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Category: Religion

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The Study of Mystical Traditions is Opening a Path Toward New Forms of Religious Thought and Practice

Posted by: Andrew Breiner

This is a guest post by Carrie Rosefsky Wickham. Wickham is the Kluge Chair in Countries and Cultures of the South at the Library of Congress and Professor of Middle Eastern Studies at Emory University. Can one be both a religious person and a humanist? If so, what kind of worldview might this entail? Together …

Image of Gene Zubovich

How Liberal Protestant Activists Shaped America

Posted by: Andrew Breiner

Gene Zubovich is an Assistant Professor in the Department of History at the University at Buffalo, SUNY, as well as a Kluge Fellow at the John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress. He is the author of “Before the Religious Right.”  On April 19, 2022 at 4pm, Zubovich will discuss “Before the Religious …

Sweeping view from the floor of a great room, looking upwards past marble columns and arches to a grand golden-colored dome

Did the Earliest Printers Know What Print Was? What a 15th Century Book from the Netherlands Can Tell Us About Culture and Innovation

Posted by: Andrew Breiner

This is a guest post by Kluge Fellow Anna Dlabacova, Assistant Professor and postdoctoral researcher at Leiden University. She is researching a project titled “Inspiring, Innovative, and Influential: The Role of Gerard Leeu’s Incunabula in Late Medieval Spirituality and Devotional Practice.” She hopes to advance study on the role that incunabula from the Netherlands played …

Sweeping view from the floor of a great room, looking upwards past marble columns and arches to a grand golden-colored dome

The Assyrians, Between the State and the Opposition

Posted by: Andrew Breiner

Alda Benjamen is a Kluge Fellow, and was most recently a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Pennsylvania Museum. She studies the Modern Middle East and Iraqi history, focusing on minoritization and pluralism in bilingual communities, as well as identity, memory and cultural heritage, and women and gender issues. Her current project is titled Negotiating …

Sweeping view from the floor of a great room, looking upwards past marble columns and arches to a grand golden-colored dome

Religion and Women’s Medical Knowledge

Posted by: Andrew Breiner

This is a guest post by Philippa Koch. Philippa Koch is the John W. Kluge Center Larson Fellow in Health and Spirituality. She is a professor at Missouri State University in the Religious Studies Department. Koch researches the history of religion in America, with a focus on colonial America and the Atlantic world. In her …

Sweeping view from the floor of a great room, looking upwards past marble columns and arches to a grand golden-colored dome

At the Crossroads of Health and Spirituality: An Interview with Joanne Braxton

Posted by: Travis Hensley

The following is a guest post by Samira Mehta, Assistant Professor at Albright College and the 2015 David B. Larson Fellow in Health and Spirituality at The John W. Kluge Center. This is the first post of a two-part interview by two of our Larson Fellows. A graduate of Sarah Lawrence College and Yale University, …

Sweeping view from the floor of a great room, looking upwards past marble columns and arches to a grand golden-colored dome

The Idea of Peace in the Qur’an

Posted by: Jason Steinhauer

The following is a guest post by Dr. Juan Cole, 2016 Kluge Chair in Countries and Cultures of the South. In contemporary debates on the roots of Muslim radicalism and the character of the religion, it is important to go back to the Muslim scripture or Qur’an (sometimes spelled Koran). Like the Bible, the Qur’an …

Sweeping view from the floor of a great room, looking upwards past marble columns and arches to a grand golden-colored dome

Law, Religion, and Liberty: A Conversation with John Witte, Jr.

Posted by: Dan Turello

Members of the Scholars Council are appointed by the Librarian of Congress to advise on matters related to scholarship at the Library, with special attention to the Kluge Center and the Kluge Prize. The Council includes distinguished scholars, writers, researchers, and scientists. “Insights” is featuring some of the work of this highly-accomplished group of thinkers. …