a Dream The idea of reaching another layer of reality via hallucinogens is often associated with the dream experience. Dreaming is believed by many New Agers and New Paradigmers to be a therapeutic phenomenon. But […]
The following is the second of a three-part series. The first can be found here. Symbolically, the idea of going beyond the edge of the ordinary world to encounter other levels of reality is a recurring theme in religion and mythology. For example, Hindu mystical texts promise, via practices such as yoga and meditation, glimpses […]
The following is the first of a three-part series. Introduction: Alice and Entheogens In this article I seek to analyze spiritual phenomena using contemporary mythological and pop-cultural referents, such as Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865), Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There (1871), and The Matrix. Using these texts as interpretive mediums, I […]
The following is the second of a two-part series. The first can be found here. In short, then, despite the absence of God in Bad Times, the characters all come to experience each other in painfully open ways and several even develop bonds akin to what Ryan Preston-Roedder has described as “faith in humanity,” insofar […]
The following is the first of a two-part series. “God is the ‘beyond’ in the midst of our life.” – Dietrich Bonhoeffer[1] “Are you lost, Father?” “Sorry?” “Are you lost?” “No. I suppose not.” – Darlene Sweet and Father Flynn speaking the first lines of Bad Times at the El Royale Classically, philosophers spoke of […]
It’s time to get real when we talk these days about race and racism. Ever since the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis in the late spring of 2020 at the hands of police and the ensuing protests, mass calls for racial justice, and outbreaks of urban mayhem, much of the dominant public discourse has […]