Welcome to Religion Dispatches
Email Address:
Capricology: Week 3: Apotheosis, Anyone?

More on the sci-fi show that imagines monotheists rebelling against a polytheist society and asks “Can you be free if you’re not real?”

The Tebow Superbowl Ad: Offense, Defense, or Interference?

The Tebow family are in the missionary business, and their Focus on the Family ad used their son’s football stardom to good effect. What were they really selling?

Christian Imperialism in Haiti?

The disaster in Haiti has brought attention to the ways that aid and ignorance sometimes come as a package. 

Religious Practices on Trial in Arizona: The Problem With “Experts”

Johnny P. Flynn

New Age guru James Arthur Ray was arrested in Arizona last week, charged with manslaughter in the deadly miscarriage of a sweat lodge ritual. The news lit up with “expert” analysis, but none of it was from Indian religious leaders or practitioners. What does “expert” mean in this context?

Yearning For A God We Can Live With

Benjamin Weiner

Two new books, one offering a vision of interfaith, universal religion, the other a model of a radically transformed Judaism, attempt to wrestle God into the everyday. Against the ascendancy of the so-called New Atheism, both writers argue for a God who transcends “god-management systems” and whose primary claim on us is through our own spiritual longing.

Excerpt: The Christian Roots of Zionism

Shalom Goldman

20th century Jewish aspirations for a revived national home were supported by three centuries of Christian enthusiasm—bolstered by biblical literalism—for the return of the Jews to "their land." In this excerpt from the newly-released Zeal for Zion, Shalom Goldman traces the Christian roots of Zionism.

Monks With Guns: Discovering Buddhist Violence

Michael Jerryson

The co-editor of a new book on the history of Buddhist violence and warfare explains how the notion of a purely mystical and otherworldly Buddhism—promoted by some of the great interpreters of the tradition—denies its adherents’ humanity.

What the Danish Cartoon Controversy Tells Us About Religion, the Secular, and the Limits of the Law

Winnifred Fallers Sullivan

A new book by four leading intellectuals (Talal Asad, Judith Butler, Saba Mahmood, and Wendy Brown) brings attention to the ongoing failures of the Euro-American liberal legal order in the face of the conflict between religious and secular values—and in doing so puts those very categories into question.

Spotlight

Spotlight

Quote

We’re working hard, burning that birthday candle at both ends, but we wanted to stop, take note, and say thank you to our readers and our writers, and to everyone who has helped us reach this milestone.

more »
Commented On
Quote

"male science-fiction fans are notoriously disrespectful of the melodramatic"

... more »

gabriel_mckee
in Capricology: Week 3: Apotheosis, Anyone?

Ted Michael Morgan posted in The Tebow Superbowl Ad: Offense, Defense, or Interference?

Ted Michael Morgan posted in The Tebow Superbowl Ad: Offense, Defense, or Interference?

Moonwood posted in Religious Practices on Trial in Arizona: The Problem With “Experts”

Jim Reed posted in The Tebow Superbowl Ad: Offense, Defense, or Interference?

Latest Stories