Conversations at the Center: Willie Jennings
Religion &
Religion &: Conversations at the Center Welcome to our new podcast series titled Religion &: Conversations at the Center. These episodes will feature conversations led by scholars at the Center for the Study of Religion & American Culture with thought leaders, provocateurs, and groundbreaking scholars and practitioners in the fields of religion and American culture. Our goal is to have conversations that will push the field and the broader public to think deeply and to elevate issues and questions about religion and religious communities that have otherwise been buried or under...
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Religion & the Madhouse: Featuring Judith Weisenfeld
Religion &
On this episode of Religion &, we invited scholars to engage in a wide-ranging conversation with Judith Weisenfeld on facets of her newest publication Black Religion in the Madhouse: Race and Psychiatry in Slavery’s Wake (NYU Press, 2025). Listen to our conversation with Dr. Judith Weisenfeld that unpacks Black religious beliefs, new religious movements, and “religious excitement” as a psychiatric concept in institutionalization. Co-Host: Joseph L. Tucker Edmonds Joseph L. Tucker Edmonds is Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Africana Studies at Indiana University...
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Religion & Latinx Traditions
Religion &
This episode will cover three new directions at the intersection of religion & Latinx traditions. First, panelists will reflect on politics and voting, offering insight from the 2024 election. Second, they will discuss emerging patterns in religious conversion or switching. Finally, the panelists will offer insight into new research directions in the field of US Latinx religion. Join us for an enlightening conversation where we explore Religion & Latinx Traditions. Host: Lloyd Barba Lloyd Barba is Assistant Professor of Religion and Core Faculty in Latinx and Latin American Studies at...
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Religion & Obsolescence
Religion &
On this episode of Religion &, we featured a special preview conversation about Christian Smith’s forthcoming book, Why Religion Went Obsolete: The Demise of Traditional Faith in America (Oxford University Press, 2025). Christian Smith, William R. Kenan Professor of Sociology at University of Notre Dame, has been a leading scholar of American religion for more than 30 years with many agenda-setting concepts, arguments, and books to his name. Based on a new survey and hundreds of interviews, Smith offers a sweeping account of why many Americans have lost faith in traditional religion...
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Religion & Catholic Studies
Religion &
On this episode of Religion &, we cultivated a wide-ranging discussion of the present state and prospects of Catholic Studies, 60 years after the close of Vatican II. What do recent institutional crosscurrents (e.g., synodality and increasing lay participation versus an increasingly conservative American priesthood) mean for the field? What is the status of Catholic studies in the wider academy? What are the neglected areas in scholarship, whether historical, theological, or social scientific? Listen to this conversation at the intersection of religion, institutional transformations,...
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Religion & Future Humans: Featuring Sylvester A. Johnson
Religion &
On this episode of Religion &, we invited three scholars to engage in a wide-ranging conversation with Dr. Sylvester A. Johnson, a leading thinker and theorist in the field of American religion. Dr. Johnson is not only known for his contributions as a historian and theorist, but he is highly regarded as an innovator and boundary breaker who disrupts disciplines and creates spaces for emerging themes and questions amongst scholars of religion. As the director of the Luce-funded “Future Humans, Human Futures” project, Dr. Johnson explores the intersection of religion,...
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Religion & the Aftermath of the 2024 Election
Religion &
The 2024 election season has been marked by unexpected and almost unbelievable twists and turns that have impacted every corner of American culture. From the contentious discourse on women’s rights to the daily news from war zones around the world, this political moment highlights the deep polarization throughout the country and the difficulty of engaging in thoughtful and reasoned debate. Religion and religious difference, furthermore, seems to be implicated in many of these debates as well as the larger question of what constitutes American democracy. During this episode, panelists will...
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Religion & Islamophobia
Religion &
Episode Description As the political and human casualties of the Israel-Palestine crisis continue to increase and shape the current state of the Arabic world, there has been a rise in instances of Islamophobia as well as a rise in protests, especially on university campuses, against this surging anti-Islamic sentiment. During this episode, panelists will discuss the history of the concept Islamophobia, its impact on American culture, and what other concepts might better explain the historical and contemporary moments that we face. The panelists will also explore the relationship between...
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Religion & Antisemitism
Religion &
Antisemitism has deep roots in American history and has continued to shape popular and political culture in the contemporary moment. Yet in many mainstream discussions in the United States, we often talk about it as if it were something new. This panel—featuring the authors of and experts featured on the podcast Antisemitism, U.S.A.—will discuss the long history of antisemitism, and how the fields of religious studies and American religious history think through the significance of that form of discrimination and violence in relation to the rest of American history. Join us for a...
info_outlineReligion &: Conversations at the Center
Welcome to our new podcast series titled Religion &: Conversations at the Center. These episodes will feature conversations led by scholars at the Center for the Study of Religion & American Culture with thought leaders, provocateurs, and groundbreaking scholars and practitioners in the fields of religion and American culture. Our goal is to have conversations that will push the field and the broader public to think deeply and to elevate issues and questions about religion and religious communities that have otherwise been buried or under examined and bring them to the center for debate, engagement, and, hopefully, for communities to explore and transform these ideas together.
Our Conversation with Willie Jennings
In this episode, Dr. Joseph L. Tucker Edmonds, Associate Director of the Center, interviews Dr. Willie James Jennings, the Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Theology and Africana Studies at Yale University Divinity School. The two discuss a wide array of topics including the study and terminologies of Black thought, the relationship between scholarship and creativity that is often ignored, and the reality of connection that is centered on the natural world.
About Willie Jennings
Willie James Jennings is a theologian who teaches in the areas of Christian thought, race theory, decolonial, and environmental studies. Dr. Jennings is the author of The Christian Imagination: Theology and the Origins of Race, published by Yale University Press and recipient of the 2010 American Academy of Religion Book of the Year in the Constructive-Reflective Studies category. It is one of the most important books in theology written in the last 25 years and is now a standard text read in colleges, seminaries, and universities.
Dr. Jennings’ commentary on the Book of Acts won the Reference Book of the Year Award from The Academy of Parish Clergy. He is also the author of After Whiteness: An Education in Belonging, which was the inaugural book in the much-anticipated book series, Theological Education Between the Times, and has already become an instant classic, winning the 2020 book of the year award from Publisher’s Weekly. It was also selected as a finalist for the 2021 American Academy of Religion Book of the Year in the Constructive-Reflective Studies category and in 2023 won the Lilly Fellows Program Book Award.
Dr. Jennings is completing work on a two-volume project on the doctrine of creation. Volume two, provisionally titled, Jesus and the Displaced: The Redemption of Habitation, will be published before volume one which carries the provisional title, Unfolding the Word: Recasting a Christian Doctrine of Creation. Dr. Jennings is also finishing a book of poetry entitled, The Time of Possession.