I welcome Spirit in the Dark for the seriousness with which it opens new prospects for the study of religion and literature…
Don’t play that song, Nathan Scott
United States
Political religion and crises of legitimacy
"There were hopes after the collapse of the Soviet Union that this sort of religion would never re-emerge, at least…
Spirit in the Dark—An introduction
Josef Sorett (Columbia University) introduces a critical exchange centered on his new book, Spirit in the Dark: A Religious History of…
Sacrality, secularity, and contested indigeneity
Indigenous peoples articulate their indigeneity within the political and legal language of secularism, even as it renders certain claims to…
Secular Christian power and the spiritual invention of nations
In the Americas, missionary colonialism prospered on the sharp edge of secular Christian power. Cutting up land with a blade…
The Myth of Disenchantment: An Introduction
A great many theorists have argued that precisely what makes the modern world “modern” is that people no longer believe…
Muslim fears and Muslim rights
Muslims played a crucial role in determining the full extent of religious liberty in the early history of the United…
Understanding the president’s reality: Our unconscious, not his
The matter of the love-hate relationship between psychoanalysis and public life has an unexpected link to the complexities of secularism…
The American tradition of tolerance and free speech
Much has happened since Denise Spellberg’s Thomas Jefferson’s Qur’an came out in 2013. When I first read it, I treasured…
Weak theology and the anti-gospel of American exceptionalism
Has the United States been a source of good in the world? Weak theology assumes a position of service to…