Some 88 girls and teachers fell ill at three different schools within a week in northern Afghanistan. Authorities believe the sickness is due to poison gas attacks, and have not yet identified who harmed the girls and teachers. The Taliban has been suspected but ...

An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith, preacher and writer Barbara Brown Taylor's most recent book, uses a variety of spiritual—though not always distinctly Christian—stories to demonstrate the surprising ways the spiritual and physical worlds ...

A Tennessee woman's decision send her troubled 7-year-old son, Artyom Savelyev, alone on a plane back to Russia this month with a note saying he had psychopathic issues has turned the international adoption world upside down and seems to have frozen adoptions ...

Biblical scholars have yet to determine if the woman caught in adultery (John 8:1-11) was a sex addict. But Nashville-based clinical therapist Marnie Ferree says the woman's shame and social status make her an apt archetype for women struggling with sex addiction. ...

What seemed like a simple statement about family togetherness has become a lightning rod in the world of Division I women's college basketball.

Robin Pingeton, the new women's basketball coach at the University of Missouri, said in her first press conference April ...

About 16 million adults in the United States practice yoga—an increase of 85 percent from 2004 to 2008—and the Los Angeles Times reports that both Christian and Jewish groups are incorporating the Eastern meditation practice into their respective faith ...

A new study published in Pediatrics journal concluded that breastfeeding has major life- and money-saving benefits. The study found that "if 90 percent of U.S. families could comply with the medical recommendations to breastfeed exclusively for 6 months, the United ...

Lady Gaga can make anything cool: Muppets as clothing. Bows made out of human hair. Pantslessness. Abstinence.

Wait … what?

"I can't believe I'm saying this—don't have sex," said the 24-year-old pop star in an interview with Britain's Daily Mail. Gaga, ...

After seeing an advertisement for the 8th Annual Garden State Film Festival on Twitter, I requested a press pass, thinking I might screen an inspiring film or two that I could recommend to Her.meneutics readers. The festival director suggested Newt Gingrich's ...

Out of habit, I still watch Tina Fey in 30 Rock and Steve Carell in The Office every week, even though I do not particularly like the shows anymore. Both started out as a fresh, humorous takes on usual suspects, corporations and the average American work place. ...

Last week in a coffee shop, a complete stranger felt compelled to show me an article in the local newspaper. It was an article about career-oriented Barbie dolls. The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reports that a recent poll on Mattel's website asked people to vote ...

I love a good story. That's why I've been captivated in recent days by stories concerning the Catholic Church abuse scandal. Not the newspaper spreads with timelines showing who knew what, when they knew it, and what they did or didn't do about it. I've read some ...

We don't watch much television in our household, but my husband and I both find ourselves wed to the computer. I was looking through a photo album with our daughter last week, and we came across one from her infancy. She's swaddled in a pink and white striped ...

I'll confess I'm not sorry to see Lent come to an end this year.

Usually, I enjoy the Lenten season—although perhaps "enjoy" isn't quite the right word. I love that the liturgical calendar has a space for penitence and discipline, for the work of preparation ...

I'd never thought much about plastic surgery until 28 years ago, when my then 2-year-old son bit through an extension cord and burnt his mouth. Even though we had no insurance, my husband and I found a plastic surgeon who restored symmetry and proportion to our ...