The National Council of Churches, which represents 38 Christian denominations, has long been the voice of progressive religion. But over the years, its influence has waned.
An expert argues our connection with these figures is longstanding. They are embedded in our myths and help us explore deeper questions about being human.
Pope Paul VI banned contraception for Catholics in the 1968 encyclical, “Humanae Vitae.”
AP Photo/Jim Pringle
July marks 50 years of Pope Paul VI’s encyclical prohibiting contraceptive use. For many years prior to it, the church had not been so explicit on its stance. How did it become such a thorny issue?
A mourner reads a sympathy card left for Anthony Bourdain at a makeshift memorial in New York.
AP Photo/Mary Altaffer
Lisa Bitel, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
There are many myths associated with St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland. But Patrick’s own writings and early biographies reveal the person behind the legend.
Several thousand people gather at a rally in Washington in 1952 to hear Evangelist Billy Graham preach.
AP Photo
Religious values, deeply rooted in texts, serve as an important motivator for giving. Religious Americans volunteer more, give more, and give more often.
A worshipper receives Communion.
Amr Nabil/AP Photo
The judgment recognises that religion plays a large role in South African society. The right to follow a religion is embedded in the constitution. This means that South Africa isn’t a secular state.
The GOP was once the political home of anti-Catholicism. And the Vatican, it was believed, would use a Catholic president as a way to meddle in US politics.
Children from the Rainbow-Hill Christian school at former South African President Nelson Mandela house in June 2013.
Reuters/Siphiwe Sibeko
Once again South Africa is facing the challenge of a compromised relationship between the state and the church. Is Nelson Mandela inadvertently responsible?
A Hindu devotee prepares to participate in a fire-walking ceremony to honour the goddess Draupadi in Durban, 2011.
Reuters/Rogan Ward
Religious conversion sometimes has the added bonus of upward social mobility. But for many in South Africa’s Indian community it had the opposite effect.
A Hindu devotee prepares to participate in a fire-walking ceremony to honour the goddess Draupadi in Durban in 2011.
Reuters/Rogan Ward
Since the 1920s Pentecostal churches have had a major impact in South Africa’s Indian community. Their converts have grown larger than all the other Christian denominations put together.
Professor of Public Theology in the Department of Beliefs and Practices, Faculty of Theology, at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (Free University of Amsterdam), Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Managing Director of the McCourtney Institute of Democracy, Associate Research Professor, Political Science, Co-host of Democracy Works Podcast, Penn State