What Is Midrash?
A terminological inquiry can shed entirely new light on midrashic hermeneutics, revealing a depth and structure that often go unnoticed. By Ishay Rosen-Zvi
Category: Study of Religion
Empire and Epistemicide
Precisely at the times when Jews and Christians were most experiencing the violence of the Roman Empire, some of Rome’s rulers were most vociferously claiming to bring and keep peace. By Annette Yoshiko Reed
And Yet . . . We Hope
History has shown us that humanity has the propensity to persist despite catastrophe. At Harvard Divinity School, we must focus on what is in our control to build toward a better future for all. By Marla F. Frederick
Dionysus and the Tragedy of Greek Religion Scholarship
Albert Henrichs’s work on Dionysus is a case study in the complexities and tensions that characterize the relationship between the fields of religion and the classics. By Kate Whitaker
‘A Pedagogy of Coming to See’
A Q&A with Francis X. Clooney, S.J., about his memoir Hindu and Catholic, Priest and Scholar: A Love Story. By Wendy McDowell
Between the Lines
Recent interventions within the field of Islamic studies require a shift in focus to the lives and practices of Muslims, without eschewing attention to texts. By Hussein Rashid And Huma Mohibullah
Knowing Animals: Buddhist and Posthuman Resources for a New Interspecies Ethics
A selected reading list from Janet Gyatso’s course.
The Smoldering Superhuman
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
The Spiritual Infrastructure of the Future
Many traditional religious denominations are withering, but there can be liberation if we embrace refitting the old systems in new ways. By Sue Phillips
Words in the Blood
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
Cannon, Williams, and Womanist Survival
Womanism founders Katie Cannon and Delores Williams created groundbreaking work that has led to a wide range of scholarship focused on the thriving of Black women. By Gary Dorrien
Only Connect: Networked Christianity in the Digital Age
The digital revolution and globalization have accelerated and redirected profound religious, social, and cultural changes already underway since the 1960s. By David N. Hempton
Selected Works of Twentieth-Century Jewish Theology
A reading list from Jon D. Levenson’s course.
Rethinking the Study of African Indigenous Religions
To avoid the continuous misassessment of their resilience, African indigenous religions should be studied on their own terms. By Jacob K. Olupona
‘Literature is Common Ground’: On Reading Virginia Woolf
A Q&A with Stephanie Paulsell on her latest book, Religion Around Virginia Woolf. By Sarah Fleming
The Study of Religion on the Other Side of Disgust
Disgust directs us toward the painful truth of religion in human life beyond the bourgeois pieties of “religion” as it is defined and policed in the modern era. By Robert A. Orsi
Turning Ghosts into Ancestors in Contemporary Urban China
Understanding contemporary religious life in China requires a religious imagination freed from the preconceptions of monotheism. By Anna Sun
Faith in the Fire: Religious Public Intellectuals
A selected reading list from Cornel West and Jonathan L. Walton’s course
A ‘View Of Judaism in its Own Terms
Harvard’s trajectory from Christian Hebraism to modern Jewish Studies and one larger-than-life professor critical to the transition. By Jon D. Levenson
Between the Sacred and the Profane: The Border as a Contested Space
The U.S.-Mexico borderlands are seen through a lens of the sacred vs. the profane by many state actors. By Christopher Montoya
