Elaine Pagels is an unlikely celebrity. It is not often that professors of religion write books which so thoroughly and successfully straddle the professional/popular divide. Pagels has written many such books:
The Gnostic Gospels
Adam, Eve, and the Serpent: Sex and Politics in Early Christianity
The Origin of Satan: How Christians Demonized Jews, Pagans, and [...]
Tags:apocalypse·bible·Book of Revelation·canonization·Catholic Church·Christian history·Constantine·Elaine Pagels·exegesis·Gnostic Gospels·John of Patmos·Left Behind·prophecy·rapture·Revelation·Satan·the Beast
This is the eye-catching title of a new book by Craig Monson, and it looks to be rollicking fun. Here is what our correspondent at The Economist has to say about this work of non-fiction:
Convents in 16th- and 17th-century Italy were largely dumping-grounds for spare women: widows, discarded mistresses, converted prostitutes and, above all, the [...]
Tags:Catholic Church·chastity·cloister·cloistering·convent·Craig Monson·dowry·Get thee to a nunn'ry·Hamlet·nunneries·nunnery·nuns·Nuns Behaving Badly·Ophelia·patriarchy·Shakespeare
In several posts, I have discussed the prevalence of witchcraft in Africa. Before anyone gets the idea that Africans are somehow unique or backwards when it comes to this issue, I would like to point out the resurgence of interest in exorcisms within the Catholic Church.
As Laurie Goodstein reports for the New York Times, Catholic [...]
Tags:angels·Bishop Paprocki·Catholic Church·demons·devil·exorcism·incantations·Linda Blair·magic·possession·prayer·rites of exorcism·sacraments·Satan·sorcery·spells·The Exorcist·witchcraft
Over the past few days, I have been missing one of my favorite religion news sources — the Religion News Service’s daily roundup — because the RNS journalists are attending the Religion Newswriters Association Conference in Denver. I had considered attending, but after reviewing the schedule, which is heavy on Christian scriptural topics and “featured” [...]
Tags:Africa·Archbishop Chaput·Catholic Church·Charles Chaput·condoms·Denver archdiocese·Denver Conference·disrespecting religion·Laurie Goodstein·pedophile priests·Religion News Service·Religion Newswriters Association
In an odd article that attempts to situate Anne Rice’s very public proclamation that she is leaving the Catholic Church within the larger context of American Christianity, Los Angeles Times religion reporter William Lobdell makes two apparently contradictory claims:
American Christianity is not well, and there’s evidence to indicate that its condition is more critical [...]
Tags:American Christianity·Anne Rice·atheists·Catholic Church·Christian diversity·Christian God·Christian nation·Christianity in America·Christopher Hitchens·Civil Religion·Cordoba Center·evangelicals·exclusivism·Ground Zero·intolerance·Islam·Islamic center·Max Fisher·mosque·Muslim·nationalism·Pew Forum·religious diversity·religious freedom·sacred space·Stephen Merino·unaffiliated·United States·William Lobdell
In the New York Times Science section, Rachel Donadio reports on a museum in Florence that treats Galileo as both a “secular” and “religious” saint; the curators thus commingle two concepts (the secular/religious) that were being developed during the Renaissance and which reached fruition during the Enlightenment:
The Galileo case is often seen starkly as science’s [...]
Tags:beatification·Catholic Church·Christianity·cosmology·enlightenment·essentializing·excommunication·Florence·Formations of the Secular·Galileo·Gallileo Museum·Genealogies of Religion·heretic·Islam·Naturalization·Rachel Donadio·relics·religious·Renaissance·saint·secular·Talal Asad·William Conolly
Over at Pharyngula, PZ Myers discusses the case of a professor — teaching at a public university — who presented his Catholic views, disguised as philosophy, on homosexuality to his students. One student complained to the administration, calling the professor’s position “hate speech.” PZ Myers disagrees and calls it “stupid speech.” Myers then proceeds to [...]
Tags:berdache·biology·bisexuality·Catholic·Catholic belief·Catholic Church·Catholic dogma·Catholic Moral Law·Catholic theology·essentialism·ethnographic record·evolutionary fitness·extended kinship·fictive kinship·genetics·hermaphrodites·history·homosexuality·Kenneth J. Howell·Missives from Marx·moral·morality·mystification·Native Americans·natural moral law·Naturalization·nature·nuclear family·Pharyngula·procreation·PZ Myers·reality·Reification·reproduction·sexual anatomy·sexual development·sexual ontogeny·sexual physiology·sexual preferences·sexual variation·sexuality·social construction·societies that accept homosexuality·Two Spirits·University of Illinois·utilitarianism
Reuters reports that “specialists” in prayer writing and ritual are doing a booming business in Iran. The whole business — or commodification of prayer — reminds one of the prayer and dispensation trade that existed in the Catholic Church for hundreds of years, and which so incensed Martin Luther:
In Islamic Iran where clerics rule, [...]
Tags:Catholic Church·dispensations·doctrine·Imam·intercession·interpretation·Iran·Islam·Islamic law·legitimacy·magic·Martin Luther·Mullah·Muslim·prayer·prayer sellers·prayer selling·ritual·sharia·Stanley Fish·superstition·supplication
As noted (with several links) in the Friday Roundup over at Religion News Service, the news keeps getting worse for the Catholic Church:
The molestation scandal in Pope Benedict XVI’s former diocese gets ever messier: the psychiatrist assigned to work with a predatory priest says he gave the archdiocese repeated warnings to keep the priest, the [...]
