Books whose ideas ran afoul of official church doctrine were sometimes cast into the flames – and literature with queer themes was no stranger to scrutiny.
Pedro Berruguete/Museo del Prado/Wikimedia Commons
Medieval writers and clerics condemned queer romance and gender-bending stories − but were often wary of even mentioning the topics.
Religious teens have lower rates of smoking, drinking and marijuana use.
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Research suggests that a clear understanding of what is right and wrong contributes to engaging in less risky behavior.
May is a reminder of how diverse two American communities are.
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This month marks Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, as well as Jewish American Heritage Month.
A march for climate action in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican in June 2015. Pope Francis praised the participants, who included Christians, Muslims, Jews and Hindus.
AP Photo/Andrew Medichini
Pope Francis and other Catholic leaders committed to raising awareness of environmental issues draw on centuries of tradition.
Moral injury can occur when someone must act against their values – but also when they cannot act in line with their values.
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Medical workers navigate their own moral and religious beliefs, professional standards, the law and the realities of clinical work – which can be especially complicated in abortion care.
Rites of passage, such as graduation ceremonies, celebrate the transition to a new state.
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Rites of passage are important. They do not merely celebrate the transition to a new state – they actively create this new state in the eyes of society, an anthropologist writes.
A majority of Americans believe that hell exists.
Hayden Schiff from Cincinnati, USA via Wikimedia Commons.
Spiritualists believed that after shedding the body in death, the spirit would continue on a celestial journey and help those on Earth create a more just world.
‘Christ of the New Jerusalem’ − created in 1915 for the Uranienborg Church, Oslo, by Emanuel Vigeland.
Michel M. Raguin
Images of Christ often represented prevailing cultural beliefs, allowing onlookers to connect in a deep and meaningful way.
Fewer people are affiliated with religion in the United States, but that hardly means that they’re all atheists.
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Social factors, from wealth to politics, may shape whether people who do not believe in God identify as an atheist.
Climate change is causing extreme weather, prolonged droughts and more bushfires.
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Events that the media describe as ‘apocalyptic’ reflect changing anxieties about the future.
Stained glass designed by Geoffrey Webb depicts Lewis Carroll’s characters in All Saints Church in Daresbury, Cheshire, England.
Peter I. Vardy/Wikimedia Commons
The Book of Job and ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’ both make fun of preachy know-it-alls and resist conventions of their genres.
The Maya used mirrors as channels for supernatural communication. In this image, a supernatural creature speaks into a cracked, black mirror.
K2929 from the Justin Kerr Maya archive, Dumbarton Oaks, Trustees for Harvard University, Washington, D.C.
Broken mirrors can be associated with bad luck, but for the ancient Maya, a cracked mirror was often desirable.
A relief showing a Gallus making sacrifices to the goddess Cybele and Attis.
Saiko via Wikimedia Commons
In ancient Rome, male followers of the goddess Cybele, known as Galli, some of whom surgically removed their testicles, were often considered feminine.
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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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.
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With over 80 million believers in 160 countries, the Anglican Communion has been grappling with LGBTQ+ issues since the 1970s.
Haggadah shel Pesah, translated by Sonia Gronemann and illustrated by Otto Geismar. Made in Berlin, 1927.
Isser and Rae Price Library of Judaica
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
Thanks to a strong oral Urdu literary tradition in South Asia, poems from the past linger in the popular imagination.
Richard II became king of England when he was 10 and was deposed at 32.
British Library/Wikimedia Commons
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
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.