The willingness of New Agers and members of the alternative healing community—heavily overlapping— to appropriate and refashion Native American and Asian traditions is well known. Now, however, the American metaphysical milieu is a channel for the spread of Mexican-American folk and religious healing to new groups, writes Brett Hendrickson (Lafayette College, Easton, PA) in the […]

The heavy involvement in foreign adoptions by American evangelicals, many of whom have developed a “theology of orphans,” may be a factor in increasing cases of abuse and corruption among some adoption agencies and the countries of adoptees, according to recent reports. Journalist Kathryn Joyce has been among those reporting on how “some evangelicals have […]

While the name “Kabbalah” may seem to be evocative of one specific spiritual tradition, recent research shows that there is a considerable diversity of what that name is labeled with, writes Gemma Kwantes (University of Amsterdam) in the latest issue of Aries: Journal for the Study of Western Esotericism (Vol. 13, No. 2, 2013). The […]

While Catholic schools still close regularly, philanthropy plus innovation within independent parochial schools are reviving Catholic education, particularly in inner cities, writes Michael Sean Winters in The Tablet (Sept. 21). In the past decade, some 2,000 U.S. Catholic schools have closed, often in areas serving low-income students. In cities, such as Atlanta, Dallas and Phoenix, […]

Is Russia undergoing an American-style culture war or are the conflicts embroiling the former Soviet Union over sex and other cultural issues more homegrown? In the Journal of Church and State (summer), international relations specialist John Anderson casts doubt on the idea that Russia has been strongly influenced by either American or global currents; in […]