Once seen as a refuge from political conflict and pandemic closures, Catholic schools are in the “midst of their own internal struggles of whether to wade into cultural touchstone debates or hold firm to religious teachings,” writes Jeremiah Poff in the conservative Washington Examiner (July 13). The controversies over “wokeness” that are shaking secular institutions […]
Alumni groups are playing a significant role in challenging evangelical colleges’ and universities’ stances on LGBTQ issues, writes Liam Knox in Inside Higher Ed (July 14). Some of the most prominent evangelical colleges have influential LGBTQ alumni groups aiming to reform their institutions according to their agendas, writes Knox. Among the most prominent is OneWheaton, […]
On the margins of ultra-Orthodox Judaism, an underground community made up of exiters and “double-lifers,” those secretly distancing themselves from the religious community, is contributing to changes within ultra-Orthodoxy, writes Jessica Roda (Georgetown University) in an article in French published in the Archives de Sciences Sociales des Religions (April–June). The author stresses that while there […]
While most bishops have tended to be cautious regarding the issue of their connections with the Moscow Patriarchate, priests of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) have been the driving force behind the church’s recent move towards affirming independence from Russian supervision, writes Andriy Fert (National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy) in Religion & Gesellschaft in Ost […]
The growth in the numbers of people making pilgrimages, including both devout and unchurched seekers, shows no signs of letting up, but since Covid “micro pilgrimages” are becoming more popular, writes Anne Bailey in the open-access journal Religions (July 20). A micro or “mini” pilgrimage usually can be completed in one day or less and […]
Known for its use of civil disobedience to alert the public about climate change and other threats to the environment, the French section of Extinction Rebellion (abbreviated XR) launched a spiritual branch (XR Spi) three months ago, which in July met with some Christian groups sharing its concerns, reports Weilian Zhu in La Vie (July […]
The proliferation of “wedding churches” in Japan is leading to a unique form of Japanese Christianity that is long on ritual and short on belief, according to an article in the Journal of Religion in Japan (online in July). For decades there has been a large Japanese demand for Western-style church weddings, usually in hotels […]
A historic yet small Russian Orthodox body has recently been taking center stage in debates ranging from Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine to the religious leanings of the far right in the U.S. There have been recent media and scholarly reports holding that recent converts to the Russian Orthodox Church in the U.S. have taken […]
The precarious future of the second generation of Korean American Christians came in for scrutiny at the second annual conference of the Korean Diaspora Institute (KDI), which was held in early June at Sandy Cove Ministries in Maryland. KDI is a non-profit organization founded by mostly Methodist Korean American ministers. The conference, which RW attended, […]
Spiritual coaching is becoming more distinct from the life-coaching industry it originated from, filling a niche for female alternative religious professionals, writes Molly Worthen in the New York Times (June 3). Spiritual coaches are part of the life-coaching industry, which became an established profession in the 1990s by combining self-help psychology, positive thinking and insights […]
