How did we learn to read? We might remember putting sounds to the letters of the alphabet and then trying to make those sounds into words. We struggled. We made mistakes. Then what happened? One day it all came together. We could read, but we didn’t know how it happened. Those words held hands with Read more
Just before his first speaking engagement at the UN, a young Catholic triathlete spoke to a television news outlet about his faith. “I am Gabriel, God’s messenger,” 22-year old Gabriel Cobb told OSV News. Cobb, pictured with his parents just before going into the UN New York conference hall added: “My faith is the most Read more
In preparing to come to Antarctica, I had been told this was the most secular continent in the world, filled with scientists on a mission for discovery. But for those who are looking for spirituality, there is a lot to be discovered here too. I have spent three weeks at the South Pole Station with Read more
How can you be a scientist? Don’t you believe in the Bible? I was asked these questions after introducing myself and my major at a Bible Study my sophomore year in college. I sat there confused for a few minutes before answering. I am currently at the South Pole Station in Antarctica with the IceCube Read more
When Billy Graham died in February at the age of 99, commentators offered duelling perspectives. Was the world-famous evangelist “the last high-profile bipartisan evangelical,” as some eulogized? Or had America’s Preacher started a strain of Gospel-infused white nationalism that still exists today? But if Graham is either the foil or forefather of current evangelical politics, Read more
Today Australia is awash with politicians who identify or are identified as Catholic. Anthony Albanese is a Catholic. Down the Eastern seaboard, the three state premiers, Dominic Perrottet (NSW), Daniel Andrews (Victoria) and Peter Malinauskas (SA) are Catholics. There are many other high-profile Catholics at ministerial level and as opposition leaders. Others, like Queensland Premier, Read more
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, many lost the habit of churchgoing after almost every church in the country closed down their in-person services and shifted online. But did some of them give up on God? Sociologists like Michael Hout want to know. Hout, a professor of sociology at New York University, has long tracked the Read more
As the supreme governor of the Church of England, King Charles III is expected to continue his mother’s friendship and esteem for the Catholic Church, but it will form just part of his broad interest in all Christian denominations, other world religions, and his seeming religious fervour for environmental concerns. The new monarch, who immediately Read more
It’s a message young people in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints hear early and often: You should get married because marriage is wonderful and family life is at the heart of the faith. The problem is that church leaders haven’t grasped the power of cultural trends in technology, education and economics that Read more
“Faith seeking understanding” is a good definition of belief. Faith is our experience of God and belief is our attempt to express that experience in words and symbols. When we attempt to describe our experiences of God, we necessarily express ourselves in the symbols, words, and rituals that are products of our culture. All of Read more