Why Religious Studies is Important

Urban-Rural Contrast in India: Religion, Economy, and Globalization
26 December, 2011 – 6 January, 2010

Want to spend New Year's Day in India?  USF Education Abroad is pleased to announce that Dr. Carlos Lopez of Religious Studies and Dr. Pratyusha Basu of Geography will be leading a 10-day winter break study tour to India. They have previously led student groups on similar tours of India during the summer of 2008 and winter of 2010.

The program consists of an intensive engagement with diversity of urban and rural life in India. While India is one of the centers of the global information technology industry, a majority of its population lives in rural settings and continues to depend directly on agriculture for its livelihood.  India serves as an excellent case study for examining the co-existence of metropolitan, urban and rural landscapes and traditional cultural, religious and socio-economic systems.  Students will have the opportunity to explore India's famous cultural and historical sites and explore the cultural, economic and environmental diversity of the subcontinent through an exploration of the southern Indian state of Kerala.  The program's goal is to familiarize students with the process of conducting field-based research in international settings, as well as to provide them with a concrete basis for pursuing further research on topics related to India.

For more information, go to http://educationabroad.global.usf.edu/index.cfm?FuseAction=Programs.ViewProgram&Program_ID=22522&Type=O

Bonhoeffer’s Theological Formation: Berlin, Barth, and Protestant Theology, by Dr. Michael DeJonge.  Oxford University Press, forthcoming February 2012.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer's dramatic biography, a son of privilege who suffered imprisonment and execution after involving himself in a conspiracy to kill Hitler and overthrow the Third Reich, has helped make him one of the most influential Christian figures of the twentieth century. But before he was known as a martyr or a hero, he was a student and teacher of theology. This book examines the academic formation of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's theology, arguing that the young Bonhoeffer reinterpreted for a modern intellectual context the Lutheran understanding of the 'person' of Jesus Christ. In the process, Bonhoeffer not only distinguished himself from both Karl Barth and Karl Holl, whose dialectical theology and Luther interpretation respectively were two of the most important post-World War I theological movements, but also established the basic character of his own 'person-theology.'