Stephen Gregg is Senior Lecturer in Religious Studies at the University of Wolverhampton, and the Hon. Secretary of the British Association for the Study of Religions. His background is in nineteenth-century Hindu philosophy, but in recent years he has specialised in minority religious movements, publically-projected religious identity, and method and theory in the Study of Religion. He teaches a wide range of religious traditions to undergraduates, and has always had an interest in student fieldwork pedagogies. Recent and forthcoming books include Jesus Beyond Christianity (Oxford University Press, 2010) with Greg Barker, Engaging with Living Religion (Routledge, 2015) with Lynne Scholefield, A Universal Advaita: Swami Vivekananda and Non-Hindu Traditions(Routledge, 2019), and The Bloomsbury Handbook on Studying Christians (Bloomsbury, 2019) and The Insider/Outsider Debate: New Approaches in the Study of Religion (Equinox, 2019) both with George D. Chryssides. Recent chapters and articles include work on Scientology, The International Raelian Movement, Apostasy in New Religious Movements, and fieldwork methodologies for NRM researchers.
He is currently working on transgressive and troubling religious actions and conceptions of religious belonging.
Tune in for Part I of our RSP Remix episodes on Cults and New Religious Movements!
It’s that time of year again where the RSP continues to combat the Christian-hegemony by bringing you an as-yet-undefined festive special! Hosted by Jonathan Tuckett and supported by (the invisible) Sammy Bishop, this year we play The Deadline, a quiz in which four aspiring academics must avoid their supervisor, quiz-master and champion of champions Carole Cusack, by answering some fiendishly difficult questions. If at any point though, Carole gets more answers correct than they do they will be eliminated from the game (and possibly asked to leave academia).
Scientology seems almost exclusively to be considered fair game (pun intended) for ridicule and criticism among New Religious Movements, and this may have much to tell us about the theoretical models scholars are using, and the institutional factors at play in the legitimisation of particular traditions in the academic and popular discourse. We discuss insider scholarship and the control of information; the Free Zone and the Church; strategic use of the category 'religion'; and how we see scholarship developing in the post-Hubbard era
A panel on the public impact and engagement of Religious Studies/Study of Religion/s led by committee members of the British Association for the Study of Religions, including Dr Stephen Gregg (Wolverhampton), Dr Christopher Cotter (Edinburgh), Dr Suzanne Owen (Leeds Trinity), Dr David Robertson (The Open University) and Dr Steven Sutcliffe (Edinburgh). Issues discussed include why RS continues to be a "muted voice" ...
Fourteen contestants. One tetchy quizmaster. Three microphones. Numerous cases of wine. One glamorous assistant. Many bruised egos. A boisterous studio audience. A splash of irreverence. Dozens of questions. Four years of podcasts! A rapidly diminishing reservoir of academic credibility. And far, far too many in-jokes...
Here are some traditions that make this time of the year special. End-of-year listicles, the "War on Christmas" debate, animations of elves dancing with your family's heads pasted on... and of course, the RSP "Christmas" Special!
What is the least well known book of the Bible? How many people in the UK listed their ‘religion’ as ‘Jedi Knight’ on the UK 2011 Census? What is Professor Jim Cox’s drink of choice? To find out, you need do nothing more than hit ‘Play’ and enjoy this forty minutes of pure, unadulterated, top quality Religious Studies entertainment.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial- NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
The views expressed in podcasts, features and responses are the views of the individual contributors, and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Religious Studies Project or our sponsors. The Religious Studies Project is produced by the Religious Studies Project Association (SCIO), a Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation (charity number SC047750).
