Religious Studies News communicates important events of the field and examines critical issues in education, pedagogy, research, publishing, and the public understanding of religion. Sometimes that involves sharing what others are writing about the field and these issues.
In Open Tabs, RSN editors will share the articles they’ve been reading and thinking about. If you have recommendations for articles, podcasts, or other media you’ve recently encountered that examine issues that fall under the purview of RSN, email us.
What We’re Reading
“New Data: Most Republicans Now Hold a Favorable View of Christian Nationalism”
Published April 13, 2026, in Redeeming Democracy
In the latest edition of his Substack, AAR member Robert P. Jones reviews the details from a recently published PRRI 5,000-person study on the state of Christian Nationalism:
“Among those who hold a favorable view of the term “Christian nationalism,” 62% agree with the racist “great replacement theory,” that immigrants are invading our country and replacing our cultural and ethnic background, compared with only 15% of those who hold an unfavorable view of the term.
Similarly, among those who hold a favorable view of Christian nationalism, 69% agree that the federal government should detain immigrants who are in the country illegally in internment camps until they are deported, compared with only 22% of those who hold an unfavorable view of the term.”
“Monumental Failures: Our struggle to remember America’s history and imagine its future”
Published April 15, 2026, in Religion Dispatches
In this article, AAR member Seth Gaiters reports on the Trump administrations’s efforts to restore monuments celebrating notable white supremacist individuals and institutions:
“As the executive order for “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History” states:
Under this historical revision, our Nation’s unparalleled legacy of advancing liberty, individual rights, and human happiness is reconstructed as inherently racist, sexist, oppressive, or otherwise irredeemably flawed. Rather than fostering unity and a deeper understanding of our shared past, the widespread effort to rewrite history deepens societal divides and fosters a sense of national shame.
In this context, so-called “false reconstructions of American history” are those that question this nation’s stated commitments to liberty, justice, and equality in light of its demonstrable investments in white supremacy, Christian nationalism, and capitalist exploitation. Put plainly: historical narratives that offend the administration are understood as “false,” regardless of historical accuracy. “Restoring truth and sanity” requires sanitizing and obscuring historical fact while claiming to restore, re-member, resurrect and rededicate it; and while their language is broad and general, the administration’s intent is specific, pernicious, colonial, and disciplinary.”
“Popes have spoken out on politics before. But with Trump and Pope Leo it’s different.”
Published April 15, 2026 in NPR
From the article:
“Popes have historically been hesitant to name the person their criticism is directed at outright. A hotly contested example is Pope Pius XII’s decision to not directly name and denounce Adolf Hitler during World War II.
Pope Francis also faced criticism for his ambiguous references to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
This makes Leo’s directness all the more relevant, according to White, who is also the author of Pope Leo XIV: Inside the Conclave and the Dawn of a New Papacy. Leo referring to Trump by name, though still a rare occurrence, was a “new tact” for the papacy, he said.
[…]
Another reason for Leo’s outspokenness may be the Trump administration’s continued religious rhetoric and imagery, experts said.
On Sunday, Trump shared an AI-generated image that depicts him as a Jesus-like figure, wearing a white robe and red sash and laying his hands on a sick, bedridden man as light appeared to radiate from his hands. The post was later deleted and Trump claimed the image was of him as a doctor.
Robert Orsi, a professor of religious studies and history at Northwestern University, said he was alarmed by the post’s connotations. He called the whole exchange with Leo “unprecedented,” and “never in U.S. history has this happened.”
“Public Scholarship and the Work of Democracy”
Published April 1, 2026 in Come and Tell It
In the latest edition of the Institute for Diversity & Civic Life’s Substack, Founder and Executive Director Tiffany Puett (an AAR member) bridges the gap between academic research and public understanding:
“Doing public scholarship requires a different orientation, pushing scholars to think differently about the methods and the objectives of creating knowledge. Some of the scholars we’ve interviewed aren’t just producing work that they share publicly. They’re collaborating with communities to shape the research from the beginning. This kind of community-engaged work recognizes that knowledge doesn’t just live in universities, it also exists in lived experience, local contexts, and the expertise of communities themselves. Public scholarship allows us to think differently about participation, especially who gets to be included in the creation and circulation of knowledge.
We are living in a moment characterized by the repression of knowledge, where higher education and research are increasingly under attack. We’ve seen terms like “diversity,” “equity,” and “inclusion” politicized and stripped of meaning while efforts to teach about race, culture, and inequality are restricted or defunded. At the same time, public conversations about identity, belonging, and religion are becoming more polarized, distorted, and susceptible to misinformation. In this environment, the gap between academic knowledge and public understanding becomes even wider.
If we want a healthy democratic society, we need informed citizens. But this requires more than just access to information. When people don’t have access to nuanced, accessible information produced through rigorous research, it leaves space for oversimplified narratives, fear-based rhetoric, and ideologies that rely on flattening complexity and excluding difference.”
“First Female Archbishop of Canterbury a Bittersweet Moment for Catholic Women”
Published April 1, 2026, in Religion Dispatches
In this story, AAR member Mary Hunt writes about how the appointment of the first female archbishop of Canterbury may accelerate the Anglican Communion finding its postcolonial way:
“The Anglican communion is growing rapidly in Africa and Asia where women are active participants. Having a woman in leadership isn’t new there, as the strong presence of African women clergy at the Canterbury event proved. Still, opponents of women’s ordination abound in Anglican circles.
A central postcolonial challenge is why the Archbishop of Canterbury is still the spiritual leader of the church, why England remains the center of the Anglican universe. Why not an African bishop, for example? These questions will be discussed in the next six years of Archbishop Mullally’s term. Even in a moment of celebration, the dynamics of colonialism require careful, respectful attention lest women, however inadvertently, reinforce and reinscribe them.
Anglican women in England were ordained to the priesthood in 1994 and to the episcopacy there in 2015. So the relatively quick rise of Archbishop Mullally to be primus inter pares, from being ordained as a priest in 2002 and consecrated as a bishop in 2015, is in itself remarkable. Finding a common or at least tolerable way forward will require the mediating ways of a skillful leader. I wish her luck.”
And Listening to…
The Sunday Interview: The Rise of the Hype Priest: Judah Smith, Celebrity Faith, and Modern Evangelicalism
In this episode of the Straight White American Jesus podcast, host (and AAR member) Leah Payne speaks with journalist Sam Kestenbaum about his reporting on celebrity pastor culture and the rise of the “hype priest.”
The conversation centers on Kestenbaum’s widely discussed profile of Judah Smith, a “pastor-to-the-stars” connected to figures like Justin Bieber, and expands into a broader analysis of how millennial pastors have fused evangelical preaching with aesthetics, branding, and media performance.
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