The decision by Britain to pull out of the European Union in late June has been cited as having a wide range of political and economic ramifications, but “Brexit’s” impact may likewise have various unintended religious consequences, particularly regarding immigration and interfaith relations. The Tablet (July 2), a British Catholic magazine, looked at how Brexit […]
As in the rest of Europe, Poland is experiencing an upsurge in populist rightist groups and sentiment, with a measure of support from Polish church leaders, reports Commonweal magazine (July 8). The Polish church was in the spotlight in late July as it hosted Pope Francis and the World Youth Day, but there is considerable […]
The large number of Russian Christian immigrants in Israel are increasingly taking on an Israeli identity and embracing Hebrew language services, particularly Messianic Jews, writes Lisa Loden in East-West Church & Ministry Report (Summer). The Law of Return allowed waves of immigrants into Israel from the former Soviet Union if they could prove some Jewish […]
There is a growing interest in Sufism among Israeli Jews, often leading to new interfaith encounters that accompany this form of mystical Islam, according to the Washington Post (July 28). Recent years have seen the growth of whirling dervish practices as well as the rise of large-scale Sufi music festivals, Sufi study groups, and tours […]
The Islamic State (IS) is gradually dismantling its “caliphate,” but such a process of “de-sanctuarization” of the movement is likely to make it more decentralized and active in jihadist terrorist activity throughout the world, according to recent reports. The Terrorism Monitor (July 22), published by the Jamestown Foundation, reports that the Islamic State’s own leaders […]
The recent outbreak of self-immolation protests in the Tibetan movement for independence has been interpreted as nationalists’ rejecting of Buddhist teachings and the political authority of the Dalai Lama, but a new study finds Buddhism and its leader holding its relevance for this community. In the current issue of the journal Contemporary South Asia (Vol. […]
Even as other types of religious movements seem to attract more scholarly interest in recent years, the Jehovah’s Witnesses nevertheless continue to draw attention from researchers as a paradigmatic instance of Christian nonconformity and an enduring expression of organized millenarianism. Two new publications in recent month’s witness to this reality. Acta Comparanda (Subsidia III, €36 […]
1) The Moorish Sovereign Citizen Movement gained attention for its black nationalist beliefs and politics after adherent Gavin Eugene Long killed three Baton Rouge, Louisiana, police officers in mid-July. Sovereign citizen beliefs, holding that adherents can claim immunity from federal, state, and local laws, citing divine or common law, can be traced back to the […]
The Great Council of the Eastern Orthodox churches has come and gone without much fanfare, let alone media headlines, but the week-long gathering of prelates from around the world in late June did reveal fissures and fault lines that will shape the Orthodox future. The Great Council, held in Greece and planned for over a century, had not been previously held for a thousand years due to the schism between Catholicism and Orthodoxy and subsequent social and political upheavals and obstacles to Orthodox unity. For many observers, the refusal of several bishops (from the Russian, Georgian, Bulgarian, and Antiochian churches) to attend the council became part of a plot line involving rivalry, competition, and the growth of fundamentalism and traditionalism in world Orthodoxy. At a call-in conference run by the Council of Foreign Relations, political scientist Elizabeth Prodromou said the narrative about rivalry for dominance in the Orthodox world between the Ecumenical Patriarch, historically the “first among equals” in Orthodox leadership, and the Moscow Patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church led the media coverage of the event, particularly over the concern about whether the former would exercise pope-like authority.
Prodromou says this narrative was first “laid out by the Moscow Patriarchate and more specifically the Putin government…. That the church has been able to exercise leverage over the other three who didn’t come [is] also very much related to Russia’s geopolitical objectives in Europe and Eurasia….” That the council spoke out forcefully against religious nationalism did not please the Russian state, but the Russian church is limited in maneuvering within such an authoritarian polity, she adds. The council showed the Orthodox churches in Cyprus and Albania among the most open on a range of issues, particularly the relation of Orthodoxy and democracy. In fact, it was the bishop of Cyprus who said at the close of the council that the “single greatest challenge” to unity and progress within the Orthodox Church is “fundamentalism.” Several other church leaders and observers have targeted Orthodox fundamentalism as hampering the work of the recent council. RW attended a conference at Fordham University in New York in late June that specifically sought to define Orthodox fundamentalism and come up with a response to the phenomenon. The dilemmas of defining and applying the elusive concept of fundamentalism to Orthodox churches marked many of the presentations.
Quinceanera, the coming of age ceremony for 15-year-old Latina girls in the U.S., is becoming more secular, coming to resemble Jewish bat mitzvah ceremonies, reports the New York Times (June 5). Traditionally, the quinceanera combined a birthday party with a rite-of-passage into womanhood for teenage Latinas, but it also had strong religious overtones, including a […]
