Visit GlobalPost’s Special Report, In the Land of Cain and Abel, which was funded in part by a grant from the Henry Luce Foundation

Five grants will be awarded annually to groups of institutions on both sides of the Atlantic. The grants will fund the organization of two academic and policy dialogues over a period of one year — one in the United States and the other in the United Kingdom or elsewhere in Europe.

Through these dialogues, Bridging Voices will bring together transatlantic academics and policymakers to share their expertise on topics related to religion and international affairs. Participants will use these dialogues to exchange knowledge and develop a more accurate and nuanced understanding of religion and its role in international relations.

These dialogues will also include engagement with the media and the general public.

Bridging Voices is supported with a grant from the Henry Luce Initiative on Religion and International Affairs.

The deadline for applications is June 14, 2013. More information about the program, eligibility and the call for applications can be found on the British Council website.

Applicants should propose both long- and short-form reports in a variety of media, such as online, print, radio, television, blogs and v-logs, and social media. All subjects dealing with the role of religion in the applicant’s country will be eligible.

The deadline for applications is June 28, 2013. The application form is available here.

Winston told the LA Times about the pitfalls associated with interpreting the Bible for general consumption — many in your audience have developed their own interpretations of the book and may be resistant to Burnett’s view of the holy book.

“After years of going to church, people have very fixed opinions, and they’re looking for things to criticize,” Winston said. “How do you even compress the Bible into 10 hours? The risk is whether your audience agrees with the way you’ve interpreted the material and with what you’ve chosen to include and leave out. It’s a minefield.”

Ahead of its premiere on March 3, “The Bible” received endorsements from a number of  religious heavy-hitters, including Rick Warren, Joel Osteen, T.D. Jakes as well as Maya Angelou, Tony Robbins and Focus on the Family on the secular side.

The article was one in a series MacDonald published on the fate of volunteer mentoring programs for the 2.7 million children of inmates once federal funding for the program was cut. MacDonald’s reporting was funded with a 2011 Knight Grant for Reporting on Religion and American Public Life. Read the rest of MacDonald’s reporting here.

Read about the KPCC’s partnership with the Knight Program here.

“It’s almost impossible to understand world events today without an appreciation for the role religion plays both on the diplomatic level and on the street,” said Diane Winston, the Knight Chair in Media and Religion at Annenberg. “People’s beliefs impel them to make war, seek peace, and give their lives in God’s name. When reporters treat religion as a subset of politics, they miss the heart, soul, and strategy behind the news.”

“Belief” will present regular insights into religious stories, trends and ideas from around the world, as well as the interplay between religious and secular beliefs. Read the blog at http://www.globalpost.com/globalpost-blogs/belief and follow it on Twitter @GPBelief.

What is the direction of the church, 50 years after Vatican II, and how do repoprters grapple with an institution that is eveolving to meet modern challenges even as it remains rooted in tradition?

Berry is an award-winning investigative reporter whose books include “Lead Us Not Into Temptation” (1992) and “Render Unto Rome: The Secret Life of Money in the Catholic Church (2011).

The event, co-sponsored by the Office of Religious Life, The Institute for Advance Catholic Studies and the Center for Religion and Civic Culture, takes place on Thursday, February 21 at noon at ASC 207. Lunch will be served. Please RSVP to Jillian O’Connor at jilliano@usc.edu by February 14.

View the blog and join the conversation here: http://spiritualitv.wordpress.com/

“Podcasts, blogging, videostreaming provide unprecedented opportunities for laypeople to study and learn,” writes Winston. “But that very accessibility enables what [Sister Catherine] Wybourne calls a ‘lowest-common-denominator eclecticism,’ or what sociologists dub a ‘cafeteria-style’ approach to religion. The ability to pick and choose religious teachings without reference to religious authority or community norms can pique consumerist tendencies at odds with the more particular objectives of the tradition itself.”

Big Questions Online invites leading thinkers to write on questions of human purpose and ultimate reality and, in turn, invites readers to join in the discussion with authors by responding to these essays online. Share your thoughts by visiting Big Questions Online.