The Council of Societies for the Study of Religion is a federation of learned societies in religion interested in enhancing coordination of the field as a whole; it seeks to initiate, coordinate, and implement projects to strengthen and advance scholarship and teaching and to support the activities of constituent societies and of their executive offices and officers. At present, the CSSR is comprised of seven constituent societies—the Association of Professors and Researchers in Religious Education, the Catholic Biblical Association, the College Theological Society, the National Association of Baptist Professors of Religion, the North American Association for the Study of Religion, the Society for Buddhist-Christian Studies, and the Society of Christian Ethics. In addition, there are also three affiliated societies—the Council on Graduate Studies in Religion, the Institute on Religion in an Age of Science, and Theta Alpha Kappa, the National Honors Society for Religious Studies and Theology.

The CSSR publishes two periodicals: the bulletin and Religious Studies Review. The bulletin is published four times per annum (February, April, September, and November) and has more than 3750 subscribers. A typical issue is roughly 20,000 – 22,200 words in length and is printed in an eight-and-a-half-by-eleven format. Our primary competitors are Teaching Religion and Theology and Religious Studies News.

Now in its fourth decade, the bulletin is designed to facilitate the goals of the CSSR and thus seeks to foster conversation across the field. A quick glance at previous issues will clearly demonstrate that we cover a vast array of topics. Given its wide circulation and the diversity of interests represented by its readership, the bulletin represents not only a worthwhile but positively ideal place to publish articles and essays aimed at a wide audience. We especially invite and welcome essays that focus on new developments in the field, reflect on pedagogical practices within the discipline, or provide a snapshot of important events, symposia, conferences, and conversations taking place in various sectors of the academic study of religion. We pride ourselves in being one of the leading “intellectual op-ed” journals among those who study religion. It is a proven fact that articles in the bulletin get read. The reason for this, in large part, is that they are smart, pithy, and relevant.

If you are interested in publishing in the bulletin, please send your essay to the editor, Scott Elliott, by email at selliott@drew.edu. Feature length articles should be approximately 4,000 – 4,500 words in length and composed in Microsoft Word or WordPerfect. However, we regularly publish much shorter pieces when appropriate. Deadlines for submissions are as follows:

December 1 for the February issue

February 1 for the April issue

July 1 for the September issue

September 1 for the November issue

Thank you for considering the bulletin. We look forward to reading your work.

Scott S. Elliott

Editor, CSSR bulletin