At many Spanish missions in the US and Latin America, the rising sun illuminates the altar on the winter solstice or other symbolic days. To the faithful, these events meant that Christ was with them.
Before Christmas became child-centred, Father Christmas was the personification of a mid-winter feast of merrymaking for adults – and he brought no presents.
The deadly attack on Holey bakery in July 2016 and a recent spate of crimes against minorities show that Bangladesh’s commitment to secularism and pluralism are at stake.
Under Fidel Castro, Cuba declared itself as an atheist state. Castro’s relationship with religion, however, was far more complex. It left a deep impact on the religious identity of Cuba.
Four stories on belief: from the allure of cults and conspiracy theories, to the effect of trauma on faith, to the way dogma has influenced science – and if technology can actually shift our beliefs.
Peter C. Mancall, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
The Pilgrims were thankful for finally being able to vanquish Thomas Morton and Ferdinando Gorges, who spent years trying to undermine the legal basis for settlements in Massachusetts and beyond.
About one-quarter of the world’s countries, both in developing and developed economies, have anti-blasphemy laws. Their implementation is always controversial and highly politicised.
Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision of love was not sentimental. It demanded that individuals tell their oppressors what they were doing was wrong. How can this vision help with community-building today?
50 years after Time magazine’s famous ‘Is God Dead?’ cover, Church attendance numbers are tumbling. But that doesn’t mean Christianity is on the way out.
How white Republicans and white Democrats feel about Muslims is influencing their candidate choice as well as willingness to vote in the 2016 election.
Director of the Wesley Centre for Theology, Ethics, and Public Policy & Associate Professor, New Testament, Pilgrim Theological College, University of Divinity