Category: Religion

March 21, 2012

Happy Birthday to Slavoj Žižek

Today, March 21, is the birthday of perhaps the most talked-about figure in academia today, Slavoj Žižek. Žižek, born in Slovenia and now a senior researcher at the University of Ljubljana (among many other positions), is famous for his incisive...

March 7, 2012

New Book Tuesday (Wednesday Edition): Theos Bernard, the White Lama

A day late but here’s our weekly list of books now available: Theos Bernard, the White Lama: Tibet, Yoga, and American Religious Life Paul G. Hackett How to Read Chinese Poetry Workbook Zong-qi Cai and Jie Cui Screen Dynamics: Mapping...

March 2, 2012

The Columbia Guide to Religion in American History Hits the Airwaves

The Columbia Guide to Religion in American History, edited by Paul Harvey and Edward J. Blum was recently featured on the podcast, Books and Culture. The podcast discusses a variety of the essays but on his blog Religion in American...

February 29, 2012

Denis Lacorne: Breaking Down the Wall of Separation from JFK to Santorum and Romney

“Excessive or opportunistic professions of faith can only damage the political process when the truth is distorted in the name of religion to the point of absurdity.”—Denis Lacorne Recent news about the Republican primary has seen its fair share of...

February 16, 2012

Roger Hardy — Islamism and the Arab Spring

The following is a post by Roger Hardy, author of The Muslim Revolt: A Journey Through Political Islam. The essay was originally posted on the Hurst Blog. The recent success of Islamist parties in elections in Tunisia and Egypt has...

February 7, 2012

Jonathan Lyons on Islam, Women, and the West

“The expropriation of the rhetoric of women’s rights under Islam in order to unleash deadly violence on Muslim nations shows just how much the struggle for women’s equality has become a discursive one rather than a material one.”—Jonathan Lyons In...

January 20, 2012

Jonathan Lyons: A New Model for Understanding the World of Islam

“This model, then, calls for the compilation of a new, hidden history of Islam that fills in those areas declared off limits by the anti-Islam discourse. But, first, we must radically rephrase the West’s favorite polemical question—What’s wrong with Islam?—to...

January 19, 2012

Jonathan Lyons on Islam and Women

“The Bush administration adopted and perpetuated the established discourse of Islam and women for the benefit of specific Western interests—in this case, the military occupation and political and economic domination of Muslim societies…. Bush and his fellow social conservatives were...

January 19, 2012

New Book Tuesday (Thursday edition)

Sorry for the delayed posting and only two new books from our weekly list of new titles: Readings of the Platform Sutra Edited by Morten Schlütter and Stephen F. Teiser Ratnakirti’s Proof of Momentariness by Positive Correlation (Ksanabhangasiddhi Anvayatmika): Transliteration,...

January 17, 2012

Jonathan Lyons, author of Islam Through Western Eyes takes the Page 99 Test

This week our featured book will be Islam Through Western Eyes: From the Crusades to the War on Terrorism, by Jonathan Lyons. In conjunction with the publication of his book, Lyons took The Page 99 Test in which he read...

December 2, 2011

Alan Wallace: "A True Revolution in the Mind Science"

We conclude our week’s feature on B. Alan Wallace’s Meditations of a Buddhist Skeptic: A Manifesto for the Mind Sciences and Contemplative Practice, with an excerpt from his epilogue in which he discusses the potential for a true revolution in...

November 30, 2011

Alan Wallace on science, Buddhism, skepticism, and meditation

In this video Alan Wallace, most recently the author of Meditations of a Buddhist Skeptic: A Manifesto for the Mind Sciences and Contemplative Practice, discusses science, Buddhism, skepticism, and meditation.