Books
Reframing Forgiveness
A Q&A with Matthew Ichihashi Potts on his latest book, Forgiveness: An Alternative Account. By Suzie Greco
Rooting in Relationality
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
Paths of Coincidence in Thomas Hardy
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
The Trouble with Oneness
Three recent books offer helpful frameworks for considering temperament and conversion in experiences of “oneness with nature.” By Shane Baker
Climate Grief and the Secular Spirituality of Earth-Mourning
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
Ecotheology
A selected reading list from Dan McKanan’s course.
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
Prison Theology
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
Racial Liberalism and the Ethics of Law and Justice
A selected reading list from Terrence L. Johnson’s course “Racial Liberalism and the Ethics of Law and Justice.”
Building Trust through Truth-telling
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
Film & Television
Mormonism, the ‘Most American’ Religious Other
Mormons continue to be depicted in popular culture as victims, criminals, or disaffected. By Jaxon Washburn
Dune, or the Order of Time
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
Without Why: Religion without Purpose in Pixar’s Soul
Pixar’s Soul asks fundamental questions about existence and challenges the idea that life is reducible to purpose, religious or otherwise. By Matthew C. Kruger
Fully Fleshed Out: Religion, Womanhood, and Blackness in Contemporary Media
Positive, complex representations of black women’s religious experience in Queen Sugar and Being Serena. By LeRhonda S. Manigault-Bryant
Jewish Identity and Biblical Exposition in Darren Aronofsky’s Films
Evaluating the use of ancient Jewish modes of interpretation in Aronofsky’s mother! and Noah. By Eric X. Jarrard
Where Silence Lives
The documentary In Pursuit of Silence creates a space for a long overdue conversation about the nuanced subject of silence. By Timothy L. Gallati
Nostalgia Awakens
Star Wars: The Force Awakens anticipates and addresses the concerns of a nostalgic audience. By Robert Hensley-King
Three Films Depict Sinhalese Buddhism
In three Sinhalese Buddhist movies, Theravada religion and culture is vividly narrated, interpreted, and reimagined. By Chipamong Chowdhury
Girls and Sarah Coakley, Through a Theological Lens of Desire
Examining the relationship between desire and transformation in two disparate works: Girls and Sarah Coakley’s God, Sexuality and the Self: An Essay “On the Trinity.” By Peter Boumgarden
A Biblical Theology Illuminated
Gatsby: The Cinematic Illumination of a Biblical Theology. By Daniel Ross Goodman