06/02/2021 – First Year Anniversary
We’re going to get raw. We’re going to get real. Come chill with me for a minute. This is TenOnReligion.
Hey peeps, it’s Dr. B. with TenOnReligion. This video is closed-captioned here on YouTube and the transcript is available at TenOnReligion.com. Ok, so here’s the deal. I started this channel in the first week of June 2020 and it’s my first year anniversary on YouTube. I’m not sure how I feel about that, but we’re going to be a little more of a raw vlog today and get back down to business in a few weeks. More on that in a little bit. By the way I just got my hair cut by wifey. What do you think? Nice, eh?
So, what’s the deal? Why did I start this channel? After teaching introductory courses in world religions for many years I realized that so many people didn’t understand even basic information about religions that are different from their own. I go to these huge conferences every year put on by an organization called the American Academy of Religion where thousands of people get together for a long weekend. It’s a massively organized event of hundreds of sessions at a large convention center and all these folks just kind of nerd it out on all of these religion topics. Have you ever got together with a bunch of people who all like the same things you like? It’s like being a kid in candy store. It’s my favorite weekend every year. We had to go online this past year because of the pandemic, but it was still cool. So then the big question is, how do we communicate and translate all of these huge religion ideas so people can understand them? It’s a major challenge, right? Andrew’s Religion for Breakfast channel kind of paved the way when it started up 5-6 years ago and I thought, there’s so many things in the academic field of religion. We need more channels. How many channels are there in other fields like history or philosophy? I mean, like, a lot. So I started learning video editing and tried to figure out how to make it happen. This channel is really small, but it really takes a lot of work even to get a small channel up and running and keep it going. I learned basic web programming so I could add a website to put up the transcripts. I slowly got better at adding graphics and sound effects [idea chime sound] [clapping] [dude] [sad] [cricket] and things like that. It’s been a great learning experience. I’m just a regular guy trying to make a difference in this world.
My particular interest in is interreligious studies and I’ve done a lot of reading, met a lot of people and even published some journal articles and book reviews. But we need more people online creating cool content about other areas in the academic field of religion. There’s not nearly enough of us around. So if that’s you, get out there, learn how to do, and start making some stuff.
I only have enough time to create and post every two weeks. Coming up will be a two-part series on John Thatamanil’s two well-written books, The Immanent Divine and Circling the Elephant. He’s a great writer and we’re going to break it down and tell you what he’s got to say, because it’s some really dope junk. By the way, try not to take anything I say too seriously. Or at least, the way I say it.
Anyway, I just want to shout out a big thanks to those of you who like the academic field of religion and watch this channel. Let me know in the comments if you have a specific topic you’d like to see covered in the future and I’ll see what I can do. I hope this vlog has helped you better understand this topic. Until next time, stay curious. If you enjoyed this, please like this video and subscribe to the channel. This is TenOnReligion.