TROPI RATA (Tropes of War)
Tropes of War is an international scholarly collective convened to explore the unstable seam opening up from the Baltics to north Africa, southern and eastern Europe to Greece, Turkey, and the the Eastern Mediterranean, from western China to Afghanistan and Pakistan. Our researchers are exploring the intersection of economics, politics, society, and culture in order that we might better understand the traumas that are giving rise to instability in these regions.
THE END OF SEMINARY
With the exception of a couple of rough patches in the 1980s, seminary enrollments enjoyed steady growth from 1940 to 2000. In the most conservative Christian denominations, they have continued to enjoy growth up to the present. Mainstream Christian denominations not so much. Beginning at the end of the 1990s, enrollments began to fall off. In an upcoming book published by Fortress Press, I show how the rise in seminary enrollments was closely tied to disposable income of working families. The increase in seminary enrollments was accompanied by an expansion of the seminary curriculum to include theological approaches from across the world and across society, and an expansion of enrollments by traditionally underserved communities. Today children of largely white and wealthy households continue to enroll in the best endowed seminaries, while the children of working families are now invited to take weekend, evening, and remote courses. Seminaries everywhere are renting out or selling off properties, dramatically reducing or eliminating their faculties, or closing up shop entirely. The reason, however, has nothing to do with the wealth of seminary patrons. Seminary patrons are wealthier today than ever. What is lacking is what economists would identify as the demand-side push that from 1940 to 2000 was offered by the steadily rising incomes and benefits enjoyed by working families. Once that came to an end, so too did seminaries.
VALUED: 21 LESSONS IN ECONOMICS (FOR CHRISTIANS AND OTHER MISFITS)
In this manuscript (currently under review), I guide non-economic readers through twenty-one short, 2-4 page chapters, designed to (1) bring Christians up to speed on the most basic economic concepts; and (2) help them to apply these lessons to their faith and practice. For more information write to joseph.lough@gmail.com.
CHRIST THE COMMODITY
Christ the commodity is my most ambitious effort to date to explore how capitalism since the fourteenth century has fundamentally reshaped what Christians believe about themselves, about their God, and about their world. For more information write to joseph.lough@gmail.com.
