Kyriacos C. Markides is a professor of sociology at the University of Maine and author of The Mountain of Silence: a Search for Orthodox Spirituality (Doubleday/Random House, 2001).

The Hartford Institute for Religion Research at the Hartford Seminary is an excellent resource and includes a database of more than 800 megachurches in the United States. Contact Scott Thumma, professor of the sociology of religion at Hartford Seminary.

Vanessa Ochs is the author of The Book of Jewish Sacred Practices: CLAL’s Guide to Everyday and Holiday Rituals and Blessings. She is a professor in the department of religious studies at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. She can talk about the role of the Internet in the contemporary Jewish dating scene, life cycle rituals for […]

JoAnn Heaney-Hunter is an associate professor of theology and religious studies at St. John’s University in Jamaica, N.Y. She is particularly knowledgeable about couples’ retreats and about Christian practice in marriage and families. Ask her about how retreats may relieve stress and strengthen religious practice for individuals in families or marriages.

Peter Casarella is a professor of Catholic studies at DePaul University in Chicago. He wrote the book El Cuerpo de Cristo: The Hispanic Presence in the U.S. Catholic Church (Crossroad Publishing, 1998).

Timothy Matovina is an associate professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana. He is an expert in theology and culture, specializing in U.S. Catholic and U.S. Latino theology and religion.

Cheri Fuller is a Christian speaker and author whose son, Lt. Chris Fuller, was a Navy doctor who was deployed to Iraq. She encourages people to organize prayer groups in their homes or churches to lift up service members and their families, and she launched a website for military families that provides spiritual and other resources. Contact Cheri via […]

Read an essay by Karen Maudlin, a psychologist specializing in family therapy, on how to talk to children of different ages about Jesus’ crucifixion.

Read the results of a 15-year longitudinal study released in March 2003 by University of Michigan researchers who found that children’s viewing of violent television shows, their identification with aggressive characters and their perception that TV violence is realistic were linked to later aggression as young adults.