Sociology of Religion has just published a study by Neil Gross and Solon Simmons on US professors' belief in God. Unsurprisingly, the American professoriate is less religious than the general population. But as the study shows, 35% of those surveyed believe absolutely that God exists, while another 17% believe so with some reservations, which is not small by any means.
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The de-protestantization of the Supreme Court?
by Sam HanIn light of the recent news that Justice Stevens will be retiring, the New York Times Week in Review notes that he is the sole Protestant on the Supreme Court.
April 12, 2010
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The experiment that did not fail?
by John D. BoyOn the occasion of the one-hundredth anniversary of the Degania kibbutz, J. J. Goldberg writes about the decline of the institution in this week's Forward. The demise of the original utopian vision of a better society was not inevitable; it was "murdered" by a "combination of malice and neglect by government officials and incompetence by planners in the central kibbutz federation in the 1980s."
April 12, 2010
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Re-evaluating Flannery O’Connor
by John D. BoyIn Commentary, Terry Teachout writes that for many years, Flannery O'Connor's readers and critics failed to grasp the meaning of her œuvre because their secularist frame made them blind to the importance of her spirituality and orthodoxy.
April 13, 2010
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New Habermas dialogues on religion and secularism
by Grace YukichAn op-ed by Stanley Fish in Monday's New York Times discusses a new publication comprising the proceedings from a course of dialogues between Habermas and four Jesuit academics in 2007. They have previously appeared in German, but they are now being published in English for the first time under the title An Awareness of What is Missing: Faith and Reason in a Post-secular Age.
April 14, 2010
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Atheism as religion
by Sam HanAt least since Ernst Bloch's Atheism in Christianity, the separation between "atheism" and "religion" has been questioned and interrogated by many scholars. In the wake of the rise of the New Atheism, BBC Two's "The Review Show" asks whether atheism itself can be called a "religion."
April 14, 2010
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Tariq Ramadan returns to the U.S.
by Jessica PolebaumLast Thursday, Tariq Ramadan addressed his first American audience in over five years. Before a crowd that filled the historic Great Hall at Cooper Union, Ramadan, alongside panelists Dalia Mogahed, George Packer, Joan Wallach Scott, and moderator Jacob Weisberg, discussed his understanding of the unique position of the Western Muslim, stressing his view of the compatibility of that which is “Western” and that which is “Islamic,” and emphasizing his faith in the creative potential of Western Muslims to elaborate and inhabit a distinctly Western Islamic tradition. At once a celebration of intellectual freedom and a small victory over ideological exclusion, the event afforded Ramadan the opportunity to present in person his sometimes controversial stances and to respond to questions he has frequently been asked concerning his family background and his personal views on issues associated with gay and women’s rights.
April 16, 2010
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Christianity and healthcare reform
by Sam HanSarah Posner, of The American Prospect, has written an article about how some Christian, non-profit groups, known as health-care-sharing ministries (HCSMs), are circumventing the individual mandate, a crucial though contentious aspect of the recent healthcare reform legislation.
April 16, 2010
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Sovereignty and sacrifice in American politics
by Charles GelmanIn The Utopian, Yale Law professor Paul W. Kahn argues that the discourse and imaginary of secular political theory fail to grasp the deep and abiding theological---specifically, sacrificial---dimensions of U.S. politics and the American political imagination.
April 16, 2010
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Religion and women’s rights in the British elections
by Sam HanOver at openDemocracy, Rahila Gupta discusses the significance of the upcoming British elections with respect to women's rights and religion. While casual observers of British politics on this side of the Atlantic view New Labour as more liberal or progressive (at least on the issues of gender), Gupta argues that it is not so, especially when one looks at the uptick in state-funding for religious schools under New Labour, which she suggests has been catastrophic for the cause of women's rights and the rights of minority women in particular.
April 19, 2010