Ukraine’s new law prohibiting the Russian Orthodox Church’s (ROC) activity in the country, as well as that of other religious organizations linked with Russia, is a sign of the increasing securitization of relations between state and religion in Ukraine since Russia’s invasion, writes Dmytro Vovk (Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University, Ukraine) in the Nachrichtendienst Östliche […]
The Neo-Zoroastrian religiosity of converts has often been described as different from traditional Zoroastrian practices, but changes are also being observed among those who are Zoroastrian by birth. In a new issue of Entangled Religions (August) on “Religious Conversion in a Religiously Plural World,” Benedikt Römer (Bundeswehr University, Munich) reports that aspects of coalescence can […]
Controversy and hostility toward new religious movements (NRMs), particularly the Unification Church, are being fanned by the media in Japan, which has focused attention on second-generation members who have left and protested against these groups, according to Adam Lyons of the University of Montreal. In a paper presented at the early-August meeting of the Association […]
While religious communities are often thought to be resources for the integration of migrants, the opposite can also be true, as Helmar Kurz (University of Muenster, Germany) writes in an article in the International Journal of Latin American Religions (June) based on his research on the role of Brazilian Spiritist centers in Germany for migrants. […]
Following an administrative decision in June by the Minister of Justice of the Democratic Republic of the Congo intended to regulate the proliferation of evangelical churches in large Congolese cities, many of those churches suddenly find themselves in an irregular situation, reports William Minh Hào Nguyen in La Croix International (July 26). Revival churches stemming […]
Japanese youth culture is shifting from embracing spiritual and self-empowerment to stressing a “weak self,” which includes invoking and having relationships with self-created sentient beings, Satoko Fujiwara and Hiroki Miura report in the journal Social Compass (71:2). In analyzing popular youth culture, particularly pop songs, anime, and online sites, especially X, they find references to […]
Although a group of Tibetan Buddhist nuns received full ordination in 2022, breaking with centuries of monastic tradition, the practice continues to be resisted by Tibetan clergy, writes Vicki Mackenzie in the Buddhist magazine Tricycle (Summer). Hosted and initiated by the royal family in Bhutan, 144 women became the first-ever Tibetan nuns to receive full […]
Nudism may be declining on an organizational level, but new spiritual techniques and meanings are becoming attached to the practice, Rowan Pelling reports in the online magazine UnHerd (June 24). The nudist ethos grew out of the German Lebensreform movement, which challenged the destruction wrought by the Industrial Revolution. Yet the German Association for Free […]
There is a renewed interest in religious rituals and practices among young French Catholics, contrasting with a broader decline in religious practice and attendance in France and other Western countries, La Vie (June 6) reports. In several cities, priests have seen a significant increase in attendance at Ash Wednesday masses, with a few churches even […]
The Tibetan government-in-exile is seeking European support on the issue of the succession of the Dalai Lama, reports Intelligence Online (June 6). With the 14th Dalai Lama (b. 1935) getting older, the question of his succession is turning into a crucial concern for the worldwide Tibetan community, which is anxious about keeping the Chinese government […]
