RELI 1001

Introduction to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam
Credit Hours:
3 hours.

Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and background religions, such as those of Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, and Rome.
 

Duplicate Credit:
Not open to students with credit in RELI 1001E
Semester Offered:
Fall
Spring
Summer
Level:
Undergraduate

Spina Publication

spina

Women’s Authority and Leadership in a Hindu Goddess Tradition by Nanette R. Spina

Monograph

Spina, Nanette R. Women’s Authority and Leadership in a Hindu Goddess Tradition. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2017.

Kendall Marchman

Associate Professor
Undergraduate Coordinator

Kendall Marchman is an Associate Professor of Religion, and has been with the Religion Department since 2018. His primary research considers the development of Pure Land Buddhist practice and belief in China during the Tang Dynasty. Additionally, he has researched and published on religious tourism in Asia. He teaches a wide range of classes surveying the religions of Asia. 

Dr. Marchman welcomes inquiries and applications from prospective graduate students pursuing an M.A.. Prospective PhD students are welcome to contact Dr. Marchman, but he is not accepting PhD students for the upcoming year. 

 

 

Education:
  • B.A. Mercer University
  • M.T.S. Vanderbilt University
  • Ph.D. University of Florida
Research Interests:
  • Chinese Religions
  • Japanese Religions
  • Pure Land Land Buddhism
  • Religion and Tourism
  • Theories of Religion
Selected Publications:

Ingie Hovland

Assistant Professor, Associate Department Head, and Director of Graduate Studies

I am a cultural and historical anthropologist of religion, and I am especially interested in the many histories, cultural practices, and social effects of Christianity in the world. My work uses lenses from feminist theory and material religion to trace the interplay of gendered bodies, spaces, and words in particular social situations.

My book Life in Language: Mission Feminists and the Emergence of a New Protestant Subject in the series "Class 200: New Studies in Religion" (Chicago, 2025) explores the often problematic connection between "women" and "words" in Christianity. I focus on a case study of the so-called "mission feminists" in early-twentieth-century Norway - a group of women who used new language practices (new ways of speaking, listening, reading, and writing) to advocate for women's greater status in Protestant organizations. Their linguistic experiments combined their words and their bodies in different material-discursive configurations. While scholars often argue that Protestantism drives toward dematerialization, aiming to separate language from materiality, the mission feminists show us the opposite: they give us a glimpse into the material-discursive multiplicity of Protestant modern subjects.

My current book project is a theoretical introduction to concepts from feminist new materialism and related conversations that can help us better understand the unusual, complicated relations that have developed between subjects and objects in Protestant Christianity, with the working title New Keywords for the Study of Protestantism.

Friedman Publication

The Exodus

Coming September 12:   The Exodus by Richard E. Friedman

“The Exodus displays, yet again, the unique gifts of Richard Elliott Friedman, whose work always embodies the mastery of an accomplished biblical scholar, the eye of a literary detective teasing out the mysteries from an ancient text, and the skill of a born storyteller. A page-turner.” (Jonathan Kirsch, author of The Harlot by the Side of the Road)

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