Religion in Culture Lunch Series

On Wednesday, February 7, 2007, the Department hosted its first Religion in Culture Lunchtime discussion of the Spring semester, this time featuring the recent work of Prof. Russell McCutcheon. Introduced by Chris Hunt, President of the student association, the lunch focused on a recent review essay written by Prof. McCutcheon on the latest collection of essays by Jonathan Z. Smith of the University of Chicago.

Chris welcomed everyone and brought sample books by Jonathan Smith. They were apparently on loan from some sort of vast, climate controlled, information storage facility housed somewhere on campus.

Justin Dearborn, a New College major and familiar face in the REL classroom, had clearly done his reading.

The review essay (PDF) that students read in preparation for lunch was on Smith's Relating Religion (2004), and concerned the manner in which many of Smith's readers seem to overlook the manner in which his many writings constitute an extended argument for how it is that one ought to go about conducting cross-cultural, comparative research in the human sciences.

Jonathan Z. Smith delivered the Department's Aronov Lecture in 2003

Read an essay by Smith on how he teaches the introductory course (valid student ID required)

Learn about a course on Jonathan Smith's work

Our thanks to the Religious Studies Student Association for advertising this event. Thanks also to the representative of the Tuscaloosa Academy for Novice Courtroom Artists for recording the event for posterity.

This lunch series, established in the Spring of 2005, has become quite popular, as evidenced by the number of students who regularly attend. We'd like to think that the free lunches are not the only reason.

Elaborating on Smith's work, Prof. McCutcheon argued that the category "religion" is not an empirical or natural object. Instead, like "culture" or "text," it is a conceptual tool used to name and thereby group together objects that are of interest to the scholar.

Justin Nelson (left) and Jennifer Alfano (right), both REL majors attending the lunch, wave to the camera. Those crazy kids.

REL and Philosophy double major, Karissa Rinas, had recently read Smith's essay "Less is Better" and was able to elaborate on some of his views on the goals of the introductory college-level course.

Profs. Trost and Ramey also attended, contributing much to the conversation--especially when it touched upon some of the practical issues involved in higher education, such as funding, enrollments, and the issues that are in the background of many REL classes, such as whether to use textbooks in classes or primary source materials.

Heidi Hendrix, a graduating REL minor, agreed that, often, textbook surveys of subject matter do not sufficiently challenge students or motivate them to want to learn.

As with all stimulating discussions, students such as Brooks Harvard (left), Joe Kimbrough (center), and Barclay Owens (right..., or is that Barclay on the left, Brooks in the middle and Joe on the right?) left with more questions than answers.