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Russell T. McCutcheon

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Russell Tracey McCutcheon is a Canadian religion scholar who earned a PhD in religious studies from the University of Toronto… more

H-index: 24
Political science 38%
Philosophy 26%
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by Russell T. McCutcheon

mccutcheonsays.bsky.social
Riddle me this, Batman—is this two pieces of toast or one piece cut in half?
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Reposted by: Russell T. McCutcheon, Aurélien Mondon

alexaray.bsky.social
It’s boiling in October because you’re using ChatGPT to write your emails, Janice.
10 930 3K

Reposted by: Russell T. McCutcheon, Robert W. Wallace, Melanie C. Green , and 1 more

seantcollins.com
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
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by Russell T. McCutcheon

mccutcheonsays.bsky.social
@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
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by Russell T. McCutcheon

mccutcheonsays.bsky.social
I assume your campus bookstore started querying you for your book order last March…
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Reposted by: Russell T. McCutcheon

amrel.bsky.social
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
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by Russell T. McCutcheon

mccutcheonsays.bsky.social
Easy mistake.
adamrothman.bsky.social
Adam Rothman enjoys a good sandwich @adamrothman.bsky.social · 9d
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.
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by Russell T. McCutcheon

mccutcheonsays.bsky.social
10pt font words count for two 12 pt’ers. It’s in the new Chicago Manual.
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Reposted by: Russell T. McCutcheon, Louis Clerc

artcrimeprof.bsky.social
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

Reposted by: Russell T. McCutcheon

adamrothman.bsky.social
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.
3 19 230

by Russell T. McCutcheon

mccutcheonsays.bsky.social
Early start here—joining a South African conference session remotely.
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by Russell T. McCutcheon

mccutcheonsays.bsky.social
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
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by Russell T. McCutcheon — Reposted by: Caroline T. Schroeder, Andrew Jacobs

mccutcheonsays.bsky.social
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-...
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by Russell T. McCutcheon

mccutcheonsays.bsky.social
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
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Reposted by: Russell T. McCutcheon

mariahaskins.com
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.
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by Russell T. McCutcheon

mccutcheonsays.bsky.social
Send me a msg with your email address.

by Russell T. McCutcheon

mccutcheonsays.bsky.social
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.
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by Russell T. McCutcheon

mccutcheonsays.bsky.social
New initiative: The Religion Department

www.religiondepartment.com
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by Russell T. McCutcheon

mccutcheonsays.bsky.social
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
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by Russell T. McCutcheon

mccutcheonsays.bsky.social
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.
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by Russell T. McCutcheon

mccutcheonsays.bsky.social
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.
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by Russell T. McCutcheon

mccutcheonsays.bsky.social
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.
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by Russell T. McCutcheon

mccutcheonsays.bsky.social
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.
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by Russell T. McCutcheon

mccutcheonsays.bsky.social
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.
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by Russell T. McCutcheon

mccutcheonsays.bsky.social
Technology!
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by Russell T. McCutcheon

mccutcheonsays.bsky.social
Out next month. Completed a year ago and hopefully not appearing too late for a field badly in need of retooling. @rutgersupress.bsky.social #RutgersUPress

www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/our-primary-...
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by Russell T. McCutcheon

mccutcheonsays.bsky.social
Is that a bad thing?
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by Russell T. McCutcheon

mccutcheonsays.bsky.social
It’s a critique of a dominant model of how religion is studied by scholars. A better primer would be either Religion in 5 Minutes (Equinox) or my intro book Studying Religion (Rutledge).
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by Russell T. McCutcheon

mccutcheonsays.bsky.social
More
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by Russell T. McCutcheon — Reposted by: Andrew Jacobs

mccutcheonsays.bsky.social
Cover design for a new edition due out from OUP in Feb ‘26
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References

Fields & subjects

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