■ The sociology of religion journal Social Compass devotes its current issue (69:4) to the subject of exorcism in different world religions and cultures, noting that the practice is actually becoming more prominent in many faiths (with the first “exorcism center” in Asia being recently founded in the Philippines). In a lengthy and informative overview, […]
■ The current issue of the Journal of Church and State (64:4) focuses on legal issues relating to Covid-19, specifically the free exercise of religion. The guest editor Adelaide Madera notes that, as might be expected, the curtailments of religious freedom took place in the early phase of the pandemic, but the conflict between the […]
■ Surveys conducted last year by the PRRI (Public Religion Research Institute) and by the American Enterprise Institute had discovered that about a quarter of white evangelicals believed in the conspiracy theories associated with QAnon, such as the allegation “that the government, media, and financial worlds in the U.S. are controlled by a group of […]
■ The current issue of the journal Anthropology of Consciousness (33:2) is devoted to the revolution in thinking about “sacred plant”-based psychedelics happening in the West and how it has impacted indigenous communities. The so-called “psychedelic renaissance” involves the increasing use of what are considered sacred plants, such as Ayahuasca, for treating mental disorders. At […]
■ The current issue of the Journal of Amish and Plain Anabaptist Studies features an interesting “memoir” by editor Cory Anderson, celebrating and chronicling his and others’ decade-long effort to study and publish about the Amish and other conservative and simply living or “plain” Anabaptists in an academic setting. Anderson discusses trends in Amish/Anabaptist scholarship […]
■ RW mourns the recent passing of ISR co-founder and co-director Rodney Stark. When the editor was about to close up shop after 31 years of publishing RW in 2016, Rod Stark graciously extended the invitation for the newsletter to come under the auspices of ISR and receive a new lease on life as an […]
■ Carolyn Chen’s new book Work, Pray, Code (Princeton University Press, $27.95) looks at a fairly old trend—the way companies have attempted to bring spirituality into the workplace—in a fresh and provocative way, as she argues that the workplace and work itself is replacing religion for many American hi-tech professionals. The book, based on in-depth […]
■ Church Planters: Inside the World of Religion Entrepreneurs (Oxford University Press, $34.95), by Richard N. Pitt, responds to a noticeable gap in research about the practice of establishing new Protestant congregations, which has grown markedly in recent years. As the title of the book implies, Pitt takes a supply-side approach to church planting, looking […]
■ The Muslim World devotes its current (Winter) issue to social welfare efforts among Muslim individuals, organizations, and countries, often comparing them to their Western counterparts. That there are different forms of charity and giving in Islam, some more obligatory and “religious” than others, complicates the issue. Some organizations chafe at the “Islamic” title applied […]
An excellent resource for keeping track of the religious aspect of the Russia-Ukraine conflict is Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe, published and edited by Paul Mojzes, a veteran specialist in thisfield. The monthly journal has published less on Russia, but it obviously frames the Ukraine situationin the context of Russia and its […]
