I love it when articles that appear to have very little in common actually fit together perfectly. Two of our newest pieces illustrate this principle well: an interview with scholar John Thatamanil about his experience of spiritual truth in several different religions, and an essay from Amy Julia Becker about the fact that, for better or worse, it is a religious experience attending a Taylor Swift concert.
There might not be much overlap between comparative religion seminars and Swiftie bracelet exchanges, but maybe there should be! Thatamanil talks about how in his reading of the climactic dialogue between Jesus and Pontius Pilate, Jesus’ concept of truth is a love that sees beauty in the other. And for Becker, there is something transcendant at a Swift concert, something rooted in our desire for “belonging to one another across all sorts of divides.” It’s pretty cool to think that the magic of a Taylor Swift concert is connected to the same stuff that makes religion (and interreligious love) beautiful.
“Your pastor has maybe an hour-long service to shape your desires in a Christlike direction. But the market has you while you sleep. You dream capitalist dreams.”
“The clarity of plot only points to a deeper mystery of how those who enacted such bald and unprovoked violence could live in such intimate proximity with their victims.”
