A new book by the german philosopher Theodor Ebert makes the claim that "Descartes died not through natural causes but from an arsenic-laced communion wafer given to him by a Catholic priest."
here & there
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.
books
Faith, Politics, and Power
by Ruth BraunsteinAs the new White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships reflects on what it has accomplished during its first year, a timely new book from sociologist (and here & there contributor) Rebecca Sager---Faith, Politics, and Power: The Politics of Faith-Based Initiatives---provides readers with an in-depth analysis of the hopes and fears surrounding Faith-Based Initiatives at the state level.
February 17, 2010
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“Wrong on every detail that matters”
by Lydia BrawnerJohn R. Bowen, author of Why the French Don’t Like Headscarves and Can Islam be French, has a new article in this month’s Boston Review, “Nothing to Fear: Misreading Muslim Immigration in Europe.” In it, he examines a spate of books penned by American authors that deal with Islam in Europe, such as Bruce Bawer’s While Europe Slept: How Radical Islam is Destroying the West from Within and Mark Steyn’s America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It (the website for which touts the book as having been called "flagrantly Islamophobic" by the Canadian Human Rights Commission).
February 17, 2010
here & there
Pink ouija board targets young girls as spiritists or spiritual victims
by Kathryn ReklisCourtney Bender explores the criss-crossing lines of gender, power, and spirituality in the controversy surrounding Hasbro's release of a hot pink ouija board, marketed for young girls, explaining the centuries old link between spiritual mediums, their devices, and gendered spirituality.
February 17, 2010
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Haggling over Ted Haggard’s identity
by Nathan SchneiderEver since revelations of his tryst with a male prostitute became public in 2006, Ted Haggard has been a visible focal point for the evangelical community's encounter with homosexuality. In an interview with Kathryn Joyce at Religion Dispatches, Haggard's wife Gayle describes how the incident and its fallout has affected her thinking about sexual identity and, as she repeatedly puts it, the spiritual "journey."
February 17, 2010
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The impossibility of religious freedom?
by Jessica PolebaumMichelle Boorstein of the Washington Post reports that the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, "the federal agency charged with advising the president and Congress [and] created by Congress in 1998 as a part of the Religious Freedom Act," is facing claims of religious bias.
February 18, 2010
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Church attendance concentrated in South, Utah
by Charles GelmanYesterday, Gallup released its 2009 numbers on church attendance (based on more than 350,000 interviews), breaking down the results by state. The distribution is not entirely surprising.
February 18, 2010
here & there
St. Francis, the sultan, and the promise of peace
by Nathan SchneiderOn February 17th, with half the foreheads in the packed room marked by Ash Wednesday smears, Fordham University's Center on Religion and Culture sponsored a forum with four authors who have recently written about St. Francis' 13th-century encounter with the sultan of Egypt: two historians, a Franciscan sister, and a journalist.
February 18, 2010
here & there
The pope’s digital turn
by Nathan SchneiderElizabeth Drescher, at Religion Dispatches, discusses the pope's recent call for priests to get savvy with online media. She questions whether the Catholic hierarchy really understands what it will be getting into with the (arguably) non-hierarchical landscape of social networks.
February 19, 2010
books
Jewish economic ambivalence
by Nathan SchneiderFrom Princeton University Press, historian Jerry Z. Muller has a new book on Capitalism and the Jews.
February 19, 2010