March—April, 2012 (Vol. 27, No. 5-6)

Renewal movements are playing a greater role in Eastern Orthodoxy throughout the world, although their track record in generating change in churches is uneven, writes Paul Ladouceur in the current issue of St. Vladimir’s Theological Quarterly (55:4, 2011).

The two main structures in Eastern Orthodox churches are the parish and the monastery, but in the last century there have been many movements seeking to counter the effects of communism, fascism, and, more recently, secularism. The Greek Orthodox renewal movement Zoe was instrumental in reviving religious life among the laity in Greece in the 1940s and 1950s, but lost much of its influence due to internal problems and the rising indifference and materialism of Greeks.

In contrast, the Orthodox Youth Movement (MJO) in the Middle East’s ability to complement the clergy and parishes rather than substitute for them (as in the case of Zoe) and its role in publishing has made it a major force in the churches of Lebanon, Syria and the diaspora, and the most successful renewal movement in Orthodoxy. In Russia, Orthodox brotherhoods or fraternities have themselves been revived since the fall of communism.

On one hand, the brotherhoods have been instrumental in strengthening the weak condition of the Orthodox Church, even starting a university and a range of media. On the other, several of the brotherhoods have veered into “fundamentalism,” espousing nationalism and anti-Semitism and fanning these elements in the wider church. In contrast, the revival of the Martha and Mary House of Mercy in Moscow and a related religious order in Belarussia has combined monastic practices with social ministry under the work of deaconesses.

There are also uncanonical Orthodox groups that have experimented with new communities, such as Bethanie in France experimenting with a Gallican (early French) rite and serving as a retreat center for various Christians and spiritual seekers (not common in Orthodoxy). Ladouceur concludes that these attempts at renewal remain controversial for churches because they are fleshing out a “theology of the laity” that remains undeveloped in Orthodoxy.

(St. Vladimir’s Theological Quarterly, 575 Scarsdale Road, Crestwood, NY 10707-1699)

An alliance between Muslims and political leftists in Britain during the last decade on anti-war and economic issues has largely dissolved due to a clash of world-views, writes Sarah Glynn in the journal Ethnicities (February 17, online version).

Glynn focuses on the founding of the Respect Coalition, an effort that came out of the British anti-war movement, as a case study of how the British left and Muslim alliance broke down. The coalition was launched in 2004 under the inspiration of George Galloway, a leading figure in the Labour Party. Respect aspired to be an inclusive coalition and toned down its socialist roots, to the consternation of hardline leftists, as it sought to reach out to Muslims on anti-war and economic issues.

Respect managed to gain the support of the large British Bengali Muslim community and other Muslims, while trying to retain its white voter base.  The coalition did have an election victory in East London (an area with many Bengalis), but in general it did not find wide support, with Galloway being elected as Respect’s only MP (while fielding 12 Bengali candidates). But larger Muslim groups, such as the Muslim Association of Britain, were too pragmatic and politically astute to tie themselves to the small opposition group. By the 2010 general elections, Respect candidates had lagged behind others, all but dissolving as a viable coalition.

While organizational problems may have played a part in Respect’s demise, Glynn writes that Galloway and other leftists misconceived the strong Islamist nature of many British Muslim voters and activists. Defining Islamism as the attempt to infuse one’s politics with Islamic teachings, Glynn notes that the Muslims’ religious morality “supplants socialist understandings, and religious loyalties cut across class-based organization.” Although joint action over shared issues is possible, “it is impossible to combine the two different and complete worldviews of Marxism and Islamism,” she concludes.

(Ethnicities, http://etn.sagepub.com/)

Writing on the conflicts in the middle and the Horn of Africa in the Strategic Trends 2012, a newly released report of the Swiss-based Center for Security Studies, researcher An Jacobs admits that competition for resources and ethno-religious differences does often contribute to these conditions, but the crucial factor in most cases is bad governance.

One exception is Somalia, with thriving Islamist radicalism of various shades. What happens is more perverse: political figures play off ethnic and religious groups against each other for strategic purposes. While Sudan has supported Islamist insurgents in neighboring countries, it has also provided support to the notorious Lord’s Resistance Army, which has nothing to do with Islam.

In Somalia, however, religion is said to play a key role: the main characteristic is Islamic fragmentation, with different Islamic groups opposing each other. The absence of tionwide governance structures has created a space for religious leaders.(Strategic Trends 2012 can be read online or downloaded: http://www.sta.ethz.ch/Strategic-Trends-2012)

The personal ordinariates established for allowing Anglicans to keep their religious patrimony while coming into full communion with the Roman Catholic Church may become a new bridge toward Rome for “a whole range of Protestants Christians,” writes Fr. Dwight Longenecker in the magazine Inside the Vatican (February).

Ordinariates have now been erected in England and the U.S., with another one to follow in Australia. Among all three, they will gather over 100 clergy and “several thousand lay people.” Later “waves” of converts are expected. But Longenecker believes that the ordinariates will welcome more than a small number of conservative Anglo-Catholics as the Anglican Church will change beyond recognition, leaving no other option for Anglicans than to join the Catholic Church (a majority of Anglicans are evangelicals, and not all Anglo-Catholics want to be Catholics, while the liberal wing of the Anglican has no interest).

But he sees another alternative: noting that a group of “conservative, liturgically-minded” Lutherans has already been allowed to join the ordinariate, Longenecker claims that the future of these new structures may be to pave the way for Protestants of various kinds to join the Roman Catholic Church. If Lutherans can join the ordinariate, why not Methodists, with their historical roots in Anglicanism? For this to happen, the ordinariates need not be merely conservatories of venerable traditions, but to see their mission as evangelization and outreach. “One of the best groups to whom they might reach out are American Evangelicals.”

Longenecker warns about simplistic views of evangelicals: many of them also have an interest in the historic faith and long for a church that is liturgical, “rooted in a deep spirituality.” When they engage in such a search, usually they first come across Episcopal or Lutheran Churches, but may find a modernist agenda. Joining Roman Catholic parishes—if they overcome anti-Catholic prejudice—presents other problems, as well as a cultural gap. According to Longenecker, Catholic parishes in the Anglican tradition might offer them an atmosphere where they could more easily feel at home.

(Inside the Vatican, P.O. Box 57, New Hope, KY 40052,

The strong ascetic nature of Jainism has not prevented a growing movement within the religion from appealing to yoga-seeking Westerners with practices and teachings stressing a healthy mind and body, writes Andrea Jain in the journal Nova Religio (February).

The Jain religion has traditionally emphasized spiritual enlightenment through renunciation of the body and its senses, as well as withdrawal from society. A Jain reform movement, known as the Terepanth, has sought to recover a “lost” form of Jain yoga while adapting the religion to the modern world. The Terepanth’s main organization is the Jain Vishva Bharati (JVB), which has promoted this form of yoga, known as “preksa” in both Asia and the West.

Preksa represents a unique departure from the ascetic teachings of Jainism in that it involves an affirmation of the body and includes a plan of diet and exercise “aimed at worldly goals in regard to health.”In order to spread Jain yoga, the Terepanth introduced another innovation in the religion in the 1980s as it relaxed the monastic lifestyle for certain members, allowing them to skirt the traditional restrictions on travel and have closer relations with the laity. While the JVB centers in India may view yoga as a means of attaining a separation from the body, in the U.S. and the UK preksa caters to a “yoga market” concerned with health and emotional well-being. Preksa teachers in the West rarely address Jain teachings or even hold meditation classes.

These JVB centers show the shift from “ascetic body work for the sake of the body’s subordination to the soul … to body maintenance as a legitimate in itself.” JVB marketing strategies include using English in their literature, a new emphasis on teachers having master’s degrees from JBV University in India, and discarding traditional Jain monastic trappings such as the mouth shield. Jain concludes that this form of Jainism still upholds the principle of withdrawal from society and the limitation of bodily action for monastic members while including the “dual ideal” of the healthy body.

(Nova Religio, 2000 Center St., Suite 303, Berkeley, CA 94704)

Buddhism in the U.S. today represents a global religion more than an American one, particularly as it is entering a stage of “hybridity,” according to Buddhist scholar Charles Prebish.

In an interview with the Buddhist magazine Tricycle (Spring), Prebish says that talk of developing an “American Buddhism” is “almost passé … Buddhist communities everywhere in North America are now so networked that I started using the phrase ‘global Buddhist dialogue’ to talk about a worldwide Buddhism rather than just an Asian, European, or American one …. In the seventies and even into the eighties and early nineties, groups were distinctly one tradition or another.

Today lots of communities combine bits and pieces of various Buddhist traditions into something that works for them. For example, you might have a group that picks up bits and pieces of doctrine and practice from Zen and also from Theravada.”Prebish cites such ecumenical groups as the American Buddhist Council and the Buddhist Sangha Council of Southern California as getting the ball rolling for various Buddhist groups to talk together, even if they were not altogether successful in creating unity.

An example of the new hybridity can be seem in Zen Buddhists, who had little to do with ethnic Buddhists, and the Japanese-based Buddhist Churches of America sharing a temple called the Cleveland Buddhist Temple. Prebish adds that the older divisions made between ethnic and “white” (or convert) Buddhism are also no longer so strong, since regional differences are increasingly important.

(Tricycle, 1115 Broadway, Suite 1113, New York, NY 10019)

Black theology has often occupied the radical edge of the Christian theological spectrum, but a spate of recent books by black theologians suggests that it is reaching back to more traditional sources, reports the Christian Century magazine (February 8).

Such theological works as Willie Jennings’ The Christian Imagination, J. Kameron Carter’s Race: A Theological Account and Brian Bantum’s Redeeming Mulatto “represent a major theological shift that will—if taken as seriously as it deserves—change the face not only of black theology but theology as a whole,” Jonathan Tran writes.

These books rely heavily on dogmatic texts from the patristic period to the Reformation. This is a long way from James Cone, the dean of black theology, who charged that American theology was racist and that African Americans needed to disconnect themselves from the Anglo-European white tradition and develop their own voice with their own sources.

Tran notes that many Western theologians in the last few decades have returned to premodern theological sources. “However, what is quite surprising is that persons of color and women are increasingly finding their way to these sources.” He adds that this shift will make it harder for the rest of Christians to ignore these contributions and dismiss them as just theological versions of radical black social and political thought, as many did with black theology. The new line of thought implicates the Enlightenment in a universalizing mission that led to colonialism and slave holding.

Jennings, Carter and Bantum view the source of racism as the early church heresy that sought to overturn the Jewish identity of Jesus, with gentiles and hence European Christians eventually establishing the “universality of whiteness.”

(The Christian Century, 407 S. Dearborn, Chicago, IL 60605)

The most obvious sign of the strength of the Catholic-evangelical alliance is the wide support of evangelicals for Catholic Rick Santorum in the Republican primary races.

Time magazine (April 2) notes that the force propelling Santorum to his unexpected victories is his “devout and driven network of social conservatives,” made up of religious leaders, anti-abortion activists, homeschooling advocates and Christian businessmen. What is striking about the Christian right support for Santorum is its high level of unity compared to previous campaigns.

In the previous presidential campaign, conservative Christians were split between several candidates, with Pat Robertson inexplicably throwing his support behind socially liberal Rudy Giuliani.In the current campaign, candidates were more carefully vetted, with about 150 religious leaders voting for Santorum by a ratio of 3 to 1. That Santorum, a conservative Catholic, has become “a standard bearer for a resurgent Christian right” has surprised most observers.

But according to a recent Pew Poll, 35 percent of evangelical Republican voters believe Santorum is a fellow evangelical,  more than the percentage that correctly identified him as a Catholic. Other religious factors may also be at work in the high evangelical support for Santorum, including the problems evangelicals have with Mitt Romney’s Mormonism.

The use of the label ‘emerging’ for describing a variety of congregations suggests similarity, but it actually covers a range of distinctive practices, writes Jason Wollschleger (Withworth University, Spokane, WA) in an article published in the Review of Religious Research (March).

The article is primarily based on case studies of three congregations in the Pacific Northwest. The emerging church is generally understood as the latest step in a transition from Church 1.0 (traditional and institutional) to Church 2.0 (contemporary) to Church 3.0 (emerging and missional). Culturally postmodern and blending ancient forms and current local styles, the emerging church is an outcome of evangelical efforts to reach out to younger populations.

It tends to be portrayed as a monolithic movement, but it is not. Wollschleger identifies three types of emerging congregations. The ‘emerging’ represents a notably distinct Christian subculture, with its own moral worldview. The ‘relevant’ congregations are evangelical conservative congregations engaging young adults. The ‘wilderness’ congregations are ‘struggling toward emergence’ without yet achieving it.Describing a congregation of the ‘emerging’ type, Wollschleger reports that the core allegiance is to radical authenticity, overcoming the divisions between liberal and conservative while incorporating aspects of both: rather than being in the middle, it would see itself as being at both ends at the same time.

Such congregations also reject the sacred/secular dichotomy and refuse to see the world in compartmentalized terms: “thus, this congregation is willing to ‘do church’ in a nightclub.” The layout of the sanctuary can adapt to the themes of each liturgy. There is room for individualized worship experience. Leadership is about creating a space for participation. Genuineness in worship, community, hospitality and egalitarianism characterize this type of congregation.

The congregation of the second type has a very strong evangelical foundation, clearly expressed in the preaching. Regarding music, its ‘experimental orchestra’ can be described as “rock meets Gregorian chant.” While it shares little with other emerging congregations studied, it has a congregational life that makes it appear similar from the outside and engages in ‘hip’ practices appealing to younger people (e.g. theology pub nights). All three types of groups observed connect with the pop culture, have a young leadership and reach the “missing demographic.”

Otherwise, however, they represent a spectrum of congregations. Further research shows that they gather people with different previous experiences in relation to (Christian) religion: for instance, many faithful in the congregation of the first type are people alienated from the conservative evangelical milieu in which they were brought up, while the second type attracts people with positive experiences, but looking for a congregation not clashing with their culture. This may not yet be the end of the road: “The pastors of ‘emerging’ congregations [first type] interviewed … indicated that they were increasingly looking to their denomination and tradition.”

(Review of Religious Research, http://rra.hartsem.edu/)

Religious freedom has become a new galvanizing force in the Catholic–evangelical alliance, particularly as Christianity is coming under new repression in Islamic societies and as orthodox Protestant and Catholic churches charge that their convictions are being driven out of the public square in the West.

Evangelicals and Catholics Together, an ongoing dialogue group organized by the Institute on Religion and Public Life, brought together 70 evangelical and Catholic leaders to sign on to its latest statement, “In Defense of Religious Freedom.” The introduction to the statement published in the March issue of First Things magazine notes that when Evangelicals and Catholics started in 1994, a “new era of religious freedom seemed at hand.”

Today, the authors claim that “proponents of human rights, including governments, have begun to define religious freedom down, reducing it to a bare ‘freedom of worship.’”  The statement focuses on how Christians are the victims of persecution in Islamic societies and that even the “Arab Spring” is likely to lead to further deterioration of the situation of Christian minorities. Aside from the repressive regimes of North Korea, China and Vietnam, the statement takes particular aim at Western nations where “coersive state power is being deployed to impose a secularist agenda on society while driving religious faith and practice out of public life.”

The statement cites cases in Canada, where evangelical pastors have been fined for preaching their views on sexual morality, and in the UK, where evangelical couples have been denied foster children. In the U.S., the statement says that religious freedom is being curtailed through courts and through legislation, including limiting “conscience protections” for religious organizations to opt out of providing objectionable services and treatments, such as contraception. The issue of providing contraception as part of the proposed national health-care system was (and to a certain extent, still is, even with Obama’s revisions) such a unifying force for conservative religious groups because it is seen as having a secularizing effect on the country, according to the journal Society (March/April).

“In the case of contraception, the legal right to its access has evolved from the freedom to choose it to the requirement to provide it (even at no cost) as a matter of public health. In one sense the policy recommendations of public health are a proxy for modern science and its alliance with government, thus implicating both in an enduring process of secularization.” The article concludes that “when it comes to the ‘science’ of sex, the alliances among media, government and science are so profoundly empowering of one another that it appears unlikely that beyond the claims for religious liberty (to be excluded and not coerced) there will be any kind of national conversation about these facts of life that does not stir the depths.”

(First Things, 35 E. 21st St., New York, NY 10010; Society, Springer, P.O. Box 2485, Secaucus, NJ 07096)