Much of Mark Wunderlich’s decidedly sincere and dexterous new book The Earth Avails derives, as well as extrapolates from a little leather volume of common prayers, a treasury of highly particular, ...

What prayer is, and what it might achieve, is something that people of all faiths wrestle with. Contrary to the popular image of Christians asking God to provide them with a parking space, most ...

Most of what now passes with us for religion and philosophy will be replaced by poetry. —Matthew Arnold, “The Study of Poetry” Prayers and poems share an uncanny family resemblance. In fact, they look ...

I've been thinking lately about what is only able to be said through poetry. How a poem can transform a moment into a feeling and make a memory come to life. Poetry has an incantatory effect; I read a ...

In her introduction to “A Hidden Light,” Susannah Heschel notes that Hasidism offers “teachings, texts, and stories… as guides” to the inner journey of transformation. This book, by Rabbi Zalman ...

Following the November 13 attacks on Paris, which killed 127 and wounded about 200 more, Indian blogger Karuna Ezara Parikh posted an emotional poem to her Instagram account explaining why she ...

in another house another havoc had half-taken. Grace is not consciousness, nor is it beyond. peace came to the hinterlands of our minds, too remote to know, but peace nonetheless. Christian Wiman is ...

George Clooney is wading into the controversy surrounding NFL players kneeling in protest during the national anthem, writing in a poem, “when I pray, I kneel.” The actor penned the 10-line prayer in ...