Religion.

The recent release of Adam Arcuragi’s album Like a Fire that Consumes All Before It… has raised interest in the popular-musical category of “Death Gospel,” a metaphysically attuned variety of the Americana genre named by Arcuragi. Death Gospel... Read the rest of this entry »

In the study of religion, we long ago gave up on creating a taxonomy that would—once and for all—allow us to demarcate the sacred from the profane and religious groups from secular. Nevertheless, there is something profoundly unreligious about Ko... Read the rest of this entry »

The Pope should have learned by now that “warning” does little in complex situations. German and European Catholics argue: does the Pope’s discouragement of the hopeful people who once flocked to the movement of aggiornamento and to generous ecu... Read the rest of this entry »

A group of Interfaith leaders is calling for a much needed, thorough evaluation of the entire U.S. Criminal Justice System with recommendations for substantially improving it. President Obama’s officials and many Congresspersons acknowledged that a ... Read the rest of this entry »

For too long the specter of fundamentalism was used by both the Mubarak regime and its apologists in the West to justify rigid authoritarianism and social control. This is not to say that the Islamists and their allies should be taken lightly, but tha... Read the rest of this entry »

Q: What do the following have in common? Anders Behring Breivik, killer of scores of innocents in Norway; assassins Lee Harvey Oswald (JFK) and Sirhan Sirhan (RFK); serial killers: Dennis Rader (Kansas, murdered 10); Charles Starkweather (Nebraska, 11... Read the rest of this entry »

The “burqa ban” and its current popularity in Europe raise several questions pertaining to religious expressions in public, freedom of expression, the future of Islam and the growing Muslim population in Europe, but also, as the quote of Camile po... Read the rest of this entry »

In his April 1 “Brainstorm” blog post in The Chronicle of Higher Education, University of Washington professor of psychology David Barash offered a “modest proposal”: “Indeed, I propose that it is high time for the electorate to reject anyon... Read the rest of this entry »

“God has cursed the earth. . . This is the starting point for all economic analysis. The earth no longer gives up her fruits automatically. Man must sweat to eat.” So writes Gary North, “the leading proponent of ‘Christian economics,’” whi... Read the rest of this entry »

“Why We’re Fasting” is the title of columnist Mark Bittman’s essay in Wednesday's New York Times, the “we” being himself and David Beckmann, here described as a “reverend,” and “this year’s World Food Prize laureate.” The pastor ... Read the rest of this entry »