By Sharon Jacob. “When a Hindu man marries a Muslim woman, it is always portrayed as romance and love by Hindu organizations, while when the reverse happens it is depicted as coercion.” Charu Gupta, Historian at University of Delhi Genesis 34 is the story of Dinah and the Shechemites. The most common interpretations of Genesis […]
By Andrea Corso Johnson. The Magnificat is the first of four “hymns” in Luke’s Gospel. Although located in the New Testament, the Magnificat is closely connected to the Hebrew Bible (or Old Testament). Its structure and thematic expression are similar to Hannah’s song (I Sam. 2:1-10). It also bears similarity to the Hebrew Bible theme, […]
By Sharon Jacob and Leonard McMahon. The current hostility among representatives on both sides of the aisle sheds important light on the relationship between respectability politics and speech. It is sadly yet another experiment where people of color (POC), who historically have relied on their voices to communicate grievance, can test whether the right words […]
By Meghan R. Henning. September 2021 marked the 700th anniversary of Dante’s death. And Pope Francis encouraged the church to study Dante’s Divine Comedy as a way to navigate the upheaval that is being experienced globally as a result of the pandemic. Pope Francis’ suggestion is aimed at encouraging personal and corporate reflection, part of […]
By Tamisha A. Tyler. At the beginning of 2020 I wrote a tweet that stated, “The Parable Series by Octavia Butler is your required reading for 2020. You think Handmaids Tale got close, you ain’t read nothing yet.” I did not anticipate how well that tweet would age. If the last two years have taught […]
By Nereyda Yong and Aizaiah G. Yong. Two of the most prominent revelations that have come from the COVID-19 pandemic are the widespread inequities that continue to plague marginalized communities as well as the devastating effects due to multiple centuries of systemic racism. What has also been made visible, however, are the precarious circumstances in […]
By Judith Plaskow. I learned an important lesson this past summer about the ways in which institutional structures perpetuate a profound power imbalance between sexual harassers and those who are sexually harassed. In August, I received a letter from the AAR Executive Director saying that the board had voted to offer me the Ray L. […]
By Yohana Agra Junker and RJ Lucchesi. As we enter the third academic year disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic, I come to the realization that nothing about this experience has been predictable or steady. The spread of the Delta variant has forced our institutions to evaluate, yet again, how classes should or not meet this […]
By Leonard McMahon. Part of the fun of the study of religion and culture is to discern how incongruous things cohere, and this is especially true when it comes to the Bible and popular culture. At first blush, the story of the hemorrhaging woman in Mark 5 (NRSV) and this most recent 25th season of […]
By Michal Raucher. Deborah. Bruriah. Yalta. The Maiden of Ludmir. Osnat Barzani. Regina Jonas. Gluckl of Hameln. Sarah Schneirer. Blu Greenberg. Belda Lindenbaum. At the annual graduation ceremony for Yeshivat Maharat, an Orthodox Jewish seminary in the United States, someone often mentions one or several of these women as pioneers in the field of women […]