Faith

Theologians say the answer to why psalms are so powerful lies in their variety, emotional honesty and occasional bluntness.

Ronald Smith, the new imam at the Islamic Center of Central Missouri, talks about his role in the Muslim community, how he found faith and the influence his wife has had on his life.

Islam is one of the world’s fastest growing religions.

The Rev. Thomas Ragsdell baptized four children and two adults.

Purim is a Jewish holiday celebrating Esther’s deliverance of the Jewish people from Haman’s plot. The holiday is celebrated every year during the Jewish month of Adar II.

The Easter Resurrection is more than a story for these two pastors: It is a hope for new life in the Rev. Bonnie Cassida's husband's body.

Easter sermons are like the Super Bowl of Sundays for clergy. It’s one Sunday that generally draws record attendance, and pastors like to deliver their best sermon of the year.

Shanthi Mandir, the Hindu Temple and Community Center of Mid-Missouri, commemorated its second year of existence in Columbia on Friday night.

You may wonder who moves to Manhattan as an undergraduate and spends Saturday night parsing the words of a theologian. Here’s a guess: no one except the students of the King’s College, an evangelical college located in the Empire State Building.

NEW YORK — King’s College’s style of “new Christian urbanism,” as its provost calls it, frowns on hard-sell proselytizing. But students at the King’s have been known to strike up conversations in the city with strangers, hoping, at minimum, to change their mind about evangelicals.

A portrait of Mother Teresa hangs in the foyer of the Central Missouri Food Bank. It bears an inscription underneath the photo that reads, “Unless life is lived for others it is not worthwhile.” This religious message of service is the food bank’s guiding principle.

The Central Missouri Food Bank is a hunger relief organization serving 145 agencies in 33 counties through the distribution of free food, according to its Web site. The bank relies largely on volunteer efforts in its day-to-day operations, many of whom say volunteering is part of their faith.

As the head of the Roman Catholic Church, the pope is the supreme earthly authority on all matters of faith for nearly 1 billion people worldwide.

An ancient tradition creates some controversy within and outside of the Jewish community.

The Central Missouri Food Bank gets 57 percent of its revenues from donations.

The Islamic Center of Central Missouri has hired a new imam after a seven-month search.

“Touched by an Angel,” “Dogma” and “City of Angels” all depict representations of angels. But as models of the spiritual, the religious and the miraculous, angels are not just movie creations.

The way Jacquie Sullivan sees it, the motto “In God We Trust” is more about patriotism than religion.

So when the Bakersfield, Calif., councilwoman heard on a Christian radio station in 2001 that protesters on the East Coast were trying to remove the phrase from public buildings, she considered it her civic duty to reverse the trend.

The St. Francis Catholic Worker Community in Columbia has adopted new regulations for its financial dealings since accusations of embezzlement were made against one of the group's co-founders.