How Old is the Hebrew Bible?
March 19, 2019
Ronald Hendel and Jan Joosten— The age of the Hebrew Bible is a complicated and controversial topic. For traditionalists, the age of a book is the age of its author… READ MORE
Tag: Religion
Leaving Gracefully
February 12, 2018
Mark C. Taylor— Far too many people today have forgotten how to leave, and so stay on, and on, and on until they become a burden to others. Though leaving… READ MORE
The Monastery and the Microscope
October 4, 2017
James Doty— Over the past few days, you have heard my colleagues discuss evolution, neuroanatomy, empathy, compassion, affiliative behavior, and the impact of genetics and the environment, as well as… READ MORE
What is Religion?
September 15, 2017
Richard Holloway— As with many useful words, symbol comes from Greek. It means to bring together things that had come apart, the way you might glue the bits of a broken plate… READ MORE
Rethinking American Religion in the Age of Trump
August 11, 2017
Mark Oppenheimer— When I published Knocking on Heaven’s Door: American Religion in the Age of Counterculture, in 2003, the field of the 1960s was still relatively under-studied, the field of American… READ MORE
Reconciling Deism and Puritanism in Benjamin Franklin
May 12, 2017
Thomas S. Kidd— Americans incessantly debate the role of religion in our nation’s origins. Was America founded as a Christian nation? Or was the American Revolution mostly championed by Enlightenment… READ MORE
Dorothy Day for the Twenty-First Century
May 11, 2017
Joseph Kip Kosek— Dorothy Day (1897–1980) was deeply shaped by the economic and political upheavals of the 1930s and 1940s. Early in her career, she worked as a journalist in… READ MORE
Buddhism for a Secular Age
February 13, 2017
Stephen Batchelor— Our current use of the terms “religious” and “secular” are determined by the senses they have acquired in modernity. Since they have no equivalents in any of the… READ MORE
The Artful Religion of William Blake
November 2, 2016
Leo Damrosch— Religion was profoundly important to Blake, in a questing and questioning way that is thought-provoking even for readers and viewers who are not religious at all. One of… READ MORE
A Different Kind of Paganism
October 14, 2016
Anthony Kronman— For more than a dozen years, I’ve been teaching in Directed Studies—a traditional, Great Books program for freshmen in Yale College. Programs of this kind are increasingly rare… READ MORE
Fashion or Function?