Every scholar of religion reading this: “Uh, which Christianity, exactly?”

More and more folks need to be talking about the fact that Elsevier has exerted remarkable control over the US News methodology in order to secure a future for its academic journal subscription model. Side effect? Complete erosion of humanities and social science scholarship.

The second law of the Global War on Terror-era is that the Global War on Terror never ends. It only transforms.

None of the most prominent people talking about universities have any real idea what does and doesn’t happen in classrooms.

"If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein." Justice Robert Jackson, 1943

And, as @jackjenkins.me would agree, more religion and staffers dedicated to the study of religion and spirituality. These things all inter-relate.

In my experience as a scholar of religion, when a religious or spiritual community’s narratives & worldview are challenged by the “facts-on-the-ground,” they will turn to supernatural narratives — Satanic or demonic possession, for example, or simple disbelief — to make sense of what’s transpired.

I want to underline this point for everyone outside foreign policy, NatSec, and Middle East circles. Israel bombing a US partner (Qatar) is significantly different from bombing countries the US considers adversarial (Iran, Assad's Syria) or groups the US designates as terrorists (Hezbollah, Hamas).

Good read. Each year - for the last several - I’ve informally surveyed a few of my classes, on matters of religious & political beliefs. Completely anonymous. Students are amazed that so many students in the class are like them … but several note they chose their university hoping for that.

YES. Reading through articles covering religion department closures — seeing AAR tout the health of programs graduating 5 alumni per year — has been eye-opening. Five majors per year shuts down programs in some states, such as Ohio, as a matter of law. Our enrollments were 800+/yr before closure.

It’s not a very serious one, but a real, sometimes irksome, burden scholars of religion have to bear is the need to explain & re-explain that, no, we’re not glorified Sunday school teachers, but actual scholars (historians, sociologists, etc) engaged in the *academic* or critical study of religion.

Cool colleagues, ya’ll. Cool, cool colleagues.

FINALLY. Someone FINALLY covered this.

I mean … find the lie?

Getting caught up on today’s headlines and I’m of the general opinion that there is a non-zero chance they bring back leaded gasoline for health reasons.

This feels familiar. The number of times that legal arguments were still being drafted under the Bush and Obama administrations during the drone campaign in Yemen…

The section of my REL 101 syllabus dealing with "Religion & Public Life" keeps becoming more relevant.

This is absolutely correct. Ask anyone how Bin Ladin rationalized his attack on the United States -- motives, strategic objectives, goals, how they evolved. They cannot tell you. Ask them al-Qa'ida's goals? Same. The war is ongoing and still most don't know why.

I realize the Anthropic suit is a huge deal. But, I have to say, searching one of these sites and seeing my book there for the first time made me feel like I hit an achievement I'd thought about since grad school.

i think a lot of people still take public schools and books in those schools for granted and it's difficult to explain how far from universal access to any kind of liberal education, at all levels, we now find ourselves

Just walking into the news of James Dobson's death with a reminder that one of Dobson's principle instructors was Paul Popenoe - a botanist (who stole date palms from Oman for the USDA, revolutionizing the Cochella Valley) and a eugenicist white supremacist. religiondispatches.org/james-dobson...

Yep. And, we also know how well it went for Boeing. How do I know? Humanities prof, here. Co-taught an ethics and STEM course with an engineer, co-designed with philosophers.

Seeing @profgabriele.com’s post about Virginia Tech’s excellent religion programs being shuttered — or “transformed” and “reimagined” as they will call it in admin speak — reminds me that departmental closure is like living through a combination of a breakup, divorce, home sale, and move. It’s awful

The crisis in the study of religion continues, worsens.

Quote this with a book you read way too young that explains why you are the way you are. (The summer before 7th grade) *** Probably wasn't way too young, but have been skeptical of executive power ever since.

Filing this one under the "War on Terror never ended" phrase that I use from time-to-time. Also, close viewers of the "Sheridan-verse" know that Taylor Sheridan & CBS plowed a "public approval" road for this with shows like CBS' Lioness in the last few years.

“Domestic Violence Extremists” have been planning an attempting raids and thefts like these for years. If only there were laws and studies performed of this threat …

Fantastic for Ryan and a great addition for Wash U.

Every job posting in the field is to be celebrated. Congrats to our colleagues at DePaul for this announcement of a tenure-track line!

*taps the sign*

Is there a single college or university that has said - “nah, no “AI” right now. Let them prove themselves before we invest millions.”

Two things. First, we're not far from the day that universities have an accredited "AI assessor" and compete with one another over its rigor -- leading to US News & World report ranking the AIs of universities. Somehow, the Ivies will *still* win. www.hepi.ac.uk/2025/07/26/w...

Something I'll discuss with my "Intro to Religion" students in the fall. Given the current US Supreme Court's openness to "religious freedom" arguments -- should Americans be permitted to *refuse* to use AI in their employment, etc., if it's against their sincerely held religious beliefs?

“One list of ‘violent tactics’ shared by the Los Angeles–based Joint Regional Intelligence Center—part of a post-9/11 fusion network—includes both protesters’ attempts to avoid identification and efforts to identify police.” The War on Terror never ended.

A gnostic A.I. gospel was inevitable, you know.

@aarweb.bsky.social has sent a letter regarding the elimination of Religious Studies at BSU, IUI, and IU-B. Thankful for their swift action on this and for my Midwest AAR colleagues who helped me to bring this to their attention.

religious studies at Ball State and IU Bloomington on the chopping block once more, with feeling: religiondispatches.org/the-universi...

Oh — having lived through a religion department closure, would *love* to be a paid consultant on this one.

It's hard to avoid recalling this passage from the English historian Tony Judt:

I would *love* to see humanities fields develop an arXiv.org culture.

I only just now realized they eliminated my MA program (then called NELC, now MELC). That program was the only way I could have afforded to study Arabic and Turkish (because it was in-state tuition), and then qualify for PhD programs. My career would have been out of reach without it.

Sadly, universities going forward should simply plan as if there are no federal research grants any more and stop trying to figure out how to placate an ideologically hostile administration which will use any excuse, however absurd, to attack. In practice federal research grants no longer exist.

among the things we apparently need to do a better job of going forward - as a society, it seems - is communicating the basic conceit of what learning is and why we value it. a problem that we in higher ed share with our K-12 colleagues

"From the beginning, universities have made America great. An assault on American universities is an attack on American society. Universities are for all. Let’s make the ads. Let’s show the work." arcmag.org/the-lizard-t...

Having grown up within evangelicalism and spent a fair amount of time reflecting on that, I’d contribute as well that “rapture” and “end times” theology were often used by evangelicals as an excuse to *not take responsibility* for US foreign policy and certain uncomfortable political choices…

Watching the morning Pentagon briefing, curious to see if *one* member of the media will ask about the legality and constitutionality of President Trump's ordered strikes on Iran.

Oman controls the other half of the Straits of Hormuz. They were instrumental in diplomacy between US & Iran. Watch what they do here. They'll do it quietly. If your news outlet isn't discussing Omani roles, you're not getting complete coverage. timesofoman.com/article/1595...