Scholar questions the modern place of religion

Professor Naomi Goldenberg, from the Department of Classics and Religious Studies, University of Ottawa, is visiting Britain in April, giving public and university addresses and arguing that religions function effectively as “vestigial states”  (or remnants of states) within contemporary nation states, raising questions about the kind of sacral and secular power they reinforce in this role.

Her views have considerable relevance to contentious debates about religion in public life.

She offers a feminist critique of patriarchal religion. Her related interests include psychoanalytic theory, body politics, gender and popular culture.

Her visit is being sponsored by the Critical Religion Research Group at the University of Stirling, which is pioneering intellectual engagement with questions of religion at the interface between the academy and public debate.