There is a significant debate in Origenian scholarship today about the allegory/typology distinction. Some scholars accept the demarcation between these two forms of nonliteral scriptural interpretation, whereas others reject it. In this paper I seek to determine whether, or to what extent, the allegory/typology distinction is valid for study of…[Read more]

Para un niño, la capacidad de relacionarse con el entorno resulta vital para un correcto autoconocimiento y desarrollo individual. Para ello debe recurrir a una realidad primordial, un modelo comunicativo que tenga carácter referencial en su vida como la figura de los padres. Es en ellos en los que podemos hallar un primer estadio prefilosófico –…[Read more]

Superheroes with Islamic backgrounds are nothing new, but their critical study is. The recently released Muslim Superheroes: Comics, Religion, and Representation proposes how best to deploy such analysis pedagogically, politically, pluralistically, pervasively, and persuasively. This roundtable considers the book’s contents through its political c…[Read more]

New scholarly books in religious studies defy easy labels and reflect the eagerness of publishers to widen academic discourse and to upset conventional wisdom in the name of new knowledge—in science, across genders, between faiths, and around the world.

This draft handout accompanied in-class discussion and instruction. There are two key objectives: 1) to model the practices of critical note taking, including close reading, connection making, and question asking; and 2) to document the first assigned reading from Becky Chambers’ A Closed and Common Orbit. This handout covers the first three c…[Read more]

Utilizing theory developed by scholars of Religious Studies and related disciplines, this essay theorizes the evolution of a specific rabbinic dietary regulation regarding the separation of meat and milk. In particular, this essay applies insights regarding religious rhetoric developed by Bruce Lincoln in order to analyze how ancient rabbis…[Read more]

Utilizing theory developed by scholars of Religious Studies and related disciplines, this essay theorizes the evolution of a specific rabbinic dietary regulation regarding the separation of meat and milk. In particular, this essay applies insights regarding religious rhetoric developed by Bruce Lincoln in order to analyze how ancient rabbis…[Read more]

Utilizing theory developed by scholars of Religious Studies and related disciplines, this essay theorizes the evolution of a specific rabbinic dietary regulation regarding the separation of meat and milk. In particular, this essay applies insights regarding religious rhetoric developed by Bruce Lincoln in order to analyze how ancient rabbis…[Read more]

Rachel Neis’ article treats Hekhalot Rabbati, a collection of early Jewish mystical traditions, and more specifically §§ 152–169, a series of Qedusha hymns. These hymns are liturgical performances, the highlight of which is God’s passionate embrace of the Jacob icon on his throne as triggered by Israel’s utterance of the Qedusha. §§ 152–1…[Read more]

Rachel Neis’ article treats Hekhalot Rabbati, a collection of early Jewish mystical traditions, and more specifically §§ 152–169, a series of Qedusha hymns. These hymns are liturgical performances, the highlight of which is God’s passionate embrace of the Jacob icon on his throne as triggered by Israel’s utterance of the Qedusha. §§ 152–1…[Read more]

Rachel Neis’ article treats Hekhalot Rabbati, a collection of early Jewish mystical traditions, and more specifically §§ 152–169, a series of Qedusha hymns. These hymns are liturgical performances, the highlight of which is God’s passionate embrace of the Jacob icon on his throne as triggered by Israel’s utterance of the Qedusha. §§ 152–1…[Read more]

The historical narrative of water purity tends to chart a process of secularisation with an
increasing importance on cleanliness. We suggest otherwise – that rhetorically at least, water
has never been secularised. Moral impurity and water contamination have a long and
interrelated history. Even before the connection had been made between c…[Read more]

The historical narrative of water purity tends to chart a process of secularisation with an
increasing importance on cleanliness. We suggest otherwise – that rhetorically at least, water
has never been secularised. Moral impurity and water contamination have a long and
interrelated history. Even before the connection had been made between c…[Read more]

Audio & slides of a paper given at the Colloquium on Avicenna and Avicennisms held at SOAS, University of London, 6–7 June 2014. http://meti.maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/home/meti-info/2014-avicenna/ © Gregor Schwarb, 7 June 2014

“Luke’s complex portrayal of ‘the Jews’ in general, and of the Pharisees in particular, reflects a situation in which the lines between Judaism and Christianity were not yet clearly drawn.”

Pre-publication draft (not intended for circulation or citation) of a contribution to a forthcoming edited volume on Narsai of Nisibis. Any comments, suggestions, or corrections are welcome (email to jwalters@rc.edu).

Between January 1969 and the summer of 1975, NASA received over eight million letters and petition signatures supporting the right of American astronauts to free religious expression in space. Prompted by Madalyn Murray O’Hair’s complaints about the reading of Genesis during the flight of Apollo 8, the petition campaign points to the complex…[Read more]

Over the past two decades or so we have witnessed the transition of the web from novelty to ubiquity. The web has become pervasive in our work environments, a necessity we can no longer do without. The emergence of Web 2.0 technologies brought “read/write” access to the web for the masses and thus caused (r)evolutions in fields relying on eco…[Read more]