Gary Laderman But it is in this more ambiguous, liminal conceptual space, between medicine and recreation, body and spirit, religion and science, that altered states of consciousness and mind altering substances do their best work.
Just Say Yes: In Drugs We Trust
Gary Laderman Anyone interested in the new frontiers of American religion should pay attention to how Americans love to say yes to their drugs.
Baptismal Fonts and Brew Halls: A Conversation With “The Church Brew Works” Founder Sean Casey
Madison Tarleton Over the course of our conversation, Sean continued to ask, “what do you mean by sacred?”
David Wojnarowicz’s Christ: Symbols of Hope, Corruption, and Violence
Rembrandt at 350: Light and Shadow in the Modern World
Louis A. Ruprecht Jr. Perhaps there was a sting of jealous amazement at work here, as Rembrandt notoriously bankrupted in the 1650s and thus worked in grinding poverty for his final decade. The winning and losing of fortune: this is the topsy-turvy, boom-and-bust world of global capital.
From the Madness of Reefer to the Ecstatic Bliss of Marijuana: The Rise of Cannabis Churches
Morgan Shipley However, at the heart of THC Ministry is not a commitment to Christ, but to a foundational and sacred right to use cannabis as a means to raise consciousness, to commune with nature, and, maybe most significantly, “live with modesty, good manners, and humbleness.”
Modern Shamanism in Turkey
Murat Sahir The Republic of Turkey was a unique project of modernity. As a secular western state, the Turkish Republic embodied many contradictions, but over time Islam became the inescapable unifying factor of the multi-ethnic nation-state. Today, a clear majority
An Interview with Jason Francisco, Part 3: Płaszów, A Camp in Its Afterlives
Jason Francisco’s photography spans a variety of subjects and themes, but some of his ongoing projects take on the complexities of memory and loss in Eastern Europe, particularly memory and loss related to the Holocaust. Francisco recently sat down
Lale to Me: Tulip to You
Alizeh Ahmad Irony abounds in that the tulip, so wrapped up in Dutch identity, belongs to a people and a set of beliefs that the Dutch seem to find repulsive in today’s political climate.
An Interview with Jason Francisco, Part 2: Memory, Remembrance, and Composition
Jason Francisco’s photography spans a variety of subjects and themes, but some of his ongoing projects take on the complexities of memory and loss in Eastern Europe, particularly memory and loss related to the Holocaust.