Festivals dedicated to ancient heroes and heroines and modern saints, and private burials mirror each other, and after being lamented and buried, memorial rituals must be performed at the tomb, combined with the offering of material gifts, in order to obtain reciprocal benefits. After a certain period, the bones are exhumed. Depending on the colour of the bones—their unusual size and sweet smell also being important evidence of sanctity—as well as on the dead person’s status or power while alive, the deceased person may be a mediator in the literal sense of the word, through this second burial in the ossuary (where the bones are placed after the exhumation), or in a mausoleum or church. Both in earlier times and now, the living are dependent on the mediator’s successful communication with even stronger powers in the subterranean world, to assure the continuity of their own lives through the fruits of the earth. Based on the results of first-hand fieldwork carried out by the author since the 1980s to the present in conjunction with ancient Greek sources, the article will examine rituals dedicated to deceased persons in which pilgrimages and offerings of food and other gifts—such as ex-voto offerings—at tombs are central for the preservation of the community, including peoples’ health.

The most notable religious figures in leadership positions are overwhelmingly men. Women have often held supporting roles in religious institutions, which lack the prestige and privilege of their male counterparts. The structure, culture, and systems of religions have been accused of sex bias regarding positions and equity among members. This trend is no less true for the African American religious community. Although Black women represent a majority of Black church congregations, their membership and service have not resulted in restructuring reflective of their contributions. This invites questions concerning participation, recognition, and satisfaction. This commentary examines the role Black women have within the Black Church in the United States. It briefly explores the history, perceptions, various roles, and adaptations of Black women as religious figures within the church. Despite historical subordination and reduced visibility, Black women continue to be the foundation on which the Black church is built. They simultaneously nurture and challenge the networks and traditions that comprise the Black church, and as such, their power is more real than apparent.

In this article, the recent development of a popular and lay audience oriented “Roman Provenance” school of thought is examined both for its historical merits, and also as a part of a wider “outsider” historical and religious “research” phenomenon. These lay authors often pose as experts or historians (or otherwise attempt to gain some kind of academic acceptance) from the outside, while proposing their own, often radical, ideas about the past. Being both potentially harmful for misleading the public, and also an excellent case study for how academics can better interact and correct public misunderstandings, this article attempts to demonstrate both the need and how to address these various arguments from outsider religious studies persons, principally Joseph Atwill, Roman Piso and Jay Gallus, and Henry Davis.

This study examines the role of internet trolls in contemporary culture. It argues that an digital culture primarily based in anonymity and defined by sadistic humor took two ideological turns. As many others have noted, troll culture has become associated with violent right-wing extremism. However, much less attention was given to Gnostic religious language and behaviors amongst internet trolls. To illustrate this change, we examine Andrew “weev” Auernheimer’s political and religious history to show that he was influenced by the Christian Identity movement, Miguel Serrano’s “Esoteric Hitlerism,” and other extremists. We then analyze the sense in which trolls have formed a community, believe the religious ideas they circulate, and how conversion occurs—how people are drawn from spaces primarily dedicated to humor into a violent esoteric ideology which I call Gnostic Neo-Nazism.

Among horror films and books, The Exorcist has attracted a disproportionate amount of commentary from a variety of perspectives, ranging from gender studies and psychoanalysis, through to the histories of medicine and science. This article delves into two aspects of the book and film phenomenon to highlight its cultural significance, especially in the United States, and particularly among Roman Catholics. First, it investigates the background of the book and film and positions it within the type of ethnic melting pot Catholicism from which its author, William Peter Blatty, emerged and its vernacular beliefs about the devil and exorcism, focusing on the type of “Catholic supernaturalism” which Blatty drew on in writing The Exorcist and his own ambivalent relationship with this type of devotional Catholicism. Second, it examines the reaction to the book and the film amongst Catholic audiences, focusing on the extensive commentary provided on the film by several Catholic priests, all of whom found themselves pastorally and professionally challenged by the film’s impact in various contexts. It concludes by discussing how The Exorcist has become an iconic example of the dark side of the American Catholic imagination.