A Q-and-A with new full-time faculty member Jason Slone

Jason Slone
Assistant Professor, Religious Studies

A native and longtime resident of Ohio, Jason Slone joined the College's Religious Studies department in Summer 2005. He's not only interested in the connections between religions, societies, and culture—he wants to know why the human brain tends to naturally engage in religious behavior in the first place. He earned his B.A. in Religious Studies at the College of Wooster in Ohio and his M.A. in Comparative Studies in Humanities at Ohio State. He completed his dissertation in the Cognitive Science of Religion at Western Michigan, where he studied religions across history to identify the different traits and behaviors from an evolutionary biology perspective. Before coming to Webster, Slone taught at the University of Findley in Ohio.

What brought you to Webster, and how do you like it so far?

It's been a great fit. Several things drew me here: The interesting student body, the focus on internationalism, and especially the Religious Studies department itself. The department doesn't teach religion, like a lot of departments; it teaches about religion. The department's approach is great because it encourages students to do a lot of personal exploration as they learn about these different traditions; and, it has relevance to the contemporary world.

What drew you to the field of religious studies, and what topics do you research?

I'm a psychologist, and the "why" of religion is interesting to me. Are we born to believe in religion? As far as we know, we're the only species that engages in religion, and every society we know of has had some sort of religious tradition. Studies of children show they demonstrate religiosity before they are even conditioned by their parents. I approach it from the evolutionary biology perspective: What are the evolutionary benefits or explanations of religious belief? What evolutionary benefits does religious behavior provide, if any—or is it a consequence of an otherwise unrelated evolutionary development?

What about the field's relevance to contemporary world?

Well, it's interesting to study—and it's fun to teach students—the cultural and historical context of religions. How religion is such a major influence on life on this planet, in so much of world history and contemporary events—societies, art, diplomacy. If you understand world religions, you know why 9/11 happened. Or why so much of art history is tied to religion, because for most of history, 99.9 percent of humans were illiterate, and art was often used by or tied to religion, because the people or institutions who had money to patronize artists were tied to religion.

Does this approach help engage students?

I think so. We use a lot of different themes and approaches and generally tie a course's content to its relevance to society and contemporary times. But we welcome new approaches and theories. Our adjunct faculty includes Muslims, rabbis, Hindus, professors with specialties in different areas. I think these perspectives help pique students' interest. I've had students from other majors tell me, "Man, your class is the only one I set my alarm to wake up for" (laughs). I suppose that's a compliment.

So you draw students from a variety of areas?

We get a lot of art and literature majors and other interesting students who bring different perspectives to our classes. I think the courses are also a means for students, even the non-religious ones, to explore themselves spiritually and to learn an appreciation and respect for other cultures and religious people.

And what are you doing when you're not thinking about religion?

I have two young kids now. And I play guitar - I was in a cover band in Ohio, so I'll probably want to do that here. I like sports, I'm a big baseball fan. And I love the outdoors: kayaking, fishing, hiking, biking.

What are your plans for the summer?

I'll be working in partnership with Parkway School District, through a grant they received, on workshops on how public school teachers should handle religion in the classroom. It will cover the legal aspects, the history of secularism, and the cases that affect how they handle it.

Editor's Note: This July, Jason Slone will be a featured speaker in the "Tuesdays at the Old Post Office" speaker series. His talk at noon on July 25 at Webster's Old Post Office campus will be: "Intelligent Design is Cognitive Cheesecake: Or, Why Creationism Won't Go Away."

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