Soul Search

Rituals mark moments throughout our lives, big and small. They are also used to draw attention to political injustice and social inequality, to express lament and to reorient the participants in the ritual toward wholeness. What role might rituals play in our lives, and how can rituals be part of the reparative work in our society and politics?

How do you express your deepest emotions? Over the centuries many have turned to poetry, including the Book of Psalms from the Hebrew Bible. From anguish to ecstasy and anger to joy, how can one collection of poetry cover such a range of emotions and experiences?

Pope Leo XIV has just published his first encyclical, and it's on artificial intelligence. But for 75 years, people from diverse religious traditions have been thinking about AI and the ethics of AI, including from Buddhist and Protestant perspectives.

Swami Vivekananda made giant contributions to interfaith dialogue and interpreting Hinduism to the west. So who was Vivekananda, the young swami who impressed America at the end of the 19th century? And why does his legacy matter to young Hindus today?

Pope Leo is the first Augustinian pontiff and has quickly made headlines speaking out about war an peace — which makes sense, because St Augustine was a major influence on Western understandings of war and when it is morally justified.