After living most of my life in a secular bubble, I've been asked to fill in as a producer for a religion-focused public radio show. Religious folk: please help me to do the best job I possibly can. What's going on in your religion or faith community right now? And what should I, as a secular humanist journalist, know in order to broadcast respectfully about your faith? (anonymous because my question relates to my job and employer, which could be identified from my posting history) [more inside]
posted by anonymous on Sep 12, 2008 - 27 answers

Has there been higher criticism (such as the documentary hypothesis) or textual criticism of religions other than Christianity and Judaism?
posted by Pants! on Jan 10, 2008 - 10 answers

I used to be a devoted catholic. I quit the church years ago, but still miss the spirituality. Buddhism should fit me, but I feel like such a poser. [more inside]
posted by davar on Nov 25, 2006 - 36 answers

In Neverwhere Neil Gaiman describes a Christian abbot thusly: The abbot had known that this day would bring pilgrims. The knowledge was part of his dreams; it surrounded him, like the darkness. So the day became one of waiting, which was, he knew, a sin: moments were to be experienced; waiting was a sin against both the time that was still to come and the moments one was currently disregarding. Is anyone aware of any Christian teaching that anticipation is to be avoided? To modern ears Gaiman's passage sounds so be-here-now Buddhist. I am aware of the passage in Matthew where Jesus says "Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself," which is pretty explicit, but has this notion ever been taken up and turned into formal doctrine by any branch of the church, or has any historically important theologian ever grabbed this particular ball and run with it?
posted by jfuller on Mar 20, 2005 - 7 answers