Painting of "The County Election" by George Caleb Bingham.

The Myth of American Individualism

How the utopian notion of the U.S. as a meritocracy became so ingrained in the American psyche.

How Religion Became More Conservative and Society More Secular

Evangelicalism and the more liberal “mainline” Protestantism must be understood in a dialectical relationship to one another, rather than in isolation.
Statue of Jefferson in front of white columns of building facade

The Decline of Church-State Separation

The author of new book explains the fraught and turbulent relationship between religion and government in the U.S.
Close up image of a Catholic leader raising his hand.

The Untold Stories of AIDS and the Catholic Church

Amid all the suffering and death, friends and supporters arose in unexpected—often religious—places.
Muhammad Ali

The Religious Conversions That Changed American Politics

It’s never just about religion, says the author of a book about celebrities discovering new religious identities.
People stand outside the 16th St. Baptist Church in Birmingham.

The American Church's Complicity in Racism

On the many moments when white Christians could have interceded on behalf of racial justice, but did not.