Department News
Prof. Butler Awarded Major Grant from Luce Foundation
The department is delighted to announce that Prof. Anthea Butler has been awarded a major grant from the Henry Luce Foundation, along with Profs.
Spring 2021 Lecture Series: Jews, Race, and Religion
The Herbert D.
Abdul Manan Bhat reviews Ali Khan Mahmudabad at the Marginalia Review of Books
PhD student Abdul Manan Bhat recently published a review of Ali Khan Mahmudabad's Poetry of Belonging: Muslim Imaginings of India, 1850–1950 for the Ma
Professor Butler Speaks on Black-Jewish Relations in the Civil Rights Movement
At a recent Katz Center event hosted by Professor Steven Weitzman, Department Chair Anthea Butler spoke on Black-Jewish relations
Dr. Andrew Hudson Appointed Louisville Institute Fellow and Associate Director at Wabash Center
The department is delighted to congratulate alumnus Dr. Andrew Hudson, who has been appointed Associate Director at the Wabash Center as a Louisville Institute Fellow! Dr.
Prof. Jolyon Baraka Thomas Wins AAR Book Award
The department extends its congratulations to Prof.
PhD Candidate Gabriel Raeburn Receives Dissertation Grant
PhD Candidate Gabriel Raeburn has received the 2020 Dissertation Grant from the National Institute of Social Sciences.
Prof. Thomas Hosts Book Discussion, "Christian Sorcerers on Trial"
On 9/24/2020, Professor Thomas hosted a discussion of the new translation and critical edition "Christian Sorcerers on Trial: Records of the 1827 Osaka Incident," by Fumiko Miyazaki, Kate Wildman N
With particular strengths in the study of Christianity, Judaism, American religions, Islam, secularism, Buddhism, and other Asian religions, the Department of Religious Studies emphasizes descriptive, historical, and theoretical approaches to the study of religion.
Upcoming Events
Black Power, Jewish Politics: Reinventing the Alliance in the 1960s
Marc Dollinger, San Francisco State University
Limpieza de Sangre and the “Clash of Civilizations”; Or, What Hath the Soul to Do with Racialized Bodies?
Sylvester A. Johnson, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
Book Celebration: Alyssa Maldonado-Estrada, Lifeblood of the Parish: Men and Catholic Devotion in Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Alyssa Maldonado-Estrada, Kalamazoo College
Faculty Bookshelf
The Jews: A History
The Jews: A History is a comprehensive and accessible text that explores the religious, cultural, social, and economic diversity of the Jewish people and their faith.
Women in the Church of God in Christ: Making a Sanctified World
The Church of God in Christ (COGIC), an African American Pentecostal denomination founded in 1896, has become the largest Pentecostal denomination in the United States today.
Light Upon Light
Light upon Light: Essays in Islamic Thought and History in Honor of Gerhard Bowering brings together studies that explore the richness of Islamic intellectual life in the pre-modern period
Song and Story in Biblical Narrative: The History of a Literary Convention in Ancient Israel
This book examines a literary form within the Bible that has slipped through the cracks of modern scholarship: the mixing of song and story in biblical narrative.
Architects of Buddhist Leisure: Socially Disengaged Buddhism in Asia’s Museum, Monuments, and Amusement Parks
Buddhism, often described as an austere religion that condemns desire, promotes denial, and idealizes the contemplative life, actually has a thriving leisure culture in Asia.
Islam
Islam is a concise and readable survey of the history of Islam from the birth of Muhammad in seventh century Arabia to the differing situations of Muslims throughout today's world.
Buddhist Narrative in Asia and Beyond
Publication of the proceedings of the conference "Buddhist Narrative in Asia and Beyond" at Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, August 2010, edited by Peter Skilling & Justin McDaniel.
Death before Dying: The Sufi Poems of Sultan Bahu
These 115 poems introduce readers in English to Sultan Bahu (d. 1691), a Sufi mystical poet who continues to be one of the most beloved writers in Punjabi.