Books
(REVIEW) How did Christianity shape North Korea? A new 745-page book argues the regime built by Kim Il Sung resembles a national religion that borrows some ideas from Christianity — complete with myths, rituals and a central, quasi-divine figure — rather than a typical authoritarian state.
(ANALYSIS) What most people get wrong about the great Dane is that they remember the existential dread and forget the destination.
(ANALYSIS) Perhaps even more importantly, the Cherokee Bible offers insight into Cherokee-specific meanings, interpretations of spiritual concepts and a benchmark for understanding how the language has changed. Though the history of the relationship between Christian missionaries and Indigenous people is complex, this historic text is supporting an impressive contemporary wave of cultural renewal.
(REVIEW) A new biography explores David Bowie’s spiritual life beneath his flamboyant personas, especially Ziggy Stardust. Drawing on interviews and songs, it portrays a restless seeker shaped by diverse religious influences, whose music reflected an ongoing quest to understand God, faith and existence beyond organized religion.
In the book “Glimmerings: Letters on Faith Between a Poet and a Theologian,” two friends engage in a conversation about God as they approach the twilight of their lives. It’s an easy-to-follow real-life discussion about suffering, God and how to cope when times get hard.
Art & Music
While the rest of the world was in and out of lockdown during the not-so-roaring pandemic of the early 2020s, a small enclave in Beijing had folks sweating, holding strangers’ hands and dancing to jazz that crackled in the stagnant air of bars and basements like lightning.
(ANALYSIS) Once the cranes disappear, the basilica will cease from being an evolving construction project and instead become something more fixed — a monument subject to preservation battles, increased tourism pressures and the inevitable weight of history. Nonetheless, Pope Leo’s Spain trip, with a stop in Barcelona, represents the fulfillment of decades of hard work.
In the heart of Budapest lies a theater unlike any other. Founded 20 years ago, Gólem Theater stands as the only professional Jewish theater in Hungary. By blending humor with questions of identity, the theater seeks to engage audiences with a different side of Jewish culture.
(REVIEW) Sid Klein has finally found his subject. More than half a century after he scrambled to pick a topic for his senior art project at Brooklyn College in New York — and settled on exploring the porcelain curves of a toilet bowl in a 20-painting series — he’s discovered a purpose.
(REVIEW) Carol Bove’s Guggenheim survey reveals how Zen Buddhism, countercultural spirituality and mystical philosophy underpin her sculptures and installations. From bookshelf assemblages to monumental crushed steel works, Bove uses art to challenge perception, evoke presence and explore the intersection of modernism, meditation and embodiment.
(OPINION) In my childhood, Catholics were encouraged to “make a visit” to church to light a candle for the sick or say a prayer for some special intention. Though I (and many others) fell out of this practice over the years, I found myself once again “making a visit” to churches when I began to study, teach and travel abroad.
(ANALYSIS) As July 4, approaches, Americans will be paying more attention than usual to events of 1776: the year the American Colonies declared their independence from Great Britain. Public historians, including filmmaker Ken Burns, have tried to offer a more inclusive view of the American Revolution, highlighting lesser-known patriots.
(REVIEW) A new biography explores David Bowie’s spiritual life beneath his flamboyant personas, especially Ziggy Stardust. Drawing on interviews and songs, it portrays a restless seeker shaped by diverse religious influences, whose music reflected an ongoing quest to understand God, faith and existence beyond organized religion.
Far from isolated, this case reflects a growing wave of church thefts across France targeting religious art. Last year, the French Interior Ministry recorded about 538 thefts of religious items — an 11% increase from the year before. People usually steal things like chalices, statues, paintings, relics and other religious items from churches and other places of worship.
Are the U.K.’s church pipe organs under threat? A new report from Pipe Up, a charity created in 2022 to save pipe organs from what it calls a “wave of destruction,” claims that Britain’s church organs are heading toward extinction unless action is taken.
Film & TV
Milan took center stage in new film “The Devil Wears Prada 2.” The movie showcases the city’s most iconic Catholic sites, such as the Duomo, the Pinacoteca di Brera and the church courtyard and convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie, which houses Leonardo Da Vinci’s mural painting “The Last Supper.”
A low-budget movie, cheesy horror that is literally just “The Exorcist” meets “Speed” and whose theology is as thin as a communion wafer. In theory, this can be an opportunity for an actually really fun campy horror experience. Unfortunately, it’s far more interested in stale religious deconstruction than it is in classic scares.
(REVIEW) “Is God Is” follows twin sisters on a quest to kill their father, who disfigured them as children. Unfortunately, the movie does more than simply offer fictional frontier-style justice to typically underrepresented audiences. It goes so far as to renounce the virtue of forgiveness altogether.
(ANALYSIS) The way Hollywood portrays faith is changing because American culture is changing. The growing divide in these portrayals reflects the same growing divide in America. Next year may be when this clash gets its biggest arena — and we will all be watching, popcorn in hand.
(REVIEW) A “Romeo and Juliet” style love story, “Cast Aside The Clouds” that protests how religious intolerance — such as the kind regularly levied against the Baháʼí people in Iran — threatens love by targeting innocent people for oppression.
(ANALYSIS) While neither of the “Devil Wears Prada” movies revolve around Christianity, the invocation of the devil taps into an older moral rhetoric. For centuries, fashion was cast as the troublesome, if not villainous, enemy of a pure and spiritual Christianity — a symbol of putting material desires before holy ones. For example, 18th-century cleric and founder of Methodism John Wesley urged his followers to show their faith by dressing “plainly.”
Travel
(ANALYSIS) Once the cranes disappear, the basilica will cease from being an evolving construction project and instead become something more fixed — a monument subject to preservation battles, increased tourism pressures and the inevitable weight of history. Nonetheless, Pope Leo’s Spain trip, with a stop in Barcelona, represents the fulfillment of decades of hard work.
Land of Milk and Honey Farms in Deep Gap, North Carolina — nestled in a mountainous region called the High Country — has found a niche: Faith-based agritourism, offering visitors nature, serenity and even cuddle sessions with lambs. The farm’s name was inspired by a Bible passage in which God promises his people “a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey.”
In the heart of Budapest lies a theater unlike any other. Founded 20 years ago, Gólem Theater stands as the only professional Jewish theater in Hungary. By blending humor with questions of identity, the theater seeks to engage audiences with a different side of Jewish culture.
Relax with a beer at a cathedral? From beer festivals to bespoke brands, beer and cathedrals are becoming an increasingly popular pairing in the United Kingdom. Cathedrals have always had links with brewing. Most of English cathedrals, such as St. Edmundsbury in Suffolk, owe their origins to monastic orders, who used to brew their own beer.
Travel to Cairo and you’ll find Muslims and Christians intertwining their faiths, borrowing one another’s saints and celebrating religious festivals side by side. The official iconography of Saint George, for example, shows a knight on horseback — an image that echoes ancient Egyptian depictions of Horus striking a hippopotamus with a spear.
The Ugandan government has announced the postponement of this year’s Uganda Martyrs’ Day celebrations, scheduled for June 3, in response to an Ebola outbreak affecting both Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, which has claimed over 130 lives thus far.
President José Antonio Kast has elevated the Catholic chapel at La Moneda, expanding Masses to four times a week and regularly attending with First Lady María Pía Adriasola. His visible faith marks a shift from predecessor Gabriel Boric, highlighting religion’s renewed prominence within Chile’s presidential palace and in public life.
El presidente José Antonio Kast ha elevado el perfil de la capilla católica de La Moneda, ampliando las misas a cuatro veces por semana y asistiendo regularmente junto a la primera dama María Pía Adriasola. Su fe visible marca un cambio respecto a su predecesor, Gabriel Boric, destacando el renovado protagonismo de la religión dentro del palacio presidencial de Chile y en la vida pública.
Maria lives in North Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo, along with her husband and four children, content with being farmers and living in the fields. But the 27-year-old woman, who did not want to be identified by her full name, has always faced persecution for being Christians. She isn’t alone. It’s the type of violence many in Africa have had to deal with for years.
To fully understand Atlanta, you have to look beyond its highways and glass towers, back to the broader history of Georgia and its unusual role during colonial America. In that earlier era, a quiet but consequential force — religious diversity — helped shape a mindset that would eventually contribute to the movement for independence in 1776.
Sports
(ANALYSIS) This World Cup held in the United States, Canada and Mexico — with its unprecedented global outreach — offers a unique opportunity to observe the values, beliefs and relationships that soccer players choose to display on their bodies. In some ways, tattoos can be seen as a small window into the players’ souls.
Argentine soccer icon Diego Maradona’s magic goal in the June 22, 1986, quarterfinal match against England in Mexico, which he attributed to the “Hand of God” as it was secured by his fist, has been the subject of intense debate whenever and wherever soccer fans are gathered.
Soccer’s global reach and emotional intensity have long invited comparisons to religion. Both scholars and fans testify that the analogy is more than just a metaphor. From local club loyalties to the sweeping unity of the World Cup, the game functions in ways that closely resemble systems of shared belief, ritual and identity.
Online sports gambling is sweeping the nation, luring Americans with promises of harmless fun, easy money, and community. And Christians are not immune — many have embraced it as morally acceptable. But as addiction rates climb, few ministries or churches appear to be stepping in to help.
The NBA playoffs are not usually the place where one finds Catholic nuns. But that’s exactly what happened after a group of Salesian Sisters from San Antonio were spotted courtside in Spurs jerseys. In an era when viral moments are often manufactured, the sisters’ online popularity has resonated because of its sincerity. Videos circulating across social media captured their enthusiasm.
With the reigning champion Oklahoma City Thunder fighting to return to the NBA Finals, one bold writer dug deep for an analogy: The Thunder, he wrote, is like the state of Israel — a former underdog now despised for its success. The Oklahoman, a daily newspaper, published the opinion column on its website Monday morning, hours before the Thunder began their semifinal series against the San Antonio Spurs. The story was accompanied by an image of a basketball with the Israeli flag on it.
Mid Vermont Christian School has reached a partial settlement in its legal battle against state athletic officials, securing over $500,000 in damages after being barred from competition over its stance on transgender athletes by the Vermont Principals Association. The Vermont Principals Association has agreed to pay the school to cover damages and legal fees.
Paulo Silas Pereira is preparing for the upcoming World Cup as a broadcaster. In doing so, his focus has shifted from goals and tactics to something far more personal: Telling the story of his life and Christian faith.
(ANALYSIS) G.K. Chesterton blended humor and philosophy; he turned belief into something wondrous, culturally alive, and fiercely imaginative. The man made God fun. That sounds like a modest achievement until you consider how desperately the task still needs doing, and how spectacularly everyone since has failed at it.