In Spring 2022, students in the capstone course for the Theology & Religious Studies major and minor at Fordham University, “Religion in NYC,” discussed foundational theories and methods in the academic study of religion and theology through a rigorous study of historically influential texts in the field, considered contemporary challenges to and reimaginings of traditional scholarly categories, and entered into productive partnership with communities and organizations of religious and spiritual practice in New York City.
As a community-engaged learning course, each member of the class, in consultation with Professor Robert Davis, Teaching Assistant Anna Irwin, and Fordham’s Center for Community Engaged Learning, carried out a community-based research project throughout the semester.
Our theme was “Religious Experience in the ‘Secular’ City.” We considered in depth the heuristic and explanatory value of the category of “religion”to delimit a particular set of communities, practices, and orientations to the world, and interrogated the meaningfulness of the distinction between “religious” and “secular” practices. Those preoccupations will be evident in the projects presented here. Our particular lens has been the category of religious experience–its histories, semantic range, and the methodological problems involved in constituting experience, and specifically religious experience, as an object of inquiry. What do religious and spiritual practices “do” for individuals and communities? What, if anything, distinguishes a particular experience as “religious” or “spiritual”? How do conceptualizations of religious experience shape contemporary spiritual and religious practices, and how do the ongoing transformations and re-contextualizations of these practices expand and challenge traditional conceptions of religious experience? Recognizing that the categories of the religious, the secular, and the spiritual are historically located, contested, and ever in development, we hope that these projects spur more questions and sharper attention to the lives, practices, and experiences that animate New York City.
We would like to thank all of our community partners, everyone at the Center for Community Engaged Learning, especially Dr. Julie Gafney, Surey Miranda-Alarcon, and Tricia Clarke; Chauncy Young of the Highbridge Community Life Center, Dr. Stephanie Arel, Christopher Wogas, Benedict Reilly, Dr. Courtney Bender, and Dr. Henry Goldschmidt.
Photo Credits
About Page Header: “9/11 Memorial Museum Escalator” by akasped (color-processed detail). Used under Creative Commons BY 2.0 License.
Projects Page Header: “magic” by arievergreen (color-processed detail). Used under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 2.0 License.
