Feminists and other Mormon liberals have faced new setbacks in recent months as the LDS church has sought to discipline dissenters and limit their roles in leadership and church activities. The recent excommunication of feminist Kate Kelly over her views on women’s ordination has been only the most publicized case of other disciplinary measures brought […]
Featured Story: Alcoholics Anonymous caught between ‘secularizers’ and ‘fundamentalists’
Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is showing growing conflict and diversity over the role and meaning of spirituality in its meetings, although the organization is likely to hold together, write psychologists Ernest Kurtz and William White in the current issue of the online journal Religions (No. 6, 2015). In the last few years there have been feuds […]
Featured Story: Conflict, violence, nationalism mark 2014 religion
Religion in 2014 was marked by dramatic and at times nationalistic and violent turns throughout much of the world—enough to revive the age-old debate about the relation between religion and violence. As is our custom every January, this annual review compiled by RW editors looks at significant developments of the last year with an eye […]
Featured Story: New church plants reproducing mainline identity?
Mainline denominations have recently started to emphasize church planting, usually in ways that vary considerably from evangelical church plants that are likely to perpetuate their liberal identity, according to recent research. A major study of 260 new congregations from six old-line denominations presented at the recent meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of […]
Featured Story: The Francis effect and conservative Catholic disaffection
Observers are saying that the honeymoon is over for Pope Francis, and now serious questions are being raised about his papacy that may point to further divisions in the church—especially among conservative Catholics. From the start of his papacy, conservatives have raised issues about the manner in which he has sought conciliation with Catholic liberals […]
Featured Story: Islamic State’s growth feeding off anti-Shia, apocalyptic sentiments
The rise of the Islamic State can partly be explained by the fertile ground they have found for alliances with Sunnis feeling discriminated against by the Shia-dominated power that has ruled Iraq in recent years. That is the conclusion of Patrick Cockburn, the author of a newly-published book titled The Jihadis Return: ISIS and the […]
Featured Story: When Muslim converts don’t stay converted
While the number of people converting to Islam in the West is growing, new converts face a variety of significant challenges, both from inside and outside the community, leading a segment to drop out after some time. “Apostates” among converts remains an under-researched and difficult topic, according to several participants at sessions on “Moving In […]
Featured Story: Vitality still marks old and new Pentecostal denominations
The Pentecostals, at least on a denominational level, seem to be the one segment of Christianity not experiencing membership doldrums, with the Assemblies of God (AG) being a good case in point. The August issue of the magazine Charisma celebrates the centennial of the denomination with an in-depth overview of the denomination. It is difficult […]
Featured Story: ‘Evangelical Catholic’ politicians finding Republican vote
The two-decade alliance between conservative Roman Catholics and evangelicals on moral and social issues is having political repercussions, with several leading Republican politicians drawing on both traditions for inspiration. In a Religion News Service report (June 16), Sarah Pulliam Bailey notes that the surprising victory of Dave Brat in the Virginia primary is one example […]
Featured Story: Another Calvinist moment in American Christianity?
In the last two decades, scholars have spoken of both the “Baptistification” and the “Pentecostalization” of American Christianity, referring to the wide influence these traditions have on other churches and denominations. It might be stretching things to speak of a similar process of “Calvinization” occurring, but there is little doubt that Calvinist beliefs and practices […]