A new entrepreneurialism sweeping across parts of Turkey has been dubbed “Islamic Calvinism” for its combination of Islamic piety with pro-free market and business attitudes. BBC News (March 13) reports that this trend particularly applies to Kayseri and a handful of other cities in the region of Anatolia that are industrializing at a rapid rate. Unlike the […]

The New York Times Magazine (March 12) reports that counter-terrorism specialists, both in the government and academia, are using a theory known as network analysis to identify potential Islamic extremists. Network or “link analysis” involves searching for associations and other connections between seemingly disparate individuals and groups. Terrorists may be located by identifying “network hubs” or centers […]

The recent admission of evangelical churches into France’s mainstream Protestant federation shows the new influence of evangelicalism in the country. On March 11, the Seventh-Day Adventist Church in France became a full member of the mainstream French Protestant Federation (FPF). At the same time, one Evangelical and three Pentecostal/Charismatic groups (including the Foursquare Gospel Church) […]

Enrollment at Protestant seminaries is increasing, but a shrinking proportion of graduates from these schools are moving into the pastorate, reports the New York Times (March 17). Those seminarians especially from mainline denominations are being drawn to a wide range of professions, from academia to social work to hospital chaplaincy. Evangelical Protestant seminarians often end up in […]

 Although they still mainly attract those of African American descent, African-based churches have been making inroads in the US for the past decade, reports Rachel Zoll in the Associated Press (March 26). This represents one unexpected aspect of the trend toward the “browning of Christian proselytism” evidenced last year by Paul Freston at an international conference in […]

Although black-Jewish relations are reported to have fallen on hard times, a segment of the black church is moving toward closer support of Israel, reports Moment magazine (April). The numbers are small but there are signs that African-Americans are becoming more favorable to the “Christian Zionism” strong among white evangelicals, writes Evan Goldstein. A rising star in […]

Although Russian Orthodox believers have been moving toward a greater acceptance of democracy, theirl church may be losing much of its independence under the administration of Vladimir Putin. Such contradictory and conflicting findings were commonplace in presentations at a late March conference in New York on the state of Orthodoxy in “post-atheist” Russia that RW attended. Samuel […]

The Nagaland region of India is becoming a powerhouse of cross-cultural missions in Central Asia, reports Christianity Today (February). India’s northeastern state on the border of Burma had a history of tribal warfare and headhunting, but today some 60 percent of Nagaland’s population is Baptist. The state is rapidly changing from a mission field to a sender […]

At least one-third of the 60 million members of the Chinese Communist Party belong to a religious organization, reports the Catholic news agency AsiaNews (Feb. 28). Moreover, half of those believers are reported to be regular participants in religious services, despite the fact that a ruling issued last October prohibits cadres from participating in religious activities for […]

Islamic banking is thriving, even as it is becoming more standardized throughout the world, reports The Epoch Times (March 3). Recent surveys show there are 270 Islamic banks worldwide, holding more than $265 billion in assets. The need for Islamic financial institutions to comply with Shariah laws means that they must face greater obstacles than conventional institutions […]