Emerging in recent years as a serious security threat in Nigeria and increasingly reported in Western media for its attacks against state and Christian targets, the Islamic militant movement Boko Haram is a product of competition among Muslim movements in northern Nigeria, according to Roman Loimeier (University of Göttingen, Germany), writing in the latest issue […]

Controversial information on their faith found on the Internet is reported to lead a number of European members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) to develop questions and doubts about the church, according to a letter sent by the Europe-area presidency of the church to LDS Church leaders in Northern European […]

While Amsterdam has been considered a major secularized city, immigration—both Christian and Muslim—may move it toward more of a religious marketplace, according to a study by Martin van der Meulen (Protestant Theological University in the Netherlands) presented at the SSSR conference. Using figures from the bi-annual survey of the Amsterdam Statistics Bureau, Van der Meulen […]

Spreading since the 1960s, the idea that there was an esoteric National Socialism is actually a post-war invention without an historical foundation in the Third Reich, writes Julian Strube (University of Heidelberg, Germany) in an article in German published in the Zeitschrift für Religionswissenschaft (2012/2). If one is to believe a number of best-selling authors […]

While there is the possibility that the Unification Church may face schisms after the death of founder Sun Myung Moon in September, it appears that the church is headed in the direction of a denominational church, write David Bromley and Alexa Bronner in Nova Religio (November), the journal of new religious movements. Since its founding, […]

Eastern Orthodox theology is undergoing a renaissance , but it is largely taking place outside of Orthodox institutions and is propagated by converts to the faith, reports First Things magazine (December). An older renaissance of Orthodox theology in Europe was largely the province of émigré scholars arriving at newly established seminaries, such as Georges Florovsky, […]

The protest movement against slickwater hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” to release natural gas from the earth draws on a range of symbols and concepts related to eco-feminist spirituality, according to Leah Schade (Lutheran Theological Seminary), who presented a paper on the subject as the SSSR conference in Phoenix. Eco-feminist spirituality links social justice and women’s […]

While Christian Zionism has long claimed a special link with the Jews and the state of Israel, the identification with Israel has crossed over into a form of “ethnonationalism” among some evangelicals, according to Matt Westbrook of Drew University. Westbrook, who presented a paper at the SSSR conference, argued that “contemporary Christian Zionism seems to […]

Although megachurches are portrayed as the quintessential suburban—or post-suburban—religious organization (see book review on pages 10-11), in other parts of the world they are flourishing in the “relatively recent dense urban areas, often with a new and/or rapidly growing Christian population,” according to Scott Thumma and Warren Bird. These researchers presented a survey of global […]