Religion Watch Archives

Monitoring Trends in Religion - From February 1990 to January 2016

On/File: September/October 2013

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A continuing survey of new groups, movements, events, and people impacting religion The Congregation of the Oratory, a conservative liturgical and theological order founded by St. Phillip Neri in 1575, is finding a following among young Catholics in England at a time when other parts of the church are in decline. The Oratorians came to […]

Findings & Footnotes: September/October 2013

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01: Social Compass, an international journal on the sociology of religion, devotes most of its September issue to the state of Italian Catholicism. The Catholic Church in Italy has long been considered something of an exception from the rest of secular Western Europe in commanding a fair level of devotion and identity among its adherents. […]

Political religion finds a place in secular Estonia

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Estonia is reported to be among the most atheistic of countries, but a study of the Baltic country’s last elections showed that religion is playing a new role in its national identity and politics. An article in the journal Religion, State & Society (September) by political scientist Alar Kilp argues that the 2011 parliamentary elections […]

Foreign jihadists meet resistance from Syria’s Muslims

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While foreign Islamic volunteers in Syria are sometimes well-equipped and fierce fighters, organizations under their control are smaller and seen as foreign elements by most Syrians, who envision the future of their country in terms other than a global struggle, according to Laurent Vinatier (Thomas More Institute, Paris, and Small Arms Survey, Geneva). Vinatier recently […]

Current Research: September/October 2013

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01: Young women, Baptists and other seekers who have had personal contact with Anabaptist life are most likely to join the Amish and other “plain Mennonite” groups, according to a recent study by Corey Anderson of Ohio State University. In the ARDA blog, Ahead of the Trend (Aug. 28), David Briggs reports that the study […]

Neopagans find interfaith acceptance while experiencing internal conflicts

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Neopagansim has experienced considerable success in gaining acceptance in interfaith circles. However, at the same time has been drawn into increasing controversy over the diverse racial tendencies in its East European expressions, according to a prominent scholar in the field. At the New York meeting of the Association for the Society of Religion, Michael York, […]

Mexican-American folk healing now attracting a multiethnic clientele

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The willingness of New Agers and members of the alternative healing community—heavily overlapping— to appropriate and refashion Native American and Asian traditions is well known. Now, however, the American metaphysical milieu is a channel for the spread of Mexican-American folk and religious healing to new groups, writes Brett Hendrickson (Lafayette College, Easton, PA) in the […]

American evangelicals’ investment in foreign adoptions a factor in child trafficking?

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The heavy involvement in foreign adoptions by American evangelicals, many of whom have developed a “theology of orphans,” may be a factor in increasing cases of abuse and corruption among some adoption agencies and the countries of adoptees, according to recent reports. Journalist Kathryn Joyce has been among those reporting on how “some evangelicals have […]

Kabbalah use diversifies for Jewish and spiritual marketplace

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While the name “Kabbalah” may seem to be evocative of one specific spiritual tradition, recent research shows that there is a considerable diversity of what that name is labeled with, writes Gemma Kwantes (University of Amsterdam) in the latest issue of Aries: Journal for the Study of Western Esotericism (Vol. 13, No. 2, 2013). The […]