(ANALYSIS) (ANALYSIS) So, there’s this verse you sometimes hear in an evangelical worship service. It’s from 2 Thessalonians 3:10: “For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat.”
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The question is not whether Trump is relevant in many of these stories. This is, after all, an age in which faith, culture and religious doctrines are frequently linked to debates about hot-button political issues. The question is whether Trump is placed front and center in every story, warping discussions of issues that were important long before he entered American politics.
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In the afterlife, your wife of 65 years must choose between you and her first husband — a war hero who’s waited 67 years to see her again. That’s the intriguing plot of “Eternity,” a new romantic comedy starring Miles Teller, Elizabeth Olsen and Callum Turner.
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(ANALYSIS) Obituaries preserve what families most want remembered about the people they cherish most. Across time, they also reveal the values each era chose to honor. In a study published in the journal “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,” we analyzed 38 million obituaries of Americans published from 1998 to 2024.
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(ANALYSIS) Late in the movie “Shadowlands,” the C.S. Lewis character describes the role that books can play in real life. The famous Oxford don and author, played by Anthony Hopkins, notes, “We read books to know that we are not alone.” But Lewis never wrote those memorable words.
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(ANALYSIS) On his recent visit to Turkey and Lebanon, Pope Leo XIV met with political and religious leaders, celebrated Mass and visited historical sites. The trip also marked the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, which resolved core doctrinal differences, with the aim of advancing Christian unity at the time.
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(ANALYSIS) Needless to say, these old-school, pro-First Amendment liberals are not the kind of public intellectuals that cultural and religious conservatives have, in the past, valued for their insights into public life. However, they have created a multi-media space in which all kinds of voices — including strong, vocal Christians (Paul Kingsnorth, leaps to mind) — have been able to reach millions of new readers and listeners.
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(ANALYSIS) Living in a culture that largely closes down each Dec. 25, many Jews have found ways of making meaning in the day — be that sharing family time over beef and broccoli, followed by a holiday blockbuster, or working to make sure that more of their colleagues can have a family day. And those, too, are Christmas traditions.
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(ANALYSIS) One of the most important cyclical events in my life as a data analyst of American religion is the semi-regular release of the General Social Survey.
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Certain corners of the Orthodox internet are not just conservative or traditionalist, but openly racist and antisemitic, with several far-right figures converting in recent years. In the South, there is a strain of neoconfederate Orthodoxy that marries white supremacy and Orthodox practice. Matthew Heimbach, who organized the notorious Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017, had been excommunicated from the Antiochian Orthodox church but joined another branch.
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A quarter-century ago, the millionaire businessman who brought the NBA’s original Charlotte Hornets to North Carolina’s largest city became embroiled in a sex scandal. Now he has published a book chronicling his stumbles and triumphs.
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(ANALYSIS) These films give us hints as to potential “whys” behind rising Western antisemitism. When you look at the lessons the historical dramas teach, and the movies made about their legacy today, you see deep tensions. These tensions suggest that some of the popular secular lessons our culture has derived from the Holocaust are also planting the seeds of its rejection.
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Collections of Christmas music often include a few popular Advent hymns sung in Protestant services and even in Christmas parties, such as “Joy to the World,” “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear” and, especially, “O Come, O Come Emmanuel.” Many Catholic Advent hymns focus on the role of Mary, the mother of Jesus, such as "Rorate Caeli (Drop down, Ye Heavens).”
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(ANALYSIS) Unfortunately, the current Israeli government seems uninterested in repairing what they have broken. The Jewish state will not crumble overnight if they remain indifferent to these needs. The country’s morale will weaken. And everything that has kept it strong and surviving — its defenses, its international supporters, its belief in its own mission — will do the same.
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(ESSAY) When a beloved pet dies, a family finds solace in handmade quilts and TV church.
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(ANALYSIS) Until the 1960s, Quebec was the most religious part of North America. Now it is home to an aggressive secularist government that, on Nov. 27, introduced a proposed law, Bill 9, that would outlaw public prayer. For several centuries, religious minorities faced discrimination and, until the 1960s, Jehovah's Witnesses were still being arrested for their refusal to salute the flag.
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(ANALYSIS) The 2025 Story of the Year in religion is obviously the surprise May 8 election of the first Pope from the United States, Leo XIV. The second-place story, less publicized but important, is the Oct. 16 proclamation of a planned split among the world’s 97 million Anglican Christians over their anguishing dispute on the Bible and sexual morality.
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(ANALYSIS) I can pretty much pinpoint the moment I got the inspiration for this post. I was riding my spin bike in the basement, watching a series on my phone called “Band of Brothers.” I know, I know — I should have watched it multiple times by now.
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Every December, the same chorus returns — pastors, pundits and pious influencers lamenting that Christmas has been “commercialized.” But gift-giving isn’t a betrayal of Christmas. In truth, it’s a reenactment of it. The problem is pretense, not presents. It’s when generosity becomes performance, and the spirit of giving becomes a selfie opportunity.
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(REVIEW) In “Miracles and Wonder,” historian Elaine Pagels examines the life of Jesus through historical, textual and theological lenses. Balancing faith and skepticism, she revisits questions of the virgin birth, miracles, crucifixion and the resurrection — ultimately portraying Christianity’s enduring power as rooted not in certainty, but in hope.
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