Seeds of Connection, Seeds of Change: Botanical Folktales for Ecological and Relational Storytelling By Anna Perdibon “Plants prepare for the winter through fruits and seeds, and through discarding what they don’t need. The clearing-out begins,” writes Lisa Schneidau in her collection of botanical folktales. Every year autumn for me is Read more
Blue Religion By Justine M. Bakker “Based on my extremely blurry and perhaps unreliable recollection that he once told me so,” writes David Chidester in his contribution to With This Root About My Person, a recently published collection of essays dedicated to Charles H. Long,, “I have reason to believe Read more
Political Counterpoint — for the Election and Beyond By Catherine Keller Counterpoint: now there’s an inviting metaphor for political engagement! Imagine politics as a music of diversity, of contrasts effecting a vibrant complexity, a perspectival interplay that comes to the edge of contradiction but then enfolds the tension in a Read more
Point / Counterpoint: A Debate about Islamophobia, Christophobia, and Religious Freedom This week, we publish another example of “Point / Counterpoint” discussions on the Blog. Klemens Ludwig starts with his take on Islamophobia and Christophobia; Rachel Woodlock then responds to his claims from her point of view. Point: Islamophobia? Christophobia? Read more
Do Better than Barmen: “Say Our Names” By Anna Mercedes Shortly after 9/11, 2001, I was in graduate school studying theology just outside of New York, and much of my theological analysis was turned toward “empire.” The imperial might of America’s political and military power had me raising my theological Read more
Lost in the Present By John Thatamanil The climate crisis, the COVID pandemic, the global rise of authoritarianism—these are just the handful of quandaries human communities must confront in our time. But how? What resources do we have to help us through life’s overwhelming hurly burly? Life is too complicated Read more
Elephants, Taxes, and Where We Live By Marcia Pally Last week, we had a torrent of news about Donald Trump’s taxes—profits, losses, and massive tax avoidance. This was just about the time I was looking at the book Circling the Elephant, and it turns out that one has quite a Read more
Emotion for Change: An Interview with Sara Michieletto Sara Michieletto is an Italian violinist who has performed worldwide, including with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the BBC Orchestra. She has collaborated with highly acclaimed conductors such as Muti, Maazel, Masur, Pretre, Gardiner, and Chung. Since 1998 she has played the Read more
Embracing the Magicality of Science By Kocku von Stuckrad A few weeks ago, Renny Thomas argued on this blog that “rituals and prayers are very much part of the public imagination of science in India.” Many readers from Europe and North America may have the impression that this observation differs Read more
The Iris Book Award: Prize Ceremony, Reading, and Discussion On 26 September 2020, The Center for Religion & the Human at Indiana University Bloomington presented the Iris Book Award to The Songs of Trees: Stories from Nature’s Great Connectors (Viking, 2017) by David George Haskell. Books considered for the award are Read more