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Looking at Death: Images of 9/11, Before, During, and After

By S. Brent Rodriguez Plate

…it. There is something profoundly human, which is to say deeply religious, about images surrounding death and about the ability to see death and dying. And yet, we’ve got to get beyond the so-called “civilized” response that looking at death is simply voyeuristic and morbid. Instead, there is something crucial to our lives that necessitates reflections on death, and sometimes this means looking—slowly, carefully, deliberately, even contemplatively…

Dalai Lama: “I Am a Marxist, But Not a Leninist”

By Tsering Namgyal

…, with the European ruling class. He also provided an interesting anecdote about his experience with Mao. He said that Mao had felt that the Dalai Lama’s mind was very logical, implying that Buddhist education and training help sharpens the mind. He said he met with Mao several times, and that once, during a meeting in Beijing, the Chinese leader called him in and announced: “Your mind is scientific!”—an assessment that was followed by the famous…

“The Gift of Gay”: Father Matthew Kelty, Confessor to Thomas Merton, Dies at 96

By Louis A. Ruprecht

…n the long subsequent decades following Merton’s death, said a public word about their relationship. There was a twinkle in his eye when he said that. Forbidden further contact with his lover, Merton was granted permission to leave the Abbey for a trip to the Far East in the spring of 1968. His main purpose was to give a lecture in Bangkok on comparative monasticism and mysticism, but there was much more to the trip than that, as his published jou…

Zeitgeist A Blend Of Skepticism, Metaphysical Spirituality, and Conspiracy

By Michael J. Altman

…ely on the same esoteric worldview, however. In such a view the world is full of special, secret knowledge—about the meaning of the Bible, cabals of bankers, and the relationship between the Bush and Bin Laden families—that is only available to a select few. But in the end, the knowledge about conspiracies seem more powerful. It’s more tempting, or maybe more pleasurable, to know the truth about wars fought to satiate elite bankers, religions inve…

Mao, Meet Confucius: China’s Religious Revolution

By Kwok Pui-lan

…. In addition to the revival of the Confucian tradition, Christianity and Buddhism enjoy phenomenal growth. Throughout China, churches burst to the beams and one has to arrive early in order to get a seat. Chong Yi Church in Hangzhou, one of the largest churches in China, seats about 5,000 and easily fills to capacity on Sundays. As membership of mainline denominations in the U.S. continues to decline, many Westerners marvel at the rate of grow…

Is Yoga Hindu?

By Roman Palitsky

…uffington Post piece, she stresses that the Take Yoga Back movement is not about ownership, but rather about origins. This is a seductive line, suggesting that before the corruptions of modern life there existed an untainted yoga that was coextensive with Hinduism. A vocal band of scholars have re-mounted the perennial argument that yoga is a Hindu practice because it traces its origins from the ‘proto-Rudra’ seals at Harappa, through the Yoga Sut…

Obama To Skip Golden Temple: Part of A Larger Problem With Religion

By Hussein Rashid

…nt to educate us. Instead, he did not just miss the opportunity, but he ran from it. He is encouraging the continued vilification of certain religions—it’s not just Islam, but Sikhism, Buddhism, and certain types of Christianity—by not having us have the same conversation on religion that he started about race in this country….

A Jew in Church? No Big Deal

By Benjamin Weiner

…e truly tried to lose themselves in another culture (whether Christianity, Buddhism, or punk rock) and whose subsequent return, if it happens, is far more sophisticated. Cohen is never really challenged, either in his praxis or his theology. He never doubts God, or catches himself thinking that anything in the Jewish world should be altered—apart from adopting the marketing techniques of pop culture evangelists and making synagogue music a little…

Tibet is Burning: Is the Freedom Movement Entering a New Phase?

By Tsering Namgyal

…ournalist and a writer of Tibetan origin, I can not help but say something about what has been happening inside Tibet of late. Since March 2011, at least nine Tibetans, most of them teens and some in their early 20s, have set themselves on fire. The self-immolation by young Tibetans has triggered outrage and protests by exiled Tibetans around the world—a Global Day of Action is scheduled for November 2. Why are Tibetan youth dousing themselves in…

Oh My God(dess)! Feminist Spirituality in the Third Wave

By Mandy Van Deven

…st you’ve written about this topic, but how did you come to writing a book about it? This book came about because of my own teaching experiences, as well as that of some other colleagues. Having taught about feminist spirituality, Goddess religion, women and religion, and other similar courses, I was constantly using the same texts and theorists, but I noticed that some of my students were starting to ask different questions than these writers, mo…