Catherine Hezser is a professor of Jewish studies at SOAS in London. Hezser has examined the ways in which ancient Jews and Christians imagined outer space, the heavens and their occupants and space travel, distinguishing between but also linking this world to another, higher sphere.

The Vatican Observatory (Specola Vaticana) is an astronomical research and educational institution supported by the Vatican. Originally based in Rome, the Observatory is now headquartered in Castel Gandolfo, Italy, and at the Mount Graham International Observatory in the Pinaleño Mountains in southeast Arizona. Journalists can contact via the email here or direct questions to individual […]

Jaimie Gunderson is a religious studies professor at the University of Pittsburgh, whose research interests include Christian origins, Christianity in late antiquity, New Testament, Greco-Roman religions, material religion, affect theory and UFOs.

Mary-Jane Rubenstein writes about the mythological assumptions beneath contemporary science and philosophy. She teaches religion and science studies at Wesleyan University and is the author of Astrotopia: The Dangerous Religion of the Corporate Space Race.

Cometan, also known as Brandon Reece Taylorian, is an associate lecturer in the Lancaster University Law School and an associate lecturer at the University of Central Lancashire, where he teaches on the program Religion, Culture and Society. His research interests include freedom of religion or belief, new religious movements, traditionalist Catholicism and the relationship between […]

Stephen “Cue” Jn-Marie is a former Virgin Records rapper, turned evangelist, activist and organizer, who left the music industry in 1994 to become a pastor. He is founder of the Row —  also known as “the Church Without Walls”, or as some of our parishioners like to call it, “the Street Church” — in Los Angeles’ […]

Khalil Andani is a religion professor at Augustana College in Illinois. His research focuses on Quranic studies, Islamic intellectual history, Shiite Islam and Sufism. In particular, he is an expert on Shiite Ismaili perspectives, Islamic history and thought, Islamic ethics and Christian-Muslim interactions.

This edition of ReligionLink provides insight on Pope Francis’ tenure in the papal office, in-depth information about how a new pope will be chosen and leads on who the top contenders are to lead more than 1.3 billion Roman Catholics worldwide.

In this edition of ReligionLink, we provide resources, background, related stories and relevant sources for reporting on how religion, higher rent and an increase in unhoused families and individuals intersect.