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Credit: Alex Lin
America's Obsession with Mindfulness, An Introduction to Islam, and More
August 08, 2014
Summary: How mindfulness meditation became a universal cure-all for the ills of the middle class. Plus, part one of our 2010 series on the key insights of eight world religions. This week: Islam.
Credit: Oxford University Press
Mindfulness: From Sacred Buddhist Practice To Billion-Dollar Industry August 08, 2014
Jeff Wilson says that the mindfulness we see today in corporate retreats and best-selling books has become nearly emptied of spiritual content. Now anyone can do it--just start breathing. So how was mindfulness meditation transformed from something passed down by Buddhist elders into a secular stress-reliever? 

Jeff Wilson, author of Mindful America: The Mutual Transformation of Buddhist Meditation and American Culture
Credit: Agencia Brasil | flickr
World Religions 101: Islam August 08, 2014
For Boston University's Stephen Prothero, all religions agree that there's "something rotten" with the human condition. But as soon as they start to diagnose the predicament, they go off in their own directions. In an encore edition of our popular 2010 series, World Religions 101, Prothero breaks down eight traditions into four questions: What is the problem that religion is trying to solve? What is the solution?  How do we get there? And which exemplars should we use as guides? This week: Islam, what he calls 'the way of submission.'

Stephen Prothero, religion professor at Boston University and author of God is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions That Run the World--and Why Their Differences Matter