While Fethullah Gülen (1941–2024) was the undisputed leader of the Hizmet (“service”) movement for over 50 years, his authority gradually became routinized into a bureaucratic structure of hierarchies, procedures, and offices, writes Ida Hartmann (University of Copenhagen) in an article in Contemporary Islam (online August 25) focusing on the aftermath of the dramatic 2016 coup […]
A new study finds a correlation between online gaming and atheist or agnostic beliefs, but also an association between social media engagement and religious practices like scripture reading and congregational attendance. While there has been a growing body of research on the secularizing effect of the Internet, Baylor University sociologists Jennifer Laderi and Jeremy Uecker […]
Anglicanism in the UK is facing a “severe crisis,” demonstrated by the unprecedented resignations, or calls for the resignations, of all four church leaders in England, Scotland, and Wales, writes Martyn Percy in the Journal of Anglican Studies (online in August). The cases of Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, Archbishop […]
Charismatic Christianity is having a little-known but significant growth in the Punjab region of India, the cradle and stronghold of Sikhism, according to Miroslav Atanasov of the University of Colorado. Although hard numbers are difficult to come by, the recent growth is significant enough to have concerned Sikh leaders about its effect on the stability […]
With the Trump administration’s June 2025 strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities considerably weakening the regime, it is now increasingly focused on Iraq as one of its last footholds in the region, posing an existential threat to the survival of the country’s Christians and other religious minorities, reports Providence newsletter (August 18). After decades of war, […]
Immigrant and second-generation African young people in Britain are engaging in transnational and hybrid religious practices that contrast with adult patterns of religion and migration, according to a study by Dominic Pasura of the University of Glasgow. Pasura, who presented his study at the August meeting of the Association for the Sociology of Religion in […]
Singapore’s megachurches have been known as some of the largest worldwide, but recently there has been some disenchantment about these mammoth congregations and the movement of some ex-members toward mainline churches, writes Robbie B. H. Goh in the current issue of the journal Studies in World Christianity (31:2). Singapore and other global South countries (such […]
Organized fitness training is being adapted by young Salafi Muslim men as they create communities and transnational networks that foster spiritual and physical strength and well-being, writes Sergio Altuna Galán in the journal Current Trends in Islamist Ideology (August). As the practice and communication of Islam shifts away from institutionalized settings toward more “personalized, visually […]
Global Lutheranism in the Contemporary World, edited by RW’s editor, Richard Cimino, provides accounts and analyses of the Lutheran situation in a wide range of countries and societies. The new book from Routledge brings together 21 contributors to examine trends in Lutheranism in the U.S., Canada, Spanish-speaking South America, Brazil, Australia, Indonesia, Chinese societies in […]
Scholars and observers from such secular bastions as the UK and Australia are detecting a rising spiritual interest, if not religious revival, while also acknowledging the advances of secularism. The growth of religious affiliation and participation in British cities, a search for authority and meaning among younger generations that has resulted in a self-spirituality and […]
