To love boldly
In 32 years as spiritual leader of the CSC, Fr. Gary Braun has made a lasting impact by challenging generations of WashU students — Catholic and non-Catholic — to be better. But it’s nearing time for him to begin a new chapter.
SCOTUS ruling hints at why religious freedom means living with views we don’t like
While the ruling in the Maine case is unsurprising given the court’s recent decisions around freedom of religion, some of the rhetoric around the case misrepresents the role of constitutional protections for religion in a pluralistic society, said John Inazu, expert on law and religion at Washington University in St. Louis.
Finding your own answers
In the course ‘The Good Life Between Religion and Politics,’ students learn the importance of asking questions about what constitutes a well-lived life.
The Laws of Hammurabi
At the Confluence of Royal and Scribal Traditions
The Laws of Hammurabi is one of the earliest law codes, dating from the eighteenth century BCE Mesopotamia (ancient Iraq). It is the culmination of a tradition in which scribes would demonstrate their legal flair by composing statutes on a repertoire of traditional cases, articulating what they deemed just and fair. The book describes how […]
Van Engen co-edits book on emotion in religion
Abram Van Engen, professor of English in Arts & Sciences, has co-edited a new collection of essays about religious feeling in early American history and literature.
Cultural backlash: Is LGBTQ progress an attack on Christianity?
New research by Clara L. Wilkins and Lerone Martin in Arts & Sciences explains why some Christians view recent LGBTQ progress as a threat and offers possible interventions to reduce such all-or-nothing beliefs.
Fear of a Muslim Planet
Global Islamophobia in the New World Order
Human rights lawyer Arsalan Iftikhar, AB ’99, JD ’03, takes on Islamophobia through the lens of the brutal Christchurch slaughter. In March 2019, a heavily-armed white supremacist walked into two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, and slaughtered 51 innocent Muslim worshippers while broadcasting on Facebook Live for the world to see. After the Christchurch mosque massacre, […]
Feeling Godly
Religious Affections and Christian Contact in Early North America
In 1746, Jonathan Edwards described his philosophy on the process of Christian conversion in “A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections.” For Edwards, a strict Congregationalist, true conversion is accompanied by a new heart and yields humility, forgiveness, and love—affections that work a change in the person’s nature. But, how did other early American communities understand religious affections […]
Making the World Over
Confronting Racism, Misogyny, and Xenophobia in U.S. History
Political polarization and unrest are not exclusive to our era, but in the twenty-first century, we are living with seemingly unresolvable disagreements that threaten to tear our country apart. Discrimination, racism, tyranny, religious fundamentalism, political schisms, misogyny, “fake news,” border walls, the #MeToo moment, foreign intervention in our electoral process—these cultural and social rifts charge […]
Scholars of religion and politics respond to the Capitol insurrection
Leaning on their expertise in history, ethics and religious studies, faculty from the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics reflect on the Jan. 6 Capitol Insurrection.
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