Photo Credit: Temple Emanu-El (Dallas, TX)
Below are selected articles of mine. You can view all my published works in my curriculum vitae.
Op-Eds
Blake Ziegler. ‘Jesus was a Jew.’ The Observer, May 1, 2023.
Blake Ziegler. “Religion’s death will be at the hands of politics.” The Observer, April 27, 2023.
Blake Ziegler. “Holocaust education in the United States is a disaster. Here’s how to fix it.” The Observer. February 4, 2023.
Blake Ziegler. “Letters: La. Schools need to do a better job of teaching about the Holocaust.” Nola.com. January 26, 2023.
Blake Ziegler. “Antisemitism and the abortion debate.” The Observer. November 10, 2022.
Blake Ziegler. “The effect of disinformation on religious freedom.” The Observer. September 8, 2022.
Blake Ziegler. “Letters: Edwards should veto congressional lines; 2nd Black majority district needed.” The Advocate. February 27, 2022.
Blake Ziegler. “They simply wanted to pray.” The Observer. February 3, 2022.
Blake Ziegler. “Inclusivity includes Jews, too.” The Observer. April 7, 2021.
Blake Ziegler. “Finding Meaning in Suffering: Post-Holocaust Theology.” God and the Good Life, University of Notre Dame. Fall 2021.
Academic Research
Evan Dutmer, Paul Blaschko, Haley Dutmer, and Blake Ziegler. “‘To form more than to inform’: The Transformative Philosophy as a Way of Life Pedagogy of God and the Good Life.’” AAPT Studies in Pedagogy, Vol. 8, pp. 30-49. 2023.
Political Science Undergraduate Honors Thesis (Available upon request)
Jews for Jesus? Comparing In-Group Favoritism between Orthodox Jews, non-Orthodox Jews, and Evangelical Christians in American Politics
In the United States, Orthodox Jews are more similar in terms of religiosity and politics to evangelical Christians than non-Orthodox Jews. I’m interested in exploring how this difference influences the relationship between Orthodox and non-Orthodox Jews. Due to the argument in political science that politics precedes religion in the U.S., this potentially means that Orthodox Jews favor evangelical Christians over non-Orthodox Jews. This leads me to the following research question: Do Orthodox Jews have greater or less in-group favoritism with non-Orthodox Jews than evangelical Christians in the United States?
Philosophy Undergraduate Honors Thesis (Available upon request)
Can Philosophy be Accessible? Investigating the Effectiveness of Public Philosophy in Undergraduate Education
One aim of God and the Good Life, an introductory philosophy course at Notre Dame, is to make philosophy accessible to general audiences. This methodology is described as “public philosophy” and is often criticized for diminishing the value of the original philosophical text. This thesis examines whether God and the Good Life, and other public philosophy courses, are successful in distilling philosophical themes and generating interest in philosophy among students. If successful, this project demonstrates that philosophy is an accessible, useful tool for everyday life.