How to Determine the Meaning of a Sacred Text, a collection of 22 essays by Walcott-Bartlett Professor of Religion Jay Williams ’54, was recently published by Edwin Mellen Press. The essays, written over a period of almost 40 years, cover a variety of subjects including mythology, the Hebrew scriptures, Confucian texts, Buddhist texts, gospels and classical spiritual poetry.

Assistant Professor of Religious Studies Erich Fox Tree presented “La Importancia de los Idiomas de Señas Indígenas para el Desciframiento de la Iconografía Mayas Antigua” (“The Importance of Indigenous Sign Languages for the Decipherment of Ancient Maya Iconography”) at the 25th Symposium on Archaeological and Ethnohistorical Research in Guatemala, July 18-22.

WAMC/Northeast Public Radio in Albany will feature a reading by Visiting Associate Professor of Religious Studies S. Brent Plate on Friday, July 29, as part of the public radio station’s Academic Minute. Plate’s topic explores the point at which art becomes blasphemy. Plate was last heard on the program in December 2010 when he discussed the persistence of myth.

Aside from the summer blockbusters like Bridesmaids, Hangover Pt 2, and Transformers, a few smaller scale films have been making the rounds, stirring up chatter in cinema lobbies and on the Internet. Visiting Associate Professor of Religious Studies S. Brent Plate has commented and been quoted on a couple of these films on CNN.com and other online outlets.

Jay Williams '54, the Walcott-Bartlett Professor of Religious Studies, posted an article "Matthew: the Heavenly Gospel" on the Bibleinterp. com website.

Timothy Beal, author of The Rise and Fall of the Bible: The Unexpected History of an Accidental Book, will lecture at Hamilton on Monday, April 11, at noon in the Science Center room 3024. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Visiting Associate Professor of Religious Studies S. Brent Plate co-edited a special issue of the journal Material Religion titled "Key Words in Material Religion." The edition is a collection of essays by prominent practitioners on 19 key words used to address material religion. Plate also serves as the publication's managing editor.

Visiting Associate Professor of Religious Studies Brent Plate wrote a review of Peter Greenaway’s “Leonardo’s Last Supper: A Vision by Peter Greenaway” for the March 22 issue of Arts and Christianity magazine. The massive multimedia installation, recently on display at the Central Park Armory, is part of Greenaway’s “Ten Classic Paintings Revisited,” an ongoing series in which he merges iconic works of art into a cinematic experience.

Visiting Associate Professor of Religious Studies Brent Plate’s perspectives on this year’s Oscar nominees and the themes conveyed by them appear on several major media sites including CNN.com, Religion Dispatches and beliefnet.com. “It’s kind of an unusual year – almost all of the top films have relatively little explicit religious dimensions to them,” said Plate. “But these films are asking the same questions that religions ask: Where did we come from, how did we get here, where are we going and who are we?”

Heidi M. Ravven, professor of religious studies, gave an invited paper at the symposium, Spinoza: Feminist Perspectives/Aspects of Embodiment: The Madeline Renee Turkeltaub Memorial Symposium on Ethics on Feb. 7 at American University.