CJ McCrary

My goal as an educator and scholar of religion has always been to approach world religions through the lens of material culture. The many artifacts of religion—from narratives to food to architecture to ritual—open windows of understanding into the beliefs, teachings, and politics of religious groups as diverse as  Mormons and adherents of Jediism. I bring this same philosophy into the classroom, where I prompt students to engage intellectually, physically, and emotionally with the religious artifacts of nineteenth-century Reform Judaism, second-century early Christianity, and everything in between. My own research interests pertain to the role played by the ghost story and the category of “superstition” throughout the longue durée of the Christian tradition. The ability to translate psychological studies on disgust and sociological theories about fear conditioning into the familiar terms of religious studies has proven an invaluable skill in my academic career. I have built my pedagogy around hands-on experiences with material culture and with translation between the sciences and the humanities, with the ultimate goal of making more rounded individuals, not just better students.