We worship God by remembering the gospel through preaching, teaching, singing, praying and celebrating baptism and communion. At this time when for Muslims the spiritual journey of the month of Ramadan is beginning, I address to all of them my cordial good wishes, praying that the Almighty may grant them serene and peaceful lives. The other two members of the triad were Ptah’s wife, the lion-headed goddess Sekhmet, and the god Nefertem, who may have been the couple’s son. A distinct school of theology often called traditionalist theology emerged under the leadership of Ahmad ibn Hanbal in the early centuries of Islam among hadith scholars who rejected rationalistic argumentation. He stared. “You are worried about Sunday school? “Yes. Sunday school,” I insisted. “Where,” I blurted out to my husband, “did these people go to Sunday school? My brother and I grew up in the same Methodist Sunday school. Same parents, same school, same church. We were confirmed together in the same Methodist church. Also, unlike Angels, and like the Supreme Kais, they share the emotions that mortals possess and are prone to the same revolt and rage, as they were once mortal beings themselves, which may cause them to commit abuse of their power, injustice, evil, and tyranny.

And though researchers may not be able to grow an organ as complex as the brain from human tissue, they may be able to use technology to do so — we could be headed for a future in which our minds could be downloaded to a computer chip as our brains give out. Bronze cymbals and bells found in some tombs may derive from songs and music played at the funeral of the deceased – perhaps intended to ward off evil spirits. Some translations have it “Love of money is the root of all kinds of evil”. The answer of about 75 percent of professional philosophers is that no gods exist, and the primary reason given is the failure of the free-will defense to answer the problem posed by natural evil. All are helpful. But none seems to get to the heart of the matter: Too many white Christians have a God problem. White clergy friends have reported to me that angry congregants have intimidated them after preaching a political sermon with threats to rescind donations or to have them fired. Scholars have offered sound theories as to the cause of this sharp divide, especially around issues of race and gender.

Scholars are not certain who wrote the book, although many proverbs are attributed to King Solomon. The president remains wildly unpopular among Christians who are persons of color. I sang it in Methodist kindergarten, the teacher displaying a picture of children of every color holding hands. We sang how Jesus loved all children. It is also the expression of a certain view of God, one that has slowly shifted the priorities and teaching in far too many American churches, and made it possible for those who would have once sung Jesus Loves the Little Children to join this hostile liturgy. Those who refused to embrace the new religion were compelled to seek refuge in the mountains of southern Ethiopia. But from 1980 onward, he underwent a revival in several strands of American religion including Pentecostalism, neo-Calvinism, traditionalist Roman Catholicism, and some Orthodox communities. Editor’s Note: Diana Butler Bass is the author of 10 books on American religion and cultural trends, including her most recent, Grateful: The Subversive Power of Giving Thanks (2018). She is currently writing a book about images of Jesus. In the last three years, Donald Trump has replaced Charles Darwin as troublemaker-in-chief in many white American churches.

Shock is not the right word when I heard the crowd at a Trump rally chanting “send her back.” There has been so much shock recently that it is hard to know what to call it anymore. So in many ways, art has as much to do with the artist’s intentions as with the art itself. He is a masculine Sovereign, and a winner-God for people feeling displaced in a pluralistic world. They only know of the world via shadows that are cast on the wall opposite of them. Perhaps it comforts us to know that brilliance comes at a cost, or maybe we find that suffering humanizes those rare souls who truly operate on a higher level. My brother, as an adult, traded that God for a tougher, stricter one who exercises judgment against all who refuse to bend the knee, a kind of Emperor-God, enthroned in glory. A mighty beast capable of supersonic flight and telepathic communication, Fin Fang Foom is a formidable opponent who has maintained a place as one of the stranger villains in Marvel lore for over 50 years.