To use the concept of spirituality analytically is enormously difficult. There comes a point in reading this book when one…
spirituality
“The hegemony of her sway”
Oprah’s “gift is not her interviewing strategy but her confessional promiscuity.” While claiming only to tell you what she herself…
Spirituality, mediation, consumption
Oprah is a compelling object for the scholarly study of religion as a contemporary phenomenon. She is mass-mediated, commercial, and…
When democracy alone is not enough
At Patheos, philosopher Roger Gottlieb discusses why "spirituality" is a necessary supplement to democracy.
Post-secular development
For most of the second half of the twentieth century development was assumed to be consonant with modernity and its…
Figuring American Spirituality
After attending a February 10th discussion with multimedia artist Laurie Anderson at Columbia University, Columbia Religion Professor Courtney Bender wrote…
Competitive theism at the Grammys
In anticipation of the Grammy Awards tonight, Neill Strauss asks, "Why do so many musical superstars think that their careers…
What is Oprah?: An interview with Kathryn Lofton
In Oprah: The Gospel of an Icon, just out from University of California Press, Yale religion professor Kathryn Lofton orchestrates…
Call for papers: Spirituality, political engagement, and public life
The SSRC Working Group on Spritituality, Political Engagement & Public Life is inviting submissions of abstracts for a conference to…
History and the historyless
Buried in the middle of William James’s chapter on “The Sick Soul” in The Varieties of Religious Experience is the…