Athanasius Kircher’s “Musical Ark”
The first algorithmically generated music came to us in the seventeenth century, courtesy of Kircher and his Arca musarithmica.
Reaching New Spiritual Heights Through Hula Hooping
The post-World War II hula hooping craze is back...and this time it's got religion.
Ireland’s Upper Sea
In medieval Ireland, ships that sailed across the sky were both marvelous and mundane.
Religion of the Devil, Philosophy of the Coiled Serpent
In yoga’s early days in the United States, skeptics warned it would lead people (e.g., women) of good faith and standing into paganism and ill repute.
A Colorful Mix of Cultures at One Malaysian Catholic Shrine
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 Women Who Preached in Their Sleep
Was sleep-preaching an ingenious way for oppressed women to subvert the social order through somniloquy?
Can Religion Be Helpful for People With Chronic Pain?
A group of researchers asked this question of a group of patients in secularized Western Europe.
Sex-Cult Rocket Man
Jack Parsons, one of the “suicide squad” trio of young rocket-boy founders of Jet Propulsion Laboratory, had an improbable extracurricular life.
Fire and Brimstone
If our conception of hell was absent from Christianity at the time the religion was born, whence exactly does it hail?
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.