What Does It Mean to be “Human”?
If humans aren’t self-contained units, what’s our responsibility to the other elements that we’re connected to?
Kendra Holt Moore is a PhD student at Boston University's Graduate Division of Religious Studies. She primarily focuses her work on the psychology and neuroscience of religion. She graduated with a Bachelor of Behavioral Sciences from Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene, Texas, and subsequently graduated with a Master of Theological Studies from Boston University. Her research centers on the role of the religious imagination and how our knowledge of this role might unveil the cognitive constructs that influence human behavior on an ethical and moral level. This research addresses how central and authoritative religious images (such as concepts of God and afterlife) construct or deconstruct human relationships, institutions, biases, rituals, and ideas of self. Kendra hopes her research can further our understanding of how to be responsible bearers of the concepts that inform our perspectives of the world. When she is not reading and writing, Kendra enjoys being outdoors, and in Boston this often means walking around the Chestnut Hill Reservoir or kayaking and paddleboarding on the Charles River.
If humans aren’t self-contained units, what’s our responsibility to the other elements that we’re connected to?
Big Stories, like the ones forged by religion, could be a powerful motivator for climate action. How might we use this way of thinking to spur action while staying scientific?
Kendra Moore and Kate Stockly discuss how they ventured outside their comfort zones, and what it taught them.
Do young adults “outgrow” religion? The Sinai and Synapses Fellows’ personal stories add nuance to this claim.