After a year of planning and conversation, The Immanent Frame and Killing the Buddha launch today a new web-based project titled Frequencies. Curated by Kathryn Lofton and John Lardas Modern, and produced in conjunction with the SSRC’s work on spirituality, political engagement, and public life, the site is a unique experiment in which a broad group of writers, scholars and artists were asked to produce a short essay on what comes to mind when they think of the word spirituality. The first one hundred responses will be released over the next several months and include essays on an extraordinary array of subjects, from John Cage to Beebe, Arkansas; Muhammad’s hair to The Dr. Oz Show. Accompanying the essays are artworks selected from over 350 images submitted in response to an open call. The result is an unfolding project that is not only intellectually but also visually stimulating, exhibited on a dynamic website designed by Batts Creative.

The first entry is “Enthusiasm,” by Amy Hollywood. “Enthusiasm,” she writes, “is a friend to civil liberty; just as the enthusiast demands his right freely to experience God himself, so also he demands civil liberty.” Read the full entry here. Learn more about Amy Hollywood’s upcoming Barnard lecture on “Enthusiasm & Critique” here. Bookmark Frequencies here.