1. Kopimism, a new religious movement that grew out of the piracy and anti-copyright movement, has been considered a parody religion, but more recently it has taken on the trappings of an actual religion, or at least a quasi-religion. The movement was started in 2010 by Isak Gerson in Sweden, which was the hub of […]
The Modeling Religion Project uses computational models and simulations to evaluate the role of religion in societies under stress. The project, run by the Center for Mind and Culture in Boston, led by Wesley Wildman, the Virginia Modeling, Analysis and Simulation Center at Old Dominion University, and the University of Agder in Kristiansand, Norway, uses […]
1) Started from a small group meeting in his house, Thomas McConkie has created a blend of Buddhism and Mormonism that draws up to 200 people—most of them from Mormon families—through guided meditations at a monthly gathering of the Lower Lights Sangha. Lower Lights Sangha is said to be a laboratory where a new generation […]
1. The American Muslim Civic Leadership Institute (AMCLI) is one of the country’s most influential networks of American Muslim civic leaders. Founded in 2006, AMCLI is based at the University of Southern California’s Center for Religion and Civic Culture. The Carnegie Foundation helped inaugurate the program with an initial $50,000 grant, followed by a $200,000 […]
Peoples Temple, the group most infamous for the Jonestown murder-suicides in 1978, is being reestablished by clergy in the Disciples of Christ (Christian Churches). Peoples Temple was a movement within the Disciple of Christ well-known for its strong social justice thrust in American inner-cities under the leadership of Jim Jones until he moved the group […]
1) A movement known as the Remnant is drawing dissident Mormons with its strongly anti-institutional teachings and practices stressing supernatural experiences. Self-proclaimed prophet Denver Snuffer Jr., who claimed to have a face-to-face meeting with Jesus and was excommunicated from the LDS church in 2013, leads the group. Claiming that after the death of founder Joseph […]
Father James Mallon has gained prominence among Catholics for his synthesis of evangelical and Catholic practices while growing his parish in Canada, and now he is taking his teachings on the road with the formation of the Divine Renovation Network. Based on his widely popular book Divine Renovation, the network will work with churches in […]
The Database of Religious History is an unusual and ambitious project that attempts to collect information systematically on the world’s religions that will serve as both a teaching tool as well as a way to understand religious changes through time. Coming from a strongly evolutionary and cognitive science of religion perspective, the database, created by […]
Crossroads, recently named the fastest growing church in America, has also made a name for itself for its entrepreneurial ministry that is closely integrated with the startup culture of Silicon Valley. The church, based in Cincinnati, was a startup of executives from Procter & Gamble beginning a Bible study in 1990. The church founders used […]
St. Matthew’s Catholic Church in Charlotte, North Carolina, is likely the largest parish in the U.S., and much of its growth is intentional and based on the evangelical megachurch model. The parish, with 10,000 registered households, grew from 237 families 30 years ago and mirrors the rapid growth of Charlotte in recent decades. The church […]
