President Trump, “a” Bible, and the Church of the Presidents – this choreographed presidential photo “opportunity” hit the news and social media over the last few hours. There have been plenty of commentaries on the photo op and speculations what drove Trump’s decision to appear in front of St John’s. I can’t help it to Read more about Judge, Jury, and Executioner[…]
In his paper on graveyard commemoration of sport celebrities, Huggins argues that “memorials say something about the perceived personal identity of the commemorated sporting hero.”[1] As such, the gravestone and the memorial might say more about the patron(s) than the athlete. They emerge from and are expression of discourses about gender, power, class, religion, and fame. Read more about Sport as Practice of Remembrance[…]
On her website, the prominent Christian CrossFit athlete Andrea Ager reflects on wearing a “Jesus saves, bro” t-shirt at a recent competition. She declares: “That day I got to reperesent [sic] for the only brand worth representing“. The ambiguity in the language leaves open if “brand” refers to the apparel or to Jesus or salvation Read more about “Jesus saves, bro”. 24-28 August 2016 @ York St. John University[…]
My new edited volume, Making Humans: Religious, Technological and Aesthetic Perspectives, just came out. This volume explores body-making as human-making practice because the bodies we have or mould ourselves into are always a socio-cultural and religious expression of the kind of human beings we are or want to be. Visit the Publisher website or read the Read more about New Book: Making Humans: Religious, Technological and Aesthetic Perspectives[…]
Leila Johnston from HackCircus interviewed Eric Olsen, Paul Graham Raven, and myself for her How to live forever podcast on 28 August 2015. The podcast is part of her art project How to life forever funded by Brighton Digital Festival, Arts Council England, and the British Science Foundation. Read more about the podcast and listen to it.
In this presentation, I will look at the sport of CrossFit from the perspective of “material religion”. A written and extended version of this talk will appear in the Material Religions Blog shortly.
Death is a staple of human existence and it should come as no surprise that throughout history, human communities have developed narratives and practices to cope with death and imagine and enact a possible afterlife. Today, one arena where such narratives are acted out is popular culture and science fiction film. Transhumanists have a vested Read more about Visions of the Afterlife and Transhumanist Wet Dreams[…]