Divinity

“When you do something very important, you change deeply and it’s impossible to go back. Every cell in your body is changed. This is why you have to be prepared.”—Pierre Liebaert, in our interview on rituals.

“You need to watch your flame and tend to what it needs, because the light’s going to go out otherwise. If you don’t give it the right environment—give it burning oil, protect it from wind and so forth—then it’s going to go out. Once it’s out, you have to just sit around and wait till it gets lit again. You don’t get lit on demand.”—Manjari Sharma, on guarding your flame.

Carolyn Chen argues in her new book Work Pray Code that Silicon Valley, one of the most vocally secular places in the world, has made their work into religion.

In her new book Everything Happens for a Reason, divinity professor Kate Bowler writes openly about her own confrontation with death, and how this fits in with the prosperity gospel.

There’s a certain pride that frequently comes with rebelling against the machine. Yet this impulse comes at the cost of a sense of connectedness.

Every night on Earth, we mortals gaze up into the vast universe of stars and planets, full of humility and awe, and ask, “Are we alone?” The answer is already all around us: no.