Feature Channels: Religion

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Historian, essayist and former museum professional Chris Cantwell is an experienced analyst and archivist of American history and culture. His diverse areas of expertise include: Evangelicalism and Fundamentalism, religion and politics, history of the Midwest, collective memory and nostalgia, and labor and working-class history.

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A digital history database, “Century of Black Mormons” documents and recovers identities and voices of black Mormons during the faiths’ first 100 years (1830-1930). It contains digitized versions of original documents, photographs, a timeline and biographical essays telling the stories of black Mormons.

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A study by sociologists examines public views regarding the denial of services to same-sex and interracial couples. In a fictional scenario, respondents were asked whether they believed that a business owner should be allowed to deny service. Slightly more than half of the respondents (53%) said they supported the refusal of services to a gay couple.

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A new nationwide study of obituaries has found that people with religious affiliations lived nearly four years longer than those with no ties to religion.

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A Kansas State University linguistics team has found that people in southwest Kansas are developing a distinct accent.

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Alcohol use and alcohol-use disorders in the U.S. greatly increased between 2001 and 2013, particularly among African-American emerging adults (i.e., those 18-29 years of age). Previous research showed that African American youth are unequally exposed to risk factors for substance use such as economic pressures, neighborhood disorder, and racial discrimination. This study examined how African American mothers’ protective parenting and alcohol use influenced their offspring’s drinking and perceptions of drinkers.

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While this week’s U.S. Supreme Court decision siding  7-2 with bakery owner Jack Phillips in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission was “far from explosive,” it still sends important signals on how such cases will be handled in the future, said a legal scholar at Washington University in St.

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A famous Arkansas composer, teacher, and pianist has been honored by the Arkansas State Music Teachers Association for her lifetime of musical accomplishments after being denied entry to the organization nearly a century ago because of her race. Florence Price is a Little Rock native who became the first African-American woman composer to have a symphonic composition performed by a major American orchestra, and one of the first African-American classical composers to gain international attention.

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A team of aw students prevailed in a federal lawsuit arguing that an Ohio inmate should be allowed to keep his dreadlocks, protecting his religious freedom.

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A study published in April in the journal Political Research Quarterly examined states that enacted policies against same-sex marriage, and found a correlation between these activities and a rising number of people who do not affiliate with a specific religion.

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Funny thing about restaurant menus. They often are among the best gauges of telling us how tastes have changed – quite literally – and how economic good times come and go.

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Kriag Beyerlein’s study, co-authored with Notre Dame graduate student Peter Ryan, compares the 2017 Women’s March Chicago with historical examples of religiously motivated progressive social activism and is now published in Sociology of Religion.

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Faculty members in Boyer College of Music and Dance and the College of Liberal Arts won prestigious Guggenheim Fellowships to pursue research.

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The 12 most effective preachers in the English-speaking world have been identified in a survey by the Kyle Lake Center for Effective Preaching at Baylor University’s George W. Truett Theological Seminary. Scholars of homiletics made the selections from nearly 800 nominees.

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Whites in multiracial congregations have more diverse friendship networks and are more comfortable with minorities — but that is more because of the impact of neighbors and friends of other races than due to congregations’ influence, a Baylor University study has found.

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The Latest News On Marijuana Research

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New York University’s Center for Ancient Studies will host “The Origins of the Arts: Expressive Culture of Early Homo sapiens,” the annual Ranieri Colloquium on Ancient Studies, on Thurs., April 26 and Fri., April 27.

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Patience in everyday life is a strong predictor of health and well-being. Dr. Dominik Guess, a UNF psychology professor, conducted a European study regarding patience in everyday life, revealing cultural differences as to when people get impatient and the reactions they show.

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At the University of Virginia Darden School of Business, students celebrate the uniquely collaborative culture, the rigor of the academic program and the life-changing learning experiences during their two years in Charlottesville. This past March, 12 students and Professor Bobby Parmar took their Darden experience to the field as they spent six days backpacking through Patagonia in southern Chile.

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This March, 34 University of Virginia Darden School of Business students traveled to Israel for a new Darden Worldwide Course focused on innovation and technology in the country dubbed the “Startup Nation.” Led by Professor Yael Grushka-Cockayne and joined by Dean Scott Beardsley, the students in the course developed an understanding of the forces at work in the success story of Israeli innovation and entrepreneurship culture.

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Navajo elder Selina Begay, 65, lives in a small house north of Kayenta, Arizona with no water, sewer or electricity. To help with the family income, Begay and many of the other female elders weave rugs and sell them.

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Joshua Stuart, an interdisciplinary studies major at West Virginia University will present research at the Appalachian Studies Association conference in Cincinnati, Ohio, April 5-8. His presentation focuses on queer culture in Appalachia, where he pulls perspectives from his background in creative writing, sociology and LGBTQ+ studies.

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Extreme political views might be driving some people away from churches, but the actual number of departing parishioners is not that large and those who do leave the pews are mostly marginally involved with the institution, according to a new study co-authored by a University at Buffalo political scientist. “All we’re really seeing here is a little churn,” says Jacob Neiheisel, an assistant professor in UB’s Department of Political. “We don’t see people ensconced within the institutional framework leaving. These are people at the periphery so we don’t see religious sorting where people on the left are disproportionally becoming anti-religious while people on the right are doubling-down on religion.” The findings provide new evidence that the limited turnover is not contributing significantly to political polarization.

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An international, multidisciplinary team is using X-rays to reveal the hidden text of a medical manuscript by the ancient Greek doctor Galen that was written on parchment in the 6th century and scraped off and overwritten with religious text in the 11th century.

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Dr. Bruce Collet, associate professor at Bowling Green State University School, sees the important role public schools have in acculturating immigrants into their new societies. In his new book, "Migration, Religion, and Schooling in Liberal Democratic States" (Routledge, 2018) he lays out recommendations on how these institutions can help facilitate immigrants' integration.

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A new study from the University of Iowa finds firms headquartered in more religiously observant counties have higher credit ratings and lower debt costs, evidence that suggests lenders and bondholders consider the company’s culture when deciding whether to give them money.

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In his long career, the evangelical preacher Billy Graham — who died Feb. 21 at age 99 — offered one piece of advice that may be especially relevant to men in the current age of #MeToo sexual harassment scandals — never dine, drink or spend time alone with women other than your wife.Known as the “Billy Graham Rule,” the advice was in line with cultural and sexual norms of the 1950s and later decades, when many of Graham’s contemporary evangelical preachers fell from grace after widely publicized extramarital affairs, said R.

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Republicans who believe that God is very involved with humanity are like Democrats — more liberal — when it comes to social and economic justice issues, according to a Baylor University study. Meanwhile, Democrats who see God as a strict father tend to agree about with "an eye-for-an-eye" policy when it comes to harsher criminal punishment and military solutions to foreign conflicts.

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Korie Edwards, associate professor of sociology at The Ohio State University, talks about how race and power structures are perceived in churches, and also how religion plays a role among youth.

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Every day in hospitals across the country, patients, family members and healthcare professionals confront ethical and religious dilemmas about risky medical procedures, end-of-life care and other weighty issues. Now Rabbi Jason Weiner, BCC, the senior rabbi and director of the Spiritual Care Department at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles, has written a book to guide those wrestling with health-related questions.

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Older individuals who are securely attached to God experience increased optimism over time, and those with confidence in God’s forgiveness often experience higher self-esteem and satisfaction, according to a Baylor University study.

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In a study, 80 percent of participants completed an advance directive after meeting with a chaplain as part of a doctor’s appointment

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Languages have an intriguing paradox. Languages with lots of speakers, such as English and Mandarin, have large vocabularies with relatively simple grammar. Yet the opposite is also true: Languages with fewer speakers have fewer words but complex grammars.

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There has been no "greening of Christianity" among people in the pews, despite efforts by some religious leaders to emphasize environmental stewardship, according to new Indiana University research.

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Two important factors seem to explain black American adolescents’ experiences with teacher-based racial discrimination – religiosity and racial pride, finds a new study from the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis.“Overall, for both African American and Caribbean black adolescents, experiencing teacher-based racial discrimination in the classroom was associated with not feeling like they belong at school, or less school bonding,” said Sheretta Butler-Barnes, assistant professor at the Brown School.

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Internet use may decrease the likelihood of a person affiliating with a religious tradition or believing that only one religion is true, according to a Baylor University study. The research is published in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion.

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Was King Henry IV of France a feminist? Probably not. But new research by Professor Nicola Courtright aims to show how the art and architecture of his royal residences

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What is a pagan amulet against indigestion doing in a Byzantine church at Hippos? Did the processions of debauchery and drinking honoring the god of wine Dionysus continue during the Christian period? And did the goddess of good fortune Tyche still protect Hippos centuries after the disappearance of belief in the Greco-Roman gods? A new exhibition at the University of Haifa’s Hecht Museum summarizes 18 years of exploration in the ancient city of Hippos

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African-American girls who participated in an after-school cultural enrichment program showed greater school engagement, and reported higher confidence, at its conclusion.