Culture & Religion

German Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière on the failed terrorist attack in Stockholm, his opinion of WikiLeaks and governments’ responsibility for protecting the Internet.

Repealing “don’t ask, don’t tell” was an important milestone. Achieving marriage equality should be one of the next steps, says Equality Matters president Richard Socarides.

Unquestionably the greatest Christian intelligence of his age, Newman’s thought has retained a relevance matched by that of few other Victorians.

Drop-out rates are frighteningly high. Even those who finish, moreover, often emerge from college with staggering debts, no technical qualifications and few basic skills.

The analysis of hundreds of billions of words in Google Books brings quantitative corpus research into a new phase. Is Culturomics a new field or just a new tool, the author asks.

Unwanted gifts represent a nearly $800 million waste of money, time and resources in Australia alone. The culture of obligatory giving most benefits big retailers and banks.

It seems the lesson must be learned all over again as a group of media feminists joins the assault on Julian Assange and WikiLeaks, or the “Wikiblokesphere”.

A survey showing that the U.S. is one of the most religiously ignorant nations on earth has prompted calls for a school religious education curriculum. Should that be a job for schools?

Using Google Books, scientists have digitally scanned every page of every book ever published. The findings of the ambitious and controversial project were published in Science.

What are the implications of NASA’s recent announcement of the discovery of an organism that uses arsenic instead of phosphorus in its metabolism?

Celebrities are increasingly fronting aid campaigns. But what role do they play in the development process? Is it right they gain direct access to the political bargaining table?

In an interview that has caused a scandal in Belgium, Flemish nationalist Bart De Wever Told Spiegel why the nation has “no future.”

Are the rise of right-wing parties and the increasing crackdowns on immigrants antithetical to European values?

Time Magazine readers chose Julian Assange as Person of the Year so why did its editors go with the safer choice: Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg?

Glamour magazine dubbed her “equal parts Mother Teresa and Rambo” in naming Somali Muslim Dr. Hawa Abdi “woman of the year.” She epitomizes courage and compassion.

A whole generation of only children is coming of age in China, notes the NYU professor. What will their mentality mean for business, government, and foreign policy?

‘Young Mandel’ is a portrait that is likely to rankle some but Mandela is in no need of more hagiography and Smith’s account makes the hero more fully human.

Defenders of copyright law often talk about how copyright is a ‘right’ for artists but ignore that at the same time it often takes away the rights of users.

How can we trust a literary guide who, ignorant of the terrain ahead, promises us it will be light and easy? Hillary Kelly objects to Oprah’s positivity charged book club.

Gone are the days when classical artists could offer performances of Mozart and simply expect people to show up. Orchestras and presenters must be more entrepreneurial, more risk-ready.

Twombly, now 82, is the great survivor of the heroic age of American painting, the generation of Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg and Jackson Pollock, who upended contemporary art.

Where does sad music get its sadness from? A widely accepted notion is that the interval of a minor third—two pitches separated by one full tone and one semi-tone—conveys sadness.

New York’s art world is the subject of Steve Martin’s third novel, filtered through the eyes of an ambitious young woman. For Martin, the new book comes with greater confidence.

U.S. culture is going down like a thrashing mastodon giving itself up to some Pleistocene tar pit. Either we don’t care or we’re addicted to things that discourage us from caring.

Since the worldwide success of Zhang Yimou’s “Hero” in 2002, Beijing is increasingly churning out glossy blockbusters whose production values (and budgets) rival those of Hollywood. This is all part […]

Ted Cascio on why “The Simpsons” has gone downhill and why it should stop glossing over the issue of racism.

Attempts to explain art, music, literature, and the sense of beauty as adaptations is both trivial as science and empty as a form of understanding.

Shanghai, China, trounced the competition in an international test of 15-year-olds’ skills in math, science, and reading. So what makes the Shanghai students special?

The announcement that Susan Philipsz had won the Turner prize—Britain’s most embattled arts prize—was rendered almost inaudible by the chants and whoops of student protesters.

Assange will presumably get Time magazine’s Person of the Year nod. Hitler and Stalin are past winners. It will be left for us to decide whether to file Assange under good or evil.