#religious
Conference on Populism, Nationalism, and the Future of Democracy – Call for Papers and Presentations (Conferences)
This call invites interdisciplinary papers on populism, nationalism, and democratic futures, outlining themes, participation details, and deadlines for
Special Issue On Religion and Bioethics (Call for Papers)
The Journal for Cultural and Religious Theory (JCRT) invites submissions for a special issue dedicated to the intersection of religion and bioethics It
Religion and Bioethics (Conferencee)
Sponsored by the The Whitestone Foundation dba The Journal for Cultural and Religious Theory in collaboration with the University of Denver It highlights
Healing As A Multimedia Practice – Contemporary Spirituality In Turkey, Part 1 (Duygu Sendag)
Zeynep, a 37-year-old Turkish woman, comes from a secular family background. She has traveled to Bali and India on different occasions to participate in yoga
Conference on Religion and Bioethics – Call for Proposals
This call for proposals frames a conference on religion and bioethics, inviting interdisciplinary work on ethics, theology, policy, and emerging The argument
What Black Disabled Bodies Can Teach Us About Environmental Justice (Robert Monson)
As early as 2014, governmental officials in the city of Flint, Michigan made a series of decisions that would prove to have deleterious effects on the people
Metaphysical Protestantism-A Comparative Literary Ecology (Zane Johnson)
The influence of religions on human attitudes toward the non-human, whether beneficent or deleterious, has been the subject of serious scholarly debate since at
Religious Sacrificial Sympathy- How Man Became More Valuable Than Beast (Kevin S. Grane)
The religious attitude of the West today demonstrates a consumerist ethos that would have been deeply foreign to the religious discourse of old It highlights
Sikhs As Subalterns – Voice, Inequality, And Power, Part 3 (Nirvikar Singh)
The following is the third installment of a three part series. The first can be found here, the second here. It is published as a catalogued .PDF in article in
Sikhs As Subalterns – Voice, Inequality, and Power, Part 1 (Nirvikar Singh)
The following article is the first of three installments. It is published as a catalogued .PDF in article in the latest issue of the Journal for Cultural and
The Re-Enchantment Of Bodies – The Transformative Power Of Charismatic Healings, Part 2 (Anna Magnasco)
The following is the first of a two-part series. The first installment can be found here. It was originally published in issue 22.1 of the Journal for Cultural
What Exactly Is Postmodernism, And How Did It Change The Landscape Of Religious Studies?, Part 2 (Carl Raschke)
This article is published in two installments. The first can be found here. Taylor’s typification of postmodernism as Flatland, however, as the quintessential
What Exactly Is Postmodernism, And How Did It Change The Landscape Of Religious Studies?, Part 1 (Carl Raschke)
Almost a half century ago a change took place in the humanities, and by extension in the fledgling field of religious studies It highlights key arguments
The Religious Roots of Environmental Justice – An Online Conference
Catherine Keller practices theology as a relation between ancient hints of ultimacy and current matters of urgency. As the George T As the George T. It
The Religious Roots Of Environmental Justice – Call For Papers Or Presentations (Conference)
Where: Online (Zoom) – Registration Required Submission deadline for proposals: Friday, September 15, 2023 It highlights key arguments and implications
Evangelicalism, Pentecostalism, And The Quotidian Academic Terror Of “Christian Nationalism”
The following essay appeared recently in The New Polis. It is republished here because of its timeliness and importance. What exactly is Christian nationalism?
Philosophy As Love – Unblocking The Road From Athens To Jerusalem, Part 3 (Erik Meganck)
The following is the third of a three part-series. The first can be found here, the second here. Where planning fails, despair grows Planning is also faithless.
Religious Studies As The “State Religion” Of Neoliberalism, Part 3 (Carl Raschke)
The following is the last of a three-part series. The first can be found here , the second here. A genealogy of the neoliberalization, together with the
Religious Studies As The “State Religion” Of Neoliberalism, Part 2 (Carl Raschke)
The following is the second of a three-part series. The first can be found here . The supreme achievement of neoliberalism, according to Han, is that it has
Religious Studies As The “State Religion” Of Neoliberalism, Part 1 (Carl Raschke)
> “Neptunus alii per alia, poterunt intellegi qui qualesque sint, quoque eos nomine consuetudo nuncupaverit, hoc eos et venerari et colere debemus.” – Cicero
Embodiment – A Conference On The Crisis In Contemporary Theory And The Humanities (Announcement)
You must register in advance (see below) whereupon you will automatically receive a participation link. If you are having trouble, please email us It highlights
Orientalism, Ontology, And Orientation – A Muslim Perspective On Charles H. Long, Part 1 (Mehnaz Afridi)
The following is the first of a two-part series. The full article is published in the spring 2022 issue of the Journal for Cultural and Religious Theory
Rapture Music – Intensity And Eschatology Within Christian Revival Movements, Part 3 (Fraser Macdonald)
The following is the second of a three-part series. The first can be found here, the second here. The full article is also available in the Spring 2022 issue of
Rapture Music – Intensity And Eschatology Within Christian Revival Movements, Part 2 (Fraser Macdonald)
The following is the second of a three-part series. The first can be found here. The full article is also available in the Spring 2022 issue of the Journal for
Rapture Music – Intensity And Eschatology Within Christian Revival Movements, Part 1 (Fraser Macdonald)
The following is the first of a three-part series. The full article is also available in the Spring 2022 issue of the Journal for Cultural and Religious Theory
Geschlecht III – Authentic Faith, Religion, And Politics In Derrida’s Readings Of Heidegger’s “Geist”, Part 3 (Jake Sirota)
The following is the third of a three-part series. The first can be found here, the second here. Derrida’s suspicion of and discomfort with the seemingly
“Teach Me To Do What’s Right” – Faith, Hope, And Love As Post-Religious Virtues, Part 1 (A.G. Holdier)
> “God is the ‘beyond’ in the midst of our life.” > > – Dietrich Bonhoeffer > > “Are you lost, Father?” > > “Sorry?” > > “Are you lost?” > > “No It highlights
Tsimtsum In Life Of Pi, Part 4 (Daniel Reiser)
The following is the last of a four-part series. The first can be found here, the second here, the third here. Is what Martel presents his readers only a
Tsimtsum In Life Of Pi, Part 3 (Daniel Reiser)
The following is the third of a four-part series. The first can be found here, the second here. Beyond the question of metaphor and reality, the greatest
Antinomian Flesh, Part 3 (David Kline)
The following is the third of a three-part series. The first can be found here, the second here. Both before nomos and therefore its condition of enactment, the
The Religious Significance Of Miracles – Why Hume’s Critique Is Superfluous, Part 3 (Alberto Urquidez)
Surprisingly few commentators have advanced this basic criticism against Hume’s argument. One glaring exception is the Wittgensteinian philosopher of religion
The Religious Significance Of Miracles – Why Hume’s Critique Is Superfluous, Part 2 (Alberto Urquidez)
The following is the second of a three-part series. The first can be found here. The question I shall now consider is this: If not all miracles are religious
The Religious Significance Of Miracles – Why Hume’s Critique Is Superfluous, Part 1 (Alberto Urquidez)
The argument from miracles seeks to prove that a religious deity (such as God) exists on the premise that only God could have caused a miracle to occur
Religious Studies – The Final Colonization Of American Indians, Part 2 (Tink Tinker, wazhazhe udsethe)
The following is the second of a two-part series. The first can be found here. Indian cultures are very complex, and Osage culture is no different in that
Religious Studies – The Final Colonization Of American Indians, Part 1 (Tink Tinker, wazhazhe udsethe)
The following is the first of a two-part series. The second can be found here. In late 2019 I was invited to deliver a paper at an international symposium
Revolutionary Love – Kierkegaard’s Gift Economy As A Religious Corrective To The Leveling Of The Public Sphere, Part 1 (Andrew Ball)
Though Kierkegaard is typically considered to be the consummate philosopher of the single individual, his critique of secular modernity and institutional
“Naming The Darkness,” Spiritual Violence, And Radical Incompleteness – Resituating A Political Theology, Part 1 (James E. Willis, III)
The Death of God theological movement of the mid-twentieth century serves as a productive starting place to consider spiritual violence in our time, or the
The Curious Whiteheadian Proclivity In Scheler’s Account Of God And Persons, Part 1 (J. Edward Hackett)
Before explicating the underlying structure of Scheler’s panentheism, I wanted to take some time and explain what Scheler’s phenomenological method entails and
Reframing The Adwa Victory As A Decolonizing Praxis – Discourse Around Colonization In The Ethiopian Context, Part 2 (Rode Molla)
The following is the second of a two-part series. The first can be found here. Foucault, in his book, Discipline, and Punish, describes how the human body is
Call For Papers – Special Issue On Walter Benjamin And Religion
What does Walter Benjamin’s work suggest about religion and the methods of studying it? This special issue of The Journal for Cultural and Religious Studies
Jonathan Edwards And The Vegan Elect – An Unconventional Calvinist Reading, Part 1 (Tadd Ruetenik)
In 1895, when Myrtle Fillmore, co-founder of the Unity School of Christianity, first became a vegetarian, she said that “the appetite left me without my even
Inventing Afterlives – Review (Camille Grace Leon Angelo)
Janes, Regina M. Inventing Afterlives: The Stories We Tell Ourselves About Life After Death. New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 2018. 384 pages 384 pages.
Religion And Mental Health – The Therapuetic Value Of The Teachings of Jesus, Part 2 (Thomas Roberts and Delbert Hayden)
The following is the second part in a two-part installment. You can find the first part here. Maintaining a State of Hope and Taking a Transcendent Perspective
Re-Envisioning Religious Studies As A Global Discipline – A Pre-AAR Symposium
The Journal for Cultural and Religious Theory and the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Denver in conjunction with its partner faculty
Religion And Mental Health – The Therapeutic Value Of The Teachings Of Jesus , Part 1 (Thomas Roberts And Delbert Hayden)
The following is the first part in a two-part installment. The second part can be found here. Author Note: The authors of this article take the position that
Towards A New Comparative Methodology In Religious Studies (Kara Roberts)
Author Note: The following was originally written as the introduction to a much longer comparative project between two religious myths Amy Balogh. It highlights
Transmodern Sufism, Or Stepping With Levinas On The Footprints Of A Speculative Sufism Not Re-Framed By 20th Century Orientalists, Part 1 (Philipp Valentini)
> I am wondering if the agony of years > Could be traced to the seed of an hour > If the roots that spread out in the swamp > Ran too deep for the issuing
Review – Neurotheological Nuances (Joshua Canzona)
Neurotheology: How Science Can Enlighten Us About Spirituality. Newberg, Andrew. New York: Columbia University Press, 2018. ISBN 9780231179041. Hardback
The Dangers Of Dealing With Derrida – Revisiting the Caputo-Hägglund Debate On The “Religious” Reading Of Deconstruction, Part 3 (Neal DeRoo)
The following is the third installment of a three-part series. The first one can be found here, the second here. But one could embrace another prevalence for
The Dangers Of Dealing With Derrida – Revisiting the Caputo-Hägglund Debate On The “Religious” Reading Of Deconstruction, Part 1 (Neal DeRoo)
On the surface, the debate between John D. Caputo and Martin Hägglund in the Spring 2011 edition of The Journal of Cultural and Religious Theory seems to be a
Beyond Religious Ideas – The Legacy Of Max Weber In Critical Theory And Critical Religion (Joel Harrison)
This article was initially published in The New Polis, March 23, 2018. In his essay “The Failure of Nerve in the Academic Study of Religion,” Donald Wiebe
Mischief, Idolatry, And The Demonic – Toward A Hermeneutic Of Play, Part II (Kevin Lewis)
The following is the second part in a two-part installment. The first part can be found here. We proceed first by a reminder of Scripture itself (which makes no
Mischief, Idolatry, And The Demonic – Toward A Hermeneutic Of Play, Part I (Kevin Lewis)
Biblical hermeneutics, studied reflection upon interpretation of scriptural passages, has not remained static in method or approach over the centuries
Secularism And Its Discontents – On Charting Pathways With A Phenomenology Of Religion, Part 1 (Ludger Hagerdorn and Michael Staudigl)
*The following is the introductory article for the Spring 2018 issue (Vol. 17, No. 2) of the Journal for Cultural and Religious Theory It highlights key
The Vertical Form – The Iconological Dimension in 20th Century Russian Religious Aesthetics and Literary Criticism, Part II (Oleg Komkov)
The following is the second part in a two-part installment. The first part can be found here. II. “Absolute Symbolism” of Christian Worldview: The Aesthetic
The Vertical Form – The Iconological Dimension in 20th Century Russian Religious Aesthetics and Literary Criticism, Part I (Oleg Komkov)
The following is the first part in a two-part installment. This article is an attempt to highlight and reflect on several interrelated issues that seem to be
New Religions in Brazil – A Game Between Relativism and Fundamentalism (Silas Guerriero)
Speaking of new religious movements in Brazil implies, above all, in defining what we refer to when we speak of “new religions.” We have already had an
Review – An Uncritical Critique of Theism (Rebekah Gordon)
Religion Within Reason. Cahn, Steven M. New York: Columbia University Press, 2017. ISBN: 9780231181617. Paperback. 93 pages.** It is amazing that a book of less
Call for Contributors – The Dialectic of Divine Presence and Absence
Since the philosopher Nietzsche announced the “death of God” over a century ago, the specter of divine absence has hovered over Western civilization It
Looking For Reviewers
We are looking for authors to review the a variety books in different topic areas related to religious and cultural theory It highlights key arguments
“Notations” – Call for Contributors
In addition to reviews and commentaries, the new JCRT feature “religious theory” ([jcrt.org](https://jcrt.org)/religioustheory), updated regularly, will publish...
The Mythology of Afterlife Beliefs and Their Impact on Religious Conflict, Part 2 (Brigid Burke)
The following is the second installment of a two-part series. The first installment can be found here. Zoroastrianism is believed to be an outgrowth of an
The Mythology of Afterlife Beliefs and Their Impact on Religious Conflict, Part 1 (Brigid Burke)
The question of whether there is life after death, and what that life might be like, is probably one of religion’s oldest questions It highlights key arguments
Review—Whither Philosophy of Religion? (Benjamin Steele-Fisher)
**Religion and European Philosophy: Key Thinkers from Kant to Zizek. Edited by Philip Goodchild and Hollis Phelps. New York: Routledge, 2017 It highlights
Slow Journalism? Ethnography as a Means of Understanding Religious Social Activism, Part 2 (James V. Spickard)
The following is a talk presented at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard University, and is the second installment of a two-part series
Slow Journalism? Ethnography As A Means Of Understanding Religious Social Activism, Part 1 (James V. Spickard)
The following is a talk presented at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard University, and is the first installment of a two-part series
Review – The Evangelicals: The Struggle to Shape America (Rebekah Gordon)
*Fitzgerald, Francis. The Evangelicals: The Struggle to Shape America. New York City, New York: Simon & Schuster, 2017. ISBN-10: 1439131333. Hardcover
Religious Studies and Comparative Theology – An Appraisal (Joshua Samuel)
The title “religious scholar,” it must be remembered, is a very ambiguous categorization. It could either mean those who are engaged in academic work in the
Framing Religious Conflict and Violence – Insights from Historical Institutionalism, Part 2 (Vivek Swaroop Sharma)
The following is the second installment of a two-part series. The first installment can be found here. There are two important qualifications to the following
Framing Religious Conflict and Violence – Insights from Historical Institutionalism, Part 1 (Vivek Swaroop Sharma)
Killing hundreds of people in the name of “cow protection” would, at first glance, appear to be a headline drawn from a Monty Python skit It highlights
Traversing W.H. Auden’s Religious And Aesthetic States, Part 3 (Raji Singh Soni)
The following is the final installment of a three-part series. The first one can be found here, the second one here. As Julia Reinhard Lupton argues It
Traversing W.H. Auden’s Religious And Aesthetic States, Part 2 (Raji Singh Soni)
The following is the second installment of a three-part series. The first one can be found here. Used by Auden in concert with “limitation” to qualify
Traversing W.H. Auden’s Religious And Aesthetic States, Part 1 (Raji Singh Soni)
The following is part one of an article that will be published in three successive installments. > TRINCULO Servant-monster! The folly of this island!
Review – Bahai Religion And Religious Cycles (Rebekah Gordon)
Sergeev, Mikhail. Theory of Religious Cycles: Tradition, Modernity, and the Baha’i Faith. Amsterdam: Brill Rodopi, 2015. ISBN-10:9004300031. Paperback
Religious Autonomy As Secularism’s Silent Partner (Darshan Datar)
Scholarship has noted that the genealogical trajectory of a state has consistently had an impact on the evolution of state-church relationships It highlights
Review – Ontic Flows: From Digital Humanities to Posthumanities (Dean Dettloff)
*Bernico, Matt, and Kölke, Manuela (Eds.). Ontic Flows: From Digital Humanities to Posthumanities. New York: Atropos Press, 2016. ISBN-10: 1940813085 It
Speaking (Or Not Speaking) Of God – Call For Proposals
Where: University of Denver, Denver, Colorado Sponsors: Department of Religious Studies, Journal for Cultural and Religious Theory It highlights key arguments
Review – The Metaphysics of Copresence in Beliso-De Jesùs’ Electric Santeria (Ryne Beddard)
* Beliso-De Jesús, Aisha M. Electric Santería: Racial and Sexual Assemblages of Transnational Religion. New York: Columbia University Press, 2015 It highlights
Review – Theologies of the Boss (James Cochran)
*Yadin-Israel, Azzan. The Grace of God and the Grace of Man: The Theologies of Bruce Springsteen. Highland Park: Lingua Press, 2016. ISBN-10: 0692718516
Newest Titles For Review – Freud, Nussbaum, Angst, The Crucified God, Etc.
Religious Theory has just added new titles for which we are looking for reviewers (listed below). If you would like to review one of them, please send an email
Spinoza’s Theory of Religion – Stabilized Superstition (Ehud Benor)
The best interpretations of Spinoza’s philosophy would lead us to believe that, for Spinoza, religion is superstition. Henry Allison’s account is an excellent
Review – New Trends In The Theory And Methods For Studying Religion (David Kim)
Kovács, Ábrahám, and James L. Cox, Editors. New Trends and Recurring Issues in the Study of Religion: Context and Overview. Budapest: L’Harmattan, 2014
From Heathen to Sub-Human – A Genealogy of the Influence of the Decline of Religion on the Rise of Modern Racism, Part 2 (Oludamini Ogunnaike)
The following is the second part of an article in three installments that initially appeared in July 2016 in Open Theology 2:2016 785-203 It highlights
Review – Aaron Hughes’ ‘Islam and the Tyranny of Authenticity’ (Daniel Tutt)
*Hughes, Aaron. Islam and the Tyranny of Authenticity: An Inquiry into Disciplinary Apologetics and Self-Deception. London: Equinox Publishing, 2016 It
Review – Love’s Unfortunate Presence between Faith and Belief (Daniel Boscaljon)
*Schrijvers, Joeri. Between Faith and Belief: Toward a Contemporary Phenomenology of Religious Life (SUNY Series in Theology and Continental Thought) It
Review – Altered States: Buddhism and Psychedelic Spirituality in America (Roger Green)
* Osto, Douglas. Altered States: Buddhism and Psychedelic Spirituality in America. New York: Columbia University Press, 2016 It highlights key arguments
Review – Digital Technologies and Religion in the Postmodern Era (Albert McClure)
*Han, Sam. Technologies of Religion: Spheres of the Sacred in a Post-Secular Modernity. Routledge Research in Information Technology and Society 19 142 pages.
Review – The Search For Transcendence In The “Material Phenomenology” of David Foster Wallace (Jeff Appel)
*Miller, Adam S. The Gospel According to David Foster Wallace: Boredom and Addiction in an Age of Distraction. New York: Bloomsburg Academic, 2016 It highlights
Review – The Evolution of the Religious Factor in Fantasy Role-Playing Games (Jeffrey Scholes)
*Laycock, Joseph P. Dangerous Games: What the Moral Panic over Role-Playing Games Says about Play, Religion, and Imagined Worlds ISBN-10: 0520284925. It
Biopolitics and Vajrayana Buddhism, Part 3 (Padraic Fitzgerald)
The following is the third and final installment in a three-part series. The first installment was published on May 27, 2016 and can be found here It highlights
Review – Donovan Schaefer’s Call For a Materialist Turn In Religious Theory (Jonathan Russell)
*Schaefer, Donovan O. Religious Affects: Animality, Evolution, and Power. Durham NC: Duke University Press, 2015. ISBN 10: 978-0-8223-5982-1, 10: It highlights
More Sympathy for the Devil, or The State of Satan in The Age of Obama and Trump
Fifty years ago this weekend in the year 1966, according to lore and legend, San Francisco showman, musician, and self-professed huckster Howard Stanton Levey
Review – Jean-Pierre Couture Brings To Life The Ongoing Oeuvre of Peter Sloterdijk
*Couture, Jean-Pierre. Sloterdijk (Key Contemporary Thinkers). Boston: Polity, 2015. 208 pages. ISBN-10: 0745663818. Hardback, paperback, e-book, 208 pages
Spiritual Erotics, Part 3 – Eros, Ecstasy, and the Pentecostal Experience
In the first installment of this three-part book preview of my forthcoming work on machismo in Latino culture I explored the role of the new, and “hot”
Renegade Hinduism Scholar Featured In Norton’s Anthology of World Religions
The just-released, multi-volume Norton Anthology of World Religions is a major project of substance undertaken by a group of world-renowned scholars in
Spiritual Erotics, Part 2 – The Nature and History of Machismo and Its Feminine Counterpart As “Marianismo”
From time to time Religious Theory (RT) invites well-known academic authors to outline current book projects that have not yet been published It highlights
Spiritual Erotics, Part 1 – Affect Theory and the Transformation of Machismo Among Latino Pentecostal Men
From time to time Religious Theory (RT) invites well-known academic authors to outline current book projects that have not yet been published S. It highlights
Review Essay – Peter Sloterdijk on Social Bonds, Freedom, and Religion
The English reception of Peter Sloterdijk has been ambivalent at best, relying largely on hearsay from European interlocutors (Žižek especially) or gossip about
NOTATIONS – The “Unacculturable” – Refugee Flux Spurs Crisis of European Belief
This Notations piece analyzes how refugee discourse destabilizes European self-understanding, linking cultural panic, theological residue, and political
NOTATIONS – Agamben’s Homo Sacer, Refugees, and the Crisis of European Values
This Notations essay reads refugee politics through Agamben's Homo Sacer, examining sovereignty, exception, and the moral crisis revealed by Europe's border
The Secularizing Ethos and the End of Biblical Authority – How Today’s Evangelicals Abandoned Evangelicalism
So reads the title of a recent article in the Los Angeles Review of Books. The author, Jim Hinch, begins his piece with the conversion story of A. J J.
Religious Theory – A New Review, Commentary, and Conversations Feature of JCRT
Religious Theory is the new commentary, review, and conversation blog for The Journal for Cultural and Religious Theory It highlights key arguments and