In taxi cabs and formal interviews, I’ve been told that the study of secularism in the Philippines is a bit…
Notes from the field
In the summer of 2010, a small group of graduate students who received the SSRC Dissertation Development Research Fellowship (DPDF) blogged regularly for The Immanent Frame. The fellows came together in conjunction with a 2010 DPDF subfield called “After Secularization: New Approaches to Religion and Modernity.”
After the fellowship period ended, a select group of fellows continued the blog through the fall of 2010. In their short contributions to “Notes from the field,” the fellows shared notes and reflections on their emerging research, as well as other insights and questions, ruminations, and observations.
Then, in early June 2011, the SSRC program on religion and the public sphere convened twelve advanced graduate students and five distinguished professors for a five-day dissertation workshop on religion and international affairs. Over the course of the workshop, students shared their ongoing work, considered critiques from student and faculty participants, and debated the coherence of the very banner under which they had been gathered.
All of these reflections and notes from these students are gathered below.
Who’s afraid of Pelagius?
What could Obama’s take on Iranian democracy, early-modern theodicy, and twentieth-century leftist thought have in common? Despite these wide variations…
After atheism (Part I)
In a confessional mode, I’m afraid I have to get something off my chest: I don’t think I’m an atheist.…
Death metal: A “pipeline to God”?
Metal music’s obsession with religion is part of its obsession with living at the limit. The goal of metal is…
London postcard
One of the great benefits of conducting research at the British Library is that days off provide the opportunity to…
War crimes, politics, and being changed by faith
Although Charles Taylor is currently on trial for allegedly funding and fueling the civil war in neighboring Sierra Leone, the…
A note on secular comparison
In Comparing the incommensurate, Vincent Pecora builds on David Buckley’s recent inquiry about methods of comparison and the challenges that…
The scope of secular comparison
As I transition my SSRC research from Senegal to the Philippines, I am constantly ruminating over the question: why compare these two…
Obama bears witness (to the past of a tricky phrase)
To “bear witness:” Obama’s phrase was widely quoted but not seriously analyzed. Some attacked (and some still attack) the President…
Defining “theodicy” (Part I)
When Leibniz coined the phrase “theodicy” for the title of his landmark 1710 work, Essais de Théodicée sur la bonté…