Religious Studies

Discerning Vocation through Loss, Suffering, and Death

Volume 1 | June 6, 2022

Theme: Pedagogy, Suffering and Death, Vocation

Discipline: Religious Studies, Theology

In September of 2002, exactly one year after the attack on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center, essayist Mark Slouka reflected on how those events had challenged the American psyche, defined for so long by the myth of happy endings. Here in the New Canaan, in the land of perpetual beginnings and second chances,…

Beyond Deep Gladness: Coming to Terms with Vocations We Don’t Choose

Volume 1 | June 6, 2022

Theme: Pedagogy, Suffering and Death, Vocation

Discipline: Religious Studies, Theology

Back in the 1990s, St. Olaf and many other campuses across the country were infused with grants from the Lilly Endowment to explore the concept of vocation. Lutheran institutions of higher education lift up vocation in part due to the prominent role it plays in Lutheran tradition and identity. Vocation comes from the Latin vocare…

Purpose and Meaning in a Time of Crisis

Volume 1 | June 6, 2022

Theme: Pedagogy, Suffering and Death, Vocation

Discipline: Religious Studies, Theology

In his profound and troubling book, Fear and Trembling, the Danish religious writer Søren Kierkegaard remythologizes the story of the binding of Isaac from Genesis 22. I say “remythologizes” rather than “analyzes” or “understands” because Kierkegaard takes pains to attend to all the unthinkable components of the story—to the narrative elements that resist translation into takeaway ethical lessons or airtight conceptual categories.

Biblical Studies: An Asset or Liability for People of Faith?

Volume 1 | June 6, 2022

Theme: Biblical Scholarship, Debate

Discipline: Religious Studies

One of the touchstones of Protestant traditions like the Churches of Christ is the importance of the Bible. Within churches, the Bible is read as Holy Scripture that discloses divine will. Within seminaries and universities, the Bible is read through the lens of biblical studies, and it is evaluated critically. Does biblical studies as a…

A Case for Biblical Studies as Asset to People of Faith

Volume 1 | June 6, 2022

Theme: Biblical Scholarship, Debate

Discipline: Religious Studies

In any given academic year, I read the New Testament with 200 nineteen year olds. Some of them bring Bibles that are still shrink wrapped, purchased only as a required text for a required class. They sit next to peers who quite literally cut their teeth in cradle roll on those little leather New Testaments.…

Tom Olbricht as Interpreter of the Old Testament

Volume 1 | June 6, 2022

Theme: Biblical Scholarship, In Memoriam

Discipline: Religious Studies

The editor of Ecclesiastes spoke of Qohelet as one who “sought to find pleasing words and to write true words.” That tribute to his teacher certainly applies to ours as well. Thomas H. Olbricht sought to integrate his own life, the ongoing history of his ecclesial family, and the Bible into a coherent whole. Part…

Introduction to Biblical Studies: An Asset or Liability for People of Faith?

Volume 1 | June 6, 2022

Theme: Biblical Scholarship, Debate

Discipline: Religious Studies

A friend of mine, who is the past chairperson of the board of trustees for an Ivy League university—not Yale, in case you are wondering—recently read a book, which was an introduction to the Bible. He and I chat routinely, and he said, “It seems to me that biblical scholars have created sophisticated barriers that…

Review of Jason Mahn, Neighbor Love through Fearful Days: Finding Purpose and Meaning in a Time of Crisis

Volume 1 | June 6, 2022

Theme: Suffering and Death, Vocation

Discipline: Religious Studies, Theology

If a sacrament is something ordinary that becomes a vehicle of grace—something like water, bread, or wine—then Jason Mahn has written a deeply sacramental book. Begun as a daily journal during six of the darkest months of 2020, this is a book of stories—stories that chronicle ordinary acts of courage, of neighbor helping neighbor, of…