Study of Religion | Harvard Divinity Bulletin

Dancing with the Demiurge

Gregory Shaw’s Hellenic Tantra: The Theurgic Platonism of Iamblichus is a critique of the metaphysics of our age, which disempower the imagination and blind us to our own capacities for the divine. By Simon Cox

Reframing Religions as Platforms

In The Divine Economy: How Religions Compete for Wealth, Power, and People, Paul Seabright draws on insights from economics to reframe religions as competing “platforms.” By Swayam Bagaria

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

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

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

‘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

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