Category: Academic
I Am Not Ashamed
Scriptures travel. Many people talk about ‘religious traditions’ as if they were nation states with clear and tightly guarded borders, but of course the borders of a tradition are porous a... Read More
On Being Seventy Nations and One
Our sages teach us that there are seventy nations in the world (BT Sukkot 55b). They derive this concept from Genesis, in which the list of nations which descend from Noah is tallied up to seventy. Th... Read More
Organizational Highlight: Council on Foreign Relations
The CFR Religion and Foreign Policy Initiative connects religious and congregational leaders and scholars with timely, expert resources on U.S. foreign policy and provides a forum for this community t... Read More
The Crumbling Argument against Women’s Ordination
Opponents of female ordination have an arsenal of arguments against allowing women into the ministry. One of the most well-worn comes from the Pastoral Epistles, likely written by a disciple of Paul... Read More
The Time is Now: Interfaith Activists from Interfaith Families by Susan Katz Miller
When I search the internet for mentions of “interfaith,” I get news from two separate worlds. One is the world of interfaith “dialogue” and activism, in which people from different religions (... Read More
The Bhagavada Gita, Renunciation and Self-Realization
The Vedic scriptures (Vedas, Upanishads, Puranas etc.) greatly admire renunciation as an important means of attaining divine bliss. They commend it as a tool that eventuates Self-Realization. This ter... Read More
Can I Trust Paul? Pauline Theology of Ministry
If you are losing the game, change the rules. – Unknown Next to Jesus himself no one has impacted Christianity as much as Paul. The prolific missionary’s conversion from lover of the Law to the Je... Read More
The Yoga of Ecology and the Anticipatory Community
This past summer I got over my nature-deficit disorder. As I have been sharing here on State of Formation, my time serving as an apprentice in communities at the forefront of the eco-theological and e... Read More