Sacred Matters Magazine
  • Left of Sacred
  • Sacred Guests
  • 7 Sacred Questions
  • Sacrilegious Podcast
  • Holy Archives
  • Sacred Story

Tag Archives: God

The Sacred and the Secular in the Vatican Museum

September 04, 2015 Leave a Comment
The Courtyard at the Vatican Museum

Louis A. Ruprecht Jr. There is more than one way to look at religion, and more than one place in which to find sacred energies alive and well today. These are neither surprising nor controversial contentions for readers of Sacred Matters. The central idea here is that the traditional notion of modern “secularization” does not capture the realities of the ever-shifting religious landscape in the contemporary United States (and in much of the modern world, for that matter).

Continue Reading The Sacred and the Secular in the Vatican Museum

Jewish Umpires and Baseball Chapel

August 20, 2015 Leave a Comment
A baseball team's group prayer, February 19, 2012. Photo by Flickr user "arctic_whirlwind." Available via Flickr.

Rebecca T. Alpert On February 2, 2008, Murray Chass, a New York Times sports columnist, wrote an essay entitled, “Should a Clubhouse Be a Chapel?” He was writing in response to a phone call he received from Josh Miller, a minor league umpire who had recently been released by Major League Baseball. Baseball rules require that umpires who are not likely to be promoted to the majors serve no more than three years in AAA ball. While Miller was disappointed, he finally felt free to contact the press about a situation that had disturbed him deeply.

Continue Reading Jewish Umpires and Baseball Chapel

Friends of the Devil?: Deadheads, Religion and Spirituality

July 23, 2015 2 Comments
Grateful Dead Painting

Scott Muir In a recent Sacred Matters post, Gary Laderman suggested that the recent widespread celebration of the Grateful Dead represents both a plentiful harvest of the seeds sown in the countercultural upheaval of the 1960s and a harbinger of the future of religious life in a country increasingly disaffiliated from major religious traditions. Earlier this month, I surveyed 147 Deadheads. 

Continue Reading Friends of the Devil?: Deadheads, Religion and Spirituality

Institutional Racism: Anywhere, U.S.A.

July 09, 2015 Leave a Comment
Screenshot: "McFarland, USA" opening sequence. © Disney, 2014

Luís León The horrific events in Charleston recently have prompted a robust and much needed conversation on race and the privileges and disadvantages that adhere to it. While conceding that racism continues through individual animus, the political right advances the mythology that institutional racism has ceased, ignoring social inequities such as economic disparity, educational opportunity, incarceration rates, and even life expectancy.

Continue Reading Institutional Racism: Anywhere, U.S.A.

An American Reformation

May 28, 2015 Leave a Comment
John Adams

Amy Kittelstrom Somehow the word “godless” got hitched to the word “liberal.” The story of this coupling has something to do with the Cold War against communism, but behind this unholy union lies a much more interesting history of how some American elites led a very different fight against—well, elitism. Seven liberals, whose lives interconnected across two centuries through shared readings, relationships, and concerns, were so far from godlessness that the pursuit of truth and virtue dominated their lives. 

Continue Reading An American Reformation

Images of Muhammad

April 20, 2015 3 Comments
Mohammed receiving revelation from the angel Gabriel

Hussein Rashid “What does Islam say about images?” It is a question that seeks to understand religion through unitary and static prescriptions. At its core, the question is about what is “Islamic.” Such a question is problematic because a community of believers decides what the religion means. Because human beings are involved, there will be differences. While there are boundaries for who a Muslim is, such as belief in monotheism, the prophethood of Muhammad, and observance of certain ritual and legal obligations.

Continue Reading Images of Muhammad

LSD and the Rabbis: Conclusion

December 08, 2014 1 Comment
Logo Timothy Leary

Shalom Goldman As a culturally and politically aware New York City teenager, I knew that there was a buzz among bohemians and literati about LSD use. That in the early 1960s artists, musicians and poets were using psychedelic drugs was not exactly news. And that some of these artists were Jews (in a city a quarter of whose population was Jewish) was not exactly news either.

Continue Reading LSD and the Rabbis: Conclusion

Debatable Origins

September 26, 2014 Leave a Comment
"The Canyon of the Little Christians"

By Gary Laderman The presence and awareness of religion in the United States is overwhelming. We see so many different forms and variations; it plays a role in so many areas of social life. Religion is, indeed, an inescapable fact

Continue Reading Debatable Origins

The Christian cross, Texan identity, and “Tex-ianity”

August 28, 2014 Leave a Comment
"Christian Cowboy"

  By Ken Chitwood Crosses come in various shapes, sizes, and colors. They are ubiquitous in homes across the United States and pepper the abodes of people throughout the world. Odds are, you have one hanging in your home whether

Continue Reading The Christian cross, Texan identity, and “Tex-ianity”

LSD and the Rabbis

August 14, 2014 Leave a Comment
Zalman Schachter-Shalomi and Ram Dass

This article is Part I in a three part series. Click here for Part II and Part III. By Shalom Goldman The reactions to the death last month of Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi may be a sign that the conversation about psychedelic drugs

Continue Reading LSD and the Rabbis
← Previous 1 2 3 Next →
Follow @SacredMatters

Sacred Matters
@SacredMatters

  • Persecution, Martyrdom, and Christian Identity: 7 Questions with Jason Bruner – Sacred Matters Magazine https://t.co/JOyvdlfAHr
    about 1 month ago
  • “Female comedians in the Muslim diaspora have been responding to the stereotype of the veil through a “humor of inc… https://t.co/4sjGLUrDsT
    about 3 months ago
  • Thanks for the q&a ⁦@YonatShimron⁩ and ⁦@RNS⁩ https://t.co/p09Hlh9Yxh
    about 3 months ago
  • Tomorrow. Religion. Drugs. Stimulation. #sblaar20 https://t.co/PFucdq8jve
    about 3 months ago
  • “In the subject heading, I wrote: “Death, Drugs, Sex, Religion….”” What a trip. https://t.co/0Xfa00nOdL
    about 3 months ago

Trending Posts

  • My Joe Rogan Experience, Experience
  • Religious Exoticism and White Utopias: 7 Questions for Amanda J. Lucia
  • Introducing Don’t Think About Death: A Memoir on Mortality
  • Sewing Stories, Sowing Social Justice

Most Popular Posts

  • A Long Strange Trip: Exploring How Yoga-Narasimha Landed on the Grateful Dead’s First Album Cover
  • Mohammed receiving revelation from the angel Gabriel
    Images of Muhammad
  • Fight Church film publicity image
    Jesus Never Tapped Out: A Review of “Fight Church”
  • Taylor Swift GMA
    The Altar of Taylor Swift