Mary Sidney Herbert, Countess of Pembroke

Mary Sidney and the Voice of God

Philip Sidney’s attempt at translating the Psalms ended with his early death. Then, his sister took up the cause—and proved herself the superior poet.
Dara Shikoh and Mian Mir

Popularizing Meditation in the Mughal Empire

The methods of Sufi meditation were regarded as secret during the early Mughal empire. Why, then, did Dara Shikoh feel the need to write them down?
Photograph: German strongman Eugene Sandow lifting weights and dumbbells, c. 1890

Buff Boys of America: Eugen Sandow and Jesus

Under the influence of Muscular Christianity, Jesus transformed into a muscle-bound Aryan, saving souls through strength and masculinity.
Women's Christian Temperance Union lecturing in a crowded bar in Pasadena, CA., 1947

The Forgotten Temperance Movement of the 1950s

Despite the repeal of Prohibition, alcohol consumption was an enormous political issue for many white American Protestants.
From the cover of a 1988 issue of The Moral Majority

The Moral Majority: Collection of Primary Sources

The Moral Majority Report and the Liberty Report newsletter from the conservative advocacy group are now on JSTOR. Researchers take note.
Ceiling of Shah Mosque at Fatima Masumeh Shrine, Qom, Iran

Scientific Seances in Twentieth-Century Iran

Spiritism appealed to Iranian intellectuals who sought to reconcile their commitment to science with their pursuit of moral reform.
Sisters of the Holy Family, New Orleans

The Hidden History of Black Catholic Nuns

The lives and roles of African-descended women who joined predominantly white Catholic convents was deliberately hidden by congregational historians.
A woman wearing a head scarf

Muslim Women and the Politics of the Headscarf

For many women, wearing the hijab was—and is—an element of piety, but it's been coopted into a political symbol.
An image of Marshall Applewhite from the poster for the docuseries Heaven's Gate: The Cult of Cults

Behind the Curtain of the Heaven’s Gate Cult

On the 25th anniversary of UFO cult Heaven's Gate's mass suicide, a religion scholar examines its theology and doctrines in the context of the New Age Movement.
Lyman Stewart and his family

Lyman Stewart: Fundamentalist and Oligarch

American oilman Lyman Stewart embodied the uniquely American paradoxes of what would become capitalist Christian fundamentalism and the prosperity gospel.