Buddhist Pacifists at War
In the early centuries of Vajrayāna Buddhism in India, practitioners worked to reconcile the religion’s teaching of nonviolence with the realities of warfare.
Wooden Kings and Winds of Change in Tonga
The island nation of Tonga is home to the last Polynesian monarchy.
Sex (No!), Drugs (No!), and Rock and Roll (Yes!)
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.
Wild Saints and Holy Fools
Early Christian writers valorized the desert life of ascetic monks, but the city also had something to offer would-be “fools for Christ”.
The Diverse Shamanisms of South America
In Brazil, Indigenous people and city-dwellers of all backgrounds mix various shamanic practices, including rituals imported from North America and elsewhere.
The Metaphysical Story of Chiropractic
Chiropractic medicine began as a practice built on an approach to the human condition that was distinctly opposed to Christianity.
A Bodhisattva for Japanese Women
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.
Seeing the World Through Missionaries’ Eyes
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.
Meet Saint Wilgefortis, the Bearded Virgin
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.
A Mughal Mosque in Kenya
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.