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 […]
From its title, University of Notre Dame sociologist Christian Smith’s new book How Religion Went Obsolete (Oxford University Press, $34.99) may seem like other recent books charting a secular future for America and the rest of the world, but Smith has something different in mind. The book marshals survey research, qualitative interviews, and content analysis […]
In the Trump administration’s drive to eliminate Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs from government agencies, faith-based and religious freedom initiatives have been caught in the crossfire, writes Brian Grim of the Religious Freedom and Business Foundation on the website of the Coalition for Faith and Media (March 31). While Trump has established a White […]
Relations within and between American and European churches are becoming frayed due to the growth of populism and challenges to the post-Cold War international order, according to two reports. The newsletter Evangelical Focus (February 18–19) reports on growing tensions both within European churches but especially between evangelicals in Europe and religious conservatives in the U.S. […]
First there were the progressive “exvangelicals” who gained prominence in popular books and academia for their accounts of abuse, hypocrisy, and politicization in the institutional church, along with their emphasis on how such tendencies clashed with the ethics of Jesus. Now, conservative ex-evangelicals are allegedly gaining attention, embracing politics while retaining their churchly settings and […]
What is called “paleofusionism” or the “new fusionism” is making headlines for its merger of hi-tech advocacy and traditionalist conservatism. It was the combination of these movements and philosophies that was seen as important in the coalition that elected Donald Trump for his second term as president, and its religious overtones are unmistakable. The conservative […]
A new self-generated AI religion is attracting devotees in the real world and even its own traded crypto token, writes Ed Prideaux in the Substack newsletter Ecstatic Integration (January 21). AI researchers and users have reported on glitches and anomalous behavior in programs like Chat GPT, such as its “hallucinations.” But what started as an […]
Journalists and other observers seem to agree that religion in 2024 was more of the same from 2023—as seen in the slow-motion schism in the United Methodist Church and Israel’s war with Hamas and its repercussions for American Jews and Muslims. Even the Trump campaign and election were something of a replay of 2016 and […]
The label “cultural Christian” has become a new way to position oneself between theism and a rejection of the value of Western culture and civilization that has its foundation in Christianity, according to the Christian Science Monitor (December 18). Sophie Hills reports that Elon Musk, a name usually associated with atheism, now calls himself a […]
