The pandemic has inspired new forms of pilgrimages – some do-it-yourself, in which people are walking in their backyards or nearby spaces and finding meaning.
The first Muslim prayers were held on Friday inside the Hagia Sophia in 86 years.
AP Photo/Yasin Akgul
The first Muslim prayer in 86 years was held on July 24 inside Hagia Sophia, recently reconverted to a mosque. For over a millennium, this grand monument has wielded enormous power.
Painting depicting transfiguration of Jesus, a story in the New Testament when Jesus becomes radiant upon a mountain.
Artist Raphael /Collections Hallwyl Museum
Recent protests on racial justice have also questioned the portrayal of Jesus as a white man. An art historian explains how this image appeared and came to be marketed worldwide.
Social distancing has changed the way people worship. A pastor at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church in Los Angeles holds a service through his iPhone.
AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes
Churches have moved online. But to be able to properly connect with people, they need to find a way to build community, says a scholar who studies digital religion.
Pope Francis giving a boy his first communion at the Church of the Sacred Hearth in Rakovsky, Bulgaria, May 2019.
EPA-EFE/Maurizio Brambatti
This centuries-old argument over doctrine needs to change and we have a pope who wants that to happen.
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden speaks at a town hall in Florence, South Carolina. He was denied communion by a priest in South Carolina.
Sarah Blake Morgan
Joe Biden was denied communion for pro-choice views. Catholics with ‘unforgiven’ sins can’t receive communion. A theologian says many Catholics would question if Biden was indeed in a ‘sinful’ state.
Pope Francis at the start of the Amazon synod, at the Vatican, Oct. 7, 2019.
AP Photo/Andrew Medichini
Hundreds of bishops, priests, missionaries and tribal leaders are at the Vatican for the Synod of the Amazon, a three-week meeting focused on the environmental crisis threatening Amazonian peoples.
Marchers celebrate the first Indigenous Peoples Day in Berkeley, Calif. on Oct. 10, 1992.
AP Photo/Paul Sakuma
Sept. 14 is the the Feast of the Holy Cross celebrated by many Catholics and some other Christians. A religion scholar revisits the history of the cross, how it became a symbol of divine love, but also of violence.
Boston in the 19th century.
Robert Havell/Wikipedia
Voodoo is often seen as a practice involving magic. In Haiti, Voodoo is a religion born out of the struggle of slaves. And today, it is used as a form of healing and protection.
Christians in the United States hold a range of views on environmental issues.
Jim Bethel/Shutterstock
Many practicing U.S. Christians do not believe that human activities are warming the Earth, but they hold diverse views about the environment. Effective climate conversations recognize those nuances.
A new Trump ruling will prohibit virtually all Central American migrants from seeking asylum in the United States.
AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell
Scripture strongly and unequivocally affirms the obligation to treat strangers with dignity and hospitality, says a Christian scholar who turns to the Bible for guidance on Trump’s immigration policy.
Haiti’s black saint known as Grann Sainte Anne Charitable in her European Catholic form and Ti Saint Anne, in Vodoo form.
Guilberly Louissaint
The debacle has highlighted the negative image which unionism must lay to rest for good or face extinction.
People hold up signs as they march during a demonstration in Montreal, April 7, 2019, in opposition to the Quebec government’s newly tabled Bill 21.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes
The proposed secular law (Bill 21) in the province of Québec appears to be directed primarily against Montreal and Québec City, and reflects a fear of strangers in Québec’s more homogeneous regions.
Leonardo da Vinci’s Virgin of the Rocks.
National Gallery London
The Notre Dame Cathedral was long a powerful symbol of church authority - but it wasn’t static. The design kept changing to keep up with the changing times.
Pope Francis conducts the Maundy Thursday service at Saint Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican City in April 2017.
EPA/Ettore Ferrari
Many young Catholics are moving away from their faith and joining the growing number of the religiously unaffiliated. The missionary group FOCUS is evangelizing on campuses, though there are concerns.
Senior Research Fellow, Muslim Philanthropy Initiative at IUPUI and Journalist-fellow, Religion and Civic Culture Center, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences