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Religion and religious practices have a context.

Everyone is in agreement that desecration is a bad thing. Across cultures and throughout time, most any human being would say that dousing a dead person’s tomb with millions of gallons of crude oil is wrong. We should take advantage of this rare instance of human unanimity, and use the spiritual appeal of honoring the dead to help frame political arguments about ecological preservation and restoration.

I wept on Friday evening when I heard the news of the death of Coach John Wooden. I had seen him the day before at UCLA looking frail and tired after 99 good years—as long and rewarding a life as one could hope. Coach Wooden was ready for a good death, surrounded by family and friends…

Those who oppose gay marriage are on the wrong side of history.

There are no such statements in the Qur’an making music haram, but still this idea persists and is given credence.

Fifty years ago this past Sunday, feminist theology of the second wave was born. Well, maybe not born—but it made it into Time, under the headline “Religion: Male and Female Theology.” Yes, Monday, June 27, 1960. The cover picture: US Ambassador Douglas MacArthur II…

So-called “workplace spirituality” teaches people that the anxieties associated with global capital are inevitable, even part of the natural order of things. Under the highly deregulated conditions that prevail in the twenty-first century, individuals struggle against constant job insecurity. In this socioeconomic stew, workplace spirituality offers the individual a stable community where ultimate meaning and purpose become anchored to his or her place of employment. Workers feel more fulfilled and empowered on the job, and, therefore, will freely work harder and more productively, the theory goes, while ignoring more material concerns such as declining wages and diminishing benefits. Workplace spirituality neatly legitimates globalization while muffling its psychological effects.

Still it is vexing to make sense of any uneven distribution based on gender.

In response to Richard Dawkins’ and Christopher Hitchens’ attempt to arrest the Pope for complicity in the sexual abuse crisis, Frances Kissling argues that the Church only responds to external pressure anyway. What does it matter where it comes from?

Ecclesiastical trials conjure up images of hooded inquisitors torturing poor souls, demanding them to recant on penalty of being burned at the stake. Although church hearings no longer result in a sacrificial barbecue, the tradition of the ecclesiastical trial is alive and well in many modern…