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
When Pop Idols Become Shamans: Religion and Fandom in “KPop Demon Hunters”
Published November 10, 2025 in Reading Religion
In a review of the pop culture phenomenon KPop Demon Hunters, Minjung Noh, chair of AAR’s Academic Labor and Contingent Faculty Committee, explores how the film captures the transnational present of Korean religiosity through pop spectacle. From the review:
“The demons, particularly the ultimate villain Gwi-ma, are not drawn from Korean folklore but instead resemble the evil master villain from Johnny To’s The Heroic Trio (1993), Ching, a demonic overlord with overwhelming power who reigns from a raised altar in a hell-like underworld overlooking tormented souls. KDH’s depiction of the underworld also recalls the visual imagery of hell and the demons or hungry ghosts in Buddhism, producing moments that are visually and culturally hybrid. These moments do not feel incongruent to a global audience; rather, they align with the logic of cross-referencing that defines transnational hybrid Asian pop culture.
The film constructs a deliberately non-specific spiritual universe, borrowing shamanic motifs without binding them to particular deities or rites. From its opening sequence, it links art and religion, showing how Korean shamanic practice has long intertwined performance, voice, and transformation, and it carries that connection into the world of K-pop.”
Heaven on His Mind: Trump’s Telling Fixation with the Afterlife
Published November 10, 2025, in Religion Dispatches
In this op-ed, Brook Wilensky-Lanford analyzes what popular conceptions of the “afterlife” might be influencing Trump’s recent fixation with where we go when we die. From the piece:
“We can trace much of Trump’s thinking about what heaven is and how one gets there back through American religious history. The afterlife “family reunion” idea Trump referenced—where he’d get to see his mother (and maybe not his father) when he died—has its origins in post-Civil War Spiritualism, which promoted the possibility of communication through the “thin veil” that separated the world of the living from the world of the dead. The best-selling 1868 novel The Gates Ajar combined the “thin veil” with the “pearly gates,” flinging the gates of heaven at least slightly open. The image of Heaven’s “gates ajar” was wildly popular in nineteenth-century books, songs, stage productions, and flower arrangements.”
AAR/SBL 2025: Religion Scholars Step Up
Published November 7, 2025, in Publisher’s Weekly
Publisher’s Weekly recently published a number of articles highlighting some of the sessions and workshops that are happening at the 2025 Annual Meeting in Boston. From the introductory article:
“Boston, birthplace of the American Revolution, seems an apt location for this year’s joint meeting of the American Academy of Religion and the Society of Biblical Literature, as freedom is a major theme at the conference. More than 7,000 scholars from around the world are expected to gather Saturday–Tuesday, November 22–25 at the Hynes Convention Center and nearby hotels, to share their research, support, and encouragement during a time of increasing political and social division.
The event’s massive program lists nearly 1,000 sessions, from plenary addresses to discussions of scholarly papers delving into nuances of scripture or touching on today’s hottest issues—Palestine, Israel, sexuality, gender, migration, global warming—through the lenses of history, theology, ethics, and culture.”
Who Deserves SNAP? Jesus Has a Parable for That
Published November 7, 2025, in Sojourners
Adam Russell Taylor, president of Sojourners, shares how Jesus’s parable of the Good Samaritan undermines the narrative of “deserving and undeserving” when it comes to government-assisted programs like SNAP. From the story:
“When a law expert once asked Jesus “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus replied with the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10: 25-37). You probably know the story: A man is left for dead on the side of the road after having been robbed; two different religious leaders see him in his dire condition, but they refuse to help, walking past on the other side of the road. Then a Samaritan—an ethnoreligious group that was despised and distrusted by many of Jesus’ listeners—sees the injured man and not only bandages his wounds, but carries him to an inn, pays for a room, and gives two silver coins while offering to reimburse the innkeeper any other costs associated with the man’s recovery. In other words, the Samaritan goes above and beyond what typical standards of compassion would normally entail—both in the first century and today.
[…]
For us as readers today, the parable prompts us to ask who we despise, distrust, and don’t see as deserving—whether that be people in blue or red states, of another race, political party, religion, or sexual orientation—and then imagine a world in which our fortunes were reversed and those people extend care to us. For Jesus, that is what being a neighbor means: sacrifice, generosity, and abundant compassion flowing in a direction that defies all our norms and biases.”
Why ‘I hope she converts’ is bad for Usha Vance, for love and for America
Published November 3, 2025 in Religion News Service
Khyati Y. Joshi, an AAR member whose family is interfaith, writes in a moving essay about the beauty of interfaith relationships and why they require the same skills that sustain a pluralistic society. From the essay:
“When Vice President JD Vance told an audience at a Turning Point USA rally Wednesday (Oct. 29) at the University of Mississippi that he hopes his wife, a Hindu, will one day “be moved by the same thing that I was moved by in church,” it was more than a peek into their marital relationship. It carried a weight that should give every American — especially those in interfaith families — pause.
[…]
Over the years, we celebrate Christmas and Diwali. We sing carols and chant mantras. In our living room, the cross and a statue of Ganesh sit side by side, not as competing symbols, but as companions in a shared search for meaning. Our coexistence is not confusion; it is clarity born of love. Faith, at its best, expands the human heart.
Vance’s words echo a deeper assumption: that Christianity is the norm in America that overshadows other faiths. When he says he “hopes” his Hindu wife becomes Christian, he repeats a cultural script that regards difference as something to be merely tolerated, not embraced. Pluralism, the foundation of both democracy and interfaith marriage, requires something more radical: the belief that multiple truths can coexist without needing to collapse into one.”
Swords into Plowshares: Jalane Schmidt on Memory, Public Art, and Kara Walker’s “Unmanned Drone”
Published October 28, 2025, in The Chronicle of Higher Education
Megan Goodwin, senior editor at Religion Dispatches, interviews Jalane Schmidt, an associate professor of religion and former director of the UVA Democracy Initiative’s Memory Project, on about how her work helped generate the new MONUMENTS exhibit at LACMA. From the interview:
“Q: What does Swords into Plowshares do?
A: It’s the name of the project to melt down Charlottesville’s Lee statue and to recover and render the bronze to give to an artist. We plan to have an artist create public art for the city of Charlottesville, worthy of the name “art,” that expresses the city’s inclusive values—and to do this through a community engagement process.
“Swords into Plowshares” comes from a verse from the prophet Isaiah that says they shall turn their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks, and they shall know war no more. It’s a statement about taking a tool of violence that has done so much damage, so much harm, and transforming it into a tool that creates community and cultivates sustenance to bring people together.
The Supreme Court of Virginia ruled in our favor in April 2021 and the city put out a request in July for proposals on what to do with the decommissioned statues. The Jefferson School African American Heritage Center, with some assistance from the Memory Project, submitted an application to have the Lee statue removed and melted down. We were very transparent about our intentions: we planned to have artists, designers, and the community involved to make decisions about creating public art out of this toxic waste.”
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