Rachel C Schneider | Rice University (original) (raw)

Dr. Rachel C. Schneider is a scholar of religion. She is the associate director of academic programs at the Boniuk Institute at Rice University and director of the Religion and Public Life Program (RPLP), which is a program of the Boniuk Institute. She also is an Assistant Research Professor in the Department of Religion at Rice Univeristy.

Broadly, Schneider’s research focuses on how religion can undergird systems of inequality, such as racial and gender inequality, but also how religion and spirituality can shape ethical and political practices and inspire social change.

Working at the intersection of the humanities and the social sciences, Schneider has published research articles on religion and race; religion in the workplace; religion, health, and science; and religious responses to poverty and inequality in the United States and South Africa. She is also the co-editor of The Emerging Church, Millennials, and Religion: Volume 2: Curations and Durations (Wifp and Stock 2022).

Her work has appeared in the Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Socius, Sociological Inquiry, Journal of Religious Ethics, Religions, Journal of Religion in Africa, The Immanent Frame, Religion Dispatches, Religion News Service, Syndicate, and Marginalia Review of Books. She is also a writer and host for the RPLP podcast Religion Unmuted, which explores how religion and gender impact public discourse around important social issues, like racism, politics, immigration, health, and the body.

Schneider is also part of the co-managing team of Project Curate (PC). PC is a non-profit social impact agency and consultancy that works with religious, academic, and community organizations to address and support collaborative responses to intersectional issues relating to racial injustice and inequality. Project Curate's mission is to enact emancipatory and liberating practices of public and community engagement.

For most recent C.V. see:
https://rplp.rice.edu/people/rachel-c-schneider
Supervisors: Elias K. Bongmba, Dept of Religion, Rice University, James D. Faubion, Dept of Anthropology, Rice University, and Elaine Howard Ecklund, Dept of Sociology, Rice University; Director of Religion and Public Life Program

less

Related Authors

Ting GUO

The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Uploads

Journal Articles by Rachel C Schneider

Journal of Religion in Africa, 2023

Conversations about race in South Africa continue to be shaped by a religious-redemptive narrativ... more Conversations about race in South Africa continue to be shaped by a religious-redemptive narrative of reconciliation that emerged in the democratic transition. However, there is a history of critical Black and liberation theological voices questioning whether the religious/ethical ideal of reconciliation adequately addresses the injustices of systemic racism. These questions gained new resonance in recent years with social movements like #feesmustfall. This article asks whether the seemingly intractable hope that a theological concept of reconciliation will be efficacious in facilitating racial justice is warranted. We begin by reviewing and interrogating how reconciliation is being used in contemporary theological discourses, arguing that given rising discontent, it is striking that reconciliation continues to be a prominent theme and topic within South African Christian theological discourses. We then propose several alternatives that may help address the problem of white racism and benefit from the sustained energy that South African theology has been putting into the language of reconciliation.

Socius, 2022

Although religious discrimination in U.S. workplaces appears to be rising, little is known about ... more Although religious discrimination in U.S. workplaces appears to be rising, little is known about how different groups of employees perceive discrimination. Here, the authors draw on 194 in-depth interviews with Muslim, Jewish, Christian, and nonreligious employees to examine perceptions of religious discrimination in the workplace. The authors identify several common modes of perceived discrimination, including verbal microaggressions and stereotyping, social exclusion and othering, and around religious holidays and symbols. The authors also find that Christians tend to link perceived discrimination to personal piety or taking a moral stand in the workplace, while Muslims, Jews, and nonreligious people tend to link discrimination to group-based stereotypes and describe a sense of being seen as religiously foreign or other. This study reveals the value of studying groups alongside one another for the fullest picture of workplace religious discrimination and points the way toward further sociological research of how both majority and minority groups perceive discrimination.

Journal of Religious Ethics, 2020

The past decades have seen a rise in religious and secular responses to inequality that seek to o... more The past decades have seen a rise in religious and secular responses to inequality that seek to offer those who are relatively wealthy an opportunity to personally engage with impoverished people and places. This article examines three cases of elite white South Africans who intentionally immersed themselves in poor urban environments. In dialogue with the anthropology of ethics, I argue that immersion was seen as an experimental tool for transforming the self and cultivating virtues of empathy and responsibility towards others. In this way, immersion acted as a technology of the self, linking care of the self to care of others. Yet such experimentation was not without risk. Though imagined as a tool that could promote care of the self and care of others, immersion carries with it the potential to reinforce power divides and/or solicit negative moral judgment.

Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 2020

Within the broad interdisciplinary domain of religious studies, explicit attention to whiteness r... more Within the broad interdisciplinary domain of religious studies, explicit attention to whiteness remains limited. Not only does this situation reinforce an analytic division between race and religion, it also works to obscure the racial dimensions of dominant Western forms of religion, particularly Protestant Christianity in the United States, as well as the religious dimensions of white supremacy. Tracing the contours of a body of scholarship on whiteness and religion that has been scattered across a number of fields and disciplinary boundaries, this article explores the role that the racial category of whiteness has played in US religious life and what is gained analytically by exploring the co-imbrication of whiteness and religion. Given persisting racial inequality and white extremism, we argue that whiteness itself needs to be theorized and discussed within the study of religion in ways that do not shy away from explicit discussions of power and racism.

Religions, 2020

Work and faith are significant life commitments for many people. Understanding how people integra... more Work and faith are significant life commitments for many people. Understanding how people integrate these facets of life is important for scholars, faith leaders, and religious communities. We use data from Faith at Work: An Empirical Study, which includes a U.S. general population survey (n = 13,270) and in-depth interviews. Drawing data from a Christian sub-sample we ask: How do Christians draw on their faith community in relation to work? For those in different social locations, in what ways does talk about work come up in churches? Finally, what work-related challenges do Christians experience, and how do Christians want their churches and pastors to address them? We find that many Christians see faith as a resource for enhancing their work lives but do not often encounter discussion of work at church or talk with pastors about work, though Black congregants are nearly twice as likely as whites to hear their pastors discuss work. Further, specific groups of Christians want their pastors and churches to do more to support them in their work and/or to help them navigate faith in the workplace. They also want churches to better accommodate the needs of working people at church, so they can more fully participate.

Religions, 2018

This article analyzes new monastic efforts to engage with systemic inequality in the United State... more This article analyzes new monastic efforts to engage with systemic inequality in the United States and South Africa, arguing for the importance of the concept of friendship to new monastic social justice efforts. Growing in popularity during the 2000s, new monasticism is a term used to describe Christians who are experimenting with forms of community and subject formation that take as their inspiration earlier monastic or other Christian socialist/communitarian movements. Drawing on qualitative research conducted with two South African groups inspired by new monasticism, I show how building relationships with economic and racial others is central to new monastic visions of social change. New monastics emphasize the importance of deep, committed, authentic, relationships—friendships—as the primary means of surmounting race and class divides. Building on the insights of Michael Emerson and Christian Smith in Divided by Faith, I argue that how new monastics conceptualize friendship simultaneously draws on and subverts traditional evangelical approaches to social engagement. Although new monastics are similar to evangelicals in that they attach central importance to interpersonal relationships, new monastics are distinct in that they explicitly connect the value of relationship building to practices of self-transformation and social critique.

Critical Review Essays by Rachel C Schneider

Marginalia: Los Angelas Review of Books, 2018

Review Essay in Marginalia Los Angeles Review of Books of Adriaan van Klinken and Ezra Chitand... more Review Essay in Marginalia Los Angeles Review of Books of

Adriaan van Klinken and Ezra Chitando, eds, Public Religion and the Politics of Homosexuality in Africa, Routledge, 2016.

Ezra Chitando and Adriaan van Klinken, eds. Christianity and Controversies over Homosexuality in Contemporary Africa, Routledge, 2016.

Syndicate (Theology Section), 2016

Reflections on Matthew Sutton's book American Apocalypse: A History of Modern Evangelicalism with... more Reflections on Matthew Sutton's book American Apocalypse: A History of Modern Evangelicalism with a response from the author.

Full symposium can be found at: https://syndicate.network/symposia/theology/american-apocalypse/

The Immanent Frame, 2015

Do Christians have the best sex? What kind of sex is best? And what does sex have to do with salv... more Do Christians have the best sex? What kind of sex is best? And what does sex have to do with salvation? If you have ever wondered how evangelicals seek to answer these questions, then Amy DeRogatis's recently published book Saving Sex: Sexuality and Salvation in American Evangelicalism is for you. In Saving Sex, DeRogatis meticulously documents how American evangelicals talk about sex and sexuality. Her primary argument is that evangelicals have long attempted to use sexual practice as a marker of distinction from " secular " American culture. In particular, proper sexual practice becomes a symbol of Christian salvation and is imbued with eternal and spiritual significance, which is intended to testify, or serve as a witness, to a broader public. Despite this, evangelicals are not disconnected from popular American culture. Evangelical authors are eager to prove their cultural relevance, even as they claim the authority of scripture to differentiate themselves from one another and American culture at large. DeRogatis convincingly shows the seriousness with which evangelicals since the 1970s have set out to prove that Christian sex—that is, sex ordered by " biblical principles " —is the best kind of sex. To do this, evangelical authors and leaders are extremely engaged with wider conversations and social trends, debating and discussing issues such as sexual surrogacy, sexually transmitted diseases and sexual health, reproductive rights and contraception, and the gendered dynamics of sexual desire and pleasure. While reading her text, I was struck by the degree to which evangelicals have long sought to convince themselves and others that their lives, in all dimensions—including sex or lack thereof—differ qualitatively (for the better) from the lives of " secular " others. The irony, of course, is that the sheer volume of evangelical popular literature on sexuality suggests that, when it comes to the mechanics and meaning of sex, believers need extra guidance and support in order to materialize the promise of better sex in their own lives. Sex and Salvation treats evangelical belief and practice with nuance and seriousness. The book is intended to be accessible to a general audience, and DeRogatis delivers. Her tone is even­handed and sympathetic to the internal contradictions, dilemmas, and desires of evangelicals, as she helps to make sense for outsiders of what might be considered strange or retrograde evangelical beliefs. DeRogatis does an exceptional job of breaking down and analyzing several different streams of evangelical literature, teaching the reader much about the desires, practices, and ideals that shape a significant number of American lives. Chapters deal with purity literature, which promotes an ideal of chastity; Christian sex manuals that extol the benefits of marital sexual pleasure; charismatic " deliverance " literature that warns of the invisible negative effects of illicit sex; and Christian Patriarchy/Quiverfull literature, which focuses on sex for reproduction and teaches total submission (including sexual) of wives to their husbands. The final chapter deals with how these ideas are reframed by African American evangelicals who emphasize themes of sexual redemption and healing. The inclusion of a final chapter on African American evangelical views, after four chapters of predominantly white evangelical discourse, is important: it underscores the diversity of the evangelical movement, which is often treated as homogeneous, but it also serves to highlight the role of race in American evangelical thought. Careful reading of Saving Sex reveals how American evangelicalism is insidiously wrapped up with the production of whiteness—the cultural processes that work to hold up white practices, beliefs, and ideals as superior, natural, and normal. As many critical race scholars have argued, ideas about sexual propriety cannot be divorced from race. Sexual practices have long been used to differentiate and maintain the lines between white Americans and their racial " others. " Sex and Salvation illustrates how white and black evangelical discourses indirectly reinforce a binary whereby white evangelicals are able to define and police the proper boundaries of respectable sexuality, and African Americans continue to be represented (and to understand themselves) as hypersexual and in need of reform. For example, DeRogatis notes white evangelical obsession with metaphors of purity—the spoken desire for unmarried daughters to remain " lily­white " by practicing self­ restraint and marrying a suitable spouse—as well the dominance of military metaphors of attack and defense. By contrast, black evangelical leaders affirm many of these ideals, but tend to assume that their unmarried audience has been, or will be, sexually active. Unlike white evangelicals, they acknowledge complicated sexual histories and work with their audience to remove stigmas associated with sexual impropriety. In short, they preach redemption rather than perfection.

Short Reviews by Rachel C Schneider

Religious Studies Review, 2018

Review of THE RISE OF NETWORK CHRISTIANITY: HOW INDEPENDENT LEADERS ARE CHANGING THE RELIGIOUS LA... more Review of THE RISE OF NETWORK CHRISTIANITY: HOW INDEPENDENT LEADERS ARE CHANGING THE RELIGIOUS LANDSCAPE. By BradChristerson and RichardFlory. New York: Oxford University Press,2017. Pp. vii + 185. Cloth, $29.93.

Religious Studies Review, 2017

Review of The Subject of Virtue: An Anthropology of Ethics and Freedom by James Laidlaw. Religiou... more Review of The Subject of Virtue: An Anthropology of Ethics and Freedom by James Laidlaw. Religious Studies Review, Volume 43, Issue 1. March 2017.

Religious Studies Review, 2017

Review of Beyond the Secular West. Edited by Akeel Bilgrami. Religion, Culture, and Public Life, ... more Review of Beyond the Secular West. Edited by Akeel Bilgrami. Religion, Culture, and Public Life, 1. New York: Columbia University Press, 2016. Pp. vii + 263. Cloth, 32.37;paper,32.37; paper, 32.37;paper,15.72.

Other by Rachel C Schneider

Reflections on religion and politics during the 2014 South African national election season.

The Immanent Frame, 2014

Reflections on the spiritual and political significance of Nelson Mandela's death in 2013.

Papers by Rachel C Schneider

Sociology of Religion, 2023

This study examines how individuals understand spiritual calling to work. We draw on theoretic in... more This study examines how individuals understand spiritual calling to work. We draw on theoretic insights from Max Weber and Karl Marx to analyze 186 in-depth interviews with religious individuals in the United States. We argue that these classical frameworks can help us to better understand contemporary religious interpretations of calling in relationship to work. We propose a framework for categorizing ways of viewing work as a calling that consists of intrinsic/extrinsic meanings in work and goals that are proximal/distal to the workplace. While focusing primarily on Christian respondents, we note that some respondents from Jewish and Muslim traditions did not resonate directly with the term “calling” but had alternate ways of viewing their work that closely aligned with Christian conceptions of calling. We ultimately argue for the theoretical benefit of a Weberian conception of calling for contemporary understandings of how meaning is attached to work, but also highlight that seei...

Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World, 2022

Although religious discrimination in U.S. workplaces appears to be rising, little is known about ... more Although religious discrimination in U.S. workplaces appears to be rising, little is known about how different groups of employees perceive discrimination. Here, the authors draw on 194 in-depth interviews with Muslim, Jewish, Christian, and nonreligious employees to examine perceptions of religious discrimination in the workplace. The authors identify several common modes of perceived discrimination, including verbal microaggressions and stereotyping, social exclusion and othering, and around religious holidays and symbols. The authors also find that Christians tend to link perceived discrimination to personal piety or taking a moral stand in the workplace, while Muslims, Jews, and nonreligious people tend to link discrimination to group-based stereotypes and describe a sense of being seen as religiously foreign or other. This study reveals the value of studying groups alongside one another for the fullest picture of workplace religious discrimination and points the way toward furt...

Journal of Religious Ethics, 2020

The past decades have seen a rise in religious and secular responses to inequality that seek to o... more The past decades have seen a rise in religious and secular responses to inequality that seek to offer those who are relatively wealthy an opportunity to personally engage with impoverished people and places. This article examines three cases of elite white South Africans who intentionally immersed themselves in poor urban environments. In dialogue with the anthropology of ethics, I argue that immersion was seen as an experimental tool for transforming the self and cultivating virtues of empathy and responsibility towards others. In this way, immersion acted as a technology of the self, linking care of the self to care of others. Yet such experimentation was not without risk. Though imagined as a tool that could promote care of the self and care of others, immersion carries with it the potential to reinforce power divides and/or solicit negative moral judgment.

Religions, 2020

Work and faith are significant life commitments for many people. Understanding how people integra... more Work and faith are significant life commitments for many people. Understanding how people integrate these facets of life is important for scholars, faith leaders, and religious communities. We use data from Faith at Work: An Empirical Study, which includes a U.S. general population survey (n = 13,270) and in-depth interviews. Drawing data from a Christian sub-sample we ask: How do Christians draw on their faith community in relation to work? For those in different social locations, in what ways does talk about work come up in churches? Finally, what work-related challenges do Christians experience, and how do Christians want their churches and pastors to address them? We find that many Christians see faith as a resource for enhancing their work lives but do not often encounter discussion of work at church or talk with pastors about work, though Black congregants are nearly twice as likely as whites to hear their pastors discuss work. Further, specific groups of Christians want their...

Religious Studies Review, 2018

Journal of Religion in Africa, 2023

Conversations about race in South Africa continue to be shaped by a religious-redemptive narrativ... more Conversations about race in South Africa continue to be shaped by a religious-redemptive narrative of reconciliation that emerged in the democratic transition. However, there is a history of critical Black and liberation theological voices questioning whether the religious/ethical ideal of reconciliation adequately addresses the injustices of systemic racism. These questions gained new resonance in recent years with social movements like #feesmustfall. This article asks whether the seemingly intractable hope that a theological concept of reconciliation will be efficacious in facilitating racial justice is warranted. We begin by reviewing and interrogating how reconciliation is being used in contemporary theological discourses, arguing that given rising discontent, it is striking that reconciliation continues to be a prominent theme and topic within South African Christian theological discourses. We then propose several alternatives that may help address the problem of white racism and benefit from the sustained energy that South African theology has been putting into the language of reconciliation.

Socius, 2022

Although religious discrimination in U.S. workplaces appears to be rising, little is known about ... more Although religious discrimination in U.S. workplaces appears to be rising, little is known about how different groups of employees perceive discrimination. Here, the authors draw on 194 in-depth interviews with Muslim, Jewish, Christian, and nonreligious employees to examine perceptions of religious discrimination in the workplace. The authors identify several common modes of perceived discrimination, including verbal microaggressions and stereotyping, social exclusion and othering, and around religious holidays and symbols. The authors also find that Christians tend to link perceived discrimination to personal piety or taking a moral stand in the workplace, while Muslims, Jews, and nonreligious people tend to link discrimination to group-based stereotypes and describe a sense of being seen as religiously foreign or other. This study reveals the value of studying groups alongside one another for the fullest picture of workplace religious discrimination and points the way toward further sociological research of how both majority and minority groups perceive discrimination.

Journal of Religious Ethics, 2020

The past decades have seen a rise in religious and secular responses to inequality that seek to o... more The past decades have seen a rise in religious and secular responses to inequality that seek to offer those who are relatively wealthy an opportunity to personally engage with impoverished people and places. This article examines three cases of elite white South Africans who intentionally immersed themselves in poor urban environments. In dialogue with the anthropology of ethics, I argue that immersion was seen as an experimental tool for transforming the self and cultivating virtues of empathy and responsibility towards others. In this way, immersion acted as a technology of the self, linking care of the self to care of others. Yet such experimentation was not without risk. Though imagined as a tool that could promote care of the self and care of others, immersion carries with it the potential to reinforce power divides and/or solicit negative moral judgment.

Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 2020

Within the broad interdisciplinary domain of religious studies, explicit attention to whiteness r... more Within the broad interdisciplinary domain of religious studies, explicit attention to whiteness remains limited. Not only does this situation reinforce an analytic division between race and religion, it also works to obscure the racial dimensions of dominant Western forms of religion, particularly Protestant Christianity in the United States, as well as the religious dimensions of white supremacy. Tracing the contours of a body of scholarship on whiteness and religion that has been scattered across a number of fields and disciplinary boundaries, this article explores the role that the racial category of whiteness has played in US religious life and what is gained analytically by exploring the co-imbrication of whiteness and religion. Given persisting racial inequality and white extremism, we argue that whiteness itself needs to be theorized and discussed within the study of religion in ways that do not shy away from explicit discussions of power and racism.

Religions, 2020

Work and faith are significant life commitments for many people. Understanding how people integra... more Work and faith are significant life commitments for many people. Understanding how people integrate these facets of life is important for scholars, faith leaders, and religious communities. We use data from Faith at Work: An Empirical Study, which includes a U.S. general population survey (n = 13,270) and in-depth interviews. Drawing data from a Christian sub-sample we ask: How do Christians draw on their faith community in relation to work? For those in different social locations, in what ways does talk about work come up in churches? Finally, what work-related challenges do Christians experience, and how do Christians want their churches and pastors to address them? We find that many Christians see faith as a resource for enhancing their work lives but do not often encounter discussion of work at church or talk with pastors about work, though Black congregants are nearly twice as likely as whites to hear their pastors discuss work. Further, specific groups of Christians want their pastors and churches to do more to support them in their work and/or to help them navigate faith in the workplace. They also want churches to better accommodate the needs of working people at church, so they can more fully participate.

Religions, 2018

This article analyzes new monastic efforts to engage with systemic inequality in the United State... more This article analyzes new monastic efforts to engage with systemic inequality in the United States and South Africa, arguing for the importance of the concept of friendship to new monastic social justice efforts. Growing in popularity during the 2000s, new monasticism is a term used to describe Christians who are experimenting with forms of community and subject formation that take as their inspiration earlier monastic or other Christian socialist/communitarian movements. Drawing on qualitative research conducted with two South African groups inspired by new monasticism, I show how building relationships with economic and racial others is central to new monastic visions of social change. New monastics emphasize the importance of deep, committed, authentic, relationships—friendships—as the primary means of surmounting race and class divides. Building on the insights of Michael Emerson and Christian Smith in Divided by Faith, I argue that how new monastics conceptualize friendship simultaneously draws on and subverts traditional evangelical approaches to social engagement. Although new monastics are similar to evangelicals in that they attach central importance to interpersonal relationships, new monastics are distinct in that they explicitly connect the value of relationship building to practices of self-transformation and social critique.

Marginalia: Los Angelas Review of Books, 2018

Review Essay in Marginalia Los Angeles Review of Books of Adriaan van Klinken and Ezra Chitand... more Review Essay in Marginalia Los Angeles Review of Books of

Adriaan van Klinken and Ezra Chitando, eds, Public Religion and the Politics of Homosexuality in Africa, Routledge, 2016.

Ezra Chitando and Adriaan van Klinken, eds. Christianity and Controversies over Homosexuality in Contemporary Africa, Routledge, 2016.

Syndicate (Theology Section), 2016

Reflections on Matthew Sutton's book American Apocalypse: A History of Modern Evangelicalism with... more Reflections on Matthew Sutton's book American Apocalypse: A History of Modern Evangelicalism with a response from the author.

Full symposium can be found at: https://syndicate.network/symposia/theology/american-apocalypse/

The Immanent Frame, 2015

Do Christians have the best sex? What kind of sex is best? And what does sex have to do with salv... more Do Christians have the best sex? What kind of sex is best? And what does sex have to do with salvation? If you have ever wondered how evangelicals seek to answer these questions, then Amy DeRogatis's recently published book Saving Sex: Sexuality and Salvation in American Evangelicalism is for you. In Saving Sex, DeRogatis meticulously documents how American evangelicals talk about sex and sexuality. Her primary argument is that evangelicals have long attempted to use sexual practice as a marker of distinction from " secular " American culture. In particular, proper sexual practice becomes a symbol of Christian salvation and is imbued with eternal and spiritual significance, which is intended to testify, or serve as a witness, to a broader public. Despite this, evangelicals are not disconnected from popular American culture. Evangelical authors are eager to prove their cultural relevance, even as they claim the authority of scripture to differentiate themselves from one another and American culture at large. DeRogatis convincingly shows the seriousness with which evangelicals since the 1970s have set out to prove that Christian sex—that is, sex ordered by " biblical principles " —is the best kind of sex. To do this, evangelical authors and leaders are extremely engaged with wider conversations and social trends, debating and discussing issues such as sexual surrogacy, sexually transmitted diseases and sexual health, reproductive rights and contraception, and the gendered dynamics of sexual desire and pleasure. While reading her text, I was struck by the degree to which evangelicals have long sought to convince themselves and others that their lives, in all dimensions—including sex or lack thereof—differ qualitatively (for the better) from the lives of " secular " others. The irony, of course, is that the sheer volume of evangelical popular literature on sexuality suggests that, when it comes to the mechanics and meaning of sex, believers need extra guidance and support in order to materialize the promise of better sex in their own lives. Sex and Salvation treats evangelical belief and practice with nuance and seriousness. The book is intended to be accessible to a general audience, and DeRogatis delivers. Her tone is even­handed and sympathetic to the internal contradictions, dilemmas, and desires of evangelicals, as she helps to make sense for outsiders of what might be considered strange or retrograde evangelical beliefs. DeRogatis does an exceptional job of breaking down and analyzing several different streams of evangelical literature, teaching the reader much about the desires, practices, and ideals that shape a significant number of American lives. Chapters deal with purity literature, which promotes an ideal of chastity; Christian sex manuals that extol the benefits of marital sexual pleasure; charismatic " deliverance " literature that warns of the invisible negative effects of illicit sex; and Christian Patriarchy/Quiverfull literature, which focuses on sex for reproduction and teaches total submission (including sexual) of wives to their husbands. The final chapter deals with how these ideas are reframed by African American evangelicals who emphasize themes of sexual redemption and healing. The inclusion of a final chapter on African American evangelical views, after four chapters of predominantly white evangelical discourse, is important: it underscores the diversity of the evangelical movement, which is often treated as homogeneous, but it also serves to highlight the role of race in American evangelical thought. Careful reading of Saving Sex reveals how American evangelicalism is insidiously wrapped up with the production of whiteness—the cultural processes that work to hold up white practices, beliefs, and ideals as superior, natural, and normal. As many critical race scholars have argued, ideas about sexual propriety cannot be divorced from race. Sexual practices have long been used to differentiate and maintain the lines between white Americans and their racial " others. " Sex and Salvation illustrates how white and black evangelical discourses indirectly reinforce a binary whereby white evangelicals are able to define and police the proper boundaries of respectable sexuality, and African Americans continue to be represented (and to understand themselves) as hypersexual and in need of reform. For example, DeRogatis notes white evangelical obsession with metaphors of purity—the spoken desire for unmarried daughters to remain " lily­white " by practicing self­ restraint and marrying a suitable spouse—as well the dominance of military metaphors of attack and defense. By contrast, black evangelical leaders affirm many of these ideals, but tend to assume that their unmarried audience has been, or will be, sexually active. Unlike white evangelicals, they acknowledge complicated sexual histories and work with their audience to remove stigmas associated with sexual impropriety. In short, they preach redemption rather than perfection.

Religious Studies Review, 2018

Review of THE RISE OF NETWORK CHRISTIANITY: HOW INDEPENDENT LEADERS ARE CHANGING THE RELIGIOUS LA... more Review of THE RISE OF NETWORK CHRISTIANITY: HOW INDEPENDENT LEADERS ARE CHANGING THE RELIGIOUS LANDSCAPE. By BradChristerson and RichardFlory. New York: Oxford University Press,2017. Pp. vii + 185. Cloth, $29.93.

Religious Studies Review, 2017

Review of The Subject of Virtue: An Anthropology of Ethics and Freedom by James Laidlaw. Religiou... more Review of The Subject of Virtue: An Anthropology of Ethics and Freedom by James Laidlaw. Religious Studies Review, Volume 43, Issue 1. March 2017.

Religious Studies Review, 2017

Review of Beyond the Secular West. Edited by Akeel Bilgrami. Religion, Culture, and Public Life, ... more Review of Beyond the Secular West. Edited by Akeel Bilgrami. Religion, Culture, and Public Life, 1. New York: Columbia University Press, 2016. Pp. vii + 263. Cloth, 32.37;paper,32.37; paper, 32.37;paper,15.72.

Reflections on religion and politics during the 2014 South African national election season.

The Immanent Frame, 2014

Reflections on the spiritual and political significance of Nelson Mandela's death in 2013.

Sociology of Religion, 2023

This study examines how individuals understand spiritual calling to work. We draw on theoretic in... more This study examines how individuals understand spiritual calling to work. We draw on theoretic insights from Max Weber and Karl Marx to analyze 186 in-depth interviews with religious individuals in the United States. We argue that these classical frameworks can help us to better understand contemporary religious interpretations of calling in relationship to work. We propose a framework for categorizing ways of viewing work as a calling that consists of intrinsic/extrinsic meanings in work and goals that are proximal/distal to the workplace. While focusing primarily on Christian respondents, we note that some respondents from Jewish and Muslim traditions did not resonate directly with the term “calling” but had alternate ways of viewing their work that closely aligned with Christian conceptions of calling. We ultimately argue for the theoretical benefit of a Weberian conception of calling for contemporary understandings of how meaning is attached to work, but also highlight that seei...

Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World, 2022

Although religious discrimination in U.S. workplaces appears to be rising, little is known about ... more Although religious discrimination in U.S. workplaces appears to be rising, little is known about how different groups of employees perceive discrimination. Here, the authors draw on 194 in-depth interviews with Muslim, Jewish, Christian, and nonreligious employees to examine perceptions of religious discrimination in the workplace. The authors identify several common modes of perceived discrimination, including verbal microaggressions and stereotyping, social exclusion and othering, and around religious holidays and symbols. The authors also find that Christians tend to link perceived discrimination to personal piety or taking a moral stand in the workplace, while Muslims, Jews, and nonreligious people tend to link discrimination to group-based stereotypes and describe a sense of being seen as religiously foreign or other. This study reveals the value of studying groups alongside one another for the fullest picture of workplace religious discrimination and points the way toward furt...

Journal of Religious Ethics, 2020

The past decades have seen a rise in religious and secular responses to inequality that seek to o... more The past decades have seen a rise in religious and secular responses to inequality that seek to offer those who are relatively wealthy an opportunity to personally engage with impoverished people and places. This article examines three cases of elite white South Africans who intentionally immersed themselves in poor urban environments. In dialogue with the anthropology of ethics, I argue that immersion was seen as an experimental tool for transforming the self and cultivating virtues of empathy and responsibility towards others. In this way, immersion acted as a technology of the self, linking care of the self to care of others. Yet such experimentation was not without risk. Though imagined as a tool that could promote care of the self and care of others, immersion carries with it the potential to reinforce power divides and/or solicit negative moral judgment.

Religions, 2020

Work and faith are significant life commitments for many people. Understanding how people integra... more Work and faith are significant life commitments for many people. Understanding how people integrate these facets of life is important for scholars, faith leaders, and religious communities. We use data from Faith at Work: An Empirical Study, which includes a U.S. general population survey (n = 13,270) and in-depth interviews. Drawing data from a Christian sub-sample we ask: How do Christians draw on their faith community in relation to work? For those in different social locations, in what ways does talk about work come up in churches? Finally, what work-related challenges do Christians experience, and how do Christians want their churches and pastors to address them? We find that many Christians see faith as a resource for enhancing their work lives but do not often encounter discussion of work at church or talk with pastors about work, though Black congregants are nearly twice as likely as whites to hear their pastors discuss work. Further, specific groups of Christians want their...

Religious Studies Review, 2018

Religious Studies Review, 2017

Religion, 2018

This article analyzes new monastic efforts to engage with systemic inequality in the United State... more This article analyzes new monastic efforts to engage with systemic inequality in the United States and South Africa, arguing for the importance of the concept of friendship to new monastic social justice efforts. Growing in popularity during the 2000s, new monasticism is a term used to describe Christians who are experimenting with forms of community and subject formation that take as their inspiration earlier monastic or other Christian socialist/communitarian movements. Drawing on qualitative research conducted with two South African groups inspired by new monasticism, I show how building relationships with economic and racial others is central to new monastic visions of social change. New monastics emphasize the importance of deep, committed, authentic, relationships—friendships—as the primary means of surmounting race and class divides. Building on the insights of Michael Emerson and Christian Smith in Divided by Faith, I argue that how new monastics conceptualize friendship sim...

Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 2021