Sightings Articles
“. . . you’re doing it right now”: Aaron Bushnell and Legal Pluralism
What if we understand Aaron Bushnell’s action as opening onto a different legal order—and collectivity—one to which we all also belong?...
March 7, 2024
Enlightenment Religion in the Private and Public Bibles of Thomas Jefferson
For Thomas Jefferson, the human being's responsibility was to extricate and celebrate good religion....
February 29, 2024
In Short Measures Life May Perfect Be
If what makes human life sublime is complete, without the need for growth and endurance across time, this is exactly the sort of thinking our planet needs....
February 15, 2024
Smart Sightings | The Religious Experience of Mark Rothko
Can art and the experience of art be divine? Mark Rothko's "No. 2" offers alternative ways to think about religion....
February 8, 2024
Smart Sightings | Caught Between Text and Image
The juxtaposition of paintings by Il Pordenone and Noël Hallé reflects the conceit of the exhibition: the value and dangers of comparison....
February 2, 2024
Samson in Gaza
The biblical story of Samson sheds light on the current war in Gaza....
January 25, 2024
The Long Road to Iowa
Neatly dividing "political evangelicals" from "religious evangelicals" is an impossible task....
January 17, 2024
Witnessing Genocide
The work of journalists in Gaza bridges a conception of secular truth-telling with religious witnessing....
January 11, 2024
Smart Sightings | Unfurling Color: Sam Gilliam's "Rim"
In an often bloody and fiery world, we must ask how beauty and devastation are construed, how color and valuation are apprehended, and how these considerations will inform us. At their best, this is what art and religion can help us imagine, interrog...
December 28, 2023
René Girard and the True Meaning of Christmas
“What’s all this violence? It’s Christmas…”...