popular culture

The week in religion, poetically.

For those who may not remember, the Doctor actually was involved in the original Big Bang…

As scholars have been reminding us for a very long time by now, private reading and the linear thinking valued by many as essential for deep, contemplative thought, did not feature much in the lives of the people who pretty much brought us the contemplative tradition.

Time travel can make for interesting plot twists, but it can also take some of the suspense out of the story.

The Week in Religion, Poetically

The fact that I live in a neighborhood and a nation where each person’s right to celebrate Independence Day as noisily as possible is held sacred gives special piquancy to reflecting on a book about noise on such a day—right under the rocket’s red glare, as it were. …

Jon Stewart confronts Islamophobia… comically.

This episode perhaps works better as a parable of romance than a parable of religion. But popular religion in the Christian tradition has placed a lot of focus on…

A new documentary delves into the Mormon involvement in the passage of California’s Proposition 8, but it misses a chance to see the big picture. It wasn’t just run-of-the-mill theological homophobia that galvanized the LDS church, but a fear that the spectre of Mormon polygamy would arise if LGBT people were allowed to marry. And what do some polygamists think? Gay marriage or plural marriage: it’s a question of civil rights.

Perhaps it is time to stop asking whether religion or science offers a better explanation of natural phenomena, and instead ask whether we find a certain religious vision compelling…