The academic study of Islam has grown rapidly in American universities, particularly since the events surrounding Sept. 11, but scholarly study has turned more toward defense of the field and sometimes Islam itself rather than engaging in new lines of research, writes Richard C. Martin in the Journal of the American Academy of Religion (December). […]

“There is a need to secularize society [in Egypt]!” said Bishop Yohanna Qolta, Deputy Patriarch of the Catholic Copts, to a group of surprised Swiss and Egyptian journalists recently. The bishop made the unexpected statement to journalists who had been invited by the Religioscope Institute to attend a week-long seminar on Media & Religion in […]

With a bomb explosion killing nine people on January 25, this month’s toll of insurgency-related deaths in Muslim-majority southern Thailand rose to 22. Around 30,000 soldiers and thousands of paramilitary troops guard the three provinces of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat that border Malaysia. At least 4,000 people have been killed and over 7,000 injured in […]

India is a Hindu majority country, but the recently opened Terminal 3 of the Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi, the capital, showcases statues of the Buddha. There are no other religious symbols at the airport apart from the Buddha, although Buddhists form less than one percent of the country’s 1.2 billion people. In addition, […]

India’s megachurches are growing and tend to be housed in huge, luxurious buildings, are based on networks of cell groups, and show strong leadership from the senior pastor, reports an article in Lausanne World Pulse (January/ February), an evangelical newsletter on world missions. The article provides case studies of three Indian megachurches (without reporting on […]

Since 1992 there have been two competing Orthodox jurisdictions in the Republic of Moldova. Nearly two decades later, the situation seems only to have contributed to a weakening of the influence of both groups, reports Andreai Avram (Moldova-Institut Leipzig, Germany) in the monthly magazine G2W (January). Following the emergence of a national movement in Moldova […]

“Is the honeymoon over?” asks the magazine Inside the Vatican (December), following a consecration of a Chinese bishop deemed to be illicit by the Holy See on Nov. 20. Subsequent nominations at the helm of “official” Chinese Catholic bodies in China have seemed to confirm the assessment that relations between the Roman Catholic Church and Beijing […]

The intensifying violence and terrorism committed against Egypt’s Coptic Christians show signs of spreading into Egyptian diaspora communities in the West, reports The Tablet magazine (Jan. 8). The current revolts in Egypt and the participation of Egyptian immigrants in Western countries in such protests suggests the strong transnational ties that exist beyond that country. Since […]

Baby boomers “embarking on a second or third career by answering a higher calling” are the fastest growing segment in theological seminaries, reports Time magazine (Jan. 31). While those under 30 are still the largest cohort of students—accounting for one-third of the enrollment—the 50 or older group has grown from 12 percent of students in 1995 […]

Religious publishing trends show a shift toward cutting edge theological books coming from evangelical publishers, as well as a growing interest in books on life after death and apocalyptic themes, reports Rodney Clapp in the Christian Century magazine (Jan. 11). In reporting on the meetings of the American Academy of Religion and the Society of […]