Railroad Chapel Cars Brought God to the People
Between 1890 and 1946, thirteen railroad chapel cars made their way across America, spreading a Christian message in rural communities.
Suicide by Proxy
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
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
Jonathan Edwards’s sermon reflects the complicated religious culture of eighteenth-century America, influenced not just by Calvinism, but Newtonian physics as well.
Abstinence By Juramentos
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.
Who Was Jesus’s Grandma?
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.
What is Fundamentalism?
Fundamentalism, which shifts the balance between authority structures and the indescribable divine, emerged after medieval society gave way to the modern.
How the Jewish Labor Bund Changed After World War II
For those thousands involved with the Bund, the group played an important role in a era marked by trauma, displacement, and resettlement.
The Teyollohcuani: Cosmopolitan Vampire Witch
When different cultures meet, their languages, foods, and songs mix and change—and so do their monsters.
Life with a Jinni
A jinni in the home can help a Muslim explore religious tenets, but it may also interfere with the direct relationship between human and god.