religious studies

Since learning about Hamline University’s recent firing of an instructor, the flurry of thoughts and feelings I’ve had resembles the inside of a snow globe. Readers probably know the story by now…

When The Muppet Christmas Carol premiered 30 years ago in 1992, there were fears it would be a flop given the recent death of creator Jim Henson in 1990. If success in Hollywood is defined by the…

To many, last month’s brutal attack on a queer nightclub in Colorado Springs, in which five people were killed and 25 were injured, was the logical conclusion of the Right’s increasingly dehumanizing…

For years, in addition to writing about it numerous times for RD , I’ve included a section on psychedelics and religious experience in my Introduction to Religion course. When I first began to teach…

I really didn’t know what to expect when Joseph Laycock and I bought our tickets for the New England Society for Psychic Research (NESPR) Seekers of the Supernatural Paracon as part of our research…

For most of its existence, religious Satanism has been regarded as either unfit for polite conversation or fodder for sensationalist tabloid media. In the 1990s, Anton LaVey complained, “Whenever I…

There are some visible signs that particular Buddhist communities in the United States are beginning to see a greater need to respond to what are often today called “challenging” or “adverse”…

Welcome to “Phoning It In,” a gameshow I made up because I am tired and busy but also like to learn about new books! I’m claiming to have made up this game, but if you’ve ever showed up for class…

You shall not give any of your children to offer them to Molech, and so profane the name of your God: I am the Lord . Leviticus 18:21 As a nation, we have to ask: When in God’s name are we going to…

A recent article by conservative watchdog Campus Reform targeted my collaborative research talk on racial justice work in and as Buddhist practice . The talk traced the multiple ways whiteness has…