The Fordham Center on Religion and Culture of Fordham University in New York held an October 2008 symposium, “Torture and American Culture,” which explored whether images in  U.S. popular culture “may have predisposed leaders to authorize torture or the public to tolerate it.” Panelists discussed shows, such as “Lost,” “24,” “The Wire” and “Sleeper Cell.” Read a […]

Ivana Noble is an associate professor of the Ecumenical Institute of ETF UK at the Oxford Centre for Mission Studies. She has taught fundamental theology, systematic theology, and philosophy at The Institute of Ecumenical Studies, Protestant Theological Faculty and International Baptist Theological Seminary. Her main interests are the relationship between theology and culture, ecumenism and […]

Read a Feb. 19, 2010, article published on CBSNews.com about Tiger Woods’ return to Buddhism after his extra-marital affairs leaked to the press.

Read a June 21, 2013, interview with Tim Tebow about his football career and his faith. The NFL quarterback well-known for his game day face paint inscribed with Bible verses.

Read a Nov. 4, 2012, NBCNews.com article that found that 1,600 pastors across the U.S. violated the long-standing ban on political endorsement by churches in October of 2012.

Najib Ghadbian is an assistant professor of political science and Middle East studies at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. Ghadbian’s research interests include political currents and media in the Arab world, Islamic movements, Syrian politics, and domestic and international politics in the Arabian/Persian Gulf.

John Savant is a professor emeritus at Dominican University of California and author of an essay, “The Saving Grace of Sport: Why we watch & play” in the Sept. 26, 2003, edition of Commonweal, an independent Catholic magazine.

John Rosengren is a Minnesota writer and author of several books about sports and religion. His January 2004 essay in U.S. Catholic magazine, “Let Us Play,” examined the relationship of sports to sacramental faith. Rosengren also had an article in the January 2005 issue on the downside of Catholic schools’ catering to sports.

James A. Mathisen is a sociology professor emeritus at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Ill. where he taught a course in sport and sociology. He is the author of an essay, “American Sport as Folk Religion: Examining a Test of Its Strength” in From Season to Season: Sports as American Religion (2004). He also co-wrote the book Muscular Christianity: […]