Hillary and Michelle: Urban Dancing and the Metaphysics of the Home
“If you can’t control your own house, how will you be able to control the White House?” – Michelle Obama, 2007 presidential campaign speech The word “economy” descends from the ancient Greek word oikonomia, meaning ‘law of the home.’ Whereas the market can be considered to be an institution whose main task is the preservation and [...]
The Shelter of Each Other
There is a beautiful Irish proverb that states, “It is in the shelter of each other that people live.” Perhaps it takes a superstorm washing away parts of your childhood, a collective of vagabonds and political exiles doing phenomenal relief work, or just a large group hug in the middle of your kitchen to realize [...]
Theology of the Body, Episode 2: The Gendering of Voices in a Mormon Sunday Choir
Like the master-signifier of reality, the hanging portrait of a prophet hovered in the air of a vacated instruction room, smiling with relief over a group of the elect youth of God’s Zion who had been selected by heavenly beings in heavenly places to live in the latter days of human history and to call [...]
How Do You #Keep the Sabbath?
–”The Pharisees said, This man is not from #God, because He does not keep the #Sabbath” -#John 9:16 It was a Sunday morning in April when a man named Tagg uploaded a picture of his father onto Twitter. “Busted!” the tweet read. “#mitt2012 sneaking a peek at twitter [sic] during Sunday school.” The attached image displayed a [...]
Zion in Perpetuity: The Limits and Reaches of Cultural Particularity
Many of the world’s religions find their start within a position of cultural particularity, being centered upon the idea of a chosen people, chosen land, chosen language, etc. As these religions grow and spread throughout the world, new social or economic complexities may make it necessary for participants to expand or redefine their original conceptions [...]
Of Mormons, Baptists, and Liberty of Conscience
On 7 October, Robert Jeffress, pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas, was speaking to reporters outside the Values Voter Summit in Washington, DC, where he had just introduced Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry. Taking aim at Perry’s rival for the nomination, Mitt Romney, Jeffress said that Romney, a member of the Church of Jesus [...]
Tolerance, Dialogue, and the Intolerable
Some years ago, a new high school was built in my hometown. At the old high school, Mormon students had been permitted to leave campus during the day for religious instruction (“Seminary”) at a small building across the street. With the tacit aim of putting a stop to Seminary, many in the community advocated for [...]
Creation and Formation
I’m now in the sixth year of a Ph.D. program in English literature; odds are there will be a seventh. Being at this stage of things can make for some existential confusion. On the one hand, I’ve become less incompetent than I used to be: I’ve given conference papers that were very well received by [...]
Contributing Scholars
Myriam Francois-CerrahEuropean Muslim, Community activist, feminist, writer, freelance journo, blogger and public speaker. Horse mad. Currently undertaking a DPhil at Oxford University. Tweets @MFrancoisCerrah
Tim MinerA graduate of Christian and interfaith seminaries. He serves as a chaplain for local and US Federal agencies. A member of the Order of Universal interfaith (OUnI).
DivInnovationsThe DivInnovations series represents an exciting new collaboration that State of Formation and the Journal of Inter-Religious Dialogue are embarking upon in an effort to capture dynamic research, initiatives, partnerships, and projects (particularly interfaith in nature) at seminaries, divinity schools, and graduate theological settings in general across the nation. We will be posting profiles of institutions both on the State of Formation blog through this account and in each issue of the Journal. We invite you to be in touch about nominating your institution for a profile by emailing our JIRD liaison and profile developer, Sophia Khan.