Madonna is an Italian-American singer-songwriter raised Catholic (born 1958), who has incorporated in her works abundant references of religious themes of different religion and spiritual practices, including Christianity (i.e. Catholicism), Hinduism, Buddhism, Sufism and Kabbalah among others. A scholar described her as "perhaps the first artist of our time to routinely and successfully employ images from many spiritual cultures and multiple religious traditions". Various theologians, academics and sociologists of religion among others have studied the figure of Madonna in their areas, generating both praise and controversy. Professor Arthur Asa Berger summed up that Madonna has raised to authors many questions about religion.