Call for Papers: Boston College Biennial Conference on the History of Religion March 28-29, 2014   “The Problem of Religion: Faith and Agency in History”  The History Department of Boston College invites papers and panels for its fifth Biennial Conference on the History of Religion to be held on March 28-29, 2014. In recent years, scholars have increasingly considered how religious institutions, beliefs, or practices challenge our conceptions of the past while also recognizing that religion is but one of a... Read more

Dr. Andre E. Johnson, the Dr. James L. Netters Associate Professor of Rhetoric & Religion and African American Studies and Director of the Netters Certificate Program at Memphis Theological Seminary, will give a talk on his new book Urban God Talk: Constructing a Hip Hop Spirituality Monday, September 23, 2013 at 6:00pm. The talk opens a three night preaching revival sponsored by the Netters Professorship and Netters Certificate Program at the seminary. The event will take place at Mt. Moriah East Baptist... Read more

by Kimberly Peeler-Ringer R3 Contributor Over the past month or so, there has been quite a bit of Internet chatter as to why Millennials aren’t going to church. As a member of their big sister generation, Generation X, the eternal little sister to the Baby Boomers, I’m torn between apathy and Jan Brady Syndrome. (“Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!”) Of course, we should be concerned when any generation is turning away from the church in large numbers, especially at a time when church attendance across... Read more

On July 13, 2013, a jury declared George Zimmerman, Not Guilty, in the death of Trayvon Martin. The February 26, 2012 killing of Trayvon Martin sparked world wide interest. We collected many of the articles and posts on the tragedy here in one of our first “R3 Readers.” While the trial commenced, we collected editorials and essays associated with the trial here. Now we here at Rhetoric Race and Religion thought we would collect some of the editorials and essays responding to the verdict. We ask that if... Read more

I recently started a new position as a full-time lecturer in the Department of Religion at Baylor University.  Earlier this week, I attended a gathering for the department, where I was introduced, along with a few others, as new faculty.  At the end of the evening, the wife of a retired male professor introduced herself to me and remarked about how happy she was to see more women in the department. (Four full-time faculty members were hired this year, and... Read more

Butler University and Christian Theological Seminary (CTS) announced today that they have joined together to create The Desmond Tutu Center—North America’s first and only academic center named for Archbishop Emeritus Tutu. The center will focus on leadership development in social justice and reconciliation, international relationships, and interreligious bridge-building.The news was announced just prior to Archbishop Emeritus Tutu taking the stage at Butler’s Clowes Memorial Hall on Sept. 12 to a full-house of more than 2,100. South African cleric and anti-apartheid activist... Read more

Conference to be held at Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan May 15, 16, 17, 2014                                                                                                                                  ... Read more

“God Must Be a Boogie Man” is a six-week small group multi-media experience centered on spiritual themes in the music and art of Joni Mitchell. The class will meet on Monday evenings at 5:30pm at First Congregational Church 1000 S. Cooper in Memphis, Tennessee. Participants will listen, watch, and share their experiences of Joni’s work. We will look at favorite and recurring themes of spirituality and religion, materialism, economic and ecologic degradation, peace/war, and the complexities of modern love. This study will... Read more

PROTESTANT FOREIGN MISSIONS and SECULARIZATION in MODERN AMERICA David Hollinger, Preston Hotchkis Professor Emeritus University of California at Berkeley November 18-20, 2013 The John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics at Washington University in St. Louis is pleased to announce the First Danforth Distinguished Lectures to be held November 18-20 at Washington University in St. Louis. The Distinguished Lectures are convened to initiate and sustain ongoing discussion about multiple interactions between religion and politics in American public life and... Read more

“Radical Protestant public theology” is neither a misnomer nor a mistake. This claim contradicts the consensus dichotomy between “sectarianism” and “Constantinianism.” Public theologians consider it a misnomer because anything as particular and confessional as Radical Protestantism must be far too provincial to be viable in the wider public. Reinhold Niebuhr, the last great American public theologian, argued that Christian love is an “impossible ideal” impracticable by citizens. Ecclesial theologians consider it a mistake because anything as abstract and generic as... Read more