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

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.

Over the last several months, the Republican party and its current leader have consistently trumpeted their strong commitment to law and order. Especially during this summer’s Black Lives Matter protests (and riots), as well as in response to calls for greater oversight of and a more limited role for police forces, many Republicans, political c…[Read more]

2020 was a year defined by disaster and unrest, from impeachment to war to wildfires to a global pandemic to protest movements arising in the United States in response to police violence. This brief article reflects on Robert Bellah’s concept of American Civil Religion, particularly his focus on three times of trial. I argue that the nation’s…[Read more]

This brief review explores Randall Balmer’s recent work, Solemn Reverence: The Separation of Church and State in American Life. In this capsule history of church/state separation, Balmer deftly and succinctly illustrates the centrality of religious freedom to the story of America. Seeking to respond to American evangelical trends toward Christian…[Read more]

This review explores the arguments of Joshua Mauldin in his new volume Barth, Bonhoeffer, & Modern Politics. In this work, Mauldin turns to history, and the writings of Karl Barth and Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in search of helpful examples to which society can turn in an era when the modern democratic project appears perpetually to be teetering upon a…[Read more]

In June 2019, in the case of American Legion v. American Humanist Association, the United States Supreme Court ruled 7-2 that a World War I memorial cross could remain on public land without violating the Establishment Clause. The Court sought to produce a ruling focusing specifically on the historical context and motivations for construction of…[Read more]

In a groundbreaking endeavour to triangulate three important traditions of our collective cultural heritage, the Arkeologisk Museum of the University of Stavanger presents Eden and Everything After, a conceptual exhibition organised around notions of the loss of – and slim hope of reconnection with – the lost paradise. Mirroring the boldly exp…[Read more]

This conference paper presents a new analysis of Martin Luther’s treatise “The Judgment of Martin Luther on Monastic Vows”. This treatise has long been interpreted as Luther’s utter rejection of monasticism. However, upon closer inspection we find that Luther’s treatise is not simply a reactionary writing dealing solely with his utter conte…[Read more]

The economic system is the cornerstone of social development. Its economic system has remained at the root of the progressive development of human civilization. A country, society or caste; Social, political and cultural upliftment is mainly based on the progress of its economic resources and facilities. In a country without these facilities,…[Read more]

The dual curriculum model ubiquitous to Orthodox Jewish day schools in North America typically bifurcates into religious (Judaic) studies and general studies. While most classes generally fit into one of those two halves of the curriculum, some classes are not intuitively categorized as wholly belonging to one part over the other. One of those…[Read more]

How could the ideal of a universal brotherhood of mankind be realized in an age of nationalism, colonialism and culture wars? “With God, for fatherland and humanity?” is the first comprehensive study of masonic internationalism. It explores, with a focus on England, France, Germany, and Italy, how European masonic associations promoted or opposed…[Read more]

In 2016 the Chinese infant formula company Feihe International signed a deal with the Canadian Dairy Commission (CDC) to process Canadian cows’ and goats’ milk for infant formula export to China. Our purpose in this paper is to understand how this deal – and the new Feihe formula factory located in Kingston, Canada – is underpinned by a series…[Read more]

In this article, I hitch the ever-present awareness of disease in my personal life and our shared world today to a pointed and academic reflection on the ways we consume and re-present information about disease from premodern South Asia that’s contained in texts.