A posture of openess on the part of the current Turkish government toward the Alevis is taking place at the same time that this quasi-Muslim group is experiencing internal divisions regarding their identity in relation to Islam, write Bayram Ali Soner (Izmir University) and Şule Toktaş (Kadir Has University, Istanbul) in the September issue of […]

Despite the Netherlands’ reputation as a bastion of secularism, a “Bible Belt” of conservative Protestantism has maintained itself in the small nation, which includes a political wing feeling new pressure from the secular right, writes Phillip Jenkins in the Christian Century (October 4). The Dutch Bible Belt runs from the northeast to the southwest of […]

A special section in the British Catholic magazine The Tablet (October 29) reports on the signifiant decline of the “northern Catholic heartlands,” marked by parish closings and mergers, as well as declining membership. The heartlands, with its two largest dioceses in Liverpool and Lancaster, served a thriving Catholic population that was part Irish and part […]

The disestablishment of the Church of Sweden in 2000 has led to a weakening of the national church and, somewhat surprisingly, greater interference in church matters by politicians, according to Thomas Girmalm of Umea University. In presenting a paper at the SSSR conference, Girmalm noted that the Church of Sweden (COS) had been “too bound […]

Rising government concern about pluralism, social cohesion, and the role of Islam in Europe and Canada has led to the establishment of several large and unprecedented research programs on religion in these nations. When speaking of this trend at the SSSR meeting, sociologist Grace Davie noted that these national programs have “generated enormous activity and […]

A pan-ethnic identity is developing among Roma people, often with the help of evangelical and especially Pentecostal churches. Our recent study of a Spanish neighborhood with a high percentage of native Spanish Gitanos and Roma immigrants from Eastern Europe found how everyday interactions and involvement in Pentecostal churches give rise to a common identity. Previous […]

A new Vatican document calling for reform of the world’s economic and monetary system suggests the rising influence of the global South church in Catholic social thought, writes John Allen in the National Catholic Reporter (Nov. 11–24). The document, entitled “Towards Reforming the International Financial and Monetary Systems in the Context of Global Public Authority,” […]

The Occupy Wall Street movement has re-energized congregations and other religious groups on the left side of the spectrum and antagonized those on the right, but so far there are few signs that it is having a broad impact in American religion. Religion & Ethics Newsweekly (October 28) reported that a “growing number of leaders […]

While rumors of the Christian right’s demise are regularly invoked by the media and pundits, such obituaries are just as easily revoked as the U.S. presidential campaign season approaches. This is not to say that the Christian right has not changed: in 2011 conservative Christian activism appears more localized and attuned to charismatic and Pentecostal […]

In 2010, many Japanese sought to gain access to places considered as “power spots,” write Hotaka Tsukada and Toshihiro Omi in the annual Bulletin of the Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture (No. 35, 2011). The “power spot boom” is seen as a renewal of sacred sites. Surveys reveal that television programs have played a […]