Reuters (via FaithWorld) reports on a new Pew Forum poll that reminds us that the spectrum of Americans' spiritual beliefs is more complicated than "Protestant-Catholic-Jew."
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Announcements, events, and opportunities related to topics of interest to TIF readers are posted here. Additionally you may find round-ups of news items and brief commentary on current events.
For a listing of all of the events announcements, click here.
For a listing of announcements regarding books, click here.
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Does Joe Lieberman benefit from Jewish stereotypes?
by Charles GelmanVia Yglesias, Jonathan Chait wonders whether certain Jewish stereotypes are redounding to the benefit of the senator from Connecticut.
December 14, 2009
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Was prophecy a day job for poets?
by Nathan SchneiderIn The New Republic, Adam Kirsch reviews David Rosenberg's A Literary Bible, which makes an arresting claim about Hebrew biblical literature.
December 15, 2009
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Schmitt on Shakespeare
by Charles GelmanAt TELOSscope , Nicole Burgoyne interviews David Pan, translator of the first English edition of Carl Schmitt's 1956 foray into literary theory, Hamlet or Hecuba: The Intrusion of Time into the Play.
December 15, 2009
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A Jewish biography of Bob Dylan
by John SchmalzbauerOf the writing of Bob Dylan books, there is no end. Now, after all these years, somebody has written a "Jewish biography" of Bob Dylan. Summing up the thesis of Bob Dylan: Prophet, Mystic, Poet for The Jewish Daily Forward, Seth Rogovoy said that “Bob Dylan has in large part adopted the modes of Jewish prophetic discourse as one of his primary means of communication,” detecting a form of midrash in Dylan's lyrics.
December 15, 2009
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Obama, Christian realism, and Just War theory
by Charles GelmanA round-up of some of the recent commentary on President Obama and the ethics of war, following the invocation of Just War theory during his Nobel Prize acceptance speech.
December 15, 2009
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How important was Oral Roberts?
by John SchmalzbauerThe passing of another iconic televangelist has led to a flurry of media coverage. How important was Oral Roberts?
December 16, 2009
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Search engine religion
by Nathan SchneiderAt Science & Religion Today, Jim Jansen announces a new article of his [pdf], published in the journal Religion, about how religious topics appear in web searches.
December 17, 2009
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Religion as revolution
by Charles GelmanMcGill University and the Centre for Research on Religion will be holding a conference specifically for graduate students on March 26-27, 2010, entitled Sites of Transformation: New Perspectives on Religion as Revolution.
December 17, 2009
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An Islamic civil war?
by Charles GelmanIn his op-ed piece in yesterday's New York Times, Thomas Friedman made a number of astute remarks about the current state of international jihadism and the construction, in American public discourse, of the Muslim qua object. Nevertheless, he still managed to throw good sense to the wind, suggesting that what's really needed is an intra-Islamic civil war.
December 17, 2009