The Vault is Slate’s history blog. Like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter @slatevault, and find us on Tumblr. Find out more about what this space is all about here. This 1854 map of world religion ...

This is just one map of one small town, but it shows a microcosm of religion in the USA. Carbondale, Illinois is a college town of about 25,000 people with about 70 religious communities, almost all ...

Co-authored with Dr. Ken Baskin. Few things are more important to human psychology writ large than religion. But what does this concept really mean? The more deeply we investigate it, the odder ...