Teemu Taira

Godless Polemics: Atheist Pamphleteering and the Specter of Emancipation in the United States Godless Polemics examines the role of pamphleteering as a medium for radical critique in the intellectual and cultural history of American atheism, focusing on its function as oppositional and counter...

Succinct and a very interesting open access book on atheist pamphleteering in the United States: "Godless Polemics" (2026) by Florian Zappe. www.routledge.com/Godless-Pole...

For me, this is probably the most important programmatic texts in the study of religion in the 2000s. A short piece by Tomoko Masuzawa, published in Culture and Religion (1/2000). It is not that widely read, perhaps because it was published as part of a review symposium.

I am working on this slowly, but I wonder if someone writes about religion in Love Is Blind (all countries, all seasons) before me. A new USA season is available.

Two important Deleuze-scholars (Charles Stivale & Daniel Smith) talking about D's recently translated 1981 seminar on painting and other D-related matters. Quite a deep dive. newbooksnetwork.com/on-painting

Joking about what? Supporting nicely executed academic research about international franchise product is certainly different from supporting the representations of gender and race the product contains.

My contribution to this topic was published seven years ago. Open access: jrfm.eu/index.php/oj...

The postman brought miscellaneous Brill publications.

Contributor’s copy arrived. It’s still exciting, after all these years.

One of my favourite intellectuals still publishing books at the age of 78.

Gen Z churchgoing is actually still declining, new British Social Attitudes Survey shows New analysis of recently published British Social Attitudes Survey data by Humanists UK has shown that churchgoing, including among Gen Z, has continued its long-term decline. The findings are consist...

And here's Humanists UK summarizing key issues and critical contributions re "Christian revival" humanists.uk/2026/01/28/g...

Has there been a Christian revival among young adults in the U.K.? Recent surveys may be misleading Despite the widely recognized decline of Christianity in the U.K., there have been persistent rumblings of a Christian resurgence.

The debate on "Christian revival" continues. This piece by Conrad Hackett www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/...

I haven't contributed to this, but I will write a promotional endorsement. This should be out later this year.

Most likely "come as you are", as in Finland.

More Zizek to the shelf. Some of these are essays on current affairs (politics and other matters), and I like that part of his writing quite a bit.

Here "critical" means mostly lived religion (i.e. not highlighting texts but what people do). For some, any approach worth the name "critical" means at least problematizing our key term, religion. I gravitate towards the latter, but some contributions in this volume are still useful.

Leaving Islam in the digital age: reflections on the online trajectories of young nonreligious Tunisians This article examines the role played by the internet in triggering and maintaining nonreligiosity. Drawing on fieldwork amongst nonreligious Tunisians, I first analyse the presentation of the self...

Here's the link (not OA): www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1...

This is what scholars want to see: other scholars being inspired by their work and taking it further. This is much more valuable than nice words (although I don't mind someone writing something kind). This is from Yosr ben Slima's "Leaving Islam in the Digital Age" (2025) (see the link in comments)

Multiple studies in 2025 show that Atheism is on the rise around the world A collection of major reports and studies published throughout 2025 shows that Atheism is rapidly increasing in popularity around the world.

Just putting this here, 'cos the story contains links to several relevant surveys regarding atheism and nonreligion dallasexpress.com/lifestyle/su...

The Routledge Handbook of Religion and Politics in Europe The Routledge Handbook of Religion and Politics in Europe is an outstanding reference source to this engaging subject area. A number of developments at the intersection between religion and politics i...

Just got an email saying that The Routledge Handbook of Religion and Politics in Europe (eds by Fokas & Giorgi) has been published. 31 chapters, one of them cowritten by me. www.routledge.com/The-Routledg...

A Practical Guide to Critical Religion This book makes critical theory on religion more accessible to both undergraduates and skeptics, showcasing its practical relevance and usefulness to research a…

to be published here www.bloomsbury.com/uk/practical...

New day and a new piece for proofreading. Here's how this chapter begins ("Religionization of Minorities and Culturalization of Christianity: How to Study Boundary-Cases?").

Kind of. Although this anecdote is not about me and my work in the end. It continues from here and it is about Russell McCutcheon (as is the volume in which the piece will be published).

The Politics of Classification | Equinox Publishing <i>Forthcoming, 2025</i><br><br> This collection brings together an international team of scholars to assess and think with the work of Russell T. McCutcheon. Though McCutcheon is often accused of bri...

It is going to be published here equinoxreligionlibrary.com/projects/pol...

Proofreading. This chapter begins with an anecdote.

Not really, as far as I can tell. I think that it is more a combination of respect (it is disrespectful to explain one's experiences by something else) and the "location" of religion (the core or essence of religion is in the experiences á la William James and Protestant traditition).

That can be a factor, but we teach social scientific approaches from the day one, so I tend to think that the issue here is how people learn to think about religion before they go to the university. It takes time to "unlearn".

Most UG students think that the point of study of religion is to examine deep individual experiences. They think that the danger of theories & methods is that we'll be distanced from such experiences. After graduation, some will think differently. But only some.

Food for thought for those interested in the (institutional) future(s) of the study of religion. An interview based on Russell T. McCutcheon's "Our Primary Expertise". newbooksnetwork.com/our-primary-...

Another way of saying, "we are closing programmes and probably sacking some scholars".

Lancaster Uni rhetoric sounds fake to me: "To ensure our Gold-standard teaching develops with the needs of our students, we constantly review [..] our curriculum [..]. As part of this ongoing review, our Global Religions BA courses will not be running in 2026." www.lancaster.ac.uk/study/underg...