The black church is facing the reality of spiritual alternatives and growing non-affiliation through more aggressive evangelism and greater use of technology, according to scholars. In a lecture at Princeton University attended by RW in late February (via Zoom), sociologist Jacqueline Rivers of the Seymour Institute for Black Church and Policy Studies argued that many […]
The Russian invasion of Ukraine has largely been interpreted by Western media and foreign policy experts within geopolitical as well as authoritarian frameworks, centered on its instigator Vladimir Putin. But Putin’s ruthless military strategy and designs owe much to his vison of Russia’s religious identity, writes Giles Fraser on the website Unherd (February 24). Fraser, […]
The debate concerning critical race theory (CRT) that has proven so divisive in secular society has landed on the campuses of evangelical colleges, sparking similar episodes of conflict, writes Julia Duin in Newsweek (February 14). CRT is a disputed concept, but it generally relates to the idea that racism is endemic and systemic in most […]
Shinto, Japan’s indigenous religion, is going global, writes anthropologist Kaitlyn Ugoretz in the online magazine The Conversation (February 10). The small but growing community of Shinto practitioners scattered around the world has been created largely through online rituals and practices circulated by Shinto temples and groups (though not from Japan, where such online services are […]
Taizé, an ecumenical monastic community in France with a worldwide following of young Christians, has changed in recent years, addressing issues surrounding immigration in Europe, the pandemic, and clerical sex abuse, reports Stephanie Saldana in the Jesuit magazine America (February). Taizé was started during World War II by Protestants seeking the monastic life and church […]
Canada’s trucker protests over vaccine mandates suggest a degree of religious influence, though it carries as much American as Canadian inspiration, reports the National Review magazine (February 14). Nate Hochman writes that “As more protesters flock to the Ottawa trucker convoy to protest Canada’s pandemic restrictions, the movement has taken on an explicitly Christian tone. […]
A new study finds religious behavioral responses to the Covid pandemic, such as prayer, to be positively correlated with medically advised measures like mask-wearing and social distancing. The study, published in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion (online February) and conducted by West Virginia University researchers Katie E. Corcoran, Bernard DiGregorio, and Chris […]
The commitment of Christian Democrat political figures had been central to Europe’s reconstruction process after World War II, but religion has again become a topic for the European Union (EU) over the past 20 years, due to concerns about both radical Islam and the use of religious themes by populist political movements. These issues are […]
Throughout Armenian history, even when many Armenians were dispersed and no longer had their own state, the Armenian Apostolic Church has played a key role as a national church. However, according to Matthieu Barlet of the Observatoire Pharos, a French think tank monitoring religious and cultural trends around the world, the linkage between Armenian identity […]
With much of the West’s attention fixated on Russia and Ukraine, the political influence of Islam shows signs of both decline and resurgence. In the scholarly newsletter Quillette (January 21), Imran Said reports that Islamist governments, “once seen as an unstoppable force throughout most of the Muslim world,” are now seen as being incapable of […]
