Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Russell T. McCutcheon

@mccutcheonsays.bsky.social

1.1K followers 980 following 850 posts

I’m University Research Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Alabama. I was a longtime Dept Chair but now teach, read, write, weed the yard on the weekends and have opinions on the fate of higher ed.

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Reposted by Russell T. McCutcheon

Alexa Ray Corriea @alexaray.bsky.social · 1d

It’s boiling in October because you’re using ChatGPT to write your emails, Janice.

10 930 3K

Russell T. McCutcheon @mccutcheonsays.bsky.social · 1d

Riddle me this, Batman—is this two pieces of toast or one piece cut in half?

1 1

Reposted by Russell T. McCutcheon

Sean T. Collins @seantcollins.com · 2d

CHATGPT: I understand where you're coming from. You worked really hard to get here, and now it's time to enjoy the fruit of your labors.

ISILDUR: So I should keep it? Elrond says I shouldn't

CHATGPT: The ring is precious. Sometimes friends don't have your best interests at heart.

ISILDUR: true

40 2.8K 10K

Russell T. McCutcheon @mccutcheonsays.bsky.social · 6d

@seedpods.bsky.social is now steering the RELtoolbox and has linked it to something new he’s cooking up and he needs your help.

religion.ua.edu/blog/2025/10...

Strategies to strengthen the academic study of religion

Strategy group meeting and REL Toolbox to help departments remain strong in a challenging time

religion.ua.edu

1 1

Russell T. McCutcheon @mccutcheonsays.bsky.social · 7d

I assume your campus bookstore started querying you for your book order last March…

Reposted by Russell T. McCutcheon

American Religion @amrel.bsky.social · 8d

Back Pages is back again with your biweekly Tuesday installment: Russell T. McCutcheon on his book, “Manufacturing Religion” (1997). Read further here: www.american-religion.org/back-pages/a...

Against the Wind — American Religion

McCutcheon on Manufacturing Religion (2003)

www.american-religion.org

2 3

Russell T. McCutcheon @mccutcheonsays.bsky.social · 9d

Easy mistake.

Adam Rothman enjoys a good sandwich @adamrothman.bsky.social · 10d

I love a good correction.

A correction was made on Sept. 27, 2025: An earlier version of this article misidentified one of Chappell Roan’s outfits. She wore a leather two-piece printed like lace, not a leopard-print two-piece.

1 1 16

Russell T. McCutcheon @mccutcheonsays.bsky.social · 9d

10pt font words count for two 12 pt’ers. It’s in the new Chicago Manual.

Reposted by Russell T. McCutcheon

Erin L. Thompson @artcrimeprof.bsky.social · 9d

Edited down this chapter by 5k words!*

*Let's not talk about how many of those words ended up in the footnotes. Hush - you're safe there, my preccccious, my ccccccitations!

6 7 280

Russell T. McCutcheon @mccutcheonsays.bsky.social · 12d

Early start here—joining a South African conference session remotely.

Russell T. McCutcheon @mccutcheonsays.bsky.social · 14d

Small can be good too.

a cartoon character is wearing a red hat and a red dress .

ALT: a cartoon character is wearing a red hat and a red dress .

media.tenor.com

1 1

Russell T. McCutcheon @mccutcheonsays.bsky.social · 14d

New book giveaway: reply to this post with a suggested “easy win” that a program in our field might try to strengthen its situation. The post with the most likes gets a free book—let’s give it a week or so. @rutgersupress.bsky.social

www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/our-primary-...

3 3 5

Russell T. McCutcheon @mccutcheonsays.bsky.social · 15d

LSU opening.

jobs.chronicle.com/job/37889510...

Assistant Professor of Asian Religion and Philosophy - Baton Rouge, Louisiana job with Louisiana State University - Baton Rouge - Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies | 37889510

The Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies invites applications for a tenure-track position in Asian Religion and Philosophy, to begin in F...

jobs.chronicle.com

3 3

Russell T. McCutcheon @mccutcheonsays.bsky.social · 16d

Reposted by Russell T. McCutcheon

Maria Haskins @mariahaskins.com · 17d

There are people walking around in this world who have never known the sharp, hot, chemical smell of a mimeograph or untangled the cord of a landline telephone. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.

28 17 290

Russell T. McCutcheon @mccutcheonsays.bsky.social · 19d

Send me a msg with your email address.

Russell T. McCutcheon @mccutcheonsays.bsky.social · 20d

Some would say that one can only act within the sphere of one’s agency. If so, then head down and make a difference there in hopes of the amplifying ripples that always attend social life.

1 1

Russell T. McCutcheon @mccutcheonsays.bsky.social · 20d

New initiative: The Religion Department

www.religiondepartment.com

Russell T. McCutcheon @mccutcheonsays.bsky.social · 22d

And either edition of this (originally 2005) book might strike you as useful also. Into is on “religion” as a functional, seemingly special discourse object in liberal democracies.

www.routledge.com/Religion-and...

Religion and the Domestication of Dissent: Or, How to Live in a Less Than Perfect Nation

In its first edition, Religion and the Domestication of Dissent focused on the representations of Islam that circulated in the wake of the 9/11 attacks—representations that scholars, pundits, and poli...

www.routledge.com

2 1 1

Russell T. McCutcheon @mccutcheonsays.bsky.social · 22d

Happily. Send it along. And yes—the project is about the conditions that make it possible to make a discursive object of something called religion & the practical implications of that move. It’s a project on modernity. The intro + last chpt of my The Discipline of Religion (2003) might be useful.

Russell T. McCutcheon @mccutcheonsays.bsky.social · 22d

Too many in my field fail to see sacred/secular as a co-constitutive binary with a recent history and instead read secularism as undermining the previously wholistic, sacred worldview.

Russell T. McCutcheon @mccutcheonsays.bsky.social · 22d

Key here is not assuming some pre-classificatory homogenous or idyllic realm torn asunder by modernity. Instead, studying how one system of designation & identity/authority is replaced by another.

Russell T. McCutcheon @mccutcheonsays.bsky.social · 23d

This disaggregation of social life into seemingly distinct spheres & expertise—domains that only interact like billiard balls periodically bumping into each other—can be seen as a construct of modernity, which makes religion/not religion a key rhetoric that helps to make the modern possible.

Russell T. McCutcheon @mccutcheonsays.bsky.social · 23d

The presumption among many scholars that religion as a universal phenomenon is unique and thus cannot be explained naturalistically and can therefore only be interpreted for its special meaning. A view common among those whom they might study, to be sure.

Russell T. McCutcheon @mccutcheonsays.bsky.social · 24d

Technology!

1 2