On October 17th, I was fortunate to join colleagues, graduate students, and former and active professors from the Comparative Religion department at Western Michigan University to celebrate the retirement of the amazing scholar and master pedagogue, Dr. Brian C. Wilson. Dr. Wilson came to WMU in 1996 from UC-Santa Barbara, and quickly became an imminent scholar of local religious history. For thirty years he has educated WMU undergrads and graduate students in religion, religious history, religious theory, etc. I shared my work on the problem of “Geist” within the Willensgemeinschaft and Volksgemeinschaft states regarding Muslims, especially in post-secular Europe.

Dr. Brian Wilson has written some amazing books on American religious history, including Yankees in Michigan, John E. Fetzer and the Quest for the New Age, The California Days of Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Dr. John Harvey Kellogg and the Religion of Biologic Living. These books are all well worth reading as they give incredible insights to the religious history of this area of southern Michigan.

It was great to see my dear friends and mentors, Dr. Nancy Falk, Dr. Stephen Covell, Dr. Kevin Wanner, Dr. Amy DeRogatis of MSU, and many others, including my dear friend and former office mate, Sarah Montgomery-Richards.