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Oklahoma State University Religious Studies NEWSLETTER Fall Semester 2022 religiousstudies okstate edu Religious Studies Reborn Nearly thirty years after the Religious Studies Department closed its doors OSU decided in 2018 to bring it back into being as a new Interdisciplinary Program drawing faculty from Philosophy History and Sociology In just these few short years we have grown from teaching approximately 250 students per semester to more than 1000 Our curriculum has been updated ranging from its legacy biblical studies courses to such new topical courses as Religious Experience Religion Race and Social Justice Death and the Afterlife Muslim Christian Relations and Women in the Bible Our Introduction to World Religions now has nearly twenty sections each semester with nearly half of all freshmen taking the course We also now have a thriving Religious Studies Student Organization RSSO managed by Matthew Pereira and a monthly speaker series on such topics as Religion and the First Amendment the Bible and immigration Buddhism and politics St Thomas on truth and honesty early Muslim American communities and recent archeological discoveries in Israel During the Covid 19 pandemic Religious Studies also ran a mask making contest where students would create original designs for masks which symbolized various values and ideas RSSO The purpose of RSSO is to welcome students from any religious or non religious background to come together in a supportive community where they can explore their own traditions as well as those of others Vol 01 Newsletter

Meet Our Faculty Lawrence Pasternack who holds an M A in Religion from Yale and a Ph D in Philosophy from Boston University became the inaugural Director of Religious Studies in 2019 He specializes in philosophical theology and actively publishes on 17th 18th century European religious thought especially that of Immanuel Kant He is especially interested in the relationship between faith and reason and is set to give a keynote address on Kant at the Notre Dame Center for the Philosophy of Religion in April 2023 and will be teaching a Master Class on Kant s Philosophy of Religion to the Munich School of Philosophy and the Catholic Academy of Bavaria in 2024 His 2014 commentary on Kant s Religion within the Boundaries of Mere Reason has recently been translated into Chinese and in addition to a number of invited papers he is currently working on a book related to Kant s conception of the Highest Good Summum Bonum Jin Young Kim holds an M Div from Harvard Divinity School and a Ph D from the University of Texas at Austin She joined OSU s Religious Studies Program in 2019 first as a teaching assistant professor and is in progress towards being converted to tenure track She specializes in the New Testament and early Christianity especially Luke Acts and the Pauline Epistles She has recently received a contract from De Gruyter for her first monograph Narrating Conversion Literary Constructions of Christian Conversion in the Acts of the Apostles which will focus on the literary construction of the model of conversion to early churches in the Acts of the Apostles She is actively involved in the Society of Biblical Literature SBL and Korean Biblical Colloquium She recently presented a paper at the November 2022 meeting of the SBL on the theme of the therapeutic reading of Luke 2 41 52 in light of the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple and the communal trauma Adam Soltani holds a Masters in Human Relations from the University of Oklahoma and is the Executive Director of CAIR Oklahoma The Council on American Islamic Relations Oklahoma Chapter He joined OSU s Religious Studies Program in 2020 and teaches courses on Islam Religion and Race and the Middle East He has been active in the Oklahoma Interfaith community for more than a decade having served on the board of the Interfaith Alliance Foundation of Oklahoma and as the chair for the Oklahoma Conference of Churches Religions United Committee He has conducted workshops and trainings across the United States on issues related to interfaith relations demystifying Islam and the history and challenges of Islamophobia He was recognized by OKC Friday as one of the 50 Most Powerful Young Professionals in Oklahoma City three years in a row 2020 2022 he is a recipient of the Oklahoma Conference of Churches Interfaith Leadership Award 2015 and a recipient of the Interfaith Alliance Foundation of Oklahoma Humanitarian Award 2022 OKLAHOMA STATE RELIGIOUS STUDIES PAGE 02

Guest Speakers and Events Meet Our Faculty cont Matthew Pereira holds an M Div from Fuller Theological Seminary STM from Union Theological Seminary in NYC and a Ph D from Columbia University He joined OSU s Religious Studies Program in 2019 and teaches a wide variety of courses including Religions of the Native Americans Jesus Teachings History and Interpretation Religion and the Body Sports Medicine and Sexuality Paul and the Early Church and Religion and Film He works primarily on Early Church history with publications including The Council of Chalcedon 451 In Search of a Balanced and Nuanced Christology in Seven Icons of Christ Introduction to the Oecumenical Councils Gorgias Press 2016 Augustine and Social Justice in Calvin s Biblical Commentaries in Augustine and Social Justice Lexington 2016 and Augustine Pelagius and the Southern Gallic Tradition in Grace for Grace The Debates After Augustine and Pelagius Catholic University Press 2015 Recent work has included the completion of a chapter on the Pelagian controversy from the sixth to eighth centuries for the upcoming Oxford Handbook on the Pelagian Controversy Glen J Fairen holds a PhD in Religious Studies from the University of Alberta in 2015 where he examined the scholarly constructions of Gnosticism He joined OSU as a Visiting Assistant Professor in Fall 2021 He currently teaches Introduction to World Religions Studies in Magic and Witchcraft and Visions of the Apocalypse He is the author of As Below So Above 2008 and is a contributor for Worth More than Many Sparrows Essays in Honor of Willi Braun 2022 His research interests range from Contemporary Religious movements such as Wicca Greco Roman Christianity and theory in the study of religion which has led to frequent media appearances most recently with the Gnostic Wisdom Network and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation OKLAHOMA STATE RELIGIOUS STUDIES Since we began in Fall 2019 the Religious Studies program has hosted 3 4 guest speakers per semester Prior to Covid and starting again this semester these events were held inperson attendance at these events usually ranged between 200 to 300 During the pandemic we ran virtual events through Ostate TV and InsideOSU com Speakers and topics have included Charles Kimball OU on Islamophobia Aaron Fellmeth Museum Curator on the religious use of masks Ryan Kiesel ACLU on Religion and the First Amendment John Ahn Howard University Migration stories in the Bible Collin Walke OK State House Rep Religion and Politics Joseph Blankholm UC Santa Barbara Atheism and Religion and Nicholas Denysenko Valparaiso University War and the Ukrainian Church In addition to guest speakers we have also hosted a number of round table discussions including Religion and Race Antisemitism and Islamophobia Worship during Covid For the spring semester we have in the works a roundtable on Religious Life in Prison PAGE 03

AND STILL GROWING Meet Our Faculty cont Jessica Doyle holds an M A in Religion from the University of Georgia She has been a lecturer in the Oklahoma State Religious Studies Program since 2020 She teaches courses in Old Testament Hebrew Bible Women in the Bible Judaism and introductory religion courses Jessica s areas of interest include the women in the biblical narratives particularly the barren mother stories biblical authorship and source theory Jessica s areas of research focus particularly on the J source material of the Hebrew Bible and the way in which that source presents the women of the narrative as compared to other sources WE ARE ALSO PRESENTLY INTERVIEWING CANDIDATES FOR ANOTHER PERMANENT FACULTY POSITION RELATED TO RELIGION AND THE SOCIAL SCIENCES RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE AND CONTEMPORARY RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS WE HOPE TO FIND AN EXCELLENT NEW COLLEAGUE TO JOIN US IN FALL 2023 Ryan M Armstrong holds a PhD from Princeton Theological Seminary and an MA from Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Hebrew Bible and Ancient Near Eastern Languages as well as an MDiv and ThM in New Testament from Southeastern Seminary He teaches Hebrew Bible He s currently working on a book about the biblical story of Job with insights gained from Alice in Wonderland Both feature debates between zany characters who describe the world through nonsensical poems that are full of nonce words Justin Rice holds an M A in Philosophy from Oklahoma State University and is currently working towards his Ph D in History He primarily teaches in the Philosophy Department but also teaches online sections of Introduction to World Religions for Religious Studies OKLAHOMA STATE RELIGIOUS STUDIES PAGE 04

Selected Guest Speakers 2019 2022 DR CHARLES KIMBALL PRESIDENTIAL PROFESSOR EMERITUS UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA AND OSU ALUM TRUTH OVER FEAR CONSTRUCTIVE RESPONSES TO RISING ISLAMOPHOBIA IN AMERICA NOVEMBER 5 TH 2019 DR STEWART CLEM AQUINAS INSTITUTE AND OSU ALUM THE ETHICS OF TRUTHFULNESS IN THE CHRISTIAN TRADITION FEB 24TH 2020 DR JOHN AHN HOWARD UNIVERSITY FACING THE FACES OF FORCED MIGRANTS CONTEMPORARY AND ANCIENT PEOPLES IN PLIGHT MARCH 24TH 2021 DR NICHOLAS DENYSENKO VALPARASIO UNIVERSITY WAR AND THE UKRANIAN CHURCH APRIL 18TH 2022 REV DR LORI WALKE WHAT IS PROGRESSIVE CHRISTIANITY OCTOBER 19TH 2022 IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO RECEIVE INFORMATION ABOUT UPCOMING TALKS AND OTHER EVENTS PLEASE SUBMIT YOUR NAME AND EMAIL ADDRESS TO RELIGION OKSTATE EDU OKLAHOMA OKLAHOMASTATE STATERELIGIOUS RELIGIOUSSTUDIES STUDIES PAGE PAGE05 05

A FEW OF OUR COURSES OKLAHOMA STATE RELIGIOUS STUDIES PAGE 06

Religious Studies Student Organization RSSO THE RELIGIOUS STUDIES STUDENT ORGANIZATION RSSO WAS FOUNDED AT THE BEGINNING OF THE FALL SEMESTER IN 2019 THIS STUDENT LED ORGANIZATION EXISTS TO WELCOME STUDENTS OF ALL BACKGROUNDS TO JOIN TOGETHER IN A SUPPORTIVE COMMUNITY THAT SEEKS TO CREATE SPACE FOR OPEN DIALOGUE ASKING QUESTIONS AND EXPLORING ALL THINGS DEEMED RELIGIOUS AND RELIGION OKLAHOMA STATE RELIGIOUS STUDIES PAGE 07

Religious Studies Student Organization RSSO RSSO STRIVES TO CULTIVATE GREATER LITERACY APPRECIATION AND UNDERSTANDING OF RELIGION THROUGH STUDENT LED PRESENTATIONS SMALL GROUP DISCUSSIONS AND INVITING SCHOLARS TO PROVIDE LECTURES ON RELIGIOUS TOPICS RSSO HOLDS BI WEEKLY MEETINGS USUALLY 6 00 7 30 PM WHERE FOOD AND DRINKS ARE SERVED UP ALONG WITH TEACHING AND LIVELY CONVERSATION THE RANGE OF TOPICS DISCUSSED HAS BEEN VARIED INCLUDING THE RELIGIOUS SYMBOLOGY OF MONSTERS LOVE MARRIAGE AND SEXUALITY WAR AND RELIGION GHOST STORIES IN THE JEWISH TRADITION OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE EXORCISMS FASTING AND FOOD RECONSIDERING THE SPANISH INQUISITION CREATION STORIES SCIENTOLOGY AND MORE OKLAHOMA STATE RELIGIOUS STUDIES PAGE 08

OUR GENEROUS DONORS ADAM HULL OKC TEMPLE B NAI ISRAEL OKC RYAN AND ALLISON KIESEL OKC DONALD GIES LAW FIRM OKC RYAN EARLY OF BLUE GREEN VENTURES OKC REV KEVIN HUDDLESTON STILLWATER OKLAHOMA STATE RELIGIOUS STUDIES FACEBOOK COM POKESRELIGIOUSSTUDIES PAGE 09

Donations and Sponsorship Our student organization RSSO meets twice a month usually in the early evenings and we would greatly appreciate donations sponsorship to offset the cost of food for these events we spend approximately 150 250 per RSSO event on meals State policy prohibits us from using our budget for food But when a group shares a meal it adds to the sense of community While the food consumed is fleeting friendships insights and memories can last a lifetime Donations in any amount from 10 1000 or more would be greatly appreciated We also would greatly appreciate donations sponsorship for student scholarships awards IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN DONATING YOU CAN VISIT OUR WEBSITE RELIGIOUSSTUDIES OKSTATE EDU AND HIT THE GIVE BUTTON USE YOUR PHONE CAMERA TO SCAN THE QR CODE BELOW OR SIMPLY CLICK HERE YOU CAN ALSO CONTACT DR PASTERNACK AT L PASTERNACK OKSTATE EDU OKLAHOMA STATE RELIGIOUS STUDIES PAGE 10

MASK MAKING CONTEST DURING COVID WE HELD AN ANNUAL STUDENT MASKMAKING CONTEST STUDENTS CRAFTED EITHER MASKS FROM VARIOUS TRADITIONS OR DEVELOPED THEIR OWN MASKS TO REPRESENT IDEAS AND ISSUES CASH PRIZES WERE GENEROUSLY DONATED BY ADAM HULL OF OKC RYAN EARLY CEO OF BLUE GREEN VENTURES OF OKC AND THE DONALD GIES LAW FIRM OF OKC SELECTED 2021 MASK CONTEST SUBMISSIONS Thank you for Viewing OKLAHOMA STATE RELIGIOUS STUDIES PAGE 11