Religion and the Human – serie

How does viewing the American project through a theological lens complicate and enrich our understanding of America? Theologies of American Exceptionalism is a collection of fifteen interlocking essays reflecting on exceptionalist claims in and about the United States. Loosely and generatively curious, these essays bring together a range of historical and contemporary voices, some familiar and some less so, to stimulate new thought about America. Thinking theologically allows authors to revisit familiar themes and events with a new perspective; old and new wounds, enduring narratives, and the sacrificial violence at the heart of America are examined while avoiding both the triumphalism of the exceptional and the temptations of the jeremiad. Thinking theologically also involves thinking, as Joseph Winters recommends, with the "unmourned." It allows for an understanding of America as fundamentally religious in a very specific way. Together these essays challenge the reader to think America anew.

How does viewing the American project through a theological lens complicate and enrich our understanding of America? Theologies of American Exceptionalism is a collection of fifteen interlocking essays reflecting on exceptionalist claims in and about the United States. Loosely and generatively curious, these essays bring together a range of historical and contemporary voices, some familiar and some less so, to stimulate new thought about America. Thinking theologically allows authors to revisit familiar themes and events with a new perspective; old and new wounds, enduring narratives, and the sacrificial violence at the heart of America are examined while avoiding both the triumphalism of the exceptional and the temptations of the jeremiad. Thinking theologically also involves thinking, as Joseph Winters recommends, with the "unmourned." It allows for an understanding of America as fundamentally religious in a very specific way. Together these essays challenge the reader to think America anew.

How can we foster a more inclusive, responsible, and communicative future? What if illustrated scholarship is one way to get there?  Organized around eight terms in the study of religion, the groundbreaking, multifaceted book A Universe of Terms: Religion in Visual Metaphor combines text and image to examine the human as both catalyst of crisis and principal agent for its mitigation. Mona Oraby and Emilie Flamme—a professor and an illustrator—were spurred to create an alternative form for scholarly communication, one that stages conversations between thinkers who likely would not all find themselves in the same room. This graphic nonfiction book acknowledges the significance of certain terms to the social sciences and the humanities, narrates their limitations, and shows why we need a structure and style for thinking them otherwise. It further urges the iterative rethinking of any new terms this exercise yields. Through its unique visual lexicon, A Universe of Terms explores religious media in postcolonial and secular contexts, performances of religious feeling, the political economy of religion, sacred presence, and human striving amid social inequality and climate change. Beautifully illustrated and inspired by a range of media from graphic novels to podcasts, A Universe of Terms is a visual experiment, one that invites readers to think again and anew about how the visual is integral to thought. Indiana University Press is proud to present an open access edition of this work: https://publish.iupress.indiana.edu/projects/universe-of-terms/resource/a-universe-of-terms. (This book is intended to be viewed as a double-page layout. For optimal viewing, we recommend opening the document in Adobe Acrobat Reader. If opening the document in a different program, adjust your settings to allow for double-page viewing.)

How can we foster a more inclusive, responsible, and communicative future? What if illustrated scholarship is one way to get there?  Organized around eight terms in the study of religion, the groundbreaking, multifaceted book A Universe of Terms: Religion in Visual Metaphor combines text and image to examine the human as both catalyst of crisis and principal agent for its mitigation. Mona Oraby and Emilie Flamme—a professor and an illustrator—were spurred to create an alternative form for scholarly communication, one that stages conversations between thinkers who likely would not all find themselves in the same room. This graphic nonfiction book acknowledges the significance of certain terms to the social sciences and the humanities, narrates their limitations, and shows why we need a structure and style for thinking them otherwise. It further urges the iterative rethinking of any new terms this exercise yields. Through its unique visual lexicon, A Universe of Terms explores religious media in postcolonial and secular contexts, performances of religious feeling, the political economy of religion, sacred presence, and human striving amid social inequality and climate change. Beautifully illustrated and inspired by a range of media from graphic novels to podcasts, A Universe of Terms is a visual experiment, one that invites readers to think again and anew about how the visual is integral to thought. Indiana University Press is proud to present an open access edition of this work: https://publish.iupress.indiana.edu/projects/universe-of-terms/resource/a-universe-of-terms. (This book is intended to be viewed as a double-page layout. For optimal viewing, we recommend opening the document in Adobe Acrobat Reader. If opening the document in a different program, adjust your settings to allow for double-page viewing.)

Human-caused extinctions have never been so prominent in our political and cultural landscape. Extinction and Religion is a collection of wide-ranging chapters that explore the implications for religious faith and experience as it relates to a "sixth mass extinction" in Earth's history. Further it seeks to answer the question as to how religious and spiritual practices are shaping responses to the crisis?Edited by Jeremy H. Kidwell and Stefan Skrimshire, this collection aims to set a new postsecular agenda, articulating the questions, challenges, and ways forward for thinking about religion in an age of mass extinction rather than provide responses from world religions in isolation. It covers subjects such as the multitude of challenges posed by mass extinction to beliefs about the future of humanity, death and the afterlife, the integrity of creation, and the relationship between human and nonhuman life.Wide ranging and incisive, Extinction and Religion amply demonstrates the many ways in which the threat of extinction profoundly affects our faith and religious life worlds.

Human-caused extinctions have never been so prominent in our political and cultural landscape. Extinction and Religion is a collection of wide-ranging chapters that explore the implications for religious faith and experience as it relates to a "sixth mass extinction" in Earth's history. Further it seeks to answer the question as to how religious and spiritual practices are shaping responses to the crisis?Edited by Jeremy H. Kidwell and Stefan Skrimshire, this collection aims to set a new postsecular agenda, articulating the questions, challenges, and ways forward for thinking about religion in an age of mass extinction rather than provide responses from world religions in isolation. It covers subjects such as the multitude of challenges posed by mass extinction to beliefs about the future of humanity, death and the afterlife, the integrity of creation, and the relationship between human and nonhuman life.Wide ranging and incisive, Extinction and Religion amply demonstrates the many ways in which the threat of extinction profoundly affects our faith and religious life worlds.

How do Muslims make sense of a scripture they believe was revealed fourteen centuries ago? In Languages of the Qur'an, anthropologist Yunus Doğan Telliel takes readers into the lives of Turkish Muslims grappling with this very question. Following years of ethnographic fieldwork in Turkey, Telliel explores two of the most powerful forces shaping how Muslims relate to the Qur'an today: translation and science. Secular reform in Turkey has made reading the Qur'an in Turkish both possible and controversial, raising the question of whether God's word can truly be rendered in another language. At the same time, more Muslims have begun to read the Qur'an through the lens of modern science as they seek new ways to explain their scripture's relevance to the present day. Through conversations with believers navigating belief and doubt, Telliel reveals how modern Muslims engage with these theological questions, challenging one another to explain how and why they understand divine revelation as they do. The result is a new portrait of a scripture continually reimagined in a rapidly changing world of science and technology.Fresh and accessible, Languages of the Qur'an offers essential reading for anyone interested in Islam, the relationship between science and religion, or changing understandings of religious language in the contemporary world.