The unprecedented rapid growth and dispersal of Amish communities throughout the U.S. is leading observers to ask whether this American religious tradition can hold together and retain its identity. A report on the growth of new Amish communities in the Mennonite Quarterly Review (April) notes that while there has always been growth of new settlements, […]

In the context of speculations about a “holy alliance” between the Roman Catholic Church and the Moscow Patriarchate around common ethical concerns and in reaction to secularizing tendencies in Europe, journalists FrançoisXavier Maigre and Nicolas Senèze have attempted to summarize current challenges for the Orthodox Church worldwide in the French Catholic daily La Croix (Feb. […]

The landlocked South Asian country Nepal is going through a bumpy transition from being the world’s only Hindu kingdom to a secular republic. In Nepalnews.com, Sijan Raj Baral, a Fulbright Fellow at Kent State University, Ohio, writes that support for the restoration of Hinduism as the state religion has suddenly grown. In April 2006, Nepal […]

A few years ago, it was unusual for newspapers on the European continent to publish articles on creationism, except when reporting about North America. In recent years, however, there has been an increase in reports on creationist activities in Europe too. The Swiss weekly L’Hebdo (Feb. 4) has attempted to document the impact of creationist […]

The tendency of prestigious American universities to have large and strong evangelical campus ministries is also the case outside the U.S., particularly in university contexts that represent a challenge to conservative Christians, writes Edward Dutton in the Chronicle Review (March 12), the weekly magazine of the Chronicle of Higher Education. Dutton found burgeoning evangelical campus […]

Services offering Hindus “surrogate” pujas (or offerings to a deity) and other rituals as well as streaming webcasts of temple ceremonies from India are becoming more widespread, reports Hinduism Today (April/May/June). Several virtual puja services are run from India with a global clientele. EPrarthana.com allows customers to pay a charge of $9 to order an […]

Since the economic downturn of last year, faith-based investing has shown new growth, reports the Long Island Catholic newspaper (March 3). The recession has “prompted investors to question their financial advisors and the huge mutual fund names they trusted for so long. As result, many are gravitating towards the faith-based investing universe that is made […]

Social conservatives and the Christian right are taking on the rhetoric of the tea party activists, who form the main opposition to President Obama’s healthcare reform initiative and stimulus spending. The Los Angeles Times (March 11) reports that social conservatives are exploring the “morality of debt and the risks to religious freedom posed by growing […]