Author Archives

Esther Nelson teaches courses in Religious Studies (Human Spirituality, Global Ethics, Religions of the World, and Women in Islam) at Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia. She has published two books. VOICE OF AN EXILE REFLECTIONS ON ISLAM was written in close collaboration with Nasr Abu Zaid, an Egyptian, Islamic Studies scholar who fled Egypt (1995) when he was labeled an apostate by the Cairo court of appeals. She co-authored WHAT IS RELIGIOUS STUDIES? A JOURNEY OF INQUIRY with Kristin Swenson, a former colleague. When not teaching, Esther travels to various places throughout the world.

• Embroidery in the Time of Covid by Esther Nelson

  By Esther Nelson on October 21, 2020 • ( 18 )

  

  In her recent essay on this “Feminism and Religion” site, Ivy Helman wrote:  “Over the past few months, I’ve been struggling to write posts.  This month is no different.  I am currently sitting with four different half-drafts on three semi-related… Read More ›

• My Brother John—1949-2020 by Esther Nelson

  By Esther Nelson on September 24, 2020 • ( 26 )

  

  My 70-year-old brother, John, died recently.  As far as we know, he had not been ill although the death certificate listed “hypertensive cardiovascular disease” as the primary cause of death—something that doesn’t happen all of a sudden.  He shied away… Read More ›

• Where Am I Going? by Esther Nelson

  By Esther Nelson on September 2, 2020 • ( 12 )

  

  My sense of direction is, at best, poor.  In spite of that, I love a road trip.  With the advent of affordable GPS (Global Positioning System) devices, driving long distances has become easier.  Unfortunately, that tool (GPS) is not always… Read More ›

• “This World Is Not My Home” by Esther Nelson

  By Esther Nelson on August 5, 2020 • ( 25 )

  

  I’ve been puzzled for a long time why people, especially conservative Christian people who seem to be decent human beings, enthusiastically support Donald Trump, our current president.  My thinking stems from my own experience of being brought up in an… Read More ›

• Robert E. Lee Gets a Makeover by Esther Nelson

  By Esther Nelson on July 3, 2020 • ( 16 )

  

  For the past four Sunday afternoons, I’ve walked along Monument Avenue in Richmond, Virginia, to observe firsthand the changes happening to the statues of Confederate generals placed there a century or so ago.  I focus here on the Robert E…. Read More ›

• My Green Spaces by Esther Nelson

  By Esther Nelson on May 29, 2020 • ( 14 )

  

  I don’t do well being cooped up (staying at home) all day and every day.  Thankfully the state of Virginia, where I currently live, has kept their parks open during the COVID-19 pandemic.  For two months, I intentionally scheduled a… Read More ›

• Not My Story Anymore by Esther Nelson

  By Esther Nelson on May 8, 2020 • ( 20 )

  

  The meaning we derive from stories—especially religious stories we’ve heard and become familiar with since infancy—shape how we perceive and understand the world.  Our beliefs are an amalgam of “my story” (my individual life experience in a specific context) shaped… Read More ›

• Feeling Squeezed by Esther Nelson

  By Esther Nelson on April 1, 2020 • ( 19 )

  

  Tyler Foggatt, associate editor of The New Yorker magazine’s, “The Talk of the Town series,” recently contributed (March 23) an essay titled “Cooped Up.”  She notes that China, the first country to shut down due to COVID-19, is now in… Read More ›

• Say it with Music by Esther Nelson

  By Esther Nelson on February 21, 2020 • ( 10 )

  

  Daniel Deitrich, a worship leader in South Bend City Church, a “Jesus-centered community” in South Bend, Indiana, isn’t the first evangelical Christian to go up against fellow evangelical Christians who support the current U.S. president.  Perhaps, though, he’s the first… Read More ›

• Back Home? by Esther Nelson

  By Esther Nelson on January 10, 2020 • ( 15 )

  

  It’s between semesters and as I’ve done for the past three or four years, I’m back in Las Cruces, New Mexico, for the winter break.  I only spend a month here at this time of year and find myself thinking… Read More ›

• Would You Rather Just Not Be? by Esther Nelson

  By Esther Nelson on December 15, 2019 • ( 13 )

  

  When I was in my late teens, my mother became friendly with Beth, a woman she occasionally worked with on the post-partum unit of the local hospital.  Beth had two children a little younger than I, however, when our moms… Read More ›

• Mini-Reunion by Esther Nelson

  By Esther Nelson on November 13, 2019 • ( 2 )

  

  A couple of weekends ago, Nancy, one of my classmates from nursing school, organized what she called a “mini-reunion” at her home in New Jersey.  Seven of us gathered together to well, reunite.  Our graduating class (Muhlenberg Hospital School of… Read More ›

• The Dying Time by Esther Nelson

  By Esther Nelson on October 3, 2019 • ( 10 )

  

  At the end of Anita Diamant’s novel, THE RED TENT, Dinah—the same young woman who is only briefly mentioned in the biblical account (Genesis 34)—dies after a long and full life.  The biblical text tells us that Dinah “went out… Read More ›

• Giving Up What You Do Not Have by Esther Nelson

  By Esther Nelson on September 16, 2019 • ( 14 )

  

  I grew up within Christianity—one of the faiths that many religious scholars label as a Western tradition.  It can be difficult at times to wrap my head around religious concepts and symbols labeled by those same religious scholars as Eastern… Read More ›

• Bent on Kindness by Esther Nelson

  By Esther Nelson on August 16, 2019 • ( 24 )

  

  Recently, with some fear and trepidation, I underwent spinal surgery.  When the surgeon visited me the day after my operation, he assured me that the procedure was a success, even though it will take several weeks to ascertain whether or… Read More ›

• Beaches and Books by Esther Nelson

  By Esther Nelson on July 20, 2019 • ( 10 )

  

  Even though I’ve traveled and lived throughout much of the world, I’ve never thought of any one place or geographic location as home.  I have always felt a little envious of people who claim to have a strong, visceral connection… Read More ›

• Surviving My Recovery by Esther Nelson

  By Esther Nelson on June 13, 2019 • ( 16 )

  

  For the past fourteen months, I’ve been going from doctor to doctor trying to figure out what ails me.  Specialists I’ve seen included wonderfully competent people immersed in their individual disciplines of nephrology, cardiology, rheumatology, and neurology.  At long last,… Read More ›

• Raising (Dis)respectful Sons by Esther Nelson

  By Esther Nelson on May 13, 2019 • ( 13 )

  

  I recently spoke with a female relative (I’ll call her Sylvia), the mother of two teenage sons.  The eldest just completed his first year of college.  During our conversation, Sylvia mentioned she was not looking forward to him coming home… Read More ›

• Acting Out by Esther Nelson

  By Esther Nelson on April 11, 2019 • ( 16 )

  

  I’ve had two distinct vocations during my lifetime—so far.  Three, really, if you count parenting a vocation.  Parenting took up a lot of my time for many years.  There were aspects to it that were fulfilling, enlightening, and satisfying, but… Read More ›

• “What Could be Sadder?” I’ll tell you…by Esther Nelson

  By Esther Nelson on March 13, 2019 • ( 10 )

  

  You’ve probably seen the following meme circulating on social media: This meme is designed to be evocative.  Specifically, it plays into the concept of the sanctity of motherhood that so often oozes into a popular sentimentality about children.  In Christian-majority… Read More ›

• Past Transgressions by Esther Nelson

  By Esther Nelson on February 8, 2019 • ( 14 )

  

  Governor Ralph Northam, a Democrat in the state of Virginia, has many people calling for his resignation after a picture from a 1984 medical school yearbook surfaced showing what some people assert to be Northam wearing blackface or a KKK… Read More ›

• All Are Welcome – Including Tom by Esther Nelson

  By Esther Nelson on January 9, 2019 • ( 25 )

  

  It’s between semesters so am back in Las Cruces, New Mexico, but just for two weeks.  Due to circumstances out of my control, I’m not able to spend my usual month—mid-December to mid-January—here in the high desert.   When I am… Read More ›

• Men Just “Know Things” by Esther Nelson

  By Esther Nelson on December 20, 2018 • ( 25 )

  

  One of my Facebook friends, a young woman academic, recently posed a question, inviting discussion. (I’ve abbreviated her post for the sake of space.) “What is it about white male liberals that just MUST have me buy [into] their ideas… Read More ›

• The Hate U Give by Esther Nelson

  By Esther Nelson on November 18, 2018 • ( 4 )

  

  These days I live in a perpetual state of simmering outrage given the popular support of the “goings on” and happenings within our current administration.  The lies, the deceit, the xenophobia, the racism, the misogyny, the homophobia, the anti-intellectualism—things that… Read More ›

• “First Blood” Celebration by Esther Nelson

  By Esther Nelson on October 9, 2018 • ( 18 )

  

  This semester I’m teaching a course titled “The Abrahamic Traditions: Women and Society.”  Because I believe story is one of the best ways to understand a point of view, I use a novel or memoir to accompany each tradition. The… Read More ›

• Remembering Ginny by Esther Nelson

  By Esther Nelson on September 5, 2018 • ( 16 )

  

  My husband’s stepmother, Ginny, died last week.  She lived several months past her 97th birthday.  Here is her obituary. Ginny shared her life with three husbands, outliving each one.  Three sons were born from her first union.  She then married… Read More ›

• Time to Stop Talking by Esther Nelson

  By Esther Nelson on July 26, 2018 • ( 35 )

  

  One of my Facebook friends—someone I’m quite fond of—posted the following remarks given by her pastor, Dr. Jim Somerville, First Baptist Church, Richmond, Virginia, to the congregation on July 15, 2018: It was Thanksgiving 2016, and my brothers and I… Read More ›

• Haiku Getaway by Esther Nelson

  By Esther Nelson on July 3, 2018 • ( 18 )

  

  One of my undergraduate professors was (and still is) a haiku enthusiast.  When I took his Zen Buddhism course, students were required to write haiku throughout the semester.  He encouraged us to focus on the natural world as we struggled… Read More ›

• Beyond Human Rights by Esther Nelson

  By Esther Nelson on May 31, 2018 • ( 20 )

  

  For way too long, the only meaning I found in my life happened when peering through one specific, religious prism. Then I discovered what’s called the academic study of religion.  Observing the many ways people find meaning through their own… Read More ›

• Is Religion Our Sacred Cow? by Esther Nelson

  By Esther Nelson on April 10, 2018 • ( 47 )

  

  Recently, my colleague (I’ll call him Ben) participated in his grandson’s bris—the circumcision ritual within Jewish tradition. The circumcision was performed by a mohel–someone who is trained on removing the foreskin of an eight-day-old, male child. Neither Ben nor his… Read More ›