University of Wyoming professor Paul Flesher’s column “Religion Today” is ending after almost two decades in the running.
This year would have marked 20 years since Flesher began writing the column, which in recent years has been published online by UW Institutional News. Flesher made the decision to discontinue writing these articles to further pursue his academic aspirations and for a personal break.
“It was a lot of fun, even when I was traveling or taking time off we wrote this twice a month all those years,” Flesher said, “but I just decided it was time for a break, to not have to think about something every other week.”
The column, which explored religion within in daily life, throughout the community and around the world, has been popular over the years on campus and in the Laramie community.
“We started this column in 1998 and originally, although I was the primary writer, there were a number of religious studies faculty at the time that contributed in different ways, and it’s now been 20 years,” Flesher said.
Although focused on religion, the column covered a range of related issues.
“It was about how religion motivates people, religious views and how it impacts society, whether it’s issues like homosexual rights or less controversial things like having multiple religions in a single community,” Flesher said.
In addition to exploring these issues, Flesher had two goals with the column.
“One, that they would see the impact of religious thoughts, beliefs or practices on their everyday life, even in just a small way,” he said. “Two, I wanted to give people a sense of how to analyze something.”
In choosing topics to write about, Flesher said, he would take small instances from his own or others’ lives and explain how religious affects people’s behavior.
“It was a way to humanize religion because often we think about religion and talk about the Catholic Church or the Mormons or the Synagogues in New York. We use big categories with religion, but this was more about let’s think about what sort of impact religion has,” said Flesher.
For fans of “Religion Today,” this may not be the end. Flesher mentioned that this is just a break for him and in coming years he would not be opposed to a reboot or writing something new.
For now, Flesher will be focusing more on his academic career as a professor in UW’s Philosophy and Religious Studies department.
To read past articles from the column visit Religion-Today.blogspot.com and for more information on the Religious Studies department go to UWyo.edu/RelStds.
