Social theory of religion to be topic of Feb. 3 lecture at Syracuse University

Social theory of religion to be topic of Feb. 3 lecture at Syracuse UniversityJanuary 28, 2005Kelly Homan Rodoskikahoman@syr.edu

Russell McCutcheon, associate professor and chair of the religious studies department at the University of Alabama, will speak on “The Spirit of Politics and the Lust of Dogmatic Rule: Toward a Social Theory of ‘Religion,'” Feb. 3 at Syracuse University.

The lecture, sponsored by the Department of Religion in The College of Arts and Sciences, will begin at 4 p.m. in the Kilian Room, Room 500 of the Hall of Languages. It is free and open to the public.

McCutcheon’s areas of interest include the history of scholarship on myths and rituals, the history of the publicly funded academic study of religion as practiced in the United States, and the relations between the classification “religion” and the rise of the nation-state.

He is the founder and series editor of “Controversies in the Study of Religion” (Continuum Press) and has served as the editor of numerous journals and periodicals. His most recent editing project is a new monograph series titled “Religion in Culture: Studies in Social Contest and Construction” (Equinox Press, UK).

McCutcheon received a bachelor’s degree from Queen’s University and a Ph.D. from the University of Toronto. He has also taught at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville and Southwest Missouri State University.

For more information on the lecture, contact the Department of Religion at 443-3861.