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Essays

Settler Colonialism Reshaped All of American Religion

Samuel Hayim Brody interviews Tisa Wenger about her new book, Spirits of Empire

Freedom of Religion, the American Way

I will explore the covenantal relationship between statehood and religion and its implications for freedom of religion for religious institutions unaffiliated with white Christian Nationalism.

Rejecting Death: Bodies are not Commodities

If the words of Paul sound harsh, it is because they are–and I am glad that they are. To those who treat other people as bottomless vessels for pain, Paul delivers these rebukes: “This is not lawful. This does not please God. Christ is not in this.”

Remembering Eduardo Mendieta (1963-2025)

Mendieta was an erudite, critical, generous, and compelling bridge-builder between critical theory, religion, and other fields who signals a path forward.

On the Necessary Revolutionary Slowness

In an era of shrinking democratic space, Bensaïd’s prophetic pathos cuts through both quietism and theatrical revolt, demanding a radicalism patient enough to build and urgent enough to act.

Hegseth’s Death Cult

Our dear brother Pete calls himself a “Christian” and is titled the “secretary of war” today. But when it comes to real faith and realist politics, he is woefully adolescent.

The Montage of Privation: Islam and the Architecture of Sinicization in China

Islam in China is going through a period of architectural amputation called Sinicization. The result is a haunting landscape where dome-less and minaret-less mosques visualize deficiency as a definition of what it means to be Muslim in China today.

The Children of Light in a Dark World

By dealing death on dark life, whiteness and white supremacy reveals itself dangerously asleep, and so liable to divine judgment. Black life, alternatively, is already “awake” with the illumination of a future reality in which the dead things are brought back to life.

The Collapse of Meaning

For those witnessing today’s televised violence and mass destruction, the collapse of meaning renders nihilism seductive. Can the collapse of meaning be resisted?

The First Modern Political Theologian?

Machiavelli’s Discourses on Livy reveals how religion became not a check on power—but its strategic lifeblood.

While We Were Still Enemies

If God reconciled us while we were still enemies, how should Christians view and speak about those they consider their enemies?