Data Check

In this episode, the RSP's Maxinne Connolly-Panagopoulos speaks to Dr. Kathleen Openshaw about her fascinating research on the Universal Church of God in Australia. Beginning with the origins of this Brazilian, Pentecostal Church, Dr. Openshaw explains why the UCKG is so popular with migrants from the Global South. Speaking on her fieldwork, and her recent article in the JASR, this episode traces the intersection of materiality and mobility, unpacking the many fascinating ways the UCKG and its members use anointing oil as a spiritual solution for the obstacles in their lives.

Recounting the poignant story of one of her interlocutors, we hear about the centrality of a vial of anointing oil that traveled from Israel to Australian and then to Sudan. Through this discussion, Dr. Openshaw explains how material objects are able to accrue spiritual capital as they move through sacred spaces and connect with people. For migrant communities, especially, the movement of anointed oil collapses the binary between stasis and mobility, which seems especially powerful amid ongoing restrictions due to COVID-19.

The article referenced above and in the episode is available here:

The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God in Australia: Local Congregants and a Global Spiritual Network. Journal for the Academic Study of Religion. 2019, Vol. 32 Issue 1, p27-48. 22p

In this episode, RSP Co-Host Breann Fallon talks to Professor J. Lorand Matory of Duke University on the topic of fetishism. After outlining the concept of "fetishism," considering the Portuguese origins as well as the term's use in the work of Marx and Freud, Matory discusses his latest book The Fetish Revisited. Matory highlights his re-thinking of fetishism, particularly in the way it critiques how social theories are treated as self-existent and contextless ideas from superior white minds. In doing so, Matory shows the importance of turning our gaze back onto the theorists from which our methodologies stem.

The second half of this interview moves to Matory's current work on white American BDSM as an Afro-Atlantic spiritual practice with implications for the current populist political moment. In particular, he draws our attention to the problematic links to slavery used in typical dom-sub hierarchies of BDSM practices.

This month's Discourse! is presented by Sidney Castillo, with his guests Maria Nita, Juan Manuel Rubio Arevalo, and Stefanie Butendieck. Discussion focuses on the effects of COVID restrictions on different religious communities, including festivals, activism, funeral practices, and the Chilean "Mapuche" community. The conversation goes on to discuss the role of scholars in policy-making, particularly in a South American context. Finally, the panelists discuss Amy Kaufman's and Paul Sturtevant's 2020 book The Devil's Historians: How modern extremists abuse the medieval past, which explores how religion is portrayed and constructed in contemporary medievalism.

Resources for this episode include:

Festival Research and Covid-19 from the recent virtual event sponsored by The Open University: http://fass.open.ac.uk/festivals-research

For a broad sense of the issues with the Mapuche community, you can view the online news article: https://chiletoday.cl/site/the-effects-of-covid-19-on-the-mapuche-community/

In this episode, RSP co-editor Breann Fallon speaks with Assistant Professor Richard Newton about his new book Identifying Roots: Alex Haley and the Anthropology of Scriptures (Equinox 2020). At issue is the concept, use, and function of "scripture," particularly through the example of Alex Haley's 1976 book Roots. Newton explains the success of Haley's best-selling novel about the life of Kunta Kinte and his descendants and the novel's place in the canonical narrative of America for both Black and White Americans. By examining Roots as a piece of scripture, Newton illustrates the grounding power of the book's narrative -- a wellspring of theology and culture for Americans for almost fifty years. Following an anthropological approach to the study of scripture more broadly, Newton sees the function of scripture as multiple, relying on diverse meanings of the root of the terms, uproot, and route. Drawing attention to Roots as a scriptural text that plays an active role in both power and identity politics, the discussion concludes by turning to the Black Lives Matters movement and the recent use of Haley's Roots by American politicians.

What is the current climate of climate change in a variety of religious communities? Why is food such an important part of discussing climate and religion?

In this episode, the RSP’s Candace Mixon talks to Dr. Gretel Van Wieren to get the current climate of climate change responses from religious communities. An expert in environmental, agricultural, and food ethics, Dr. Van Wieren shares her research on small farms run by religious communities. Such farms, whether in Upstate New York or Michigan, have changed their traditional practices in order to directly address ethical and environmental concerns. Dr. Van Wieran shows the way climate activism has often been a concern for religiously-connected farms, but current events make this a more pressing concern today than ever before. Can large scale agricultural productions learn from the adaptations of their smaller, religious competitors? Those teaching undergraduate courses on Christian, Jewish, or Muslim groups will also find this conversation a source of practical advice for integrating the current climate crisis into our religious studies curriculums.

The question of the origins of ancient Christianity has puzzled believers and skeptics alike. For the first, the history of Christianity is the anchor point for claims of authenticity. For the second, a search for origins opens religious traditions to questions about their contingency and sui generis status. So the perspectives most often speak past each other, both sides internalizing their structure of authority and creating logics of practice to sustain themselves.

In this week’s episode, the RSP’s Sidney Castillo talks with Professor William Arnal of the University of Regina about his research on ancient Christian origins. First, Prof. Arnal uses the perspective of Religious Studies to interrogate the question of origins. He points out how this field differs from theology and how it attempts to demystify religious phenomena. This bracketing of the miraculous and supernatural is of special relevance today, since many scholars (certainly in the past and some still even today) have regarded Christianity as sui generis either in kind, origin, or truth.

The second part of the conversation is directed towards the discussion of the Gospel of Thomas and the Q, two important New Testament sources that, through Arnal’s sharp contextualization, help reveal the diverse social contexts of early communities that saw themselves as followers of Jesus. Prof. Arnal argues that one of the main causes for the emergence of these early communities and their discourses related to salvation and denial of this world come was because they faced great social change. From the expansion of the Roman Empire in the 1st century to the 2nd century, we see greater and more deliberate use of “Christian” identities alongside growing traditions and practices.

Arnal concludes that we can “put to bed” the historical Jesus once and for all, as it is less valuable for scholars to debate the accuracy or authenticity of our sources as many scholars have done. We should, rather, find what insights are available to us to show how the people of the time related to the discourse of a folk hero. What agency was gained by becoming a Christian in this era? What social and economic privileges might be gained or lost? Reconfiguring our approach to early Christianity shifts our focus on this era towards religious studies and the tools we have to study social phenomenon and away from the desire to use historicity or authenticity as a cover for older understandings of the purpose of our field's efforts.

The U.S. is quickly approaching the 2020 presidential election. Join Andie Alexander, Hina Muneeruddin, and Leslie Dorrough Smith in this month's episode of Discourse! (recorded after the 2nd presidential debate between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden) as they explore the rhetoric and affect of the presidential campaigns and debates thus far. The panelists discuss how presidential debates are forms of public spectacle designed to reinforce ideas of "presidentialism" and how claims of nationalism are a type of religious rhetoric.

The panelists recommend exploring the related links:

"Some Reflections on Separatism and Power" by Marilyn Frye

"The War on Masks Is a Cover-up for Toxic Masculinity"

“'Might as Well Carry a Purse with That Mask, Joe': COVID-19, Toxic Masculinity, and the Sad State of National Politics"

Maria Hinojosa - One on One

In this conversation with Elizabeth Pérez, we explore her book Religion in the Kitchen: Cooking, Talking, and the Making of Black Atlantic Traditions. Dr. Pérez explains what drove her interests in the Lucumí tradition and how she became acquainted with her interlocutors at Ilé Laroye. We discuss her role in her fieldwork as a participant-observer and how her positionality as such alerted her to the importance of preparing ritual meals in the construction of religious subjectivity at Ilé Laroye. We also examine how gender roles are constructed and understood in and through the processes of preparing ritual sacrifices and the ways in which these constructions challenge traditional Western gender norms.

The study of religion has been dominated by two approaches to religious change: the secularisation thesis, and the "lived religion" paradigm. They form a contradictory pair, one stressing decline, and the other stressing innovation. One stresses reason, the other stresses experience - yet both center on the individual as the "source" of religion. What would a post-humanist model of religion and society look like?

This question is at the core of Paul-Francois Tremlett's new book, Towards a New Theory of Religion and Social Change: Sovereignties and Disruptions. Drawing from scholars including Deleuze and Guattari, Jane Bennett, and Bruno Latour, Tremlett argues for an approach to religious and social worlds that does not begin with immutable things like religion, class, society, or the self, but instead prioritises flux, dialectic, and transformation. This is a new model that rejects both the teleology of modernity and the heroic individual.

How are Brazil and Australia connected by global flows of Pentecostalism? In this episode, Dr. Cristina Rocha shares her work on transnational Christian communities in Australia. The movement of goods, ideas, people, and culture between Brazil and Australia in the last century has meant thriving transnational communities in the Southern hemisphere. At Hillsong, one of Australia's dynamic Pentecostal groups, members use community groups to navigate intercultural obstacles like finding a job, paying taxes, or learning English. Blurring the boundaries of religious and secular, Hillsong's megachurches play a powerful role in helping Brazilians find their way in modern Australia.