We’ve collected some of our most popular stories on topics related to religion—from scientific seances in Iran to solitary monks in the Wadi El Natrun desert, from Catholic priests in cars in Milwaukee to Buddhist monks admiring trees in Thailand. This wide-ranging collection highlights the true diversity of practice and belief in the long history (histories) of spirituality. As always, the scholarship underlying each story is free to read and download. Just look for the red J icon and follow the link!
Shamanism
The Diverse Shamanisms of South America
May 5, 2024
In Brazil, Indigenous people and city-dwellers of all backgrounds mix various shamanic practices, including rituals imported from North America and elsewhere.
The Colonization of the Ayahuasca Experience
November 4, 2020
“If someone is from the Amazon,” says Evgenia Fotiou, an anthropologist who studies Western ayahuasca usage, “they bring some legitimacy” to an ayahuasca ritual.
Jainism
Jain Ascetics in a Material World
February 12, 2024
The Jain Śvētāmbara Terāpanth sect began as an ascetic discipline, but it has increasingly emphasized physical health over renunciation of the body.
Rastafarianism
Why a Coup in Ethiopia Created a Faith Crisis in Jamaica
September 12, 2017
Rastafarians emerged from anti-colonial, anti-racism movements of the 60s, they also looked back toward their African ancestry.
Spiritism and Spiritualism
Spiritualism, Science, and the Mysterious Madame Blavatsky
October 25, 2016
Madame Helena Blavatsky was the 19th century's most famous and notorious occultist. She was also the godmother of the New Age movement.
How Spirit Photography Made Heaven Literal
February 22, 2020
Are the departed watching over us, and if so, what are they wearing? Victorian spiritualists believed that ghosts could be captured on film.
How to Summon Spirits
October 21, 2021
The Spiritualist, a newspaper published from 1869-1882, is filled with tales of supernatural phenomena and tips for communicating with the dead.
Scientific Seances in Twentieth-Century Iran
May 29, 2022
Spiritism appealed to Iranian intellectuals who sought to reconcile their commitment to science with their pursuit of moral reform.
Buddhism
Buddhist Pacifists at War
July 12, 2024
In the early centuries of Vajrayāna Buddhism in India, practitioners worked to reconcile the religion’s teaching of nonviolence with the realities of warfare.
A Bodhisattva for Japanese Women
April 23, 2024
Originally known in China as Dizāng, the “savior of the damned,” Jizō has evolved into a protector of children and comforter of women in Japan.
How American Buddhism is Like an Elephant
April 10, 2018
Researchers see a distinct difference between Buddhist immigrants and Americans of European ancestry who have embraced Buddhism's tenets.
When Buddhism Came to America
January 7, 2019
Buddhism was embraced by the Beats of 1950s America. But some Buddhists felt these converts were engaging with the practice in a shallow way.
Why Some Buddhist Monks Ordain Trees
July 17, 2020
Buddhist monks in Thailand began tying trees with their traditional colored robes in the 1980s, as threats to ecology increased.
Judaism: Doctrines, Institutions, Texts, Global Culture
Matzo and Oreos: Keeping Kosher in America
April 13, 2017
The koshering of America's food industry has mostly gone unnoticed. Yet most people who specifically buy kosher foods are not Jewish.
Nittel Nacht: The Jewish Christmas Eve
December 16, 2020
'Twas the night before Christmas, and an undead Jesus walked the earth. No wonder early modern Jews played games and sang songs to scare him off.
Meet Eva Frank: The First Jewish Female Messiah
April 27, 2022
Was this revered female figurehead an empowered leader or a tragic victim in her father's wake?
A Passover Tradition to Promote Jewish Unity
April 14, 2022
Freeing a prisoner—a gesture of generosity and benevolence—may have been a way to bring together a fractured spiritual community.
Islam: Doctrines, Institutions, Texts, Global Culture
A Mughal Mosque in Kenya
March 2, 2024
Built for Punjabi migrants brought to Africa by the British and modeled on Mughal architecture, the Jamia Masjid in Nairobi serves Kenya’s Muslim minority.
Dreams in Islam
January 28, 2024
Even before the founding of Islam, Arabia was home to professional dream interpreters.
The Lost History of Early Muslim Americans
November 8, 2016
Islam in America is clearly nothing new.
How European Empires Helped Shape the Hajj
August 30, 2017
Despite the Hajj's celebration of ascetic faith and brotherhood, there has always been plenty of profit made off the pilgrims traveling to Mecca.
Following Haajar’s Footsteps to a Feminist Reading of Islam
October 19, 2019
A personal experience with the Hajj brought to life the iconic figure of Haajar, whose tenacity and stoicism highlight the importance of women in Islam.
Mosques of Their Own
May 11, 2022
The long, little-known history of Muslim women in communal religious life.
Popularizing Meditation in the Mughal Empire
July 28, 2022
The methods of Sufi meditation were regarded as secret during the early Mughal empire. Why, then, did Dara Shikoh feel the need to write them down?
Christianity: Doctrines, Institutions, Texts, Global Culture
Railroad Chapel Cars Brought God to the People
March 18, 2023
Between 1890 and 1946, thirteen railroad chapel cars made their way across America, spreading a Christian message in rural communities.
The Naked Quakers
September 9, 2024
Today, the international feminist group FEMEN uses nudity as part of its protests. But appearing naked in public was also a tactic used by early dissenters.
A Visit from La Befana
December 26, 2023
In the Catholic tradition, Epiphany is the day the Three Kings first met Baby Jesus. But in Italy, it’s also the day La Befana shows up with a basket of gifts.
Himmelsbriefe: Heaven-Sent Chain Letters
November 30, 2023
For more than a thousand years, people have used letters allegedly written by Christ as both doctrinal evidence and magical charms.
The Myth of the Papal Toilet Chair
August 26, 2023
Legend holds that newly elected popes in the Middle Ages had to present their genitals for inspection to confirm that they were male.
Visiting Christ’s Prison Cell
August 17, 2023
After Christian crusaders captured Jerusalem, the Prison of Christ featured on pilgrims' itineraries. But was Christ actually ever imprisoned there?
A Colorful Mix of Cultures at One Malaysian Catholic Shrine
June 19, 2023
Different—and sometimes competing—uses of sacred space is par for the course at the Church of St Anne in Penang’s Bukit Mertajam.
The Irish Fasting Tradition
April 17, 2023
Particularly before the Second Vatican Council (a.k.a. Vatican II), fasting was part of the Catholic calendar. No one took it more seriously than the Irish.
An Explosive Easter Celebration
April 8, 2023
The Orthodox Easter tradition of throwing dynamite on the island of Kalymnos echoes the Greek resistance to the Italian occupation of the 1940s.
Suicide by Proxy
March 13, 2023
In early Modern Europe, suicide was a sin to be punished with eternal damnation. Some women found an awful workaround: committing murder.
Radical Theology: A Syllabus
March 4, 2023
Radical theology aims to construct revolutionary understandings of myth, ritual, and scripture that speak to the dearth of meaning in our contemporary moment.
Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God: Annotated
February 20, 2023
Jonathan Edwards’s sermon reflects the complicated religious culture of eighteenth-century America, influenced not just by Calvinism, but Newtonian physics as well.
The Religious Roots of the Easter Parade
April 16, 2017
The revival of Easter as a festival-type holiday coincided with a rise in Catholic immigration and relaxing religious standards in the 1880's.
The Dream of a Plain Bible
April 13, 2018
Beginning in the late eighteenth century, many Americans experienced a crisis of religious authority. During this time, the idea of an unambiguous “plain Bible” began to gain traction.
When Science and Religion Were Connected
September 4, 2018
During the Second Great Awakening of 1830, science and religion were seen as “two aspects of the same universal truth.”
How Antebellum Christians Justified Slavery
June 27, 2018
After Emancipation, some Southern Protestants refused to revise their proslavery views. In their minds, slavery had been divinely sanctioned.
The Cadaver Synod: Putting a Dead Pope on Trial
February 7, 2019
Why did Pope Stephen VI go to such great lengths to destroy an enemy who was already dead?
Ok papist
December 27, 2019
England faced a generational divide almost 500 years ago, as the Protestant Reformation split the nation apart.
Music and Spirit in the African Diaspora
February 4, 2022
The musical traditions found in contemporary Black U.S. and Caribbean Christian worship originated hundreds of years ago, continents away.
Priests and Cars in Milwaukee
September 12, 2022
The popularity of the car reshaped Catholicism in the city, forcing churches to adapt their worship practices to attract newly mobile parishioners.
Sex (No!), Drugs (No!), and Rock and Roll (Yes!)
June 14, 2024
In the 1980s and 1990s, Christian heavy metal bands used head-banging music to share the politics and values of evangelical Christians with America’s youth.
Come Let Us Argue: Faith and Intellectual Humility
January 24, 2024
Can belief in the divine endure in an individual who possesses an openness to being wrong? How do doubt and faith co-exist among the religious?
The Care of the Dead: A Reading List
November 15, 2023
An interdisciplinary bibliography exploring the care of the dead and how our final choices are shaped by culture, religion, economics, technology, and war.
Do All Dogs Go to Heaven?
September 9, 2024
The belief that animals cross the “Rainbow Bridge” to an afterlife is relatively new and not part of any formal theology, yet many Americans embrace it.
The Oneida Community Moves to the OC
December 12, 2019
The Oneida Community's Christian form of collectivism was transported to California in the 1880s, when the original Oneida Community fell apart.
Christianity: Saints and Servants
Autopsy of a Saint
October 26, 2023
In the late thirteenth century, followers of the Italian abbess Clare of Montefalco dissected her heart in search of a crucifix.
Meet Saint Wilgefortis, the Bearded Virgin
March 22, 2024
A Christian martyr, Wilgefortis was divinely gifted with a sudden growth of facial hair to escape forced marriage, only to be crucified by her father.
The Women Who Preached in Their Sleep
May 30, 2023
Was sleep-preaching an ingenious way for oppressed women to subvert the social order through somniloquy?
The Incorruptible Body of Francis Xavier
July 30, 2023
After the co-founder of the Jesuit Society died in 1552, the miraculous preservation of his body advanced the cause of Catholicism across Europe and Asia.
Unmaking a Priest: The Rite of Degradation
April 27, 2023
The defrocking ceremony was meant to humiliate a disgraced member of the clergy while discouraging laypeople from viewing him as a martyr.
Who Was Jesus’s Grandma?
December 22, 2022
Canonical scripture never mentions the parents of the Virgin Mary, but the body of St. Anne was vital to Christianity in the Middle Ages and Renaissance.
Why Europe’s Oldest Intact Book Was Found in a Saint’s Coffin
September 26, 2018
The St. Cuthbert Gospel is the earliest surviving intact European book. Some time around 698, it was slipped into the coffin of a saint.
Who Is Santa Muerte?
October 5, 2020
The folk saint Santa Muerte might seem mysterious, but her devotees embrace a wide variety of everyday practices.
Julian of Norwich, Anchoress and Mystic
January 15, 2022
A religious recluse, mystic and author, Julian of Norwich wrote of Jesus Christ as a nurturing mother and teacher to the faithful.
Seeing the World Through Missionaries’ Eyes
April 1, 2024
One way Americans got a look into life in distant parts of the world in the 1930s and ’40s was through films made by Protestant missionary groups.
Christianity: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Brigham Young and the Defense of Mormon Polygamy
June 1, 2017
Mormon leader Brigham Young tried to create a culture of polygamy in the nineteenth century. How did he justify the practice in Victorian-era America?
How Mormons Have Made Religion Out of Doubt
October 9, 2017
Because of its commitment to continuing revelation, Mormonism is replete with examples of individual doubt that have resulted in more, not less, religion.
When Adventists and Mormons Turned Sex-Positive
May 24, 2019
How the once sex-averse Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Seventh Day Adventism embraced (married, monogamous) sex as a positive ideal.
The Mormon Fans of Europe’s 1848 Revolutions
July 12, 2020
As the crowned heads of Europe shuddered at the unrest in the streets, members of the Latter-Day Saints movement cheered.
The Sovereignty of the Latter-day Saints
August 28, 2024
Less about morality than about rights, the Mormon War of 1858 hinged on the issue of polygamy, pitting a Utah community against federal authorities.
Christianity: Monasticism and the Cloistered Life
Monastic Chant: Praising God Out Loud
August 12, 2024
For medieval monks, chant was often a crucial part of worship, but theologians had different ideas about how the words and sounds helped evoke piety.
Wild Saints and Holy Fools
May 30, 2024
Early Christian writers valorized the desert life of ascetic monks, but the city also had something to offer would-be “fools for Christ”.
What Monks Can Teach us about Managing our Work Lives
December 6, 2018
Medieval monks used labor-saving innovations like the mill not to increase productivity, but to free up more time for what they wanted to do.
Lesbianism (!) at the Convent
May 16, 2018
Mother Superior Benedetta Carlini, a visionary nun of Renaissance Italy, was accused of heresy and “female sodomy.”
The Complex Economics of Medieval Convents
August 25, 2019
Medieval convents were better funded than many scholars assume, thanks in part to royal patrons sympathetic to the holy women's mission.
Nuns Don’t Have Midlife Crises
July 26, 2019
Why Benedictine nuns report higher levels of happiness and satisfaction than their non-monastic counterparts -- and what we can learn from them.
When Monks Went Undercover to Steal Relics
April 16, 2020
Because relics were understood to be capable of working miracles, any relic that was stolen must have wanted to be.
Ancient Monks Got That Quarantine Feeling, Too
March 29, 2020
Listlessness, boredom, torpor, that "noonday demon" that tempts you away from spiritual connections—that's what was called acedia.
The Hidden History of Black Catholic Nuns
May 26, 2022
The lives and roles of African-descended women who joined predominantly white Catholic convents was deliberately hidden by congregational historians.
Christianity: Shakers
The Rhythms of Shaker Dance Marked the Shakers as “Other”
August 21, 2019
The name Shaker originally comes from the insult “Shaking Quakers,” which mocked the sect’s use of their bodies in worship.
The Shaker Formula for Gender Equality
February 1, 2018
Shaker communities seem to have appealed to a lot of women because they offered a respite where their work was honored and respected.
Christianity: Religion and Health
The Metaphysical Story of Chiropractic
April 29, 2024
Chiropractic medicine began as a practice built on an approach to the human condition that was distinctly opposed to Christianity.
Can Religion Be Helpful for People With Chronic Pain?
May 23, 2023
A group of researchers asked this question of a group of patients in secularized Western Europe.
Abstinence By Juramentos
January 7, 2023
Long before Dry January became a thing, Mexicans were using a similar program of temporary abstinence based on a pledge to the Virgin of Guadalupe.
The Black Church and Mental Health Support
October 9, 2022
Mental healthcare has not always been accessible for Black Americans. Could churches be part of the solution?
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