Richard Salter

Richard Salter received his Ph.D. in Religion and the Human Sciences from the University of Chicago. His dissertation used sociological and anthropological methods to compare how Pentecostal, Roman Catholic and Rastafarian groups formed recently in Dominica, a small island in the West Indies. He is especially interested in New World Christianities, Christian-Syncretic religious movements, and how religious groups in general form. He was the Chair of the American Academy of Religion seminar on Rastafari in Global Context. He is also interested in Ethics, and especially the ethical problems of responsibility and unintended consequences. His current work uses the idea and methods of practical theology to examine American Civil Religion. His interests were shaped particularly by his experience as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the West Indies, from 1986 to 1988, and by his undergraduate experience here at Hobart and William Smith Colleges.

Professor Salter can often be found teaching:

Fsem 018 Genocide in the Modern Age
Rel 109 Imagining American Religion
Rel 228 Religion and Resistance
Rel 232 Rethinking Jesus
Rel 237 Christianity and Culture
Rel 238 Liberating Theology
Rel 240 What is Christianity? (Intro. to Christianity)
Rel 241 Rastaman and Christ: Encounters in Diaspora (Caribbean Religions)
Rel 279 Torah and Testament
Rel 305 Tongues of Fire: Pentecostalism Worldwide
Rel 345 Tradition Transformers: Systematic Theology

Richard Salter has also published the following works:

“Sources and Chronology in Rastafari Origins: A Case of Dreads in Rastafari.” Nova Religio. Volume 9. Number 1. August 2005.

“The Birth of a Nation as Myth: from Invisible Empire to Empire of Invisibility.” Journal of Religion and Film. Volume. 8. Number 2. Fall 2004.

“Hidden Writing as a Resource for Teaching Critical Insight and Concern.” Co-authored with Mary Salibrici. Pedagogy. Issue 4.2 (Spring 2004), pp. 215-240.

“Helping Haiti: Case-studies in practical theology.” International Journal of Practical Theology. Issue 7.2 (2003), pp. 189-214.

“What is Christianity?”: An Epistemological and Pedagogical Problem”, in The Bulletin of the Council of Societies for the Study of Religion, (November 2000), p. 93-96.

"Time, Authority and Ethics in the Khmer Rouge: Elements of the Millennial Vision in the Year Zero" in Millennialism, Persecution, and Violence, ed. Catherine Wessinger (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2000), pp. 281-298.

"Shooting Dreads on Sight: Violence, Persecution, Millennialism, and Dominica's Dread Act" in Millennialism, Persecution, and Violence, ed. Catherine Wessinger (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2000), pp. 101-118.

“Rastafari.” Encyclopedia of Religion, 2nd edition. Co- authored with Ikael Tafari. 2005.

“Rastafari” and “Haile Selassie” in The Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature, ed. Bron Taylor and Jeffrey Kaplan. New York: Continuum. 2005.

"Rastafarianism" in Contemporary American Religion Encyclopedia, ed. Wade Clark Roof. (New York: Macmillan Reference, 2000).

“Dominica” in Religions of the World: A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Beliefs and Practices, ed. J. Gordon Melton and Martin Baumann (Denver: ABC-CLIO, 2002), pp. 403-405.