The idea of organized satanic witchcraft was invented in 15th-century Europe by church and state authorities, who at first had a hard time convincing regular folks it was real.
Kelsy Burke, University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Emily Kazyak, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Both sides of the debate over religious freedoms and LGBTQ rights use the language of equality and opposition to discrimination. It will be up to the courts to decide whose claim is stronger.
To afford sufficient protection to marginalised people in society - such as women in minority religious communities - the state must recognise and regulate religious marriages in a nuanced way.
Goddesses have traditionally protected against sickness and cured the ill, according to Hindu belief. More recently they have been coopted to combat AIDS and traffic deaths.
A choral conductor and scholar of sacred music explains what’s missing from church worship with singing banned due to the pandemic – and why live choir rehearsals are still a ways off
The public broadcast in Canada of the call to prayer during Ramadan this year caused some tensions. What the preliminary research has shown however, is that it wasn’t the noise people objected to.
If worshippers congregate outside amid coronavirus fears, it wouldn’t be unprecedented. Early settlers used outside worship to sanctify colonized land, and slaves relied on it to meet in secret.
The mosque is where men and women and children go to pray. But, according to art historian Christiane Gruber, some make room for other, non-human creatures too.
In appearing with Bible in hand at the time of crisis, Trump is signaling his position as defender of traditional values, while ‘othering’ detractors. Russia’s Putin and India’s Modi have done similar things.
With the plague decimating the ranks of laborers, surviving workers started pining for higher wages. When the monarchy responded by enacting taxes and restrictive labor laws, the peasants rebelled.
Had Trump read the text he held, he would have found a story of liberation for slaves, a divine preference for the poor, and a damning critique of any empire that oppressed its people.
Understanding how unrest informed both early Christianity and the foundational stories of the United States can serve as a guide in this current period of turmoil.
Dalits have long been ostracized as the ‘untouchables’ in Indian society. Discrimination and the impact of the coronavirus have only reinforced their status.
The ulema’s reaction to the government’s decision to limit access to mosques — and the civil society’s counter-reaction — should be viewed in terms of challenges to traditional theism in modernity.
Director of the Wesley Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Policy & Associate Professor, New Testament, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity