Belief

The Weisman family objected to religious prayers at a 1986 school graduation. The case went to the Supreme Court, which is again ruling on prayer in schools.

How the Southern Baptist Convention’s views on abortion changed during the 1980s, when a more conservative wing seized control of the denomination.

Can the origins of American religious freedom be traced to the religious and political history of England and its empire?

The Quaker spiritual journey, often invisible due to its silent, humble and individual nature, is illustrated in this map.

The Southern Baptist Convention is tearing itself apart over its leaders’ long-running cover-up of abusers in its ranks. But there’s a deeper reckoning below.

Harry Emerson Fosdick's ‘Shall the Fundamentalists Win?’

Evangelicals started speaking out against legal abortion long before the late 1970s.

How the decline of liberal religion transformed American Christianity — and politics.

On the fraught and turbulent relationship between religion and government in the U.S.

Some accounts suggest that the Passover Parade was even more glamorous than its famous counterpart, the Easter Parade.

While the world’s fastest-growing religious faith offers material benefits and psychological uplift to many, it also pushes a reactionary political agenda.

The NYT identifies the 'religious fervor in the American right' — around four decades late.

Denmark Vesey expressed the Bible’s anti-slavery messages.

A look into how Malcolm X employed gospel rhetoric to critique the mainstream civil rights movement for catering to white Christianity.

The Nation of Islam is controversial. Its practical purposes for incarcerated people transcend both politics and religion.

Stuart compares the shared values of Christian nationalists and the Nation of Islam in the 1960's and today.

Russia has become an ally in a global movement.

Daniel James Sundahl reviews D. G. Hart’s American Catholic: The Politics of Faith During the Cold War.

After the passing of William James, mediums across the US began receiving messages from the late Harvard professor.

Why three religious groups traded monogamy for celibacy, polygamy, and complex marriage.

The musical traditions found in contemporary Black U.S. and Caribbean Christian worship originated hundreds of years ago, continents away.

On the devout abolitionists who excoriated American exceptionalism.

In her lifetime, Dorothy Day rejected canonization for herself. Now revived, this bad idea would only diminish the founder of the Catholic Worker Movement.

Amid all the suffering and death, friends and supporters arose in unexpected—often religious—places.

Politics have diluted King's dream.

A new biography explores the American roots of Meir Kahane's far-right ideology — and how the U.S. Jewish establishment embraced his beliefs.

A conversation with the biographer of radical Jewish 'revenge theologian' Meir Kahane.

Muscular Christianity — with scriptural interpretations that can favor “stand your ground” over “turn the other cheek” — has a long tradition in the U.S.

In the 17th century, Dutch proselytisers set out for Asia, Africa and the Americas. The legacy of their travels endures.

The show never took a singular position on social issues. The point was to wrestle with the story itself in hopes of sparking self-awareness and contemplation.