Funerals are increasingly departing from traditional and somber rituals and assuming a more informal, flexible and celebratory nature, reports theNew York Times (Feb. 11). Nationwide, but especially in the American West, funeral homes are embracing a trend known as “personalization,” where services are tailored to individual preferences. A deceased person’s ashes may be sent heavenward via […]

As the Salvation Army attempts to reassert its religious roots, the organization is becoming increasingly torn between its religious and charitable functions, reports the New York Times (Feb. 2). The Salvation Army branch in New York has served as the flashpoint in the conflict. Long regarded as the least religious in its programs, the New York division […]

As the burgeoning world of evangelical fiction grows more diverse, tensions are emerging over authors who are “crossing over” from the Christian to the secular markets. The conflict is similar to the situation in the contemporary Christian music industry, where artists who seek to reach beyond the evangelical niche are accused of compromising their message. Charisma magazine […]

Aside from generating controversy over its alleged anti-semitism, Mel Gibson’s new film, The Passion of The Christ, has become a new ecumenical icon among American evangelicals. Gibson, an aderent to a traditionalist Catholicism that still views Protestants as heretics, is hailed in Christianity Today (March) as creating a vision of Christ that resonates with “all classical believers…In […]

Scholars and other observers of American religion are realizing that immigration is more likely to replenish the declining ranks of Christian churches than create sizable blocs of world religions in the country. In Christian Century magazine (Feb. 10), sociologist R. Stephen Warner writes that the “new immigrants represent not the de-Christianization of American society but the de-Europeanization […]

The Vatican and the Catholic world in general is taking a more critical attitude toward Islam, reflecting new concerns about Muslim immigration and fundamentalism, reports Commonweal magazine (Jan. 16). The change in tone was evident in a recent article of the Vatican-approved Jesuit newspaper La Civilta Cattolica, which stressed Islam’s “warlike face” and its obsession with conquering Europe. […]

From nearing extinction in the 1980s, Lutheranism is now growing rapidly in numbers and influence in Russia, representing a “serious spiritual and intellectual challenge to Russian Orthodoxy,” writes sociologists Sergei Filatov and Aleksandra Stepina. In the journal Religion, State & Society (December), the writers note that Lutheranism has had a long and (unlike Catholicism) generally unconflicted history […]

Britain’s Anglican cathedrals are in a state of decline due to a lack of tourists, rising maintenance costs and internal leadership problems, according to reports. Although of immense cultural and historical importance, many cathedrals lack funding and are facing mounting debts, reports The Observer newspaper (Jan. 11). While Anglican cathedrals are virtually required to remain open all […]

U.S. national parks are the site of new church-state conflicts, particularly as the government attempts to redress legal actions that are considered to violate religious freedom. The New York Times (Jan. 18) reports that church-state separation groups are charging that there is a trend of the Bush administration and its Republican appointees in the National Park Service […]

Rather than uniting American Muslims, September 11 and the subsequent pressure on the Muslim community has only resulted in greater divisions. The journal Society (January/February) cites the English-language Egyptian newspaper Al-Ahran Weekly which investigated the current state of the U.S. Muslim community. Although some estimates put the number of American Muslims as high as eight million, they are divided […]