2021 Religious Studies Publications and Grants

* Indicates student co-author

Chung-Kim, Esther. “Moneylending in Medieval Christianity and Reformation Era.” Encyclopedia of the Bible and its Reception, edited by Constance M. Furey, Joel LeMon, Brian Matz, Thomas Romer, Jens Schroter, Barry Dov Walfish, and Eric Ziolkowski. DeGruyter, 2021.

Abstract: During the medieval and Reformation eras, Christian teaching about moneylending depended on whether it was considered usury or interest. Confusion over these terms sometimes without distinction contributed to the misconception that Christianity imposed a universal ban on all forms of interest. Yet the main difference was the delineation between usury and interest. Theologians distinguished between sinful usury and legitimate interest and this distinction was crucial in determining the ethics of moneylending.


Chung-Kim, Esther. Economics of Faith: Reforming Poverty in Early Modern Europe. Oxford University Press, 2021.

Abstract: This book addresses the role of religious reformers in the development of poor relief in the sixteenth century. During the European Reformation, religious leaders served as catalysts, organizers, stabilizers, and consolidators of poor relief programs to alleviate poverty. Although once in line with the religious piety, voluntary poverty was no longer a spiritual virtue for many religious reformers. Rather, they imagined social welfare reform to be an integral part of religious reform and worked to modify existing common chests or set up new ones. As crises and migration exacerbated poverty and caused begging to be an increasing concern, Catholic humanists and Protestant reformers moved beyond traditional charity to urge coordination and centralization of a poor relief system. For example, Martin Luther promoted the consolidation of former ecclesiastical property in the poor relief plan for Leisnig in 1523, while Juan Luis Vives devised a new social welfare proposal for Bruges in 1526. In negotiations with magistrates and city councils, reformers helped to shape various local institutions, such as hospitals, orphanages, job creation programs, and scholarships for students, as well as to develop new ways of supporting foreigners, strangers, and refugees. Religious leaders contributed to caring for the vulnerable because poverty was a problem too big for any one group or one government to tackle. As religious options multiplied within Christianity, one’s understanding of community would determine the boundaries, albeit contested and sometimes fluid, of responsible poor relief.

Martinez, Chloe. “Endorphins,” and “I Ask the Questions.” Poems. Salamander, issue 52, 2021, pp. 142-145.


Martinez, Chloe. “In Delhi.” Poem. Women’s Voices for Change, January 10, 2021.


Martinez, Chloe. “Last Synagogue in Alexandria,” “Almanac,” and “Mandala of the Nature Center Sleepover.” Poems. Verdad, vol. 31, 2021.


Martinez, Chloe. “Mandala of the Pile of Papers on the Dining Room Table.” Poem. Shenandoah, vol. 70, no. 2, 2021.


Martinez, Chloe. “Motherhood: A Map.” Poem. Shenandoah, vol. 70, no. 2, 2021.


Martinez, Chloe. “My Mother Is Painting Her House.” Poem. Boulevard, November, 2021.


Martinez, Chloe. “Nazar na Lage.” Poem. Iron Horse Literary Review, vol. 23, no. 1, 2021.


Martinez, Chloe. “Not-Yet-Official Girl Scout Badges.” Poem. Moist Poetry Journal, August 13, 2021.


Martinez, Chloe. “Pastoral with Seven Kinds of No.” Poem. The Maine Review, May 21, 2021.


Martinez, Chloe. “Seeing the Rare Douc Langur In the Semi-Wild, Outside Danang.” Poem. Moist Poetry Journal, August 15, 2021.


Martinez, Chloe. “The Spinster at the Party.” Poem. Rise Up Review, 2021.


Martinez, Chloe. “Study Finds.” Poem. Shenandoah, vol. 70, no. 2, 2021.


Martinez, Chloe. “Summertime,” and “After a Student Tells Me Her Allergies Are Due to Botanical Sexism I Look It Up.” Poems. On the Seawall, November 16, 2021.


Martinez, Chloe. “Tender.” Poem. SWWIM, April 22, 2021.


Martinez, Chloe. Ten Thousand Selves. The Word Works, 2021.

Abstract: “Don’t tell it like a story. It will sound too beautiful,” warns the worldly speaker of this assured and expansive debut. These multi-layered lyrics tell stories in abundance—of emperors, peacocks, pre-school drop-offs, falling snow—but their logic is mandala-like, rather than linear. Instead of onward towards meaning, they lead us inward towards mystery. Martinez understands the power of story to transmute experience into knowledge, and the power of poetry to question story’s power. Her scope is global, her vision historical, and her voice—by turns tender, sardonic, full of rage or humbled awe—is eloquently contemporary. Here is a book that presses back against reality. “Not a story, not an image. It is a map.”


Martinez, Chloe. “The Thing About the Getty Is,” “Beast Jesus,” “In the Desert,” and “Alarmingly Humanoid Sheep.” Poems. Radar Poetry, issue 31, October, 2021.


Martinez, Chloe. “True Story.” Poem. december magazine, vol. 32, issue 1, 2021.


Martinez, Chloe. “Viral.” Poem. Poets Reading the News, March 7, 2021.


Martinez, Chloe. “Webcam: A Manual.” Visual Poem. Black Warrior Review, 2021.


Martinez, Chloe. “The Weeds.” Poem. Ploughshares, vol. 47, no. 1, 2021.


Martinez, Chloe. “To The Fossils Embedded in the Floor of the Met.” Poem. Spillway, issue 29, 2021.


Martinez, Chloe. Review of Atang: An Altar for Listening to the Beginning of the World, by Patrick Rosal. RHINO, 2021.


Quesada, Ruben. “Poetry Today: Chloe Martinez and Christopher Nelson.” Interviewed by Ruben Quesada. Kenyon Review, September 7, 2021.


Martinez, Chloe. Review of Tethered to Stars, by Fay Joudah. RHINO, 2021.


Martinez, Chloe. Review of Frances of the Wider Field, by Laura Van Prooyen. RHINO, 2021.

Michon, Daniel, and David A. Smith. To Serve God in Holy Freedom: The Brief Rebellion of the Nuns of the Royal Convent of Santa Mónica, Goa, India, 1731–1734. Routledge, 2021.

Abstract: This book presents one of the first accounts of Christianity in colonial India by a nun. Set in Goa in the early eighteenth century, this translation of Soror Magdalena’s account from Portuguese brings to life a watershed moment in the politics of Christian faith in early colonial India. The volume recounts the nuns’ rebellion against the then Archbishop of Goa, Dom Frei Ignaçio de Santa Teresa. In their account they accused him of mistreating the nuns and implored the Superior General and the King of Portugal to replace him. It sketches the intricate relationships between the nuns themselves, the clerical and secular authorities, the fidalgos and the lower classes, Hindus and Catholics, and nuns and priests. It goes on to discuss the convent’s finances and the controversies surrounding them, the politics of the Church, as well as contemporary preoccupations with miracles and demons.


Michon, Daniel, Archaeology and Religion in Early Northwest India: History, Theory, Practice. New Delhi: Routledge India, 2015 (re-issued in paperback November 2017).