What can the study of prayer tell us about social life, religious institutions and practices, ethical self-formation, and our concepts of communication, both shared and unique? The Social Science Research Council’s Program on Religion and the Public Sphere announces Why Prayer? A Conference on New Directions in the Study of Prayer, a two-day gathering that will showcase the work of over 30 scholars and journalists who have explored these questions and more.
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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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Norse pagan temple to be built in Iceland
by Wei ZhuRoughly a millennium after Christianity overtook Norse paganism, there will soon be a new temple devoted to Odin, Thor, and Frigg overlooking Reykjavík.
February 5, 2015
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CFP: Secularism and Secularity
by Joseph BlankholmNow entering its third year, the Secularism and Secularity Program Unit of the American Academy of Religion is going strong and looking forward to another great set of proposals. The call for papers for the 2015 meeting in Atlanta is now available, and the deadline for submissions is March 2nd.
February 18, 2015
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Frequencies
by Kathryn Lofton and John Lardas ModernSome readers may have recently returned to Frequencies only to find that its spiritual focus had radically shifted. Due to hijinks (perhaps predictable) relating to transitory labor, scholarly ignorance, and the virtualization of just about everything, the original site has experienced foreclosure. Its contents will soon be reconstituted in new http territory. Which is to say […]
February 22, 2015
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Religion in Britain: Demography, identity, and the public sphere
by Wei ZhuOver at Public Spirit, to coincide with the publication of the second edition of Grace Davie's Religion in Britain, Tariq Modood comments on on three significant changes with demography, identity, and the public sphere are going to characterize the next few decades and perhaps beyond.
February 23, 2015
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CFP: Freedom of (and from) Religion
by Joseph BlankholmThe Department of Religious Studies at the University of California-Santa Barbara, with support from the Cordano Endowment in Catholic Studies, will host a conference on “Freedom of (and from) Religion: Debates Over the Accommodation of Religion in the Public Sphere” from April 30 to May 2, 2015.
March 10, 2015
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Religious freedom at Religion Dispatches
by The EditorsAs part of a joint project between The Immanent Frame and Religion Dispatches, RD contributing editor Austin Dacey has written a series of posts on religious freedom in the United States. His latest piece tackles Winnifred Fallers Sullivan's "The impossibility of religious freedom" and potential alternate regimes for legislating religious freedom in the United States.
March 23, 2015
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Projecting religious futures
by Wei ZhuEarlier this month, Pew Research Center published its projections on what religious affiliations might look like in 2050.
April 16, 2015
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Remembering Martin Riesebrodt
by Loren D. Lybarger and Kelly H. ChongOn December 6, 2014, influential sociologist of religion Martin Riesebrodt died at the age of 66. Professor Riesebrodt was the author of two groundbreaking comparative studies: Pious Passion: The Emergence of Modern Fundamentalism in the United States and Iran (1993), and The Promise of Salvation: A Theory of Religion (2010).
April 17, 2015
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The Islamic State’s intellectual genealogy (and what you need to read to understand it)
by Alexander ThurstonGraeme Wood’s “What ISIS Really Wants,” published in The Atlantic in February 2015, sparked a massive debate. The controversy concerns whether the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is Islamic or not, and especially whether ISIS accurately understands Islam’s “medieval tradition”—whatever that may mean. Wood correctly argues that ISIS cannot be understood without reference to its understanding of Islam, but he also implies—disturbingly, to many—that ISIS’s understanding of Islam is just as representative of the religion as any other view would be.
April 20, 2015