The mass protests against the presidency of Alexander Lukashenko that have rocked Belarus since last summer have involved the country’s Orthodox and Catholic churches, although the Orthodox hierarchy has been more divided on the issue, while Protestants and other religious groups have remained neutral.
With the ultra-Orthodox community (Haredim) having tripled from 4 to 12 percent of the Israeli population since 1980 and projected to grow to over 20 percent by 2040, the culture war over issues related to the identity of the “Jewish state” will become even more significant as the Haredim aspire to shape public affairs.
Evangelical churches in Lebanon have undergone a resurgence as they have opened their doors to refugees from Syria, writes Scott Gustafson in the International Bulletin of Mission Studies (January). From 2011 to 2020, Syrian refugees, mainly Muslim, flooded into neighboring Lebanon to escape war and unrest in their country.
With the earliest religious reform efforts being launched by refugee monks from China about 60 years ago, the resulting movements within Pure Land Buddhism in Taiwan are succeeding in combining traditional Buddhist values with a desire for worldly engagement in altruistic as well as capitalist activities, writes Sumanto Al Qurtuby in the current issue of […]
The ways that Korean churches have become Americanized and experienced divisions between
the immigrant and more assimilated second generations are giving way to a more conflicted
relationship between these churches and American culture, according to research presented at the
recent virtual meeting of the American Academy of Religion.
American Pagans have increasingly been adopting an apocalyptic worldview and spirituality, especially during the Trump era, according to Sabina Magliocco of the University of British Columbia. Presenting a paper at the early December virtual meeting of the American Academy of Religion, attended by RW, Magliocco said that the apocalyptic narratives taken up by Pagan leaders and writers place Paganism closer to other new religious movements in the U.S.
From a stigmatized religion of marginal sectors in Chilean society (where it first appeared in the early 20th century), Pentecostalism is getting redefined as a more legitimate religion by a new generation of Pentecostals, writes Martin Lindhardt (University of Southern Denmark) in Religion (October).
Close ties to the current political regime and centralization of the church leadership under
Patriarch Kirill are likely to lead to a serious loss of influence for the Russian Orthodox Church
(ROC) in the long term, writes Oleg Kurzakov, a Russian journalist, teacher and former priest
from 2012 to 2017, in Religion und Gesellschaft in Ost und West(December). While the
religious freedom of the 1990s changed the situation for the church, it also allowed a variety of
religious groups to compete for Russian souls.
The new religious movement, Zhonggong, which was banned in China and supposedly extinguished four years ago, has made a comeback in the country to the consternation of government officials, according to the newsletter Bitter Winter (December 25). The movement was started in the 1980s by Zhang Hongbao and was based on Qigong healing and martial arts.
In an effort to reign in new Catholic communities and the concern about their potential abuses, the recognition of new institutes of consecrated life and new societies of apostolic life in Catholic dioceses will now first require the written approval of the Holy See, according to an Apostolic Letter (Motu proprio) titled Authenticum charismatis, published by Pope Francis on November 4. Canon 579 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law stated: “Diocesan bishops, each in his own territory, can erect institutes of consecrated life by formal decree, provided that the Apostolic See has been consulted.”
