The journal Telos devotes its fall issue to “post-liberalism,” the diffuse movement of conservative scholars and politicians who question the post-Cold War liberal political order and propose often religious and populist alternatives. The issue looks at the way that these movements draw their inspiration from a wide range of religious sources, ranging from Eastern Orthodoxy […]
With this issue, Religion Watch enters its fifth decade of publication. It seems like a short time ago that we celebrated the 25th and 30th anniversaries of the newsletter; the first issue (see photo) rolling off the printing press (if readers can remember those machines) is still fresh in this editor’s mind. In another sense, […]
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 […]
Despite its secular origins, AI deeply intertwines with religious narratives, practices, and meaning-making processes, according to an introductory article in a special thematic issue of the journal Religion (July) on this topic. In the introduction to the issue, which offers several case studies on the intersections between this new technology and religion, Boris Rähme (Fondazione […]
A secularization theorist himself, Detlef Pollack (University of Münster, Germany) still claims to be surprised to see a dramatic decline of religion in many regions of the world, as he releases the third, revised edition of his book (in German), Religion in der Moderne: Ein internationaler Vergleich (€ 49), co-authored with his colleague, Gergely Rosta. […]
Much of the research interest in new religious movements (NRMs) in recent years has focused on second-generation members and former members and the effects of generational change in these groups. The current issue of Nova Religio (May/June), a journal of new religions, is devoted to the second (and third) generation of NRM members, specifically looking […]
The current issue of the Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies (12:1–2) features an interesting section on Amish settlements in North America, profiling 38 of the largest and best-known communities. An Amish settlement refers to a self-designated area of residences, congregations, businesses, and other institutions that can host multiple Amish and plain Mennonite affiliations, […]
■ The current issue of Pneuma (46), the journal of Pentecostal studies, is devoted to higher education in Pentecostalism, a movement where tensions over higher learning persist despite institutional progress. While Pentecostalism has a reputation of discouraging higher education, denominations and even congregations in this tradition developed many Bible schools, seminaries, and most recently colleges […]
■ Now that Donald Trump has been elected again, the New Apostolic Reformation (NAR) movement and its impact on conservative politics will receive renewed attention, making a special issue on this topic in the journal of new religious movements, Nova Religio (November), especially timely. Most of the contributors, in contrast to most new religious movement […]
■ It has been over 50 years since the controversial Homogenous Unit Principle (HUP) was propagated through Donald McGavran’s book Understanding Church Growth. The HUP held that evangelism and church growth are most effective among groups of people with similar characteristics, people being more likely to become Christian if they do not have to cross cultural, […]
