Katharine Gerbner

Cover of Katharine Gerbner’s Christian Slavery

@ktgerbs.bsky.social provides an essential link in understanding the creation of racialized slavery. She demonstrates how Christians—intentionally & not—tied bondage to status as a Christian and, ultimately, how this tied assumptions about the heathen to enslaved Black people.

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My thoughts on @tomtweed.bsky.social's fascinating new book that retells American religious history through the lens of ecologies and technologies.

Now with explosion of AI:
LLMs draw upon existing cultural texts. They do not generate original ideas, but rather recycle old ones. How do inherent biases of these systems interact with the dynamics above?
What might that mean for individuals and society?

From the fednews community on Reddit Explore this post and more from the fednews community

This comments section is the first time I've felt even a shred of hope in eight days.

We are excited to announce our 2025 Roetzel Family Lecture! See the following poster for more details

Though I hear people say they may be over them, might be a good day to share 2 Starter Packs for #VastEarlyAmerica #VastEarlyAmericas! 1/ go.bsky.app/RDvzxbj

The image is the cover of the book, Slavery and Freedom in Black Thought in the Early Spanish Atlantic by Cambridge University Press.

✍️Slavery and Freedom in Black Thought in the Early Spanish Atlantic
💭 An intellectual history exploring how free & enslaved Black people in the early Atlantic conceptualized & contested ideas about slavery & freedom
🕰️Out on Dec 5th '24
🤫 already available online: www.cambridge.org/core/books/s...

I just made an end-of-year donation to Free Press, a leading media reform organization at the forefront of critically important policy battles, from revitalizing public service journalism to defending a democratic internet. Their invaluable advocacy will be even more essential in the years ahead.

Thanks! I am actually focusing primarily on the pre-1760 period -- it's a microhistory of the years 1755-1761, looking at the changing meaning of Obeah during that time period - using Moravian+legal archives. It ends with the criminalization process. And agreed re: parallels with the Iberian world

Ooh that sounds great, thanks for the rec!

There will be more on the religion-rebellion connection in my next book, “Archival Irruptions,” which focuses on the Construction of Religion and the Criminalization of Obeah in Jamaica after Tacky's Rebellion (1760). Out in Sept 2025 with Duke UP @dukepress.bsky.social

It is so consistent once you start looking for it. This article was my chance to focus on the connection I saw between the construction of Religion & Rebellion. I was thrilled it became part of this amazing volume - thanks again to @tisawenger.bsky.social and Sylvester Johnson for including me!

Thanks for highlighting this! The backstory: during my research for Christian Slavery (2018), I noticed that every time there was an enslaved uprising in early America or the Caribbean, there was an immediate backlash against Black religious gatherings-whether Christian, Muslim, or African religions

just sent!

'Church and slavery' research project launched - Protestant Theological University On 1 January 2023, the NWO research project "Church and Slavery in the Dutch Empire: History, Theology and Heritage" officially started.

Evan Haefeli and Patricia Bonomi have both written about the Dutch churches and slavery in an Atlantic context.

There is also an ongoing joint project on Church and Slavery in the Dutch Empire that looks at Reformed Protestantism and slavery.

www.pthu.nl/en/news-and-...

Just emailed :)

Thanks for the ref! I also wrote a bibliographic essay on "Church and Slavery" that points to several other important works of scholarship on this topic. Happy to share the PDF for anyone who is paywalled.

www.oxfordbibliographies.com/display/docu...

'Church and slavery' research project launched - Protestant Theological University On 1 January 2023, the NWO research project "Church and Slavery in the Dutch Empire: History, Theology and Heritage" officially started.

Evan Haefeli and Patricia Bonomi have both written about the Dutch churches and slavery in an Atlantic context.

There is also an ongoing joint project on Church and Slavery in the Dutch Empire that looks at Reformed Protestantism and slavery.

www.pthu.nl/en/news-and-...

I also recommend Travis Glasson's Mastering Christianity for English Protestantism/SPG

global.oup.com/academic/pro...

Slaves and Englishmen – Penn Press Technically speaking, slavery was not legal in the English-speaking world before the mid-seventeenth century. But long before race-based slavery was entrench...

Here is the link to Guasco:

www.pennpress.org/978081220988...

For early modern Protestant theology re: slavery, there is also Michael Guasco's book for English Protestants and slavery

Thanks for the ref! I also wrote a bibliographic essay on "Church and Slavery" that points to several other important works of scholarship on this topic. Happy to share the PDF for anyone who is paywalled.

www.oxfordbibliographies.com/display/docu...

Thanks Will!

This is great! I've been struggling with the balance of how much/if to focus on "classic theorists" versus more contemporary material -- I'll probably do a bit of both. This is upper level undergrad (required for RELS majors). Is there a particular new article/essay that's worked well for you? thx!

thank you!

Ooh I love that idea! Another related assignment I heard from Joe Blankholm was having students ask ChatGPT to create a religion, and then to critique the religion based on the theories they learned during class.

Highly recommend reading through this entire thread.

Fantastic, thank you!!

Cultural Approaches to Studying Religion Examining the analytic tools of scholars in religious studies, as well as in related disciplines that have shaped the field, this updated textbook includes cult…

The other reader/textbook I'm thinking about (thanks to a rec by @sarahdees.bsky.social ) is Cultural Approaches to Studying Religion , which focuses on important theorists not included in Pals. Have others used either/both of these texts? Thoughts/prefs?

www.bloomsbury.com/us/cultural-...

Thank you! Yes, I'd love to hear what people think about the Pals text and also the accompanying reader. Based on the syllabi I've seen so far, this is the most widely used "textbook"/reader for Theory and Method in Religious Studies courses.