Arc: The Journal of the School of Religious Studies

The theme for this fiftieth anniversary volume – “Looking Backward, Looking Forward” – offers a selection of articles that reflect on past conversations, present interventions, and the generative possibilities of both for the future. Opening the issue is Sydney Sheedy’s piece, which brings together ethnography and queer historiography to explore how the occult has come to be imagined as a kind of kin hermeneutic to queer politics. Next is Jonah Gelfand’s fascinating account of how liberal neo-Hasidic movements in America have managed to position themselves within a Hasidic lineage while simultaneously rejecting traditional Hasidic leadership models. Ndiaga Diop, writing in French, explores the notion of pluralism provided by the West African Sufi mystic Tierno Bokar. The following piece, co-authored by art education scholars Laurel Campbell, Jane E. Dalton, and Seymour Simmons III, argues for the future  dividends  of  addressing  spirituality  in  art  education.  The penultimate article, authored by Mark Glouberman, offers a compelling, albeit rather subversive, argument: the biblical creation of the earth and humanity should not be understood through the category of exceptionalism, nor should the election of Israel as God’s chosen people above all other nations. Closing the volume is Douglas Farrow’s incisive piece, which illustrates how Agamben’s work can be critically appropriated to advance our understanding of Pauline texts, Christian eschatology, and political theology more broadly.