Sightings Articles
![Two paintings side by side on gray backdrop. In the painting on the left, a naked white man is being bitten on the leg by a lion while his hands are trapped in a tree stump. In the painting on the right, three white figures look in shock and point at a fourth, who is wearing a blue robe.](/sites/default/files/styles/news_listing_featured_image/public/2024-02/paintingssidebyside_web.jpg?itok=tS7eCN3C)
Smart Sightings | Caught Between Text and Image
The juxtaposition of paintings by Il Pordenone and Noël Hallé reflects the conceit of the exhibition: the value and dangers of comparison....
February 2, 2024
![Black and white etching of a man fighting a lion and grasping at its throat](/sites/default/files/styles/news_listing_featured_image/public/2024-01/samsonlion_drupal.jpg?itok=LseZTrM4)
Samson in Gaza
The biblical story of Samson sheds light on the current war in Gaza....
January 25, 2024
![Red "Make America Great Again" baseball cap rests on an open Bible; a blurry map of the United States is visible in the background.](/sites/default/files/styles/news_listing_featured_image/public/2024-01/natilyn-photography-o7e-kl4o3ra-unsplash_web.jpg?itok=TSie31jw)
The Long Road to Iowa
Neatly dividing "political evangelicals" from "religious evangelicals" is an impossible task....
January 17, 2024
![A lone figure stands in a field of gray rubble among crumbling buildings, against a blue sky with white clouds.](/sites/default/files/styles/news_listing_featured_image/public/2024-01/damage_in_gaza_strip_during_the_october_2023_-_30_sized.jpg?itok=6zle6fGw)
Witnessing Genocide
The work of journalists in Gaza bridges a conception of secular truth-telling with religious witnessing....
January 11, 2024
![Yellow, teal, red, and blue colorful cloth draped on teal-colored wall](/sites/default/files/styles/news_listing_featured_image/public/2023-12/rim_email.jpg?itok=ZQUTe-sX)
Smart Sightings | Unfurling Color: Sam Gilliam's "Rim"
In an often bloody and fiery world, we must ask how beauty and devastation are construed, how color and valuation are apprehended, and how these considerations will inform us. At their best, this is what art and religion can help us imagine, interrog...
December 28, 2023
![Black man in blue postal uniform with hat and white man in beige jacket standing in a crowd, with a large red bow behind them](/sites/default/files/styles/news_listing_featured_image/public/2023-12/2jhkrxm_email.jpg?itok=pm6InEiD)
René Girard and the True Meaning of Christmas
“What’s all this violence? It’s Christmas…”...
December 19, 2023
![Three white men in black robes, two of them with red-colored sashes, walk in a crowd where people are holding flags and wearing shirts with the saying "Marcia per la vita"](/sites/default/files/styles/news_listing_featured_image/public/2023-12/2560px-con_el_cardenal_raimond_burke_cropped.jpg?itok=1J08602F)
The Cardinal and His Popes
The tension between Cardinal Burke and Pope Francis offers a window into the state of Roman Catholicism in the world and American religion....
December 13, 2023
![Square panel with triangular top, golden background, depicting Christ's crucifixion](/sites/default/files/styles/news_listing_featured_image/public/2023-12/crucifixion_website.jpg?itok=xPr4mDCM)
Smart Sightings | Mary Magdalene's Invitation to Redemption
This depiction of the Crucifixion is special in that its iconography focuses on St. Mary Magdalene, presenting her as a role model for the Christ-loving, repentant sinner seeking forgiveness—and finding it....
December 6, 2023
![Two men flank Moses as he sits and holds up a rod in this black and white illustration](/sites/default/files/styles/news_listing_featured_image/public/2023-11/foster_bible_pictures_0067-1_moses_is_holding_up_his_rod_email_0.jpg?itok=2RoPI2hj)
Emptying the Arsenals of Memory
The gap between contemporary and ancient conceptions of memory lie at the heart of the challenge in understanding Israeli and Jewish perspectives on October 7 and its aftermath....
November 30, 2023
![Abandoned building with crumbling gray cement exterior, looking out from inside](/sites/default/files/styles/news_listing_featured_image/public/2023-11/alexandros-giannakakis-1z6w-ufxvx4-unsplash_drupal.jpg?itok=LKZacHYT)
Structural Violence in the Headlines
Focusing only on direct violence obscures other, potentially more harmful, social injustices....