Read an evening prayer specially written by Rowan Williams, forthcoming in September in FAMILY PRAYERS by Nick Aiken and Rowan Williams. More →

July 26, 2002

When a person has a religious experience, what happens within the brain? What kind of changes take place? In one experiment, brain scans examine the parts of the brain that are activated during prayer. In another, mystical and religious experiences are simulated by using bursts of electrical impulses. These experiments have created no small amount of controversy. More →

November 9, 2001

As of early October 2005, 30,000 U.S. troops had been deployed to the Middle East and Central Asia, and among them were some of the country’s 2,800 military chaplains. How do chaplains help prepare U.S. forces for whatever lies ahead? In particular, how are they counseling American military personnel who are Muslim? More →

October 5, 2001

“Rather than to try to change God, prayer should change us, should make us better human beings. That is the ultimate purpose of prayer,” says Cantor Abraham Lubin of Congregation Beth El in Bethesda, Maryland. We spoke with him as he prepared for the high holidays. More →

September 21, 2001

One of the consequences of the Holocaust was its effect on the faith of observant Jews. How could a just God have permitted such a tragedy? Today, the personal story, in his words, of Menachem Daum, a New York television producer whose parents were both Holocaust survivors. More →

August 3, 2001

Nowhere in sports — not in baseball or even football — is there more unselfconscious expression of religion as there is at NASCAR races. Robert Lipsyte of The New York Times talked with NASCAR chaplains and drivers about the place of religion in their dangerous sport. More →

October 20, 2000

“We kind of gave our bodies to the medical community, we gave the minds to the psychiatrist, and we kept the spirit in the church. When you come to worship on Sunday morning, you don’t leave your body outside the doors,” says Reverend Delois Brown-Daniels of Advocate Health Care. More →

September 29, 2000

These rabbis, cantors, and Jewish leaders from the Washington, DC area are learning how to make synagogue worship more spiritually rewarding. More →

April 14, 2000

These ancient constructs have some very modern advocates, and they’re not just religious. Secular institutions have also discovered labyrinths as a meditation tool. More →

November 12, 1999

  BOB ABERNETHY: Now our cover story, a special kind of spirituality. The word “spirituality” has come to mean all kinds of private experience of the sacred, in church and often out of it. Our story is about a unique … More →

November 11, 1999