A new study examining the political behavior of people engaged in spiritual activities such as yoga, meditation, making art, and walking in nature, finds not much difference from the behavior of more conventional religious believers. The study, conducted by Evan Stewart and Jaime Kucinkis and published in the online magazine The Conversation (September 3), measured […]
■ The current issue of the Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies features an interesting “memoir” by editor Cory Anderson, celebrating and chronicling his and others’ decade-long effort to study and publish about the Amish and other conservative and simply living or “plain” Anabaptists in an academic setting. Anderson discusses trends in Amish/Anabaptist scholarship […]
1) F3 is a fast-growing network of men’s fitness programs that joins exercise with faith-based social gatherings that are seen as helping to ward off loneliness, especially during and after the pandemic. The workout groups are often seen as an extension of church life, though they are not necessarily all Christian-based. F3, started in 2011 […]
While the “green wave” of progressive politics that is sweeping much of Latin America is unlikely to secularize the continent, it is creating a new pluralism as well as a growing divide between younger and older generations on religion and morality, according to specialists. RW was in Bogota, Colombia, shortly after Gustavo Petro assumed the […]
While some observers have seen the consistory and two days of meetings Pope Francis held in late August with 197 cardinals as a pre-conclave preparing the way for the election of a new pontiff in the not-too-distant future, Vatican observer Jean-Marie Guénois sees the pope preparing methodically to ensure the continuity of his line (Le […]
Vaccine hesitancy may be taking place among only a segment of evangelicals, but is this new conflict with medicine signaling a more confrontational era between evangelical Christianity and science? Those were some of the issues addressed in a session on evangelicals and vaccine hesitancy that RW attended at the August meeting of the Association for […]
Since the decision reversing Roe v. Wade, leaders and participants in the pro-life movement are saying that the time has arrived for a more socially involved phase of the movement. But there are signs that the movement is showing new divisions, as well as disaffection from a key Catholic population group. Writing in the conservative […]
A reported decline in claims of strong or intense religiosity over the last year may well be due to changes in survey methods because of the pandemic rather than an actual weakening of religious faith. In a paper presented at the recent meeting of the Association for the Sociology of Religion in Los Angeles, Landon […]
El Salvador is becoming increasingly authoritarian under President Nayib Bukele, as he draws on his multireligious background and connections to enforce an aggressive rightist agenda, writes Amy Fallas on the website Religion and Politics (August 2). In 2019, Bukele won the presidency on an anti-corruption and anti-establishment platform through a wave of popular support. To […]
More Jews are emigrating to Israel from Russia than they are from Ukraine, seeing it as a desperate option to prevent history from repeating itself, reports an article in the online magazine Common Sense (August 9). According to Israel’s Aliyah and Integration Ministry, in the first half of 2022, 11,906 people emigrated from Ukraine to […]
