Generations of African slaves found a powerful way of singing through suffering in spirituals that were rooted in biblical stories and images.

“Deeply listening to what it is they’re saying." That, says young hospice chaplain Kerry Egan, is the most important gift she offers to the dying patients she ministers to in New Bedford, Massachusetts.

“We don’t treat soldiers that are atheists as atheists. We treat them as soldiers,” says Colonel Stephen Sicinski, base commander at Fort Bragg. But Captain Jason Torpy says army chaplains are "either ignorant of or hostile to nontheistic beliefs."

Read an excerpt from "In the Company of Christ: A Pilgrimage through Holy Week" by Benedicta Ward. She is a historian of Christian spirituality at the University of Oxford.

"We live by the work of our hands and also have some left for helping out those who are maybe less fortunate," says the abbess of St. Mary's, Ireland's only Cistercian monastery for women.

Director Terrence Malick’s new movie is a meditation on traditional Christian questions about evil, suffering, grace, and beauty, says Calvin College professor of English Roy Anker.

"There seems to be a theme in the album, not intentional, and it’s funny because for somebody who is not a religious person, God comes up a lot in my songs," says legendary singer/songwriter Paul Simon.

"It is our love that brings us into communion with God, not our knowledge about God," he says. "It’s the difference between looking at a photograph of somebody you love and looking into the eyes of someone you love."

Biological and technological evolution "is a spiritual process," says this famous futurist. "Entities become more godlike, never reaching that ideal but moving in that direction exponentially."

“There’s a fundamental misunderstanding that says religion needs to be serious all the time and gloomy and dour,” says Rev. James Martin, S.J., author of Between Heaven and Mirth, who believes humor is good for one’s spiritual health.