The Center in the News

Asia Matters For America Initiative publishes new article featuring perspectives from Interfaith Fellows of Indo-Pacific heritage and underserved religious minorities.

In a dimly lit Roman Catholic church on a recent Monday night in Manhattan, around a dozen congregants sit in the pews watching the Rev. Michael Holleran as he leads them in what is known as contemplative prayer.

We are deeply saddened by the tragic death of former Lubar Fellow Eric Salitsky. We lost a compassionate, curious, open minded, and creative human being. A real mensch. Eric always credited the Lubar Institute’s Fellowship …

Journalism student Emma Conway interviews CRGC staff and campus ministers to capture what role religion plays on UW Madison’s campus.

Blog posts from two of our fellows this year, Ben Sevart and Kally Leidig, were featured in the April 2021 issue of Freethought Today.

I know where this is going, you may say to yourself, no more Christmas concerts, no more spring break over Easter! But I actually don’t have a problem with those things at all. I think religious tradition is beautiful and fascinating and so full of wisdom and joy. 

Judaism has provided community for me throughout my entire life but, to be honest, the online community thing just wasn’t doing it for me. Transitioning an in-person community into an online community just seemed so much harder for me than joining a community that is completely virtual to begin with. Then, we created Interfaith Online. Little did I know, Interfaith Online is what has helped me survive this pandemic.

Religion has a material side, a physical side and an essential side, says Ulrich Rosenhagen, the director of the Center for Religion and Global Citizenry at UW–Madison and an ordained Lutheran pastor. This means that materially, communities might celebrate religion with singing, liturgy and prayer. Physically, religions have a meeting place and religions have an essential aspect of their faith, such as weekly Shabbat for the Jewish community.