Larry Towell’s images reveal a little-seen, isolated world and raise questions about the unforgiving impact of tradition on families.
Religion
Arthur Jafa’s Medley of Joy Everlasting Versus Hell on Earth
The video installation akingdoncomethas is an epic montage of sermons and performances from Black churches.
What Happened to the Hagia Sophia Is a Terrible Shame
I recently visited the Hagia Sophia for the first time after its conversion and felt overwhelming sadness.
Mapping Jewish, Indigenous, and Spiritual Life in LA
UCLA’s “Engaging Living Religion” will look at how religious beliefs are presented and explored in museum galleries.
Material Messages Between Earth and the Divine
Agents of Faith: Votive Objects in Time and Place at Bard Graduate Center Gallery in New York examines 4,000 years of votive offerings.
A Photographer’s 16-Year Project to Capture the Contemporary Séance
Shannon Taggart started photographing the mediums of Lily Dale in 2001, and for 16 years after has documented the séances and practices of modern Spiritualism.
The First Known Depiction of a Witch on a Broomstick
In the 15th century, the image of the witch flying on a broomstick first appeared, its meaning laden with sexual and spiritual depravity.
A Black American Artist Explores Her Refusal of Christianity
“Direct Downward Cut at the Head; Overhand Knife Thrust”; “and where the blood ran fastest, there he whipped”; “To them God has appeared as a Negro”; “syntactical slips and breaks” — these are a sample of the bits of text affixed to the walls in Kameelah Janan Rasheed’s On Refusal.
Sacred Bones and the Catacomb Saint of Manhattan
Catholic churches in Europe host as many bones as a graveyard, with bits of saints and intact incorrupt bodies encased in glass and displayed on ornate altars.
Praising the Scientific Contributions of Clergy Naturalists
Among the 18 million specimens in the oldest natural history museum in the United States are contributions from missionaries and ministers who practiced science alongside their faith.
Oldest Fragment of Koran Found in UK Library
A 1,370-year-old section of the Koran possibly dating back to the life of Mohammed has been discovered in central England.
Sad News for Satanists: Oklahoma’s Ten Commandments Monument Must Go
Today the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled that the granite Ten Commandments currently standing on the state capitol grounds must be removed.