Just as there are secular and cultural Jews and, increasingly, people claiming to be “cultural Catholics,” Muslims are likewise claiming that identity, according to scholars speaking at the mid-August conference of the Association for the Sociology of Religion in Chicago, which RW attended. Survey research has found that almost a quarter of people from Muslim […]
Although mainline and evangelical churches and denominations have taken clear sides in the Israeli and Palestinian conflict, Catholics and the black church have either straddled the fence or experienced internal divisions about this contentious issue. In Commonweal magazine (July–August), Julie Schumacher Cohen writes that there has been a Catholic hesitancy in applying the church’s social […]
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 […]
Movies with themes of death have mushroomed in just the last year, but unlike those of earlier decades, these films are in sharper conflict with Christian narratives and more likely to replace them with a “vague spirituality, nihilism and even existential humanism,” according to Joseph Holmes in Religion Unplugged (July 7). He adds that whereas […]
Economic approaches to studying religious trends have been prominent for the past three decades, but Paul Seabright’s recent book, The Divine Economy: How Religions Compete for Wealth, Power, and People (Princeton University Press, $35), is unique for its comprehensive treatment of the religious past and present as well as its novel use of the concept […]
The Vatican under the early papacy of Leo XIV is being viewed as a negotiating site for international politics and peace talks, if not a partner in such negotiations, writes Massimo Faggioli in Commonweal magazine (June 24). Already, there was talk that the Holy See under Leo could serve as a “facilitator” or “observer” for […]
While it has been widely noted, often by theologians and other religious leaders, that the “new atheism” has fallen out of favor, no longer drawing the large following that it had in the early 2000s, more academic researchers are now weighing in on this noticeable shift. The new atheism was marked by its emphasis on […]
Like other universities facing the contemporary challenges of market pressures and new governmental measures, such as those targeting DEI policies, Christian colleges are being forced to rethink their missions and adopt new models, writes John Seel in Aaron Renn’s Substack newsletter (May 20). While elite “institutions often deploy ideological gatekeeping, endowment resources, and legacy prestige […]
Although he was seen as a favored candidate for the papacy, the election of Cardinal Robert Prevost, now Pope Leo XIV, as the first American pontiff in history still caught observers off guard. The singularity of the event has quelled, at least until the new pope writes his first encyclical, the usual antagonism and culture-warring […]
There has been a spate of media reports about impending religious and spiritual revivals in Europe and the U.S., but it is not clear if these reported trends will prove to represent long-term shifts in religiosity or “blips” on the screen of continuing religious decline. A much-publicized Pew study in March showed a stabilization of […]
