All Posts Tagged With: "Faith life"
The Grinch Who Stole Eid ul-Adha
What are the biggest Christian and Jewish holidays of the year? Religiously speaking, Christmas and Hannukah are not the answer — rather, as observant Christians know, Easter has more significance for followers of Christ, and, as Jews know, Hannukah pales besides Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashonah.
Maybe it’s a coincidence, but the same phenomenon happens in [...]
“Change or Die:” American Buddhism When Baby-Boomer Converts Are Gone
In the current issue of the quarterly American Buddhist magazine Tricycle, contributing editor and former Zen monk Clark Strand makes a provocative claim: that American Buddhism must “change or die.” American converts to Buddhism have focused on spiritual practice to the exclusion of concerns like creating rituals and passing along the tradition to the next [...]
20Sep2007 | Andrea Useem | 13 comments | ContinuedHey, Journalists: How Not to Cover Ramadan
With the Muslim holy month of Ramadan starting at sunset tomorrow night, religion reporters around the country are already scratching their heads, trying to think up a fresh angle on a holiday that, like most, happens pretty much the same way every year. (Photo: Teens at a Ramadan fast-breaking, or iftar)
We are sure to [...]
Using Economics to Improve Your Faith Life
In his entertaining new book, Discover Your Inner Economist: Use Incentives to Fall in Love, Survive Your Next Meeting, and Motivate Your Dentist, economist Tyler Cowen considers the following scenario: You are about to walk into an art museum. You aspire to appreciate the many works of art you will see, in part because valuing [...]
23Aug2007 | Andrea Useem | 10 comments | ContinuedReligion and the Presidential Candidates: Fun Facts
Question: What does the current field of presidential contenders have in common with the Supreme Court bench? Answer: It is disproportionately Catholic.
Using the handily compiled religious biographies of the presidential candidates (which number 16, if undeclared Fred Thompson is included) from the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, ReligionWriter discovered these interesting tidbits.
Six out [...]
The Holiness and Horror of Amish Life: Journalist Joe Mackall Writes about His Extraordinary Neighbors
Joe Mackall has lived a mile away from the Shetler family for more than 16 years, driving Mary, Samuel and their growing family of nine children to the doctor when needed, sharing the family’s grief over a child’s death, and gradually bridging the divide between his own “English” (non-Amish) culture and their insular world of [...]
4Jun2007 | Andrea Useem | 4 comments | ContinuedKirbyjon Caldwell: Megachurch Pastor Combines Faith and Finance
(This Q&A first appeared in May’s Wharton Leadership Digest and is reprinted here with permission.)
Growing up in Houston’s impoverished Fifth Ward, Kirbyjon Caldwell learned everything he needed to know about business at his father’s clothing store — earning a degree at the Wharton School also helped. But shortly after launching his own business career, Caldwell [...]
14May2007 | Andrea Useem | 0 comments | ContinuedBook: Why Horror Attracts, and How We Memorialize It
Bob Abernethy, founder and host of PBS’s Religion and Ethics Newsweekly, and co-editor William Bole have compiled 66 of the show’s most interesting interviews in “The Life of Meaning: Faith, Doubt, and Repairing the World,†published this month by Seven Stories Press. Compressed from lengthy Q+As into “spoken essay†form, the brief chapters offer short [...]
23Apr2007 | Andrea Useem | 0 comments | Continued