About us...

Religion Watch looks beyond the walls of churches, synagogues and denominational officialdom to examine how religion really affects, and is affected by, the wider society. For this reason, the newsletter has been praised by professors, researchers, church leaders, journalists and interested lay people as a unique resource for keeping track of contemporary religion.

It is through monitoring new books and approximately 1000 U.S. and foreign periodicals (including newspapers from across the country, as well as newsletters, magazines and scholarly journals, as well as the Internet), and by first-hand reporting, that Religion Watch has tracked hundreds of trends on the whole spectrum of contemporary religion.

Published every two months, the twelve page newsletter is unique because it focuses on long-range developments that lead to, and result from, world current events.

Our "Current Research" section provides a continuing roundup of findings on religious behavior and attitudes from a wide variety of sources; We also provide first-hand coverage of major conferences presenting new issues and ideas from religious research.

Religion Watch is independent and unbiased; we do not give readers our views on what is good, bad or dangerous on today's religious scene. We give you the facts and let you deal with the issues. Each issue lists the addresses and dates of all publications cited so you can do further research on the subjects presented.

Religion Watch does much more than just summarize articles. To provide you with solid background information on the trends presented, we also do research, reporting and analysis on many subjects. A special section in each issue keeps an eye on new books, special issues and articles of publications and new periodicals in religion. We also profile new organizations and prominent figures that are making an impact on the religious scene that you may not know about. To keep the newsletter timely, we send it by first-class mail to your mailbox. We also offer a popular e-mail version, which features links to many of the publications we cite.

Aside from featuring introductory information about Religion Watch, this web site includes the Religion Watch Archives. This special feature gives readers access to hundreds of articles published in Religion Watch. The articles are searchable by subject -- creating a helpful research tool for students of contemporary religion.

Since January 2008, Religion Watch has become a publication of Religioscope Institute.

Picture credit: © 2007 Narvikk, "Reading the Quran", http://www.oc-photo.net, via iStockphoto.