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.
Calls for help at Chicago’s Cook County jail, where hundreds of inmates and staff have COVID-19, April 9, 2020.
Kamil Krzaczynski/AFP via Getty Images
In the 1790s, penal reformers rebuilt America’s squalid jails as airy, hygienic places meant to keep residents – and by extension society – healthy. Now they’re hotbeds of COVID-19. What went wrong?
A 14th-century Last Judgment relief from a facade of Orvieto cathedral in Umbria. Italy.
De Agostini via Getty Images
Some people are comparing current times with the apocalypse. In ancient texts, apocalyptic messages cultivated endurance and encouragement through dire circumstances.
A woman wearing a niqab and headscarf, with other shoppers in Istanbul, August 13, 2018.
YASIN AKGUL/AFP via Getty Images
As people everywhere don face masks, scarves and bandanas to protect against coronavirus, Muslim women who wear the niqab, or Islamic veil, are feeling a lot less conspicuous.
Members of an arm of Hezbollah spray disinfectant in a Beirut neighborhood to fight the spread of the coronavirus.
AP Photo/Bilal Hussein
Criminal gangs, insurgents and terrorist groups seek to protect the people in the areas they govern, when a central government’s power is weak or nonexistent.
Baseball fans look through a fence of the stadium following the cancellation of a game in Fort Myers, Florida.
AP Photo/Elise Amendola
All major sports events have been canceled at this time. Two sports philosophers remind people how sports help us bond as a community and why we miss them.
As workers make matzo for Passover, many families will not be able to get together this year.
Guy Prives/Getty Images)
Some of the Passover Seder traditions are occurring through Zoom this year. A historian of the Bible explains how ancient Israelites changed the ways of their worship.
Long lines at a grocery store in Spring, Texas, as people rush to stockpile.
AP Photo/David J. Phillip
Doctors are being forced to make difficult choices regarding who gets ventilators in this pandemic. An expert argues why this has parallels with choices soldiers have to make during wartime.
People take part in a ‘applause for care’ flash mob as part of a campaign to acknowledge the work of employees working in healthcare in Amsterdam.
Olaf Kraak/ANP/AFP via Getty Images
Gratitude has a strong connection to well-being, but more than that, two psychologists say, it could have a powerful effect on others. So, don’t hold back when it comes to expressing it.
Buddhist monks have been chanting sutras to provide spiritual relief during the coronavirus crisis. A scholar of Buddhism translates some Buddhist teachings into ways we can deal with uncertain times.
Apostle Paul and his followers collected aid, likely for early Christians.
Giovanni Paolo Panini /Hermitage Museum via Wikimedia Commons
In the late second century, some Christian groups in Rome began directing financial aid toward people living in another city, who were going through a crisis. That act of giving has lessons for today.
Counting Americans is a complicated process.
Tada Images/Shutterstock.com
Rebecca Tippett, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
The 2020 census will now count some groups differently than it has in the past. That could make a difference in the final count – affecting which states receive funding and congressional seats.
Being at home at a time of social distancing can set in a feeling of boredom.
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The routine of life has been disrupted for most people as they stay at home to slow down the further spread of the coronavirus. A scholar who studies boredom offers some helpful tips.
People wear a protective mask as they attend a Hindu ritual, known as Melasti, in Bali, Indonesia, on March 22.
Agoes Rudianto/NurPhoto via Getty Images
As the coronavirus spreads and life comes to a standstill, people are coming up with a host of rituals to maintain a sense of order and human connection.
In the German town Winterbach, Catholic Church services are being streamed through YouTube.
Sebastian Gollnow/picture alliance via Getty Images
Faith communities are changing many traditional practices to deal with coronavirus restrictions. A historian of the Bible argues how innovation has long been part of religious practice.
The Plague of Athens.
Michiel Sweerts/ Los Angeles County Museum of Art/Wikipedia
As the coronavirus spreads far and wide, a political philosopher argues that it is a time to understand that the idea of individual happiness does not work without thinking of the larger good.
A Muslim man prepares for prayer by doing a ritual washing.
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Islamic law requires Muslims to ritually clean their body before praying. This guidance has particular relevance at a time when hand-washing is important to contain the spread of the coronavirus.
Lucretius Carus.
Internet Archive Book Images/Flickr
A first-century B.C. Roman poet and philosopher, Lucretius was worried that our fear of death could lead to irrational beliefs and actions that could harm society.