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Religious Studies

Allan Callahan

Biblical Studies/Origins of Christianity/Slavery and Christianity

Callahan is a well known expert on Biblical studies, the New Testament and Christian origins. He specializes in the problem of slavery and freedom in the New Testament and its meaning for contemporary Christians. He has researched the history of the enslavement of Africans in the U.S. and Brazil. He is publishing a forthcoming study on the Bible in African-American life. He is also the author of Embassy of Onesimus: Paul's Letter to Philemon and has written commentary on the Johannine epistles as well as an opinion piece for the Boston Globe.

Rabbi Barry Cytron

Judaism

Cytron teaches courses on Judaism. He is director of the Jay Phillips Center for Jewish-Christian Dialogue, a partnership of St. John's University and the University of St. Thomas.

Paula Cooey

Christian Theology/Reformation/Death and Dying/Theory and the Law

Cooey teaches courses in Christian theology, Reformation thought, religion in literature and film, and gender and religion. Her expertise deals with the intersection of social theory with theology. She is currently researching a contemporary theological response to aging, dying and death. Her most recent book is Family, Freedom and Faith: Building Community Today. Cooey is a member of the executive council of the American Academy of Religion and an elder in the Presbyterian church.

Sarah Horton

Buddhism/East Asian Religions in the U.S.

Horton's work centers on Buddhist studies, the religions of China and Japan and Japanese Pure Land Buddhism. She has researched the relationship beween Buddhist belief and art as well as East Asian deathbed rituals. Horton also specializes in Asian religions practiced in the U.S.

Jeanne Kilde

Religion in America/Women and Religion

Kilde specializes in American religion, religious architecture and the roles of women in religion. She can discuss contemporary faith issues, particularly in the Protestant church. Her book on Protestant church architecture in the 19th century called, Church Becomes Theatre, will soon be published. In addition, she is working on a study of how religious space influences gender roles.

Jim Laine

South Asian Religions/Islam/Catholicism

Laine's work focuses on the religions of South Asia and Islam. He is also an expert on India, having worked and traveled extensively in the country. He has researched Hindu hero Shivaji as well as Hindu-Muslim identity and relations in 17th century India. In addition, he teaches courses on Catholicism. Laine serves as Macalester's dean of humanities.

Anthony Pinn

African American Religion/Rap Music

Pinn specializes in the history of black religious thought and theology, and African American religion. He co-wrote the new book, Fortress Introduction to Black Church History, which explores the shape and history of the Methodist, Baptist and Pentecostal religions from the 18th century to the end of the Civil Rights movement. He is also the author of Varieties of African American Religious Experience, which covers the diversity of religious practices within the African American community including Voodoo, Santer¡a, the Nation of Islam and the emergence of black humanism as well as Why Lord? Suffering and Evil in Black Theology. In addition, Pinn has researched religious themes in rap music. He serves as executive director of the Society for the Study of Black Religion.

Bernard Raskas

Jewish Experience

Raskas, a rabbi, is a renowned scholar of Judaism. He teaches courses on ancient and modern Jewish experience. His newest book is an anthology called Seasons of the Mind. He also edited the anthology, The Jewish Experience in America: A Reader, and is the author of Universal Values as Reflected in Jewish Literature. In addition, Raskas writes a syndicated column that appears nationally in Jewish community newspapers.

Calvin Roetzel

Christianity/Apostle Paul

Roetzel teaches Biblical studies and Christian origins. He is a nationally known scholar of the Apostle Paul and is the author of Paul: The Man and the Myth, which examines St. Paul's life and theology. The book was recently named the best popular book relating to the New Testament by the Biblical Archeology Review. Roetzel has also been elected to the Council of the Society of Bibilical Literature. He has lectured on topics such as "Paul: Pariah or Prodigy?" and "Sex and the Single God: Celibacy as Social Protest in the Time of Augustus."