The evolutionary approach to religion is evolving itself, moving from the view that religion is a maladaptive feature carried over from primitive times to a more nuanced and varied look at faith and its role in the lives of believers. A cover story in the New York Times Sunday Magazine(March 4) reports that during the 1990s […]

The recent controversy about the documentary on the tomb of Jesus reveals less about an archeological breakthrough than about the growth of speculative biblical scholarship and the attraction of alternative readings of Christianity, reports Time magazine (March 12). The Jesus Family Tomb, aired on the Discovery Channel in early March, which claimed to uncover the bones of […]

There is a renewed interest in socialism among Christian theologians, writes Stephen H. Webb in First Things magazine (April). It is particularly theologians associated with the “Radical Orthodoxy” movement who have sought to develop ties with the economic left. Radical Orthodox theologians such as John Milbank and Graham Ward have sought to revive the role of Christian […]

Women priests are being reintroduced in Hinduism, in India as well as in the diaspora. In the current issue of the magazine Hinduism Today (April-June), Lavina Melwani reports on four US-based women pujaris, who perform the same ceremonies as their male counterparts. There once were women priests among Hindus in ancient times, but they had disappeared by […]

A study conducted by researchers in Shanghai on behalf of the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China concludes that 31.4 percent of Chinese aged 16 and above describe themselves as believers, reports the Chinese magazine Oriental Outlook, quoted in Eglises d’Asie (Feb. 16). This figure is three times higher than the official one. The results […]

A distinctive form of Buddhism is taking shape in India as a new wave of dalit or untouchables are embracing the religion, often en masse. The Buddhist magazine Tricycle (Spring) notes that since 1957, untouchables have been converting to Buddhism, representing a symbolic break from the caste system as much as devotion to their new religion. Many […]

Crypto-Christians in Kosovo have now started to practice their faith openly again after centuries of living double lives, reports Albert Ramaj, director of the Swiss-based Albanian Institute (http://www.albanisches-institut.ch) in the March issue of Glaube in der 2. Welt. Similar to what happened to crypto-Jews in Portugal and Spain (who pretended to convert to Christianity at the […]

Many observers view Ireland as becoming increasingly secular, but the large influx of Polish immigrants may slow or even reverse that process, according to sociologist Christie Davies. Writing in Chronicles magazine (March), Davies notes that both Britain and Ireland have experienced a large wave of Polish immigration in the last few years. In Ireland, the number of […]

Everybody agrees that Roman Catholicism has lost followers in France over the past decades, but how many? According to a survey published in the magazine Le Monde des Religions (January-February), only 51 percent of the French identify themselves as Catholics, with 8 percent of them going to church at least once a week and 9 percent more […]

The Catholic Church in the U.S. is facing another scandal soon after the priest sex abuse crisis as a growing number of clergy embezzlement cases are surfacing. Time magazine (February 26) reports that 85 percent of the 78 U.S. Catholic dioceses responding to a recent survey (from a total of 174 dioceses queried) reported embezzlement cases, with […]