Prompted by Michel Foucault’s observation that “salvation is first of all essentially subsistence,” this essay explores Gregory of Nyssa’s discussion of Christian spiritual formation as a kind of salvific and transformative feeding of infants. This article argues that the prominent role of nourishment—and specifically breast milk—in Gregory’s t…[Read more]

Cyprian’s Epistle 63 represents the earliest extant account of the proper meaning and administration of the eucharistic cup. Against a group of Christians who were taking only water, Cyprian argues that wine is necessary for the ritual to be effective. While there has been much discussion surrounding the biblical references marshaled by Cyprian t…[Read more]

Cyprian’s Epistle 63 represents the earliest extant account of the proper meaning and administration of the eucharistic cup. Against a group of Christians who were taking only water, Cyprian argues that wine is necessary for the ritual to be effective. While there has been much discussion surrounding the biblical references marshaled by Cyprian t…[Read more]

Humankind, for Gregory of Nyssa, was poisoned through a primordial act of eating the forbidden fruit from the Garden of Eden. As a result, the toxin of sin and death has been blended into the body and soul of each person, dispersing itself throughout the component parts of their nature. If eating and drinking initiated the spiritual and physical…[Read more]

Humankind, for Gregory of Nyssa, was poisoned through a primordial act of eating the forbidden fruit from the Garden of Eden. As a result, the toxin of sin and death has been blended into the body and soul of each person, dispersing itself throughout the component parts of their nature. If eating and drinking initiated the spiritual and physical…[Read more]

Review of Douglas Boin’s Coming Out Christian in the Roman World

A review of the 2015 novel You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine, by Alexandra Kleeman

Review of Seducing Augustine, by Virginia Burrus, Karmen MacKendrick, and Mark Jordan (2010)

Encyclopedia Entry

In early seventeenth century, Francisco de Avila, Huarochiri’s extirpator of idolatries, and Guaman Poma de Ayala rejected the mestizo either for personal convenience or as a matter of concern for the fate of the Andean race. This article examines the places of enunciation from which these and other authors categorized some individuals as u…[Read more]

This essay studies the textual and visual representation of “the Indians of Peru” and their place in the illustrated edition of the Historia natural y moral de las Indias (1590) by José de Acosta, prepared by the sons of publisher Theodore De Bry. Such edition was published in 1601-1602 as the ninth volume of The Great Voyages. This essay disc…[Read more]

Based on a critical and reflective reading of Guaman Poma’s “New Chronicle and Good Government” (1615) [Nueva corónica y buen gobierno], this essay departs from the understanding of Waman Poma’s work as an “Opera Aperta” (Quispe-Agnoli 2020). Visual and written texts are understood initially as written-visual semantic fields that stimulat…[Read more]

The focus of this issue is on environmental aesthetics, with the aim of exploring the various aspects of aesthetic appreciation. Environmental Aesthetics: Socio-Territorial Conflicts throughout Media is part of a session that I organized at the IV International ISA Forum, Porto Alegre, held on February 23–27, 2021, for the Research Committee on S…[Read more]

Like obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) itself, Just Roll with It by Veronica Agarwal and Lee Durfey-Lavoie does not reveal itself immediately. The YA graphic novel betrays nothing on its cover, with its summary blurb, or for the first sixty-plus pages of the story. With no overt initial comment, the narrative follows sixth-grader Maggie as she…[Read more]

The essay discusses Maya Rao’s Walk and The Mothertongue Project’s Walk: South Africa to explore the languages of transnational and embodied feminist politics that these performances conjure. The two performances are instances of artistic responses to sexualized violence in India and South Africa as they engage with the politics of walking in the…[Read more]

I discuss the walking practice of Delhi-based artist Mallika Taneja in the context of its engagement with, and intervention in, the contemporary conversations on sexualised violence, gender, space and mobility in India. Taneja’s work is part of a variety of feminist activism to take place in India since the horrific gang rape of Jyoti Singh in D…[Read more]

This paper explores the methodological and discursive transition in Aurel Voina’s theoretical conceptualisation of cosmetic science. The primary focus is the rewriting of personal and professional identity, assessing how Aurel Voina negotiated his conceptual and practical expertise from his role as eugenics ideologue and policy maker in the i…[Read more]

The theory of language that underlies Plotinus’ Enneads is considered in relation to his
broader metaphysical vision. For Plotinus, language is neither univocal nor equivocal,
but is something in-between, incapable of precisely describing reality, but nonetheless
not completely useless. Propositional knowledge expressed discursively r…[Read more]

A brief review of Nelson Tebbe’s Religious Freedom in an Egalitarian Age, which seeks to resolve the the tension between the egalitarian impulse toward protections for the full rights of all individuals and the traditional American commitment to preservation of freedom to exercise sincerely held religious beliefs, even the beliefs of those who…[Read more]

This brief review reflects on Helge Ârsheim’s recent work, Making Religion and Human Rights at the United Nations. The text explores, with great success, the role of religion in an institution which “does not ‘do’ religion.” Ârsheim provides an accessible and comprehensive resource for anyone researching the role of religion in global affairs.