religion

Nestled among a crowd of Methodist, Greek Orthodox, Baptist, Episcopal, Pentecostal, and Catholic leaders, Columbia University Chaplain Jewelnel Davis sat in St. Joseph’s Church in Yorkville last Friday awaiting the start of a service run by Pope Benedict XVI. Spectator’s Scott Levi sat down with Davis on Wednesday to review what she called a “worldwide experience.”

At a Wednesday night discussion hosted by Hillel’s Orthodox student organization Yavneh, Barnard President Judith Shapiro engaged students in conversation on Jewish identity in the academic realm as the audience sounded off about attending college as observant students. In an audience made up largely of Orthodox students, Shapiro touched on questions of how to best embody feminism, pursue careers and families, and participate in activism and leadership, as well as the role of the college in accommodating observant students.

The apprehension in Roone Arledge before the Veritas Forum began was plain. Religious clubs sat in groups, and students examined the handful of pamphlets and questionnaires they were given at the door rather than facing their classmates.

As the intersection of politics and religion remains ever present in the news, panelists examined the role of religion in a pluralistic society at the Veritas Forum on Wednesday night.

Not quite conforming to the clichéd image of Madonna’s Kabbalist followers, a crowd of religion experts and spiritual enthusiasts shuffled into Sulzberger Parlor Monday evening to listen to a lecture, delivered by Rice University professor Jeffrey J. Kripal, on the rise of Asian mysticism in American culture.

As Columbia aspires to become a global university, one course transports students across the planet. Members of Covering Religion at the School of Journalism will travel to Ireland this spring break.

Undaunted by Harlem’s strong historical ties to mainline Protestantism and Islam, the Church of Scientology has thrown its hat into the ring with hopes of becoming a stronger presence in the neighborhood’s future.
• CTV NEWS VIDEO: Scientology

Two Episcopal clergy members, three orange-clad Namgyal Tibetan monks, and a number of Christians, Jews, Hindus, and Buddhists paraded down 113th Street Sunday to mark the conclusion of a nine-day residency of exiled Namgyal monks at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine.

Amid the religious and cultural tensions that have held the spotlight recently, about 200 students united last night to participate in an Interfaith Fast for Peace and poetry reading in the Satow Room of Lerner Hall.

As I See It