01: The long-awaited updating of a landmark study of Catholic seminary education has recently been published. Under the editorship of Sr. Katarina Schuth, the book, Seminaries, Theologates, and the Future of Church Ministry; An Analysis of Trends and Transitions (Michael Glazier, Liturgical Press) builds on a l989 study she edited. A symposium in Commonweal magazine (February 11) brings together […]

01: In early January two journalists launched a new website, Beliefnet.com aiming to be an online spiritual community, resource center and new source for people of all faith communities. Created by Steven Waldman and Bob Nylan, formerly of Newsweek and U.S.News & World Report, the web site started with a $5 million initial investment. The site is […]

01: An important if little known trend in new religious movements is the transition of much of New Age spirituality into today’s Neopaganism. The phenomenon is well explained in a recent bibliographical essay in the Books and Culture Series (located at this website: http.//www.christianityonline.com/ct/current9C14/9C141b.html), sponsored by the evangelical review Books and Culture. The author, Irving Hexham of the University […]

01: Saints and Madmen (Henry Holt, $25) by Russell Shorto, provides interesting accounts of how psychiatrists and psychologists have discovered the importance of religious beliefs and practices. Shorto traces the current interest in the relation of psychology to spirituality to an upstart group of psychologists in, surprisingly, the psychiatric establishment of New York in the 1980s. They […]

01: “Convergence” is the new buzzword among those writing about the relation of technology and the rest of culture. The technology magazine Forbes ASAP (October) fills 284 pages in a special issue devoted to how all sorts of things are coming together: computers and the media, religion and science, biology and behavior, business and art. The 52 […]

01: In the new book Millennial Seduction: A Skeptic Confronts Apocalyptic Culture. (Cornell University Press, $16.95), Lee Quinby examines the influence that absolutist moral claims, coupled with a millennialist worldview, has on American views of gender, sexuality, and society. Her main interest is in how anxiety about the coming millennium casts every event, minor or major, […]

01: The magazine Skeptical Inquirer usually  deals with what is called “pseudo-science” — matters like UFO’s and other cases of the paranormal. But the July-August issue broaches new territory, devoting itself to science and religion (It seems the readers of the magazine have pressed the editors to address religion as well as paranormal activities). The issue features a […]

01: The recent criticism of the religious right from leaders and activists appears to have found a special hearing among younger evangelicals and other conservative Christians. This is suggested in the current issue of Re:generation Quarterly (Volume 5 Number 1), which is devoted to the “Flawed Tactics of the Religious Right.” Most of the articles in the magazine, […]

01: That a positive view of religion and the “faith factor” have found a place in mainstream American political discourse is demonstrated in the current issue of the Brookings Review (Spring), the journal of the establishment political think tank, the Brookings Institution. The issue features a wide range of articles: overviews of the religion and politics scenes […]

01: Christel Manning’s new book, God Gave Us The Right (Rutgers University Press, $19.95) provides an interesting look at the struggles conservative religious women are undergoing in their quest to return to traditional religions. Manning interviewed women in conservative Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish communities about their efforts to negotiate modern secular ideas with the demands and rewards […]