The pandemic has prompted composers to create new sacred music of all kinds — hymns, liturgical music, prayers, praise music and more. These are not limited to one religion, but have cropped up in Jewish, Hindu, Buddhist, Catholic and Protestant circles.
Read MoreKanye West’s 2019 album “Jesus is King” won Best Contemporary Christian Music Album at the 2021 Grammys. Here’s how the album fits into his career as a whole and what the win means for the genre.
Read More(ANALYSIS) The Supreme Court recently reversed California’s discriminatory ban on indoor worship in a case brought by two churches against Governor Gavin Newsom. Here’s what the justices had to say, and what rules houses of worship must comply with during the pandemic.
Read MoreA collection by the Sassoon family, called the Rothschilds of the East, is going on the auction block at Sotheby’s on Dec. 17. The Sassoon family left Ottoman-controlled Baghdad and built their wealth trading opium and textiles from Bombay, Rangoon, Hong Kong, Singapore and London.
Read MoreA group of art historians are petitioning Russian President Vladimir Putin to use his country’s peace-keeping force in the Nagorno Karabakh region to protect Armenian Christian monuments under threat of destruction, including churches that date back to as early as the 4th century. Parts of the region are transitioning from Armenian to Azerbaijani control this week.
Read MoreWhile the media tends to write Kanye West off for his oftentimes unconventional thoughts, Joe Rogan in his usual style let him expand on and explain his thoughts in a three-hour interview. West’s new zeal for God was on full display.
Read MoreThe Museum of Modern Art was one of the first New York museums to reopen to in-person visitors on Aug. 27. The work of Catholic and Fauve artist Henri Matisse offers a look into his joyful spirituality.
Read More(REVIEW) Indie musician Sufjan Stevens released his newest album, “The Ascension,” on Sept. 25. He uses synth pop and tragic lyrics to express a sense of hopelessness with American society and politics. As he addresses God, however, his raw honesty creates an atmosphere of worship.
Read More(REVIEW) Justin Bieber’s newest single “Holy” features Gospel influences and Christian lyrics. It’s been announced as a “new era” in his music. This song isn’t the first time he’s explored faith in his work, but “Holy” does accompany recent proclamations of Bieber’s evangelical Christian faith on social media.
Read More(REVIEW) Bob Dylan was raised Jewish and explored Christianity for several years, and his work has been influenced by both. His first album of original music in eight years, “Rough and Rowdy Ways,” contains influences from both of these religions and provides greater insight on Dylan’s view of faith.
Read MoreA small Catholic theater company, Saint Luke Productions, is in high demand telling the story of Augustus Tolton, America’s first Black Catholic priest, who was declared “venerable” – the first step to official sainthood – last year by Pope Francis.
Read More(REVIEW) Beyoncé released the musical and visual album “Black is King: The Gift” on July 31. It serves as an ode to “Blackness” and African spirituality, but in doing so idolizes Blackness in place of God with messages that listeners are also gods.
Read MoreMany Christians in America first think of Jesus as white, thanks to a widely reproduced Christ portrait from the 1940s. In the calls to tear down offensive statues, activists have called to “cancel white Jesus.” But the tradition of painting Jesus inaccurately isn’t just limited to America. Many images throughout art history have interpreted Jesus in a way that reflects their own culture.
Read MoreJeromyah Jones’ father was a painter, but his parents taught him more about the Bible than anything else, with the belief that a foundation in Scripture would allow him to be successful in any career he decided to pursue. This spiritual background helped Jones find his calling: to focus on the intersection of the Bible and black history, from the beginning of slavery in Africa to racial injustice in modern America.
Read More(REVIEW) The church was planned to open May 9 on the 75th anniversary of Russia’s “Victory Day” celebrating the Nazi surrender and end of WWII but postponed during the coronavirus pandemic. The church’s architecture resembles military missiles, iron steps are forged from melted German weapons, and figures like Stalin, responsible for murders of thousands of faithful and clergy, were originally planned to feature inside the sanctuary alongside saints.
Read MoreCombining Buddhism, Haiku poetry and meditative photography, Tyler Knott Gregson offers insight into coping with chaos, loss and isolation experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic through his experiences struggling with autism. He shares his artwork and his journey with more than 350,000 Instagram followers, self-identified “Chasers of the Light.”
Read MoreWhen her physical reality was pushed to its limit, Sybil Archibald plumbed her inner world. She communicates what she discovered through art.
Read More“Apollo’s Fire: O Jerusalem!” a Grammy Award-winning ensemble, brings to the stage the musical roots of each of Jerusalem’s four quarters with poetry and sacred songs from the Armenian, Christian, Jewish, and Arab sections of Jerusalem’s Old City from the 13th to the 17th centuries.
Read MoreItaly’s lockdown to contain the coronavirus interrupted a Raphael show of more than 100 of the artist’s paintings and drawings. The exhibit ironically marks the 500th anniversary of the Renaissance artist’s death by fever at the age of 37. A private tour of the Vatican Museum last week gave one of the last peeks into the now-closed Rafael show, among other treasures of the art world in Vatican City.
Read MoreNed Bustard is inspired by his Christian faith to create art and build a publishing company. An upcoming book will explore the modern art, and ancient faith, in the Vatican museums.
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