In the book, badass religious professor Langdon must try and foil a plot by a mad scientist obsessed with Dante's vision of hell, and as is Langdon's wont, he hares around various iconic Italian locations decoding historical arcana to try and prevent armageddon.
When I was in college, the conventional wisdom held that outside of religious colleges, professors of theology tended to be nonreligious people.
Wanting to ground myself in a more historically sound perspective, I called upon a resource that I can safely assume Kirk Cameron would not approve of: Religious studies professors from non-Christian universities.
Douglas Davies, a religious studies professor at the University of Durham in Britain who has written about death and disaster, agreed.
A religious Israeli professor friend of mine said it well: "People will give a lot if they think they are not guilty.
On Tuesday, the school board hired Nathan Katz, a religious studies professor at Florida International University, to vet the latest curriculum proposal before its next meeting on Sept. 11.
"Humor that belittles ethnic groups and nationalities is out," said John Morreall, a religious studies professor at the College of William and Mary who studies humor.
"The main thing it does is reaffirm the obligation of government not to fund programs that intermingle secular and religious content," Professor Tuttle said of the new ruling.
A religious studies professor at the University of Tennessee, Baker concentrates not on the Klan's institutional dynamics but on its embrace of militant Protestantism, which she argues shaped Klansmen's understanding of their world and the threats it faced.
Mr. Farrakhan's re-emergence since the fighting erupted in Libya is a reminder that in the public domain he is seen as a nationalist leader as much as a religious one, Professor Mamiya said.
