The Passover Seder – like this one in Azerbaijan – commemorates the story of the Israelites’ escape from slavery, and the start of their long sojourn in the desert.
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Nancy E. Berg, Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis
The Passover Seder commemorates the escape from slavery in Egypt. But then came the 40-year wandering in the desert – a story that resonates with much of Jewish history.
Members of the Church of England’s Synod, at Church House in central London, on Feb. 9, 2023.
James Manning/PA Images via Getty Images
A scholar highlights some of the most interesting versions of the Passover text and how they’ve met communities’ changing needs around the world.
Al-Ghazali’s book ‘Alchemy of Happiness,’ held in the Bibliothèque nationale de France.
Al-Ghazali - Bibliothèque nationale de France via Wikimedia Commons
In religious traditions, patience is more than waiting, or even more than enduring a hardship. But what does patience look like? And when should we not exercise patience?
A Muslim protester shouts at security personnel on the streets of Shaheen Bagh, a neighborhood in Delhi, in 2020.
Sajjad Hussain/AFP via Getty Images
Medieval Europeans thought about politics in terms of leadership and often criticized rulers for ‘tyranny’ − both in government and in the church.
A man walks past posters of the film ‘PM Narendra Modi,’ a biopic on the Indian prime minister, during its launch in Mumbai, India, in 2019.
AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool
Preminda Jacob, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Ahead of elections in India, a series of films that promote the ruling party’s right-wing ideology are seeking to influence voters. An art historian explains how the trend started.
A Khalsa Day parade in Toronto, a celebration of Baisakhi held in April 2015.
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The United Methodist Church will hold its General Conference, delayed several years by the pandemic, in April 2024. The meeting comes amid a dramatic divide over LGBTQ+ rights.
A stained-glass window that was part of a church shows a dark-skinned Jesus, which was unusual at the time.
Michel M. Raguin
A scholar of early Christian literature writes that religious theories around celestial events are part of a larger human pattern to find meaning. And they go back thousands of years.
El Castillo pyramid illuminated at night under a starry sky in Chichen Itza, Mexico, one of the largest Maya cities.
Matteo Colombo/DigitalVision via Getty Images
The skies and the gods were inseparable in Maya culture. Astronomers kept careful track of events like eclipses in order to perform the renewal ceremonies to continue the world’s cycles of rebirth.
The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. speaks after being released from prison for leading a boycott.
Donald Uhrbrock/The Chronicle Collection via Getty Images
Purple was highly valued and associated with royalty, power, and prestige in various ancient cultures, including the Roman and Byzantine Empires. So how did red creep its way in?
A mosaic of the Resurrection in the Basilica of St. Paul in Harissa, Lebanon.
FredSeiller/Wikimedia Commons
Ideas about resurrection had been developing for centuries before Jesus’ life, but his followers took them in new directions.
A procession at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, believed by many Christians to be the site of the crucifixion and burial place of Jesus Christ.
AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner
A Christian Palestinian human rights scholar who grew up in Bethlehem writes about the special time of Easter, but also about the restrictions on Palestinian Christians.
Thousands of Catholics travel by foot to Santuario de Chimayo, in northern New Mexico, during an annual Good Friday pilgrimage.
AP Photo/Morgan Lee
Hundreds of thousands of visitors come to the Santuario de Chimayó throughout the year, but the pilgrimage during the week before the celebration of Easter is the high point.
Tributes left at a memorial for Flaco the owl in Central Park in New York.
AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews