In their book on a new stream of charismatic groups and leaders, The Rise of Network Christianity (Oxford University Press, $29.95), Brad Christerson and Richard Flory find that the shift from movement to informal networks of cooperation has been a central factor in their growth. Unlike earlier movements, such as the Vineyard Fellowship, that attempt […]
The way that church music assumes a central place in how Christians identify with their churches is nowhere more evident than in charismatic and Pentecostal Christianity—a fact borne out in the fascinating new book The Spirit of Praise (Penn State University Press, $32.95), edited by Monique M. Ingalls and Amos Yong. “Praise and worship” music […]
The U.S. Institute of Peace has issued a new report entitled The Jihadi Threat that suggests a proliferation of jihadi groups beyond their current shapes and numbers as well as the revival of al-Qaida. The 48-page report finds that both the Islamic State (IS) and al-Qaida have had far-reaching influence on disenfranchised Sunni groups in […]
Unbelieving in Modern Society (Routledge, $119.96), by Jorg Stolz, Judith Konemann, Mallory Schneuwly Purdie, Thomas Engleberger, and Michael Kruggeler, is about Swiss religion, but the authors argue that its findings can be applied to the Western religious situation in general. While many sociologists of religion use the ideas of competition and a spiritual marketplace to explain the growth of religion, Stolz and colleagues use “market
The religious press, like the faith groups they represent, tended to move in predictable directions regarding their endorsements or support of this year’s presidential candidates. But the way in which the candidacy of Donald Trump has fared in the evangelical press—if not so much rank-and-file evangelicals—does stand out. Charisma magazine may have even caught its […]
R. Scott Hanson’s book City of Gods (Fordham University Press, $35) is a study of a very particular place, the Flushing section of Queens in New York City, but the author believes that the “super-diversity” of this neighborhood can tell us a great deal about American religious pluralism. Flushing is unique in several ways—it has […]
The Research on Religion podcast, sponsored by Baylor’s Institute for Studies of Religion, recently marked its 300th episode. The podcast, founded in 2010 and hosted by Anthony Gill, a political science professor at the University of Washington, draws about 5,000 listeners to its interviews with both religion scholars and practitioners. The podcasts, which are geared […]
Even as other types of religious movements seem to attract more scholarly interest in recent years, the Jehovah’s Witnesses nevertheless continue to draw attention from researchers as a paradigmatic instance of Christian nonconformity and an enduring expression of organized millenarianism. Two new publications in recent month’s witness to this reality. Acta Comparanda (Subsidia III, €36 […]
The Sectarianism of the Islamic State, published last month by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, presents a thorough examination of the tangled roots of the ideologies and theologies that make up this unorthodox and lethal jihadist movement (whatever the secular motivations of its fighters). Hassan Hassan, author of the report, stresses that while the […]
We’re pleased to announce that the archives for the issues of RW from June 1997 to January 2016 are now online. Readers can go to the archives of this site to find a link to the earlier RW Archives or click on http://www.rwarchives.com/. Although the site is independent from the ISR-Religion Watch site, it features […]
