Russian Protestant churches are encountering a new wave of religious restrictions challenging their ownership of property, according to Forum 18 (Feb. 20), a news service reporting on religious freedom in post-communist lands. While foreign religious groups have in the past registered the most complaints against the government for restricting religious freedom, today the complaints are also coming […]
Science-religion dialogue unfolding in Europe
The network of groups pressing for a dialogue between religion and science that has mushroomed in the U.S. is now spreading to Europe, reports Science & Theology News (February). Until recently, largely secular Europe and post-Communist Eastern Europe have resisted the movement that they say smacks of church-state collaboration. But today are several major initiatives that bring […]
Buddhist boom in Brazil syncrestistic and apolitical
There is a “Buddhist boom” in Brazil just as in the U.S., though Brazilian converts tend to blur the line between ethnic and convert Buddhism far more than their American counterparts. Anthropologist Cristina Rocha arrived at that and other conclusions in her book Zen in Brazil (University of Hawaii Press), a study of “elite Brazilans” adopting the […]
Current Research: March 2006
01: Lay parish ministers in the Catholic Church in the U.S. have grown rapidly since the early 1990s and are increasingly viewed as a full-time ministry, according to a recent study. Lay ministers often work alongside clergy in local parishes, and usually take up the responsibilities of administration and teaching. A study by sociologist David DeLambo […]
NCC finds new funding and new disaffection
While still defying predictions of its demise, the National Council of Churches (NCC) has been significantly scaled-down and is finding new funding sources. An article in the conservative magazine Touchstone (March) notes that the NCC has escaped from near-bankruptcy by significantly trimming its staff and budget (from over $10 million ten years ago to $6.5 million today). […]
Lent rituals gain place in Protestant churches
Baptist churches are observing Lent and even holding Ash Wednesday services– complete with putting ashes and sign of the cross on the forehead of the faithful, according to news reports. RW recently reported the rise of Catholic ideas in the US, but it seems that the observation can also apply to Catholic rituals. This trend should […]
Catholics invest in local environmentalism
Although Catholics have lagged behind Protestants in environmental activism, that situation may be changing with the growth of local church efforts in this cause, reports America magazine (Feb. 13). The article cites historian Mark Stoll as saying that the reason Catholics have not been prominent environmentalists is that their religious worldview encouraged a sense of sacredness among […]
Cyberimmortality and the future of the soul
The greatest challenge to traditional religion is waiting in the wings, as science and new technologies are converging that offer “humans extended lives within information systems, robots, or genetically engineered biological organisms,” according to the Futurist magazine (March/April). A convergence of cognitive science with information technology “already threatens traditional beliefs that are the heart of religion, notably […]
On/File: February 2006
01: Christians for Fair Witness on the Middle East brings together mainline Protestant and Roman Catholic clergy and laity to counter the “anti-Israel” views found to be growing within mainstream churches. The organization, which includes United Church of Christ, Lutheran, Episcopal, Methodist, Presbyterian, and Roman Catholic churches, was formed over the concern that Christian-Jewish relations […]
Findings & Footnotes: February 2006
01: Sociologist Kathleen Jenkins examines the rise and fall of the International Churches of Christ in her book Awesome Families (Rutgers University Press, $22.95). While the movement’s strictness and control over members’ lives were its most publicized features, Jenkins focuses on how the ICC drew so many of its members–mainly from the middle and upper classes– because […]
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