The Catholic Church in France “has returned vigorously to the public scene” after decades of invisibility, according to an article in the magazine Inside the Vatican (January). Opposition to a law on same-sex marriage and gay adoption is being led by the archbishop of Paris, Cardinal Andre Vingt-Trois, who started a controversy when he publicly […]
Current Research: January/February 2013
01: More than eight in ten of the world’s people identify with a religious group, although the unaffiliated are the third largest religious group after Muslims and Christians, according to a study by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion and Public Life. The report estimates that there are 5.8 billion religiously affiliated adults and […]
Quakers show loss at the center,growth on the edges
Quakerism is growing at its conservative and liberal edges, but showing decline at its moderate center, according to an analysis of Quaker denominational membership figures by Richard H. Taylor. In a paper presented at the November meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, Taylor looked at the history of the various Quaker […]
Separatist mood emerging in American Buddhism?
A movement of American Buddhists, mostly converts, who are seeking to create an alternative to the predominant white Buddhist community is emerging. The Huffington Post (December 11) reports that Buddhists from native American, Hispanic and African-American backgrounds have organized separate faith communities or “sanghas” in various cities in this fledgling movement. Known as People of […]
Conservative evangelical colleges turn downthe political volume
The strongly conservative economic and political tone of conservative evangelical colleges, particularly those most active in Christian Right causes, are taking the emphasis off politics and concentrating more on theology, reports Christianity Today (December). The change is most evident at The King’s College in New York, which appointed conservative writer and speaker Dinesh D’Souza as […]
New spiritualities of the afterlife
The idea of the afterlife is being reconfigured through the New Age culture of personal well-being. Extraordinary experiences claimed by proponents of near-death experiences and lucid dreaming provide material to support this redefinition, eliding questions of salvation and traditional notions of heaven and hell, writes Raymond L.M. Lee in the Journal of Contemporary Religion (Vol. […]
Hispanic–Islamic conversionsand convergences
Latinos are increasingly interested in Islam and, judging by the current issue of The Message International (November/December), the publication of the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), Muslims are returning the favor. The issue, half of which is in Spanish, is devoted to Hispanics and Islam, and cites the recent American Mosque 2011 study which […]
On/File: November/December 2013
The recent appointment of Justin Welby as Archbishop of Canterbury was an intentional attempt to smooth over the deep fissures that mark the world’s Anglican communion over the issue of homosexuality. Welby lacks episcopal experience, having only been a bishop for a year, but he makes up for it by his experience as a peacemaker: […]
Findings & Footnotes: November/December 2012
01: The Journal of Muslims in Europe, a new quarterly publication, is an outgrowth of the annual Yearbook of Muslims in Europe, seeking to provide a more frequent forum for research on the burgeoning European Islamic movements and developments. The journal is interdisciplinary and especially interested in addressing the imbalance in research between Western and […]
Evolving cooperation between secular and Islamic organizations in Turkey
Since the 1990s secular and religious rights organizations in Turkey have managed to cooperate, although issues such as gay rights pose new challenges to cross-cleavage partnerships, writes Melinda Negrón-Gonzales (University of New Hampshire) in Turkish Studies (September). While there has been much political polarization in Turkey between secular and Islamic forces, cooperation among human rights […]
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