Post on 06-Jul-2020
Spring 2007 • Issue 4
Departm
ent of Religious StudiesB
ox 870264Tuscaloosa, A
L 35487-0264
Nonprofit O
rganizationU
.S. Postage PaidTuscaloosa, A
LPerm
it 16
RE
LI
GI
OU
S
ST
UD
IE
S
NE
WS
LE
TT
ER
8
StudyingR
eligion inCulture
StudyingR
eligion inCulture
ww
w.as.ua.edu/rel
In this issue:
Everything I Needed
to Know
Interview W
ithD
r. Steven Ramey
Articles by G
raduatesand Current Students
Book ReviewN
o god but God
Lectures&
Events
New
s from Faculty
and Alum
ni
What is the A
cademic Study of R
eligion?
This Just In...
Tim D
avis
As an enter-
ing fresh-m
an at The Uni-
versity of Ala-
bama I knew
thatm
y older sister,a junior at thistim
e, was a R
eli-gious Studies m
ajor, but I had no clueas to w
hat she studied. Because she
told me that she had taken courses in
Tibetan Buddhism
and the Hebrew
Bible, I assum
ed that Religious Stud-
ies majors did all of their coursew
orkstudying descriptive inform
ation aboutthe different religions that are foundthroughout the w
orld. In other words,
I thought that my sister spent her day
listening to lectures on topics like why
Hindus don’t eat cow
s and what is the
special relationship between N
ativeA
mericans and the environm
ent. So, Ientered the program
with the hopes of
obtaining general knowledge about the
major religions of the w
orld, such asJudaism
, Christianity, Islam
, Hindu-
ism, and B
uddhism.
Now, as a R
eligious Studies doublem
ajor on the verge of graduation, I re-alize that m
y assumptions about R
eli-gious Studies, or the A
cademic Study
of Religion, w
ere only partly correct.W
hile I still have my original m
ajor inSpanish, I decided to declare a R
eli-gious Studies m
ajor in the Spring ofm
y junior year, after taking severalcourses in the departm
ent at the urgingof m
y sister. Like many students, I
had an array of preconceived notionsabout R
eligious Studies, and since noteveryone has an older sibling that canexplain the ins and outs of R
eligiousStudies to them
, I hope that the fol-low
ing list of assumptions about the
Academ
ic Study of Religion w
ill serveto illum
inate exactly what a R
eligious
Studies major studies.
But before proceeding, I should say
something about w
hy the field, known
in North A
merica as R
eligious Studies,is som
etimes also called the A
cademic
Study of Religion—
in fact, the latternam
e might better describe w
hat ascholar of religion does. B
y calling thefield “R
eligious Studies,” one can seehow
someone w
ho is unfamiliar w
iththis discipline could m
istakenly thinkthat R
eligious Studies is a religious ex-ercise. Put differently, the “studies” ofR
eligious Studies scholars and studentsare not “religious”; rather, scholars andstudents in R
eligious Studies study thatset of data that hum
ans classify as reli-gious, w
hile asking questions such as“W
hat gets to count as “religious?” and“W
hat are the implications of classify-
ing something as “religious?”
Is “Religion” a Stable C
ategory?O
ne of the first questions a student inan entry level R
eligious Studies class,such as R
EL 100, investigates is “What
is Religion?” Students soon realize that
defining religion is not an easy task, forthey discover that opinions differw
idely as to what practices, beliefs, and
institutions get to count as religious.
For example, it is clear that K
arl Marx,
who claim
ed in his work The G
erman
Ideology that “it [religion] is the opiumof the people,” and further that “theabolition of religion as the illusory hap-
piness of the people is required for theirreal happiness,” w
ould not agree with
someone such as M
ohandas K. G
andhiw
ho, instead, claimed that all religions
were true and beneficial to hum
anity.T
hese respective definitions varyw
idely on how religion should be clas-
sified. Without a doubt this classifica-
tion matters, because it portrays the
interests of the respective definers. Forinstance, M
arx’s definition of religionserves his ideology of revolution thatw
ould create a nonreligious comm
uniststate, and G
andhi’s definition serves hisinterest of bringing together H
indus,M
uslims, and other religions to create a
unified, independent India. Given these
differences, students can come to rec-
ognize that religion, as a category, isnot stable but, rather, is a highly de-bated topic. Further, students see thatdefining w
hat gets to count as religiousis one of the m
ost important studies
that the scholar of religion can under-take because m
any times m
uch is atstake in definition and classification. Totake one final exam
ple, a group’s statusas a religion in the U
nited States is de-cided by the Internal R
evenue Service,and w
hether the IRS recognizes a group
as a religion or not has implications rang-
ing from the group receiving or not re-
ceiving nonprofit tax breaks to receiv-ing the protection of free exercise ofreligion under the C
onstitution of theU
nited States.
Only A
dherents Study Religion?
Another m
isconception that is wide-
spread regarding the study of religion isthat one m
ust be religious in order tostudy or know
about religion. This as-sum
ption comes from
the fact thatm
any people believe religion to be aw
ord that names a collection of privi-
leged— beyond critique—
beliefs andbehaviors. O
n the contrary, religion, asit is studied in the secular state univer-
If you’ve made it all the w
ay to the last page then I’m hoping that you agree
that we have som
e pretty good students and pretty active and engagingfaculty m
embers, w
ho are all at the top of their game. A
s readers of pastissues of our new
sletter may have noticed, w
e’ve highlighted our studentsin this issue even m
ore than in the past—both current students and som
e ofour recent graduates. W
e’re proud of them all, and their accom
plishments—
both while on cam
pus and long after they leave Manly H
all—shine a very
kind light on us all.
Russell T. M
cCutcheon
Departm
ent Chair
For the sixth year the Departm
ent hosted an Honors D
ay recep-tion follow
ing the College’s U
ndergraduate Convocation, w
herew
e were able to m
eet the friends and families of our students.
And, once again, Silverstein Fellow
ships were aw
arded—vary-
ing from $500 to $1,000—
to the Departm
ent’s most prom
isingR
EL majors and Judaic Studies m
inors. Am
ong those who w
ereable to attend w
ere (left, bottom to top): Jennifer A
lfano, Keke
Pounds, Jaci Gresham
, Sarah Luken, and Harrison G
raydon;(right, bottom
to top): Stephanie Brennan, Sarah K
elly,K
arissa Rinas, and D
an Mullins.
Am
y PetersenM
emorial Book Fund
On O
ctober 26, 2006, Am
y’s mother, M
s. Jo Petersen, came to Tuscaloosa
to deliver, in person, the final installment that allow
ed the Am
y PetersenM
emorial B
ook Fund to reach its initial goal. The fund has therefore nowbeen endow
ed and will provide a book each for all students in our
Departm
ent’s senior seminar, beginning the Spring 2008 sem
ester. Am
y’sfam
ily hopes that the fund will continue to grow
and, perhaps someday,
endow a student scholarship. The D
epartment is grateful for this fund—
which is in m
emory of A
my, an R
EL minor w
ho died quite unexpectedlyO
ctober 26, 2003—seeing it as tangible evidence that our w
ork with our
students is valued far beyond the classroom.
Tim as he leaps into the future
Before he graduated in the Spring of 2006, REL/Spanish double major
Tim D
avis was asked to think about som
e of the misconceptions of the
academic study of religion. H
ere’s what he had to say.
Getting in the L
ast Word
For more pictures, see
http://ww
w.as.ua.edu/rel/honorsday2007.htm
l.
27
(Alm
ost) Everything IN
eeded to Know
I Learned atM
anly Hall
Mark Prem
o-Hopkins
As m
y law school gradua-
tion draws near, I find m
y-self grow
ing fearful of what the
working w
orld will require. W
hatdo I know
? What do I not know
?A
nd do I know the right things to
survive in the vast land outsideof Studentdom
? I’ve never reallybeen anything but a student for the last 20 years.A
s I look back on my education I realize that for
the most part, w
isdom is not at the top of the
graduate school mountain, but instead am
ongst theairy w
alkways and classroom
s of Manly H
all. Now
I’d like to share a few of teachings that M
anly Hall
has to offer—three basic lessons that I trust w
illprovide a strong foundation for anyone’s post-Studentdom
endeavors.
Don’t take things that aren’t yours
For me, m
y time at M
anly Hall involved w
ritingm
any essays and papers. Now
most of these in-
volved the critique of someone else’s ideas (usually
someone m
uch smarter than m
e). That meant that
I relied, at least in part, on someone else’s w
ritingto provide som
e foundation for my im
portant re-flections. W
hether I was borrow
ing an entire blockquote or just a catchy turn of phrase, I learned theim
portance of citing my sources. It really w
ashelpful—
without this lesson I could have been
kicked out of law school for plagiarism
, disbarredfor intentionally m
ischaracterizing the law in a brief,
sity, is both a category and an aspect ofhum
an behavior that must be subjected
to the same types of scrutiny as any other cat-
egory of human behavior that one m
ay study.Putting the w
ord “academic” in the phrase “The
Academ
ic Study of Religion” indicates that one
uses the same m
ethods in Religious Studies that
would be used in the study of other social sci-
ences. Bruce Lincoln, a prom
inent University of
Chicago scholar, m
akes this point in a brief articleentitled, “Theses on M
ethod” by saying: “Thesam
e destabilizing and irreverent questions onem
ight ask of any speech act ought to be posed ofreligious discourse…
Reverence is a religious, and
not a scholarly virtue.” By pointing out that one
ceases to be a scholar when certain sets of data (in
this case, religious data) are placed beyond cri-tique—
and by critique I mean granting no conces-
sion to a set or sets of data while evaluating the
motives behind the data and historical context
within w
hich the data is situated—Lincoln m
akesclear that religion (both the w
ord and that which it
identifies) is not privileged. Therefore, one doesnot have to be religious to study religion, m
uch likeone does not have to be an artist to study art.
Does R
eligious Studies Market R
eligions?W
hen people learn that I was a R
eligious Studiesm
ajor, it is comm
on for them to ask m
e, “What
religion are you?” People most likely pose such a
question because they assume that R
eligious Stud-ies m
arkets different religions to its students sothat they can each pick one from
the list and be-com
e an adherent. In the same vein, R
eligiousStudies does not seek to dissuade anyone fromtheir particular religious beliefs; rather, it m
erelystudies religion as hum
an behavior in the same
way Political Science or Psychology studies par-
ticular human behaviors. H
ence, the scholar ofreligion studies and teaches religion w
ithout advo-cating or denouncing the object of study (an ap-proach know
n as methodological agnosticism
,m
eaning that the types of tools, or methods, that
scholars use to prevent them from
ever taking astand on the truth of the thing being studied—w
hat they may think in their personal life m
ay beanother thing); the scholar’s approach, then, seeksto ask questions about and find answ
ers to thosehum
an behaviors categorized as religious. Reli-
gious Studies, as pursued in the secular state uni-versity, helps one to critically analyze the beliefs,practices, and institutions classified as religiousbut does not teach one how
to be religious. SinceThe U
nited States’ Constitution guarantees that
“Congress shall m
ake no law respecting an estab-
lishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exer-
cise thereof,” and because state institutions (e.g.,The U
niversity of Alabam
a) receive federal fund-ing, then R
eligious Studies, as pursued in suchinstitutions, m
ust take the methodologically ag-
nostic approach elaborated above.
Conclusion
With these com
mon assum
ptions on the table,one can now
see what the student pursuing a de-
Davis - cont’d
gree in Religious Studies strives tow
ards: studyingthe w
ho’s, when’s, w
hat’s, where’s, and w
hy’s ofthat set of data referred to as religion. B
y askingthese questions w
ith the methodology of a scholar
such as Bruce Lincoln, the student of religion sees
his or her object of study as an interesting facet ofa com
plex human socio-behavioral w
orld. Thus,the student of religion studies those hum
an behav-iors that discourse—
the sum total of assum
ptions,ideas, convention, etc., concerning a subject—
deems
as religions. When one begins to ask the right ques-
tions and looks into the historical context of thedata being studied, then one realizes that peoplethe w
orld over contest the category “religion.” Inthis light, one sees that the student of religion notonly studies w
orld religions, but also evaluates howand w
hy an institution, movem
ent, or group getsto count as a w
orld religion.So if studying both religion and the category “re-
ligion” as an interesting feature of the complex sys-
tem of hum
an behavior called society sounds ap-pealing, then perhaps the R
eligious Studies major
is right for you.
An Interview
with
Dr. Steven R
amey
Heidi H
endrix, a minor in REL who is soon gradu-
ating, was invited to pose a few
questions to Dr.
Steven Ramey, the latest addition to our faculty.
Question: W
hy did you decide to focus on Indiaduring your graduate studies at the U
niversity ofN
orth Carolina?
Answ
er: I enjoy investigating different cultures byvisiting different places, so it is great to be able todo that as a part of m
y career. I chose to studyIndia because of its religious diversity. H
indus,M
uslims, Jains, Sikhs, C
hristians, and others havelived together in India for centuries. I w
anted toinvestigate how
those interactions, both positiveand negative, have developed beyond the extrem
esthat com
monly m
ake the news. From
my research
in India, I have learned that these interactions, andthe labels that w
e use to describe them, are m
uchm
ore complicated than I could have im
agined.
Question: W
hat is one of the most m
emorable
thing you experienced during your fieldwork in In-
dia?A
nswer: H
aving my shoes stolen at a tem
ple. I leftm
y shoes, with everyone else’s, outside a tem
plew
here I did much of m
y research. When I w
asready to leave that afternoon, m
y shoes were no
longer there. Apparently som
ebody decided to“upgrade” to m
y pair of shoes. How
ever, thatperson w
ore them back to the sam
e temple later,
and the temple officials retrieved m
y shoes for me.
They were quite excited to give m
e back my shoes
the next time I w
ent to the temple.
Question: W
hat does your current research entail?A
nswer: I am
working on issues related to the m
i-gration of people from
India into the southeasternU
nited States. Building on m
y dissertation researchon Sindhi H
indus, I am looking at how
Sindhis andother groups w
ithin the larger Hindu com
munity
construct their traditions in the context of the US
South, which highlights the diversity w
ithin Hin-
duism and the com
plex identifications of peoplew
hose formation of H
induism is inseparable from
their national and ethnic heritages.
Question: If you could only eat one food for the
rest of your life, what w
ould it be and why?
Answ
er: Now
that’s an interesting question.C
hoosing just one food is really tough, so I think
that I will cheat a little and choose dosas, a com
mon
food in South India. To make a dosa, you use a thin
batter of ground rice and lentils and cook it like athin pancake, sim
ilar to a crepe.
Question: So how
is that cheating?A
nswer: W
ell, like with crepes, you can fill them
with different vegetable m
ixtures, so it would still
give some variety w
ithin the one food restriction.
Question: Is there a chance, now
that you live inA
labama, that you w
ill ever switch your loyalties
from K
entucky basketball?A
nswer: D
espite spending almost a decade around
the University of N
orth Carolina, I rem
ained faith-ful to m
y UK
heritage, so I doubt that I’ll be con-verted to the C
rimson Tide com
pletely, but I don’tsee m
y loyalty to UK
preventing me from
rootingfor A
labama, except w
hen UA
plays UK
.
Moving Forw
ardJosh M
cDonough
As I sit in this cold classroom
learning the difference be-tw
een an assignment and a sub-
lease, I try to remem
ber how I cam
eto be here. Tw
o years ago, I was in
Tuscaloosa studying Asian reli-
gions, enjoying the more m
oderateclim
es of central Alabam
a. Now
I am in C
hicago,w
here the wind chill is negative tw
enty degrees,and B
uddhism has been replaced by the equally
cold and dispassionate law. One year ago, I w
asvisiting N
orthwestern to learn of their Ph.D
. pro-gram
in Buddhist Studies. W
hat I learned merely
reaffirmed w
hat certain professors had comm
uni-cated to m
e during my four undergraduate years: a
career in academics is an arduous path; traverse it at
your own peril.
So, it may seem
to you fresh-faced religious stud-ies novices that I am
a turncoat. I have chewed off
the hand to which m
y academic experience w
asshackled. B
ut this is not so. I have carried my
academic training w
ith me into the alien lands of the
legal profession, and it has served me w
ell. Basi-
cally, all my Religious Studies courses involved read-
ing and discussion. There was a lot of difficult
reading, but I found it enjoyable. I dodged classesrequiring m
athematical acum
en for a reason. If Irem
ember the past six m
onths correctly, I have readsom
ewhere close to 1700 pages of law
school as-signm
ents. Thus, the assignments w
ith which I am
currently confronted are more of a challenge in term
sof quantity than those I faced during m
y under-graduate tenure, but I honestly believe that I com
-prehend the content of these legal assignm
ents with
minim
al difficulty thanks mostly to the academ
ictraining I received from
the department.
It is true that the Sanskrit, Pali, and Tibetan vo-cabularies have been exchanged w
ith a strange col-lection of Latin phrases, but the overall fram
ework
remains the sam
e. I spend my hours reading opin-
ions, arguments, critiques, and reason-
ing. Current students m
ay worry, as did
I, that upon graduation you will have a
degree that, while engaging and enjoy-
able to earn, will put you at a disadvantage in
this fast-paced, gnaw on the skulls of your neigh-
bors world; how
ever, allow m
e to convince youotherw
ise. You are not just learning about differ-ent religions and social theories. You are not am
ere input device for raw data. Q
uite the con-trary, the im
portant skills you are learning arenot so sim
ple. You are learning, among other
things, how to approach a rich and com
plex areaof hum
an endeavor. You are learning a methodol-
ogy which translates beyond the field of R
eli-gious Studies and can assist you in m
ost areas ofprofessional life.
Oh, and one m
ore thing, as Lieutenant
Colum
bo would say: I arrived in Tuscaloosa in
the Fall of 2001. At that tim
e, the department
basically consisted of offices, some chairs, and a
classroom. D
uring my four years, the depart-
ment w
as transformed through the efforts of
hardworking individuals. These cyborgs do not
rest, even during the summ
er. Alm
ost everym
oment of their tim
e is devoted either to theircourse m
aterial or bettering the department in
some w
ay. I would like to thank the faculty and
Betty (I only m
ention you specifically becauseit w
ill probably embarrass you) for their enthu-
siasm and dedication to providing a quality aca-
demic environm
ent.Josh w
orked in the main office for his senior
year (2004-5) and is now com
pleting his firstyear of law
school at DePaul in C
hicago.
and eventually fired from m
y cushy law firm
job.B
ut my tim
e at Manly H
all taught me an im
por-tant lesson that w
ill help for years to come—
don’t take things that aren’t yours (whether those
things are ideas or something else entirely, like a
bicycle).
Don’t judge a book by its cover
I’ll tell you the first thing I learned when I began
my classes in religious studies: the books are quite
ugly. My personal favorite w
as a Rudolf
Bultm
ann reader that I used for one class. As I
remem
ber it, the book was an oversized paper-
back, with its cover a gloriously repulsive faded
tangerine color. Giant, w
hite block letters—rem
i-niscent of a sign for the D
MV
in Com
munist R
us-sia—
alerted the reader to the book’s title. And
behind the title, covering the entire front of thebook sat a crude w
hite etching of the theologian’shead. It w
as so frightening that I lent the book toone of the local churches for their annual Scare-o-W
een house. How
ever, focusing entirely on theugly book jackets w
ould be disingenuous, and miss
the point because these hideous wrappers hid in-
teresting and beautiful pearls of wisdom
illumi-
nated and elaborated by my teachers. Perhaps the
teachers selected these books intentionally to teachthis extra lesson—
only by overcoming our initial
judgment w
ould we be able to truly appreciate the
actual contents of a text (or a person perhaps?).R
egardless of whether it w
as intentional or just alucky side benefit, I know
I’ll be better preparedfor life thanks to the ugly books in M
anly Hall.
An afternoon snack covers over m
any sinsW
hether you suffer from w
riter’s block, a post-lunch slum
p, or some inner-office tension, an af-
ternoon snack is the salve you need. A Jones Soda
and oatmeal raisin cookie saved m
any of my days
as a student and employee at M
anly Hall. If you’re
mentally or physically tired, a snack w
ill give thecalories you need to get back on track and lastuntil it’s tim
e to clock out. And if, heaven forbid,
you are having problems w
ith someone close to
you, try sharing an afternoon snack with them
.It’s tough to stay m
ad at someone w
hen you’reboth sipping on a Fufu B
erry drink and munching
on a Snickerdoodle cookie, and those interestingphotos on the soda bottle labels can provide youw
ith something non-confrontational to discuss.
Now
I know that m
any professionals prefer ahalf-caf, low
-fat mochachino, but consider stock-
ing your office with Jones sodas and cookies—
itjust m
ight save everyone’s career.A
side from the brilliant teachers and the excit-
ing material in the courses, people can learn m
orefundam
ental lessons while in residence at M
anlyH
all—even after you’ve left M
anly’s friendlyconfines. I’m
sure these lessons will aid your jour-
ney in the sometim
es frightening world outside of
Studentdom.
Mark, w
ho double majored in REL and C
om-
munications, graduated in the Fall of 2003, worked
in the Spring of 2004 in our main office, and then
began law school, that Fall, at the U
niversity ofChicago.
standing of human behavior and interaction but
has also fulfilled that dichotomous paradox pre-
sented even in the mission statem
ent of the Col-
lege of Arts and Sciences: “the C
ollege holds tothe principle that know
ledge must serve hum
an-ity and our environm
ent.” What better w
ay tofulfill this proposition for serving hum
anity andthe environm
ent than the pursuit of majors both
in the humanities and the sciences? So, m
aybethe com
bination of Biology and R
eligious Stud-ies should not be considered the anom
aly it is sooften presented as; rather, it should be view
ed asa desirable, even necessary, com
ponent of a well-
rounded education.Stephanie, w
ho was aw
arded this year’s Out-
standing Student in the Academic Study of Re-
ligion award, w
ill be attending medical school
in the Fall.
Brennan - cont’d
New
s FlashD
r. Maha M
arouan, who w
orked in theD
epartment last year as a one year Instructor,
has been hired as a tenure-track Assistant
Professor, teaching courses on such topics asA
frican Am
erican religion and literature.
63
Steven Ram
ey is focus-ing on the Indian-A
meri-
can comm
unities in At-
lanta and Tuscaloosa, andhas been reflecting on thew
ays ethnic associationsand religious traditionsoverlap. H
is observationsreinforce the critique ofthe divide betw
een religionand culture, w
hich seems to be m
issing in thecom
mon surveys of the religious diversity in the
U.S. H
e has also recently completed a book m
anu-script that brings together his research on SindhiH
indus and their recreation of their practices out-side of their hom
eland in modern day Pakistan.Books the Faculty R
ecomm
endEver w
onder who you really are? W
ell, Prof.Steven R
amey thinks that W
illiam F. Fisher’s
Fluid Boundaries: Forming and Transform
ingIdentity in N
epal (Colum
bia University Press,
2001) won’t help w
ith your identity questions,but it provides an interesting account of a N
epalicom
munity that has its ow
n identity crisis, vocif-erously debating the m
eaning of their religiousand ethnic heritage.
Ted Trost is currentlypursuing tw
o researchprojects. H
e is writing a se-
ries of articles on a televisionadvertising cam
paign designedto counter the m
embership de-
cline in the once-mainline
Am
erican denomination, the
United C
hurch of Christ. H
eis also editing the book The Af-rican D
iaspora and the Study of Religion forM
acmillan Palgrave Press. W
ith Phil Stoltzfus ofSaint O
laf’s College, he is planning a session on
“Religion, Theology, and M
usic” for the upcom-
ing Am
erican Academ
y of Religion meeting in San
Diego.
Prof. Ted Trost recomm
ends Religion and theRise of Jim
Crow in New O
rleans (PrincetonU
niversity Press, 2005), James B
. Bennett offers
a view of the role religion played both to resist,
and eventually to further, racial separation in New
Orleans during the period follow
ing the Civil W
ar.H
e counters the prevailing notion that the JimC
row condition, or segregation, arose alm
ost im-
mediately after that w
ar and was, in any case,
firmly in place by the tim
e Reconstruction ended
in 1877. Religion and the Rise of Jim Crow in New
Orleans serves to highlight a heroic era w
hen anew
hope was articulated and, for a brief tim
e,foreshadow
ed. But it can also be read as another
example of a recurring pattern in A
merican his-
tory, one whose underlying m
alignancy is revealedfrom
time to tim
e—often after the m
ost recenttidal w
ave recedes.
Tim M
urphy is complet-
ing work on a book-length
project entitled The Politicsof G
eist [Spirit]: A Geneal-
ogy of the Phenomenology
of Religion, which details
the way in w
hich the aca-dem
ic study of religionboth reflected and rein-forced European colonial-ism
. He is also com
pletingw
ork on an edited volume, D
efining Religion: AReader, to be published by Equinox Publishers,U
K. H
e teaches in the areas of comparative reli-
gion and theories of religion.
Prof. Tim M
urphy recomm
ends Michael O
ren’sPow
er, Faith, and F
antasy: Am
erica in theM
iddle East: 1776 to the Present (W.W
. Norton,
2007) which is a detailed historical study of the
remarkably consistent and negative view
thatA
mericans have had of Islam
and the Middle East
from the A
merican R
evolution to the current war
in Iraq.
Maha M
arouan hasbeen w
orking on a pa-per on D
avid Bradley’s
novel, The ChaneysvilleIncident, w
hich she isgiving at the C
ollegeLanguage A
ssociationconference in A
pril. Thepaper explores the rep-
resentation of gender and heroism in A
frican Am
eri-can literature, and situates B
radley’s novel in thecontext of current dialogues about race, gender,and cultural representation.
Prof. Maha M
arouan suggests Tama Janow
itz’snovel, A Cannibal in M
anhattan (Bloom
sburyPublishing, 2002) w
hich is a satirical novel which
poses important questions about the representa-
tion of “otherness” in the west. It tells the story
of a reformed cannibal from
an imaginary island
who m
arries a narcissistic Peace Corps volunteer
from N
ew York and m
oves to Manhattan. W
hilehe w
ants to discuss Thoreau at a cocktail party,she tells him
“If you can’t think of anything inter-esting to say just lean against the w
all and looksavage.” It is a w
onderfully sharp satire on thestudy of the O
ther. It is very witty and w
ill defi-nitely m
ake you laugh!
Steve Jacobs’s currentproject is A Brief H
istory ofJudaism
, w
ritten for
Blackw
ell Publishers, En-gland, for their ‘B
rief His-
tories’ series. Other vol-
umes include A Brief H
istoryof C
hristianity, A Brief His-
tory of Islam, A Brief H
is-tory of H
eaven, A Brief His-
tory of Heresy, and A Brief H
istory of the Saints.B
efore the year end, two further volum
es, A Dic-
tionary of Genocide (W
estport: Greenw
ood Press;co-authored w
ith Samuel Totten and Paul R
.B
artrop) and Genocide in the Nam
e of God: Juda-
ism, C
hristianity, Islam (N
ew York and O
xford:B
erghahn Books; editor and contributor), w
ill bepublished.
Prof. Steve Jacobs recomm
ends Among the Righ-
teous: Lost Stories from the H
olocaust’s LongReach into Arab Lands (N
ew York: Public A
f-fairs, 2006). R
obert Satloff explores a little-known
Russell M
cCutcheon re-
cently completed a sm
all in-troductory book on thestudy of religion, devotedm
ainly to the problem of
how to define religion.
Studying Religion: An Intro-duction w
ill be publishedlater in the year by Equi-nox Publishers in the U
K.
Otherw
ise, apart from teaching and other w
ritingprojects, over the past year he has delivered avariety of invited lectures—
most notably, tw
o lec-tures at universities in Sw
itzerland, one in Greece,
and he will soon participate in a conference at the
University of C
openhagen devoted to the idea ofsecularism
.
Prof. Russell M
cCutcheon says that Stephen
Prothero’s Religious Literacy: What Every Am
eri-can N
eeds to Know (And Doesn’t) (H
arper SanFranciso, 2007) argues that A
mericans today know
little about their own traditions and those of their
neighbors. He argues that the sort of religion that
finds salvation in private experience has helped todecrease know
ledge about the beliefs, rituals, andinstitutions of other peoples—
whether dow
n thestreet or across the globe. In places, Prothero’sbook reads like a nostalgic lam
ent for some by-
gone era that may never have actually existed; and
for those who think that the colonial era notion of
“world religions” is today of questionable value
(such as our 2007 Aronov Lecturer, Tom
okoM
asuzawa), calling for people’s better use of this
category surely will be an odd sort of argum
ent.N
onetheless, given that he appeared on “TheD
aily Show” to discuss the book, it surely w
ill bea hot seller.
So, Thinkingof a D
oubleM
ajor?Stephanie B
rennan
Sure, religion is a good thing to have som
etimes
(before a heinous exam or prior to the drop on
the free fall at Six Flags), but in all seriousnessw
hatever one’s involvement w
ith religion may be,
it is undeniable that it is often viewed as a thing to
be practiced on Sundays and certainly not as theideal field of study to pair w
ith a major in biology
and an interest in medicine. H
owever, I w
ould haveto disagree w
ith the latter claim. A
s both a biologyand a religious studies m
ajor, I have often beenquestioned on the com
bination of majors–and for
the past three years as a biology and religious stud-ies m
ajor I have often floundered to find an appro-priate and accurate answ
er to such queries. Now,
as a senior headed for medical school in the fall, I
realize the true benefits of such a partnership. Icam
e to the University of A
labama as a biology
major w
ith a minor in liberal arts through the Blount
Undergraduate Initiative. I have alw
ays had astrong proclivity tow
ard science, and participat-ing in laboratory research and internships in theB
iology Departm
ent over the past four years hasgiven m
e even greater insight into the importance
of academic science. H
owever, just as there is m
oreto an individual than D
NA
, there is more to a good
college education than can be found in a singledepartm
ent. I feel that majoring in R
eligious Stud-ies has not only broadened the scope of m
y under-
Book Review
:N
o god but GodK
arissa Rinas
No god but G
od, by R
eza Aslan (R
andomH
ouse, 2006), is inundatedw
ith a discriminating history
of Islam in order to advance
“an argument for reform
.” Ac-
cording to the author, this ref-orm
ation is inevitable, and hasalready begun. The text ism
eant to reveal that this is in-deed the case. No god but G
odasserts that characterizing the reform
ation as a clashbetw
een the West and the M
iddle East, rather thanan internal struggle betw
een Muslim
s, is inaccu-rate. H
owever, the data presented reveals m
oreabout the author’s preferences and m
ethodologythan it does about Islam
.A
slan’s text contains a fair amount of data about
the “sacred history,” or myths of Islam
. Aslan first
focuses on the emergence of Islam
and the life ofM
uhamm
ad, claiming that Islam
, originally, was
essentially religiously tolerant, just, and egalitar-ian—
suggesting this is what Islam
should espousetoday. The text states that the Prophet’s faith w
asa confirm
ation of the sacred texts of Judaism and
Christianity, and all three religions w
orship thesam
e god. Islamic w
omen are represented as inte-
gral to Muham
mad’s success. The veil—
nowview
ed as a symbol of oppression—
was intended
only for Muham
mad’s w
ives. This kind of incon-gruity betw
een sacred Islamic history and m
odernsym
bolism calls into question the “authenticity”
of modern Islam
as opposed to a nascent form of
Islam, one that A
slan seems eager to endorse and
contextualize. Ancient Islam
ic traditions, he con-tends, m
ust be understood as embroiled in their
time period and specific circum
stances. Contexts
to be considered include the tribal ways life versus
the more sedentary w
ays of life, the traditionalistdoctrine versus the rationalist doctrine, and theinfluence of other cultures and religions. A
slan alsow
rites extensively about Islam after the death
of Muham
mad, em
phasizing subsequent interpre-tations that “corrupted” the original Islam
ic faith.A
slan’s causal recounting of change over time
in the Muslim
faith culminates in explicating the
situation Islam finds itself in today—
which he uses
to justify his assertion that an Islamic reform
ationis necessary.
Reza A
slan targets his book to Westerners w
hoare unfam
iliar with Islam
beyond representationsof the religion/faith in their ow
n popular media.
Additionally, his ideal audience values ‘typically
Western’ virtues—
democracy, equality, faith-based
morality, and freedom
of religion. This kind of au-dience is m
ost likely to sympathize w
ith Aslan’s
agenda and the reformation he argues for. To m
eetthe needs of his target readers, A
slan’s book oftenresem
bles a history of Islam. This abbreviated, se-
lective history is often presented in story form,
descriptively embellished like a standard fictional
novel. Such a method is efficacious; it caters to
Reza Aslan’s audience by m
aking the material easier
for them to engage in, and capitalizes on A
slan’sabilities as a trained fiction w
riter.There are at least four other system
atic ways in
which A
slan’s scholarly motives are served w
ithinthe book, including: appealing to historical andscholarly data, appealing to scriptural data, m
ain-taining analogies/references to other cultures, andexposing authenticating devices of a given ‘other.’
His appeals to historical and scholarly data are
the most copious of these four literary/argum
en-tative m
echanisms. A
slan takes some historical
assertions to be true while rejecting others. Sim
i-larly, he relies on the interpretations of variousscholars to validate his w
ork while discrediting
the claims of scholars w
hose work does not flatter
his ideals. For example, in chapter four, he quotes
Max W
eber: “ ‘Islam w
as never really a religion ofsalvation…
Islam is a w
arrior religion,’” and thenim
mediately contrasts this quotation w
ith ahistorical (and political) claim
: “This deep-rootedstereotype of Islam
as a warrior religion has
its origins in the papal propaganda of the Cru-
sades, when M
uslims w
ere depicted as thesoldiers of the A
ntichrist” (79). Later on, he praisesK
aren Arm
strong’s work and uses it to bolster his
own (93).Throughout the book, quotes from
the Quran
are used to justify a particular point. For example,
Aslan claim
s that “the Quran goes to great lengths
to emphasize the equality of the sexes in the eyes
of God,” relays his ow
n translation of some
Qurannic verses, and finally clarifies that “the
Quran acknow
ledges that men and w
omen have
distinct and separate roles in society; it would
have been preposterous to claim otherw
ise in sev-enth-century A
rabia” (60-61). Aslan uses the
Quran to justify som
e types of practice or inter-pretation and discredit others. In chapter three, hepresents tw
o translations of Qurannic verses that
pertain to the relation between m
en and wom
en,pointing out that “if religion is indeed interpreta-tion, then w
hich meaning one chooses to accept
and follow depends on w
hat one is trying to ex-tract from
the text” (70).N
o god but God abounds in references to other
religions and/or cultures. Aslan seem
s to often usethis as a m
eans of showing the sim
ilarities be-tw
een Islamic tradition or history and other ‘m
a-jor’ religions. In this w
ay, the author can legiti-m
ize Islam as entity evolving just as other reli-
gious traditions have. From chapter nine: “[The]
remarkable evolution in C
hristianity from its in-
ception to its Reform
ation took fifteen vicious,bloody,
and occasionally
apocalypticcenturies.…
Islam has finally begun its fifteenth
century” (248).Lastly, R
eza Aslan also points out the authen-
ticating devices of a distinct ‘other’ to undermine
their claims. These legitim
izing mechanism
s areusually social, political, or econom
ic in nature.C
oncerning the validity of the hadith in chapterthree, A
slan’s readers discovers the following state-
ment: “w
ith each successive generation, the ‘chain
of transmission,’ or isnad, that w
as sup-posed to authenticate the hadith grewlonger and m
ore convoluted, so that....thegreat m
ajority...were unquestionably fab-
ricated by individuals who sought to legitim
izetheir ow
n particular beliefs and practices by con-necting them
with the Prophet” (67). A
lthoughR
eza Aslan is him
self prone to a particular contextthat prom
pts this very same kind of attem
pt atauthentication, he nevertheless postulates m
anyhistorical m
echanisms that originate from
others.These devices found in R
eza Aslan’s w
ritingserve to authenticate his ow
n particular percep-tion of his topic w
hile undermining the opposing
view. In this way, A
slan’s thesis is made all the
more clear—
by positing an oppositional ‘other’that challenges his ow
n assessment, he reveals just
what his view
is not, and his preferences are bothreadily m
aintained and made accessible in No god
but God.
Karissa is a graduating senior, m
ajor in RELand Philosophy, w
hose current interests includeapplying findings from
cognitive psychology to thestudy of religion.
and less-told story of those who saved and/or at-
tempted to save Jew
s from the N
azi machine’s
encroachment into the M
iddle East during the Sec-ond W
orld War. Fluent in A
rabic, with both an
historian’s eye for detail and a journalist’s skill inw
riting, he brings to the reader’s attention a part ofthe H
olocaust story otherwise lost.
Continued on Page 7
Faculty Update
45
Religion in Culture Lectures
Aronov Lecture SeriesEach year, the D
epartment sponsors
the Religion in C
ulture Lecture series which con-
sists of various speakers on a variety of topics ofrelevance to our students and classes. These lec-tures are now
held at Gorgas Library, Room
205.We
also follow m
any of these with a R
eligion in Cul-
ture Student Luncheon, which involves the guest
speaker and many of our students w
ho spend thelunch hour discussing a piece of the guest’s currentresearch. This gives the students an opportunity tointeract w
ith our guest speakers and with the de-
partment professors, m
any of whom
attend.
For more inform
ation on these lectures,please see our w
ebsite http://ww
w.as.ua.edu/rel/events.htm
l.
ThinkingM
ythologicallyW
illiam G. D
oty
Preparing for an extended
interview w
ith Dr. M
ax Vogtabout m
y approaches to my-
thology—it w
ill be podcast inthe zines M
ungBeing and
Mythic Passages—
here I avoidcovering the m
ythological stud-ies w
aterfront and highlight just a few of the em
-phases that I have developed in recent publica-tions and w
ork with graduate students at the U
ni-versity of A
labama and at Pacifica G
raduate Insti-tute near Santa B
arbara. Myth: A H
andbook, in theG
reenwood Folklore Handbooks series (2004; and
in licensed paperback, 2007, The University of
Alabam
a Press) reflects many of m
y orientations,but a num
ber of essays and books (such as Myths
of Masculinity, 1993) have also created a few
waves
in the field.For this brief article I select just a few
empha-
ses—not, I hasten to add, necessarily m
y own
inventions (I could cite chapter and verse for many
of the points), but certainly emphases com
binedin w
ays peculiar to my ow
n scholarly viewpoints.
Constantly across m
y work I have em
phasizedthe ethnographic contexts and the history of re-ception of m
ythological items (such as narratives,
images, characters). O
ften I have been able to pointout that m
ythological accounts represent daily life,although they m
ay be regarded variously acrossany particular society—
normative for som
e folks,
mere entertainm
ents for others. I am less interested
in how som
ething originated than in how it is
originary—that is to say, how
its multiple possible
interpretations seed revisions and reimaginings of
social significance. And w
hile my approach has been
criticized for my functional, practical bias, I still
emphasize very strongly the im
portance of socialm
odeling. Myths have a great deal to do w
ith gen-der ideals, national identity, and the w
ay reality isrepresented—
it is never “natural,” but always so-
cially constructed (the word natural m
akes me break
out with hives no less than the term
s true, real,etc.). W
e look at the broadest contexts, includingother m
ythologies, to gain a sense of influences andintertextualities.
Furthermore, I am
particularly interested in theaffective aspects of m
yth—w
hatever it is that con-stitutes “m
ythicity.” We m
ight speak of the sort of“existential grab” by w
hich we recognize a story or
image as m
ore important and enchanting than the
columns in the daily new
spaper. Myth im
portantlyconveys a sense of significance that can usually befelt across cultural or linguistic boundaries.
That means, of course, that m
ythological materi-
als have long-term im
portance to their users, and inm
ost cultures, they are materials that have im
por-tance in education or ritual—
or today, in advertis-ing and the televisual equivalent of pulp fiction.Such leads m
e to question strongly the twentieth-
century emphasis upon “personal appropriation”
of myths—
the sort of thing highly visible in vari-ous religio-psychological “how
to” therapies, which
often boils down to “A
Venus-identified wom
anshould seek an A
res-identified male.”
While m
ost dictionary definitions of myth stress
a narrative, I am m
ore and more im
pressed with
how the m
ythic functions quite apart from particu-
lar stories. It may be represented by
themes, characters, im
ages, attitudes,and so forth. A
nd those whose atten-
tion to mythology ends w
ith theG
reeks or Rom
ans seem to m
e to have cut off avital source of cultural creativity that is hardlylim
ited to antiquity, but remains vibrantly active
in our contemporary w
orlds—for instance, in The
Matrix or Star W
ars franchises, even Fight Club.
Perhaps it will have becom
e clear that I seem
yths everywhere, though I often recognize them
only after doing my historical hom
ework. A
nd Ithink w
e experience myths as traces (in language,
in social patterns) and fragments, very m
uch asfolks in antiquity did. There w
ere no “handbooksof m
yth” in the Greek w
orld, for instance—until
it began to decay and Alexandrian intellectuals
undertook to create universal models for w
hathad previously been strictly-local deities (theZeus of G
ordo, the Achilleus of D
emopolis).
And finally, I’ll just stress that m
yths are notm
erely conservative, but also evocative, stimu-
lating by educing variant imaginings of possible
psyche- or role-models. A
s with any aspect of
the religio-political system, they can shut dow
ncreativity w
hen it is insisted that they are never-changing or god-sent (the fundam
entalist inter-pretations, especially of scriptural stories). B
utm
yths can also provide re-thinking, alternativeview
s of what is possible for the com
monw
eal,and that m
eans that those in political power w
illalw
ays take Plato’s perspective that myths are
dangerous and must be lim
ited to only those therulers approve.
Prof. William
Doty retired from
the Depart-
ment in the Fall of 2001 and has since then
been busy with w
riting projects, consultations,and teaching for such other units as the H
onorsC
ollege.
Alum
ni New
s—W
here Are They N
owJohn Parrish (2004) has been w
orking on a Mas-
ter of Arts in R
eligious Studies at the University
of Alberta, Edm
onton. Hoping to defend his the-
sis soon, John spends most of his tim
e checkingfor acceptance letters from
Ph.D. program
s. Sofar, no luck, but in just in case, John w
ill gladlyaccept your generous donations to the “Send Johnto G
rad School Fund.”
Marianne Stanton (2005) m
oved back to Dal-
las and is working as a private tutor at Lutheran
High School. H
er concentrations include upperlevel m
ath and science, but she tried out her coach-ing skills in cross country and soccer this pastyear. M
arianne is contemplating going after a
teaching certificate in hopes of propulsion into afull-tim
e job.
Peter von Herrm
ann (2003)—he reports that
nothing’s new. (Thanks for the update, Peter.)
Melanie W
illiams (2006) fled the country after
graduation and was w
andering around Europe.She backpacked until she reached a preset degree
of cultural intelligence (or March). Then, it’s off to
Northw
est Culinary A
cademy of Vancouver to learn
to cook foie gras and such.
Kristin Bradbury (2005) began m
edical school af-ter graduation. C
urrently a second-year studentat Q
uillen College of M
edicine, she anticipates re-ceiving her M
.D. in M
ay 2009 and hopes to returnto A
labama to com
plete residency and set upshop. W
ithout a declared specialty, her interestslinger in em
ergency medicine and pediatric rheum
a-tology.
Samantha Sastre (2006) w
as accepted into agraduate certification program
at Southern Poly-technic State U
niversity in Marietta, G
eorgia, andis currently studying Inform
ation Technology. Though this area of study m
ay seem like a far cry
from R
eligious Studies, she feels that the lessonsand m
ethods of study gleaned from her tim
e in theR
EL department w
ill be invaluable in such a field. D
espite having presently traded Nietzsche for net-
working, Sam
antha believes her mold is not set yet.
Kim
Davis w
ill finish her Master’s degree in M
ay2007 in French linguistics from
the University of
Alabam
a. Upon graduation, she hopes to find a
job teaching French in the Birm
ingham area. A
lsoinvolved w
ith the Alabam
a Academ
y of IrishD
ance, Kim
is a dancer and assistant for theTuscaloosa area.
Tim
Davis (2006) tries to teach eighth graders
the “ins and outs” of the meaning system
Englishspeakers com
monly refer to as the Spanish lan-
guage. In addition,this newfound position w
ithinA
labama’s highly bureaucratic public education
system is really m
aking it difficult for him to live
the authentic existence he pursued as a collegestudent.
Casey M
atz (2004) is currently working in loss
prevention for Target. He reports he’s com
pletelynot utilizing his degrees but having a blast be-cause no tw
o days are the same. H
e married his
college sweetheart, R
ebecca (Ham
mel) M
atz, andlives in Pflugerville, TX
, with their tw
o dogs.
Alexis M
cCrossen, of Southern M
ethodist Uni-
versity, spoke in September on docum
enting reli-gion in the D
epression era..
Maha M
arouan (right) introduces our History
Departm
ent’s Josephine Nhongo Sim
banegavi,in January; she spoke on A
frican traditional reli-gions.
It’s So Much Fun, W
e’re Surprised They Call it W
ork
Spring 2007 Student Workers, left to right: Sarah Luken,
Karissa R
inas, and Jennifer Alfano. Sarah and Jennifer
also worked this past Fall in our office, along w
ith Tsy Yusef.O
ur student workers are all also Silverstein R
ecipients.
Prof. Steve Jacobs taught a REL100 this Spring
and was assisted by K
arissa Rinas, pictured here
on our second floor balcony.
Tsy Yusef and Prof. Tim
Murphy
clowning around prior to class. Tsy
worked w
ith Prof. Murphy assisting him
with his R
EL100 class in Fall 2006.
Robert O
lin, Dean
of the College of
Arts and Sciences,
not only
helpedfund
this year’s
Aronov
Lecture
but also welcom
edthose attendeding.This year’s lecturerw
as Dr. Tom
okoM
asuzawa (U
niver-sity of M
ichigan). Her w
ork is on the study ofreligion’s relations tothe era of Europeancolonialism
. Her lec-
ture attracted a diversegroup (pictured below
:G
eorge William
son,of
History,
andM
arcia Barrett, of theU
niversity Libraries)and w
as on the con-cept “w
orld religions,”first developed in the18
th and 19th centuries. The annual A
ronov Lecture,
which w
as founded in the Fall of 2002, aims to
present a nationally recognized scholar of religioncapable of addressing topics of w
ide relevancethroughout the H
umanities.
In March, Prof. Ted Trost hosted a lunchtim
e dis-cussion on the 100-level introductory course. Pic-tured attending (left to right): Sarah L
uken,B
arclay Ow
ens, and Sam Shabel. O
ther lunch-tim
e discussions this year focused on the work of
the philosopher, Dr. B
arbara Forest (SE LouisiannaU
niversity, who also delivered a public lecture as
part ofthe alabama Lecture’s on Life’s Evolution),
along with our very ow
n Profs. Jacobs,M
cCutcheon, and R
amey.