HDS visiting professor Jocelyne Cesari asks: Will COVID-19 lead to increased nationalist exclusionary and defensive attitudes among the religious, or might it be the cure that leads to radical social reorientation with a new emphasis on collective solidarity?... Read more about Cesari on COVID-19 and Religion

On January 3, the United States launched a drone attack that killed Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, whom United States officials said was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of American and coalition soldiers. Soleimani’s killing prompted a retaliatory attack by Iran on an American base in Iraq, during which a Ukrainian passenger jet was mistakenly shot down, killing 176 people on board.... Read more about ‘Beyond Wishful Thinking’: Peace Building in the Middle East

Hate crimes committed on the basis of religious identity have surged 23 percent, the biggest annual increase since 9/11.

And while many have placed blame at the foot of political leaders and specifically President Trump for emboldening anti-Semites and white supremacists—very fine people, he’s called them—there’s another, equally troubling side to the story—one that calls into question the validity of the FBI’s own hate crime statistics and gives us more questions than answers.... Read more about Podcast: Why Hate Crimes Are on the Rise

November 11, 2018, marks the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I, a conflict that claimed the lives of nearly nine million soldiers and civilians, with more than three times that number wounded, taken prisoner, or gone missing. One century later, national boundaries redrawn by the war are still points of conflict and tension, particularly in the Middle East. But what of its impact on religion?... Read more about World War I: "Psychic Shock"