Prayer apps can help guide spiritual practices and encourage people to set goals and stay on track.
MangoStar_Studio/iStock via Getty Images
A scholar of Christian spirituality argues that prayers are meant to bring together a faith community – something apps aren’t likely to achieve.
Politics, social justice and faith come together each week in many religious leaders’ sermons.
AP Photo/Andrew Harnik
Race, politics and religion have a long and tangled history in the US. And it all comes together each week in sermons across the country.
A family holds hands and prays before a Thanksgiving meal.
skynesher/E+ via Getty Images
Cultures around the world say ‘thank yous’ in many different ways. Two communication scholars explain what these expressions can reveal to us.
Giving a portion of one’s wealth annually is part of the spiritual practice in Islam.
gahsoon/E+ via Getty Images
Zakat, or charity, is a fundamental practice within the Islamic faith.
French officer Alfred Dreyfus spent five years as a prisoner on Devil’s Island, off the coast of South America.
Roger Viollet Collection via Getty Images
Alton Levy may not be a household name today, but his court-martial put a spotlight on unequal treatment in the military.
Members of the Hindu nationalist group Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh take part in a march in Ahmedabad, India.
Sam Panthaky/AFP via Getty Images
A scholar on South Asian affairs traces the growth of Hindu nationalism, started by an atheist anti-colonial revolutionary, to the one adopted under Modi’s government.
A Muslims Giving Back volunteer delivers warm food to a homeless man in New York City in April 2020.
P Photo/Wong Maye-E
Muslims also gave more to causes tied to relief from economic and health problems that arose during the COVID-19 pandemic.
A still from the Netflix series “Midnight Mass.”
Eike Schroter/Netflix
A scholar of religion in film explains the varied representation of Catholicism in horror. In some films, it is used in the fight against evil, while others show the Church itself as evil.
Crosses in honor of fallen Marines stand atop a hill near Camp Pendleton, California.
Katrina Finkelstein
For some military members, a hillside in California embodies the sacrifices of serving.
Explosions outside Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul on Aug. 26, 2021, worsened the devastation in Afghanistan.
Sayed Khodaiberdi Sadat/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Hiding the suffering and deaths of some from public view while showing others implies that certain lives are more valuable.
The public often assumes that scientists are atheists. The reality, however, is more complex.
SIphotography/iStock via Getty Images
Two sociologists conducted interviews with atheist scientists and found that their views on religion are not as strident as the public perceives. Some even go to church.
The Reformation’s leading figures had diverse views, and some might have recognized themselves in “spiritual but not religious” people today.
Rijksmuseum
So-called Spiritualists split off from Martin Luther’s Reformation 500 years ago, but some of their ideas carry on.
Physical touch at the end of life has a special significance in many cultures and offers solace.
Valerie Winckler/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images
When death is looming, the warmth of a held hand can communicate deeply where words fail.
A church in St. Paul, Minn., distributed food obtained through a USDA program in December 2020.
Michael Siluk/Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
Congregations can help bridge gaps left by government programs, especially for many immigrants and others who are not eligible for SNAP benefits.
Pope John Paul I, who was pope for about a month before his death, has moved one step closer to sainthood.
AP Photo/Claudio Luffoli
To qualify as a Catholic ‘saint,’ someone must have two miracles credited to them. But how does the church define a miracle in the first place?
The mass-marketing of the Day of the Dead is evident in the costumes that people buy for the day.
Man Hon Lam / EyeEm Getty Images
A Mexican-American scholar writes that in the 1700s, Day of the Dead generated the largest annual market in Mexico City.
Pope John Paul II met with President Ronald Reagan in Miami in 1987.
AP Photo/Arturo Mari, File
Joe Biden may be only the country’s second Catholic president, but a long line of U.S. leaders have met with popes over the years.
A powerful explosion Oct. 8, 2021, in a mosque in northern Afghanistan left several dead.
AP Photo/Abdullah Sahil
A scholar of Afghan affairs explains the religious affiliations of different ethnic groups in Afghanistan and why they may not share a common understanding of Islam.
The ‘Malleus Maleficarum,’ a medieval handbook, was used to try and execute supposed witches. Its influence lasted for centuries – including at the Salem Witch Trials.
Jonathan Wiggs/The Boston Globe via Getty Images
Witch trials relied on a medieval text called the “Malleus Maleficarum” – a book this reference librarian can hold in her hands.
The Rev. Selena Fox of Circle Sanctuary does a ritual of remembrance at the grave of a Wiccan soldier killed in Afghanistan.
Courtesy of Selena Fox
Samhain will be particularly poignant this year for Wiccans who are members or veterans of the US military as they process the end of the 20-year war in Afghanistan.