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“The Future of the Study of Religions" conference held in Swift Hall on the University of Chicago’s Hyde Park Campus on Monday, March 31, seemed to embrace the tension of the spring season in the Midwest; of the liminal space both the weather and the American Academy currently exist within, on the brink of change. A future emerging through muddy water.  

“It might seem foolhardy to speak about the future of our field when the university as an American institution is under threat. But your presence here confirms to the contrary,” Sarah Hammerschlag, John Nuveen Professor of Religion and Literature, Philosophy of Religions and History of Judaism, said to an audience of more than 100 scholars, students, and community members.  

“The crisis that we face makes endeavors of public thinking all the more crucial,” she continued. “It becomes not only crucial but, in fact, urgent.” 

The themes of the day-long conference emerged from essays written by the foremost faculty of religious studies from throughout the field for the forthcoming second edition of Critical Terms for Religious Studies (University of Chicago Press, May 2025) edited by Hammerschlag.  

Philosophers, anthropologists, theologians, and historians considered panels on the role of the binary in definition, on the elements of belief, on religion in politics and economy, on the narration of change, and on religion and the psyche, among others. All aimed to redefine, question, and reflect on the trajectory of the field in 2025 and beyond. 

A significant focus for many of the authors present was considering how to make the complexities of the field accessible to a newcomer. Would an undergraduate be able to make sense of their definition of a term? 

Professor Kathryn Lofton, AB'00, of Yale Divinity School put an even finer point on this in a conversation about the role of the binary during the conference’s opening panel, “Defining, Redefining and Undefining,” considering the space between two binaries as one today’s undergraduates are eager to inhabit.  

“Gen Z seems aching for chill,” she said, nodding to the calm that exists between polarities.  

Additional panels titled “Reflection, Depiction, and the Virtual,” “Religion and Politics,” and “Religion and the Psyche” showcased a community grappling with issues such as the commodification of yoga, identity politics, power, materiality in a digital age, reason, and faith. Attendees engaged in thoughtful discourse, drawing on the common threads woven into each talk to envision a future for Religious Studies where contemporary issues highlighted in the new edition of Critical Terms serve as the starting point for new scholars shaping the lenses of their professional research careers.  

Samuel Catlin, AM'17, PhD'22, Shuman Visiting Assistant Professor of Jewish Thought at the University of Buffalo, authored the essay defining the term, “Text.” In his talk during the day’s third panel, entitled “Religion’s Turns, Tropes, and the Stuff of Life,” he expounded a point that aptly summarizes the whole day's enterprise: 

“Are there things about late modern culture that make religion more or less difficult to understand? It goes back to life being so big and ubiquitous, that it’s hard to understand,” he said. “What’s unreadable becomes readable with the right critical term.” 

Full List of Panels and Speakers 

Panel 1: Defining, Redefining and Undefining   

Chair 
Sarah Hammerschlag | Editor of Critical Terms for Religious Studies (Second Edition) and John Nuveen Professor of Religion and Literature, Philosophy of Religions and History of Judaism at the University of Chicago Divinity School 
 
PANELISTS 
Kathryn Lofton | Lex Hixon Professor of Religious Studies and American Studies, Professor of History and Divinity at Yale University | Term: Religion 

 
Rafael Rachel Neis (Rafe Neis) | The Jean and Samuel Frankel Chair in Rabbinics Associate Professor History Department and Frankel Center for Judaic Studies, University of Michigan | Term: Life 

Panel 2: Reflection, Depiction, and the Virtual 

Chair 

Angie Heo | Associate Professor of the Anthropology and Sociology of Religion at the University of Chicago Divinity School 
 
PANELISTS 
James Robson | James C. Kralik and Yunli Lou Professor of East Asian Languages and Civilizations at Harvard University | Term: Image 

 
Christopher White | Professor and Chair of Religion on the Andrew W. Mellon Chair at Vassar | Term: (Virtual) Reality 
 

Levi McLaughlin | Professor at the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, North Carolina State University | Term: Catastrophe 

Panel 3: Religion’s Turns, Tropes and the Stuff of Life 

Chair 
Emily Crews | Executive Director of the Martin Marty Center for the Public Understanding of Religion at the University of Chicago Divinity School 
 
PANELISTS 
Matthew Engelke | Professor and Chair of the Department of Religion and a member of the Executive Committee of the Institute for Comparative Literature and Society at Columbia University | Term: Matter 
 

Samuel Catlin | Shuman Visiting Assistant Professor of Jewish Thought at the University at Buffalo | Term: Text 

Panel 4: Religion and Politics 

Chair 
Matthew M. Harris | Assistant Professor of Religions in the Americas at the University of Chicago Divinity School 
 
PANELISTS 
Amy Hollywood | Elizabeth H. Monrad Chair of Christian Studies at Harvard Divinity School | Term: Power 
 

Andrea Jain | Professor of Religious Studies at Indiana University, Indianapolis | Term: Money 
Eleanor Craig | Provost's Postdoctoral Fellow at Emory University | Term: Identity 

Panel 5: Religion and the Psyche 

Chair 

Kevin Hector | Naomi Shenstone Donnelley Professor of Theology and of the Philosophy of Religions at the University of Chicago Divinity School 
 
PANELISTS 
Alireza Doostdar | Associate Professor of Islamic Studies and the Anthropology of Religion at The University of Chicago Divinity School | Term: Reason 
 

Ryan Coyne | Associate Professor of the Philosophy of Religions and Theology at The University of Chicago Divinity School | Term: Memory 
 

Constance Furey | Ruth N. Halls Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at Indiana University Bloomington | Term: Faith