Religion Watch Archives

Monitoring Trends in Religion - From February 1990 to January 2016

Ukraine crisis finds Orthodox churches divided between east and west

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The pluralistic and divided religious situation in Ukraine has led its various churches to stand with the people protesting the government’s current crisis. Ukraine’s dilemma over whether to choose Russia or the European Union as its main economic partner has shaken the country, leading to massive protests in the streets. In a blog for American […]

Hinduism establishes itself in Continental Europe

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The Hindu diaspora is adding a new element to Europe’s unprecedented religious diversity, with temples now open in several countries, according to Hinduism Today (January/March). Still, Hindu temples on the European mainland resemble mandirs in North America 30 years ago: while beautiful, purpose-built edifices with traditional architecture are now being built across the continent, most […]

Creationist activism on the increase in Europe

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Although creationism is viewed as primarily an American phenomenon, there are surprisingly active creationist networks in Europe, and not all are U.S. imports, writes Stefaan Blancke, Johan Braeckman (both at Ghent University, Belgium), Hans Henrik Hjermitslev (University College South Denmark) and Peter C. Kjærgaard (Aarhus University, Denmark) in the Journal of the American Academy of […]

Current Research: January 2014

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01: Businesses based in more religious areas are less likely to experience stock price crashes resulting from not divulging bad financial news, according to a study by Jeffrey Callen of the University of Toronto and Xiaohua Fang of Georgia State University. The study, to be published in a forthcoming issue of the Journal of Financial and […]

Evangelicals rethinking alcohol prohibition

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Evangelical attitudes toward alcohol have become considerably more tolerant in recent years, judging by the trend of evangelical educational institutions lifting their long-time bans on drinking, reports Christianity Today magazine (December). Last summer, Moody Bible Institute, a leading center for training evangelical leaders, lifted its restriction on drinking for its employees, following similar moves by […]

Copts at home and in US at odds on Islam, religious freedom

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The growing numbers of Coptic Orthodox Christians in the U.S. and the ongoing pressures against their faith in Egypt has strengthened a brand of activism stressing anti-Islamic polemics, according to Yvonne Haddad and Joshua Donovan writing in the journal Studies in World Christianity (No. 3, 2013). They write that “Coptic organizations in diaspora see themselves […]

Megachurches remake themselves in the face of new challenges

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Megachurches have been seen as a pocket of vitality in an otherwise sluggish religious environment, but even these congregations — both in the U.S. and abroad — are facing challenges and in some cases decline, according to several reports. In the American Scholar (December), Jim Hinch, religion correspondent for the Orange County Register, portrays the […]

Findings & Footnotes: December 2013

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01: The growing phenomenon of congregations from the U.S. linking up with churches in the global South for purposes of missions, social activism, and cross-cultural understanding is given in-depth treatment in the new book Sister Churches (Oxford University Press, $29.95) by Janel Kragt Bakker. These partnerships or “twinnings” between congregations are substantial; Bakker estimates that 18 […]

A new era of political coordination develops between church and state in Russia

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Since Vladimir Putin’s reelection in 2012, there are increasing signs of a close coordination between the Moscow Patriarchate and the government in areas of social and security policy, writes Kristina Stoeckl (University of Vienna) in the Swiss monthly Religion & Gesellschaft in Ost und West (October). But the ongoing debate in Russia regarding who uses […]