Eroticism and Religion in Utopia
Some 19th-century utopian idealists took up deeply unconventional sexual arrangements based specifically on their religious beliefs.
How Ancient Peoples Fed the Dead
4,000 years ago in what is now Jerusalem, someone was buried with a jar of headless toads. In fact, many ancient graves included food for the afterlife.
How Mormons Have Made Religion Out of Doubt
Because of its commitment to continuing revelation, Mormonism is replete with examples of individual doubt that have resulted in more, not less, religion.
Edith Stein, the Jewish Woman Who Became a Catholic Saint
In 1998, Pope John Paul II made one of his most contentious canonizations, elevating a Jewish woman named Edith Stein to the status of saint.
How Buddhism Is Being Used to Justify Violence in Myanmar
What's behind the humanitarian crisis in Myanmar in which the minority Rohingya people are being violently driven out of the country?
Why a Coup in Ethiopia Created a Faith Crisis in Jamaica
Rastafarians emerged from anti-colonial, anti-racism movements of the 60s, they also looked back toward their African ancestry.
How European Empires Helped Shape the Hajj
Despite the Hajj's celebration of ascetic faith and brotherhood, there has always been plenty of profit made off the pilgrims traveling to Mecca.
What Links Religion and Authoritarianism?
The connections between religiousness and authoritarianism, studied for decades, depend upon the kind of religious belief.
John Calvin: The Religious Reformer Who Influenced Capitalism
Both the blame and the credit for capitalism has often been placed at the feet of a 16th-century Christian theologian named John Calvin.