Exploring contemporary issues in the
academic study of religion through podcasts.
The Religious Studies Project is a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organization (SCIO) devoted to producing engaging and accessible resources for the contemporary study of religion.
Since 2012, our weekly podcast and written response essays have featured hundreds of scholars sharing their research and expertise in religious studies.
How were 4th century Christian martyr shrines locations for the negotiation of power and diversity? In this interview, Nathaniel Morehouse explains the contested nature of these shrines. With an eye to the context of the diverse Mediterranean world and its complex configuration of political and religious identities, Morehouse sees shrines as an excellent interface for understanding not only the theological issues that were paramount for Church Fathers of this era, but also the lives of worshippers. An excellent starting place for beginners looking to understand more about the world of early Christianity, this interview concludes with suggestions for further reading beyond Morehouse’s own work, Death’s Dominion and its emphasis on power, identity, and memory.
Join this month’s host Dan Gorman and guests Maxinne Connolly-Panagopoulos and Sidney Castillo to find out what connects Lil’ Nas X, Alabama’s yoga ban and Polish black metal. As politics moves rightwards across Europe and the US, are we entering a period of pushback from conservative religious institutions against minority religions and secularism?
What happens when scholars take seriously the human-focused study of religious practices? In this episode, Willi Braun joins Andie Alexander to discuss the importance of critical approaches in the study of religion.
Evangelicals don’t oppose climate activism for the reasons you think. Listen to expert Robin Veldman and find out why “embattlement” matters more than eschatology when it comes to rejecting climate science.
In the RSP’s first episode on Jainism, Dr. Ellen Gough joins Andie Alexander to discuss what she terms “tantracization,” a method for thinking about the process of establishing something as tantric.
How can Islamic Studies help advance the study of religion and visual and material culture, asks Anna Bigelow in this response to our interview with Richard McGregor. One way is through “close attention to the subtleties” of context, method, and discipline that characterize work that intently follows the objects and their “multiple, shifting registers.”
Maria Nita says we’ve gone beyond new stories for the nonreligious in this response to our episode with Tim Stacey. We see “new types of storytelling,” she contends, and this opens exciting ethnographic opportunities for future scholarship.
Stories can “exert an agentic force” that makes them powerful tools for environmental action among the nonreligious for whom belief is a weak analytic category argues Lisa H. Sideris in this response to our interview with Tim Stacey.
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The views expressed in podcasts, features and responses are the views of the individual contributors, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Religious Studies Project or our sponsors. The Religious Studies Project is produced by the Religious Studies Project Association (SCIO), a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (charity number SC047750).
