Who owns religion? Who gets to say what is right or wrong, fact or fiction about any religious tradition? Religious believers and scholars of religion don’t always see eye to eye on this question. In

An estimated twelve million Africans were forced into slavery from the seventeenth century until Emancipation. Torn from their land, separated from family and kin, their bodies were stolen and their v

Martin Luther believed the Bible proved that the Catholic Church had gone astray. His efforts to bring reform to the church wound up leading to his excommunication and the Reformation was off and runn

When Martin Luther published his 95 Theses in October of 1517 he had no intention of starting a revolution. But he became a rebel and the Reformation took off. And then the Reformation rebelled agains

What was Martin Luther trying to accomplish when he nailed his ninety-five theses to the Wittenburg church door? Would you believe he didn’t intend to start a new religious movement at all? Down the c

When you think about your religious beliefs, your theology, how much consideration have you given to your race? How has the color of your skin affected your understanding of God, of Jesus Christ, or o

Joseph Smith, the founding prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, died at the hands of an angry mob in June of 1844. Shortly before his death he is reported to have made this bold

In the late nineteenth century, a newspaper written and published by women and for women sprung up in what most Americans thought was the unlikeliest of locations: Utah, the home of the Mormons. Along

There’s a famous passage from First Corinthians: “Let your women keep silence in the churches, for it is not permitted into them to speak. But they are commanded to be under obedience, as also say the

When the Lotus Sutra arrived in Boston in 1844 the few people who could read it were intrigued by its parables that reminded them of the Bible. For these westerners, the Lotus was like a gateway into