Westminster College Professor Published in the Bulletin for the Study of Religion

NEW WILMINGTON, Pa. - Dr. Bryan Rennie, Vira I. Heinz professor of religion and chair of the department of religion, history, philosophy, and classics, recently published an article in the Bulletin for the Study of Religion.

"Heterophenomenology as Self-Knowledge" discusses the potential implications of teaching religion by incorporating heterophenomenology, or studying the ways others experience or understand themselves and their consciousness, as a means of actually understanding our own selves.

"I took advantage of writing the article to try to pin down my own inherent and initially unconscious theoretical justifications for such a process and gradually came to focus on the idea of religion as (reciprocally) creation and communication of identity," Rennie said. "If religion does operate in this way then the task of apprehending the perspective of the believer is not some quasi-mystical, detailed vision of a subjective state, but the comprehension of a specific communication of identity mediated through religious expression."

Rennie has been with Westminster since 1992.  He earned an undergraduate degree, master's degree, and Ph.D. from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland.  His research interests focus on the works of Mircea Eliade, about whom he has authored four books and numerous articles.

Read Rennie's article here.

Contact Rennie at (724) 946-7151 or email for additional information.

Dr. Bryan Rennie, Vira I. Heinz professor of religion