Sophia Paraschos won an Honorable Mention in the Elie Wiesel Prize in Ethics Essay Contest

Robert Alter, a scholar whose commentary is used in Louis Newman's class Patriarchs, Priests, Prophets and Poets, has written an article for Slate detailing how he translated the Book of Psalms.

Periodic profiles from The Christian Science Monitor looking in to the various faiths and values of the 2008 presidential candidates.

A gray whale, an animal traditionally hunted by the Makah people of Neah Bay, Washington, was recently killed in an illegal hunt. The Makah whale hunt of 1999 is studied in Michael McNally's class on Native American Religious Freedom. The recent unauthorized hunt was undertaken in part by Wayne Johnson, the leader of the 1999 hunt.

A national assembly of Evangelical Lutherans urged its bishops not to discipline gay and lesbian ministers who violate a celibacy rule. But the assembly declined to change its rule banning ordination of non-celibate homosexuals.

Department Meet-and-Greet to take place next Monday

The Department of Religion is preparing to close its doors for the year, which is, as usual, a process of comings and goings. The class of 07 is off into the world as is Shahzad Bashir, who will be teaching next year at Stanford. Meanwhile, new faculty member William Elison will be joining the department in the fall, along with one of the biggest classes of majors in some time. The website, for its part, will be on hiatus over the summer months, to be taken up again in the fall, along with NumeNews. We hope that the site will grow over time into a meeting place for students past present and future, so please do not hesitate to contact Jill with stories, comments, and questions in the future.

Our own Peter Berry applies his knowledge of Norse mythology to move into the final round of Carleton's Biggest Nerd. Listen here as Peter describes: "Iogneer- Norse god of irony and inappropriateness, who lived in a remote corner of Azgaard thousands of leagues away from the other gods, who failed to appreciate his ironic sense of humor." When asked if his myth was fit to be studied, Peter replied, "I feel that there are multiple levels of symbolism that could be approached from both a post-modernist and a functionalist standpoint." Listen

Professors Shahzad Bashir and Lori Pearson will be speaking this week in the Library Athenaeum. Professor Bashir's talk, "Pursuing the Secret History of a Hat: Visions and Discourses of a Sixteenth-Century Iranian Sufi," will be from 7-8 on Tuesday. Professor Pearson will speak as part of the "What matters to you and Why?" series, giving a talk entitled "On Being In Community: In Praise of Doubt, Faith, Suspicion, and Action" at noon on Thursday.

Last Saturday ( May 12 ) was the holiest day in Buddhism: Vesak Day, which simultaneously celebrates the birth, enlightenment, and death of the Buddha. Carleton held services to celebrate, but in case you missed out, I found an online shrine of sorts, created by the Sinhalese Buddhists of the internet in honor of Vesak Day 2007. This sort of thing is actually not uncommon, and the neon light show is intended to depict the transcendent light emitted by the Buddha upon reaching nibbana. link. For more on Carleton's observance, read here.

Pope Benedict XVI, formally Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was once a strong critic of liberation theology. Now, as he travels to South America, proponents of the social gospel remain defiant. link

• The New York Times this morning has reported that China is strongly rejecting a report by The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, which said in its findings last week "that every religious community in China continues to be subject to serious restrictions, state control, and repression." (NYTimes.com) China has responded that these claims were unfounded and argues that as an atheist nation they neither support nor restrict religious practice. link.

• In other news, the McClatchy Washington Bureau is reporting that China has ordered the "relocation" of 250,000 Tibetans from their rural homes to "socialist villages," in what they call the "comfortable housing project." link.

• -UPDATE- To supplement my own relative ignorance on this topic, I turned to resident expert Jessica Chen, whose studies have centered on minorities in China. To read Jessica's take on this issue, click the title above. Or click here.