Top portion of a "Letter from Heaven," produced in England, 18th century

Himmelsbriefe: Heaven-Sent Chain Letters

For more than a thousand years, people have used letters allegedly written by Christ as both doctrinal evidence and magical charms.
Illustration accompanying an account by Lawrence Banck of the 1644 coronation of Pope Innocent X. The pope is having his testicles felt by a cardinal in order to confirm that he is a man.

The Myth of the Papal Toilet Chair

Legend holds that newly elected popes in the Middle Ages had to present their genitals for inspection to confirm that they were male.
Jesus in jail with Instruments of the Passion

Visiting Christ’s Prison Cell

After Christian crusaders captured Jerusalem, the Prison of Christ featured on pilgrims' itineraries. But was Christ actually ever imprisoned there?
Degradation of William Sawtrey

Unmaking a Priest: The Rite of Degradation

The defrocking ceremony was meant to humiliate a disgraced member of the clergy while discouraging laypeople from viewing him as a martyr.
Baptism of Lydia by Marie Ellenrieder, 1861

Women’s Search for Women Leaders in the Early Church

Some nineteenth-century women writers argued that the first Christians included women who were close to Paul—and maybe apostles themselves.
Photograph: A choir at the  Billy Graham evangelist crusade at London's Earls Court sing to 20,000 crowd under the  slogan ' I am the way'.  

Source: Photo by Fox Photos/Getty Images

The Conservative Christian War on Rock and Roll

Tracing an early front in the culture wars to a trio of evangelical opponents of rock music in the 1950s and '60s.
George W. Bush, George H.W. Bush, Barbara Bush. Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton and Chelsea Clinton at at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC.

Why Did Christianity Thrive in the U.S.?

Between 1870 and 1960, Christianity declined dramatically across much of Europe. Not in America. One historian explains why.
Signing the marriage contract by George Sheridan Knowles, 1905

Why Covenant Marriage Failed to Take Off

Three states have legalized covenant marriage, which makes divorce difficult. Why didn't it stick among communities preoccupied with family values?
Kimpa Vita and a map of Kongo

Did Kongolese Catholicism Lead to Slave Revolutions?

The legacy of Kimpa Vita, a Kongolese Catholic mystic, was felt from the U.S. to Haiti.
methodist religious revival

When Science and Religion Were Connected

During the Second Great Awakening of 1830, science and religion were seen as “two aspects of the same universal truth.”