Center for Culture, Society and Religion Princeton University

Read this week’s Substack piece at princetonccsr.substack.com. Image ©️Atria Books, Simon & Schuster Inc.

Our summer series on manifesting starts today at princetonccsr.substack.com



Image credits: MaxStock - stock.adobe.com, ©️Atria Books, Simon & Schuster, ©️Penguin Random House

Read this week’s Everyday Religion piece by Media Team Fellow Dr. Peter Benson at princetonccsr.substack.com



Images courtesy of author and©️Magnus -stock.adobe.com,©️Rick-stock.adobe.com

Latest Religion for Breakfast video highlights the work of CCSR Affiliate Fellow and former Postdoctoral Research Associate Dr. Lauren McCormick. Full video title: “Who Was Asherah? (and was she God’s wife?)”

Is AI coming for the jobs of religious leaders?



Image credits: Lee Jin-man/AP; ©️World Economic Forum/Ciaran McCrickard

The male loneliness crisis isn’t entirely new. Read what historian Jeremy Stitts has to say at princetonccsr.substack.com.

Images:
San Pablo Ermitaño (St. Paul, the first hermit), by Jusepe de Ribera, 1640
The Course of Empire Destruction by Cole Thomas, 1836
Saint Anthony Abbot Tempted by a Heap of Gold, c. 1435
Saint Onuphrius by Emmanuel Tzanes, 1662

CCSR Acting Director Jenny Wiley Legath has a chapter in the new volume from Routledge, _The Meaning of Weapons_. Legath examines the intersection of white evangelical Christianity and concealed handgun carry in the United States, arguing that evangelicals construct their religious commitments in such a way as to promote gun carry.

_The Meaning of Weapons: Material and Discursive Negotiations in Culture and Religion_, edited by Lucien van Liere and Erik Meinema, studies the role, representation, and materiality of weapons, focusing on what they mean to communities and individuals in various cultural, social, political, and religious settings.

Drawing on a range of case studies from across the globe, the chapters examine (1) how weapons are understood and used in different social, cultural, religious, theological, and ritual contexts; (2) their role within infrastructures of violence, that is, the socio-material, juridical, and spatial arrangements of weapons that enable or constrain violence; (3) processes of human socialization with weapons; (4) the infliction of violence through weapons; and (5) the representation of weapons in popular culture, games, myths, museums, and monuments.

The volume brings together insights from various disciplines including anthropology, religious studies, philosophy, history, and conflict studies. In doing so, it lays the groundwork for highly needed new theoretical and methodological directions to understand the meaning of weapons in our times.

https://www.routledge.com/The-Meaning-of-Weapons-Material-and-Discursive-Negotiations-in-Culture-and-Religion/vanLiere-Meinema/p/book/9781032847009

In this week’s Substack, PhD Candidate and CCSR Fellow Liya Xie reflects on the experience of earning a PhD in the Humanities. Would she recommend it? Read at princetonccsr.substack.com to find out!



Images credits: Mumemories, Ping198, ulsatar - stock.adobe.com

Scientists and former government officials who are advocating for the disclosure of information about UAPs (formerly known as UFOs) want to draw a line between secular and religious visions. It’s not as easy as it sounds. Read this week’s piece by Postdoctoral Research Associate Connor Martini at princetonccsr.substack.com.



Image credits: slide 1 - ©️Farah Films; slide 2 - Bettmann Archive/Getty; slides 3-5 Getty Images

In this week’s Substack, takes us inside the bestselling book that’s been called “the MAHA Bible.” Read and subscribe at princetonccsr.substack.com (link in bio).



Image credits:
Slide 1: Tom Brenner/AP
Slide 3: ©️Casey Means/caseymeans.com
Book cover ©️Casey Means and Calley Means