Reinhold Niebuhr’s The Children of Light and the Children of Darkness: A Vindication of Democracy and a Critique of Its Traditional Defense offers a still relevant perspective on the idealistic and cynical tendencies in US democracy. By Bradley Shingleton
Barbara Kingsolver’s Demon Copperhead and Donovan X. Ramsey’s When Crack Was King: A People’s History of a Misunderstood Era offer powerful narratives in the context of communities beset by addiction epidemics. By Mara Willard
A Q&A with Francis X. Clooney, S.J., about his memoir Hindu and Catholic, Priest and Scholar: A Love Story. By Wendy McDowell
A selected reading list from Janet Gyatso’s course.
Jeffrey J. Kripal’s The Superhumanities: Historical Precedents, Moral Objections, New Realities calls for a “postcritical” study of religion that embraces more expansive anthropologies, ontologies, and epistemologies. By Charles M. Stang
A fresh round of reactionary groups are appropriating Friedrich Nietzsche to promote virulent new strains of the “superhuman.” By Nicholas E. Low
A Q&A with Mark D. Jordan on his new book, Queer Callings: Untimely Notes on Names and Desires. By Faye Bodley-Dangelo
A Q&A with Matthew Ichihashi Potts on his latest book, Forgiveness: An Alternative Account. By Suzie Greco
Recent publications on plant consciousness invite us to rethink our entanglements with plant life and our understanding of ourselves among other species. By Natalia Schwien Scott
The melodramatic aspects of Thomas Hardy’s novels lend themselves to an examination of the ordinary uncertainty of life—the landscape of Michael Jackson’s Coincidences: Synchronicity, Verisimilitude, and Storytelling. By Maria Cecilia Holt
Three recent books offer helpful frameworks for considering temperament and conversion in experiences of “oneness with nature.” By Shane Baker
We need to approach earth-mourning as a necessary spiritual practice that reckons with the disorienting power of grief and the potential for meaningful change. By Dorothy Dean
A selected reading list from Dan McKanan’s course.
In Blood Theology: Seeing Red in Body- and God-Talk, Eugene F. Rogers, Jr. exposes the toxic allure of blood imagery in Christian art, literature, and practices. By Mark D. Jordan
Austin Reed’s antebellum memoir The Life and the Adventures of a Haunted Convict subverts notions of incarceration as spiritually regenerative. By Klaus C. Yoder
A selected reading list from Terrence L. Johnson’s course “Racial Liberalism and the Ethics of Law and Justice.”
A Q&A with Wendy Sanford and Mary Norman about These Walls between Us: A Memoir of Friendship across Race and Class. By Eva Seligman
Convergences of messianism, religion, and politics in Frank Herbert’s Dune and Dune Messiah resonate with his time and our own. By Charles M. Stang
Susanna Clarke’s Piranesi evokes an ethics of care within a mythical landscape haunted by continuous loss. By Courtney Sender
A Q&A with Todne Thomas on her latest book, Kincraft: The Making of Black Evangelical Sociality. By Adam McNeil
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