CJ Schmidt (he/him)

Look, these people are Protestants.

It sure has! I remember when this project was summed up as “interested in magic and Acts.” I can’t wait to read it!

So very incredibly super happy for you!! Congratulations :)

Smoke & Mirrors: Discourses of Magic in Early Petrine Traditions Abstract. Smoke & Mirrors: Discourses of Magic in Early Petrine Traditions is a book about how magic disappears from early Christian texts that feature

my book_smoke & mirrors_ is out on oxford scholarship online. i have many feelings, mostly good! this was a difficult write for many reasons.

so i hope you find something useful in it if you read it.

I am not willing to concede the Bible to those who wield it like a weapon An interview with Zach W. Lambert

I am not willing to concede the Bible to those who wield it like a weapon

Hahahaha Academia Dot Your Stuff Is Yours messed up so badly that Humanities Commons is currently down, lol

When it comes back, scholar friends, go get yourself a profile at a place that won't steaI from you

I made an early Christian studies group---come join!

hcommons.org/groups/early...

These ads all feel like they’re from a movie about fascism, a parody. But no, Fascism is literally this.

The “deep danger voice”, the 13-year-old’s GI Joe power fantasy, the black/white “good vs evil” presentation, the big letters in all caps…
It’s literally tailored to people who don’t think.

There’s an excellent horror novel about the lab that’s set in Durham called The Unseen by Alexandra Sokoloff.

TW for an SA scene, tho.

Karina Villa protecting her constituents by literally running ICE off the streets in West Chicago and yelling to residents to stay inside their homes.

I'm not the biggest fan of homework (a whole branch of my research* examines its problems). But this is homework at its best: an opportunity for kids to think critically about what they're learning in school and apply it in creative, personally meaningful ways, with time to work/get help in class.

New pod! Mike interviews Tina Shepardson about A Memory of Violence: Syriac Christianity and the Radicalization of Religious Difference in Late Antiquity.

Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/n...

Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/0HyD...

if you know anyone who might be interested, please circulate this Call for Papers:

"Rethinking Popular Religion from Late Antiquity to the Early Medieval Period"

📍Venezia / Università Ca' Foscari / 12-13th March 2026
💣 deadline: 30th September 2025

#medievalsky #cfp #Venice @rmblf.bsky.social

Of course. Thinking of you! I really hope the end is near (for this book project, that is)!

I am so sorry. That’s shitty. DM me if there’s any grunt work I can do to help out! (Seriously.)

Thank you!

How Joseph Smith changed American Christianity forever The founder of the Mormon Church rocked 19th-century America with his spiritual visions, his belief in polygamy—and even a presidential run.

My latest column for National Geographic is on Joseph Smith. It features the amazing new biography by @georgemasonu.bsky.social prof. John Turner and quotes from @benjaminepark.bsky.social's American Zion.
www.nationalgeographic.com/history/arti...

Of course. And I appreciate you mentioning it. Thanks so much for your time!

I’ve used some chapters from popular scholarship books to talk about different citational conventions according to genre and audience. In my view, as long as those details are made explicit, the conversations tend to be enlightening.

If a large portion of the organized American Jewish community really leans hard into "Holocaust memory only bears moral lessons for the treatment of Jews," I do not think they will ultimately like the way that will lead the rest of the country to relate to the Jewish community.

Tapping the sign

The Democrat Party at every level — judges, politicians, academics, nonprofits — is organized around the defense and protection of the criminal, the monstrous and the depraved. The more vile the threat, the more vociferously the Democrat Party works to protect and enable it.

i do wonder at what point this ratcheting of rhetoric about the democratic party ends up having real life effects

Thanks so much!! I’ll absolutely send it along to my colleague who teaches the first-year World History course. I’ll get a copy and read through it to see how it may be useful in class.

Congratulations!! And thanks for posting about your book! I teach world literature here in Rome, and (before I’ve looked up your book) I’m wondering: how well do you think it teaches as a supplementary text for first year undergrads?

Thread.

I personally don’t think disciplines need to be “relevant” to be important. That said, a day doesn’t pass—esp these days!—when there isn’t something in the news that Religious Studies training/coursework could help one understand

This!

Ashanty is my student, and this is her first-ever professional assignment! She’s a ridiculously smart thinker and writer — read her on AI in school instead of all the adults pontificating. 🤗

A Dictionary of "AI" — Sonja Drimmer Even if you spend just a small amount of time listening to people who believe that any kind of digital technology (whether that’s “artificial intelligence” or not) is an unquestioned good, you’ll hear...

An updated Dictionary of AI to help cut through the obfuscating buzzwords. sonjadrimmer.com/blog-1/2025/...
*with thanks to Joseph Potts and @petertarras.bsky.social for their contributions

Why should I write better when a machine can do it for me? Because actually no one can do it for you, because your voice is unique among all the people on earth. Siri never petted a horse's neck. Alexa has never been ghosted by the captain of the football team. But you have lived, your heart is beating, you have suffered, and you have something important to say. It's a human's job, to use words, and whatever job you give to a machine, that part of your brain goes dark. Maybe it's worth it when it comes to remembering phone numbers and directions, but when that part of your brain that uses words goes dark, that's a vast area that's very close to your soul. Don't let some internet platform convince you that what you have to say and create isn't worthwhile. Words are the echo of your soul. Honing that echo matters.

this iconic advertising copywriter named Kathy Hepinstall Parks died over the weekend and I wanted to share something from her website I thought Bluesky would like