While never very large in number, new religious movements in Israel are becoming more accepted by the general public due to these movements’ acceptance of Zionist ideology and involvement in the country’s settlement ethos and military, as well as their emphasis on education and success. Writing in the journal Politics and Religion (online in February), […]
Congregations, especially in the New York City area, are playing a key role in preserving and protecting languages from around the world, many of which may be in danger of extinction, writes Emily Belz in Christianity Today (January/February). Linguists led by Ross Perlin of Columbia University have identified 700 languages in New York City, which […]
While Jewish Canadians have benefitted from Canada’s multicultural ideology and policy, they are facing growing anti-Semitism and a lack of acceptance in the country, writes Robert Brym of the University of Toronto in the social science journal Society (online in January). Especially since the Hamas attack on Israel in 2023, Muslim immigrants and Jews have […]
Attempting to identify major trends influencing the way Christians think and live in the world today through discussions with theologians from several leading Bible colleges in the UK, the editor of the evangelical magazine Premier Christianity (January 31), Sam Hailes, emphasizes the importance of adaptation, spiritual depth, and openness to the supernatural elements of Christianity. […]
The Christian music scene, particularly pop music, has become a unique laboratory for Catholic-evangelical relations in France, showcasing a remarkable evolution in ecumenical relationships over the past two decades, writes religion journalist Youna Rivallain in the newspaper La Croix, (January 23). Such a level of cooperation would have been unthinkable 20 years ago. There was […]
Fueled by Armenia’s humiliating defeat in the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war against Azerbaijan that displaced thousands of ethnic Armenians, and by the fear of further concessions, protests in Armenia took on religious accents in 2024 when an archbishop became its leading figure. But the lack of a coherent political strategy and the involvement of discredited opposition […]
The anti-natalist movement, which calls for humans to stop having children, involves many secular people and can be seen as a reaction to recent technologies of birth that have given humans greater control over matters of life and death, writes Jack Jiang in Anthropology Today (November/December). While anti-natalism is not a new movement or philosophy, […]
Paganism in Lithuania and in much of Europe is receiving more recognition from governments, but still has some way to go toward receiving equal treatment with other religions, writes Chas Clifton in his Pagan studies blog Letter from Hardscrabble Creek (December 14). The large Lithuanian Pagan movement Romuva, which was formally organized in the early […]
The large Pentecostal movement among Spain’s Roma or Gitano population has created a marriage market where Christian Gitano men are considered a “good catch,” writes Antonio Montañés Jiménez in the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (online in December). As in other European countries, Roma have converted in significant numbers to Pentecostalism in Spain, as […]
While some have seen the Russian Orthodox Church’s new outreach to Africa and other regions of the global South as a partnership with the Russian state to extend its influence in these countries, that partnership is far from an equal one for the church, writes Mikhail Suslov in the journal Religions (December 11). The Russian […]
