Religious Studies Works

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    25012 Expanding Community Knowledge and Relationships for Congregation-Neighbor Health Connections and Advocacy in Indianapolis through a #HealthyMe Learning Community
    (Cambridge University Press, 2021) Craig, David; Gladden, Shonda; Christenson, Jacob; Lynch, Dustin; Campbell, Meredith; Hardwick, Emily; Wiehe, Sarah; Religious Studies, School of Liberal Arts
    ABSTRACT IMPACT: Congregations’ support for social, emotional, mental and spiritual wellness is foundational to human health and their community knowledge and presence can improve resilience and health in socially vulnerable neighborhoods. OBJECTIVES/GOALS: The Indiana CTSI Monon Collaborative is listening and understanding the most pressing health issues in the community and are working together to design and deliver community health solutions. We worked with our community ambassador to launch a health and wellness learning community for ten congregations seeking to build a health-connector network. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: Study team used qualitative (interviews, focus groups, listening sessions, learning management system, participatory-design research) and quantitative (surveys) data collection methods in the development and ongoing implementation of the learning community. Study Population: Based on initial assessment of health and social vulnerability data within the Marion County neighborhoods in Indianapolis, community ambassador engaged congregations in more vulnerable neighborhoods to seek participation in learning community. Ten congregations signed a covenant of participation; learning community includes 10 clergy and 8 health advocates. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: Since the inception of the Learning Community in May 2020, we have developed a better understanding of the assets and barriers of LC participants around health and well-being. Through ongoing virtual gatherings (facilitated by community ambassador Good to the Soul), sharing of resources through our online modules on Canvas (LMS), and synthesis of data captured throughout our time together, LC participants have developed SMART goals which will inform priority setting for congregations to assist them in identifying the resources and connections necessary to drive forward solutions together as they seek out funding opportunities to support health improvement. DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE OF FINDINGS: The learning community has provided a space and structure for congregations to align around a shared goal focused on health and wellness. Through regular gatherings we were able to connect people, organizations, and systems who were all eager to learn and work across boundaries leading to greater resilience in vulnerable communities.
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    Brazilian mystics say they’re sent by aliens to ‘jump-start human evolution’ – but their vision for a more just society is not totally crazy
    (The Conversation US, Inc., 2020-04-29) Hayes, Kelly E.; Religious Studies, School of Liberal Arts
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    Can yoga be Christian?
    (The Conversation US, Inc., 2017-06-21) Jain, Andrea; Religious Studies, School of Liberal Arts
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    The Canonical Black Body: Alternative African American Religions and the Disruptive Politics of Sacrality
    (MDPI, 2018-01) Edmonds, Joseph L. Tucker; Religious Studies, School of Liberal Arts
    “The Canonical Black Body” argues that central to the study of African American religions is a focus on the black body and the production and engagement of canons on the sacred black body within the black public sphere. Furthermore, this essay suggests that, by paying attention to alternative African American religions in the twentieth century, we can better engage the relationship between African American religion and the long history of creating these canons on the black body, debating their relationship to black freedom, and circulating the canons to contest the oppressive, exclusive practices of modern democracy. Through a critical engagement of the fields of Black Theology and New Religious Movements and using the resources offered by Delores Williams’ accounts of variety and experience and Vincent Wimbush’s category of signifying, this essay will argue for how a return to the body provides resources and tools for not only theorizing African American religions but thinking about the production and creation of competing black publics, including the important role of alternative black sacred publics. View Full-Text
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    The Canonical Black Body: Alternative African American Religions and the Disruptive Politics of Sacrality
    (MDPI, 2018-01-09) Tucker Edmonds, Joseph Lennis; Religious Studies, School of Liberal Arts
    “The Canonical Black Body” argues that central to the study of African American religions is a focus on the black body and the production and engagement of canons on the sacred black body within the black public sphere. Furthermore, this essay suggests that, by paying attention to alternative African American religions in the twentieth century, we can better engage the relationship between African American religion and the long history of creating these canons on the black body, debating their relationship to black freedom, and circulating the canons to contest the oppressive, exclusive practices of modern democracy. Through a critical engagement of the fields of Black Theology and New Religious Movements and using the resources offered by Delores Williams’ accounts of variety and experience and Vincent Wimbush’s category of signifying, this essay will argue for how a return to the body provides resources and tools for not only theorizing African American religions but thinking about the production and creation of competing black publics, including the important role of alternative black sacred publics.
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    Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture
    (Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, 2011-04-08) Goff, Philip; Farnsley II, Arthur E.; Wheeler, Rachel; Thuesen, Peter J.
    The NEH Summer Institute for Teachers will support the studies of twenty-five talented teachers from across the nation as they join with nationally renowned scholars to explore how religion has shaped, and been shaped by, the American experience. The institute directors, Philip Goff, Arthur Farnsley, and Rachel Wheeler, are all noted scholars in their field, whose work encompasses a wide range of subject matter and methodologies. The institute will enable participants from many different fields to develop new materials on American religion that can be incorporated into their current curricula. An English teacher introducing Uncle Tom’s Cabin, or The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, for instance, will be better prepared to discuss the nexus of religion and race in the context of nineteenth-century America. A civics teacher focusing on the origins of the American government will be able to incorporate discussion about the religion of the founders and the ways in which the First Amendment has shaped American society. The prime goal of The Bible in American Life project is to gain insight for clergy and scholars on Bible-reading as a religious practice. We are particularly interested in how people use the Bible in their personal lives, how religious communities and even the internet shape individuals’ comprehension of scripture, and how individual and communal understandings of scripture influence American public life. Employing both quantitative methods (the General Social Survey and a local survey) and qualitative research (focus-group interviews, historical analysis, and other means), we hope to provide an unprecedented perspective on the Bible’s role outside the context of worship, in the lived religion of a broad cross-section of Americans both now and in the past. Such data will be invaluable to clergy and seminar professors seeking more effective ways to teach and preach scripture in an age saturated with information and technology. The results of the project also will help scholars seeking to understand recent changes in American Christianity.
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    Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture NEH Summer Institute for Teachers July 12-30, 2010
    (Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research, 2010-04-09) Goff, Philip; Farnsley II, Arthur E.; Wheeler, Rachel
    This institute will support the studies of twenty-five talented teachers from across the nation as they join with nationally renowned scholars to explore how religion has shaped, and been shaped by, the American experience. The institute directors, Philip Goff, Arthur Farnsley, and Rachel Wheeler, are all noted scholars in their field, whose work encompasses a wide range of subject matter and methodologies. The institute will enable participants from many different fields to develop new materials on American religion that can be incorporated into their current curricula. An English teacher introducing Uncle Tom’s Cabin, or The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, for instance, will be better prepared to discuss the nexus of religion and race in the context of nineteenth-century America. A civics teacher focusing on the origins of the American government will be able to incorporate discussion about the religion of the founders and the ways in which the First Amendment has shaped American society.
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    Charlottesville, Exodus, and the Politics of Nostalgia
    (2017-08-22) Wheeler, Rachel
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    Commentary: Pain, Stigma, and the Politics of Self-Management
    (Oxford, 2020-05) Jain, Andrea R.; Religious Studies, School of Liberal Arts
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    Daniel Boone and Joshua, the Mohican: American Lives and American Myths
    (The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2021-11) Wheeler, Rachel; Religious Studies, School of Liberal Arts
    This article compares the life and legend of Daniel Boone (1734–1820) with that of his obscure contemporary, Joshua (1742–1806), a Mohican man whose life unfolded along a remarkably parallel, yet dramatically different course. Both men were born in the East, and moved steadily westward during their lifetimes, on roughly parallel routes. Both men were adept in Native and White ways. Yet Boone died of old age, while Joshua went to a fiery death as an accused witch at the hands of Tenskwatawa, the Shawnee Prophet. Boone became a legend during his own lifetime, while Joshua has remained consigned to a few footnotes. This article asks what narratives of America are possible with Joshua's story at the fore.