Introduction: Abuse in Yoga and Beyond: Cultural Logics and Pathways for the Future Christopher Miller In recent years, abuse scandals have shaken the yoga world once again, overturning previously held conceptions of yoga gurus, their teachings, and the individuals and organizations that have enabled their abuse. Most importantly, these abuse scenarios – whether they have involved sexual assault, cruelty, financial exploitation, etc. – have left individuals and communities disoriented, deeply traumatized, and desperately searching for answers. As Sacred Matters editor Gary Laderman writes, “the sacred is not always what it seems, can be associated with just about anything, and remains […]
Introduction: Abuse in Yoga and Beyond: Cultural Logics and Pathways for the Future
Black Lives, Sacred Matters
Gary Laderman Religion is always mostly about material bodies.
Touching Intimacies
Gary Laderman Touching is all of a sudden quite fascinating to me.
Just Say Yes: In Drugs We Trust
Gary Laderman Anyone interested in the new frontiers of American religion should pay attention to how Americans love to say yes to their drugs.
Baptismal Fonts and Brew Halls: A Conversation With “The Church Brew Works” Founder Sean Casey
Madison Tarleton Over the course of our conversation, Sean continued to ask, “what do you mean by sacred?”
An Interview with Jason Francisco, Part 3: Płaszów, A Camp in Its Afterlives
Jason Francisco’s photography spans a variety of subjects and themes, but some of his ongoing projects take on the complexities of memory and loss in Eastern Europe, particularly memory and loss related to the Holocaust. Francisco recently sat down for an interview with Matthew H. Brittingham, an Emory PhD candidate and associate editor at Sacred Matters. The two discussed Francisco’s photographs on a former Nazi-controlled WWII camp in Krakow, Poland, known as Płaszów. This is part three of a three part interview with Professor Francisco. See: Part one and part two. Professor Francisco’s photography and writing can be seen at his website. For […]
An Interview with Jason Francisco, Part 2: Memory, Remembrance, and Composition
Jason Francisco’s photography spans a variety of subjects and themes, but some of his ongoing projects take on the complexities of memory and loss in Eastern Europe, particularly memory and loss related to the Holocaust.
An Interview with Jason Francisco, Part 1: Photographing the “Sacred” in “Alive and Destroyed”
Jason Francisco received his MFA in Photography from Stanford University in 1998 and is presently an Associate Professor of Film and Media Studies at Emory University. Professor Francisco’s photography spans a variety of subjects and themes, but several of his ongoing projects examine the complexities of memory and loss in Eastern Europe, particularly memory and loss related to the destruction of Eastern European Jewry as part of the Holocaust. Some of Jason Francisco’s projects have been running for almost a decade, if not longer, continuously being updated, reimagined, and re-theorized when he revisits Eastern Europe. Francisco wrestles with loss […]
Thanksgiving Rites and Wrongs: Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and the American Imagination
D. F. Sebastian The contrast between the practices of modern and archaic thanksgiving rites gives us insight into the broader imagination behind how our society is constructed.
A Long Strange Trip: Exploring How Yoga-Narasimha Landed on the Grateful Dead’s First Album Cover
Deepak Sarma He did suggest that I try to interview living members of the band but, alas, I am still pursuing that unreachable lead.