Religion Watch Archives

Monitoring Trends in Religion - From February 1990 to January 2016

For UK, Australia, English-speaking Imams wanted

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In their efforts to find ways to integrate Muslims in Western societies, governments increasingly insist on the need for ministers of Muslim congregations in the West to be familiar with local culture and fluent in local languages. Such expectations also match those of young Muslims in the diaspora. In the United Kingdom, a Labour peer, […]

Current Research: August 2007

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01: Muslim Americans most closely resemble white evangelicals and black Protestants in their level of religious commitment, according to an analysis of recent surveys from the Pew Research Center. Among American Muslims, black Protestants and white evangelicals, large majorities (72 percent of Muslims, 87 percent of black Protestants, and 80 percent of white evangelicals) say […]

Jewish young adults unaffiliated but not disengaged

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Many young American Jews are “institutionally unaffiliated, but Jewishly engaged,” according to a new study by social scientists Steven M. Cohen and Ari Y. Kelman. As cited in the magazine Jewish Currents (July-August), the study confirmed earlier surveys findings that most Jews under 35 are not affiliated with synagogues and other major institutions of Jewish life. The […]

New generation embracing ‘Crunchy Catholicism’?

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Along with a conservative theological emphasis, there is a new stress on masculine spirituality among seminarians and other educators in American Catholic churches, according to the cover story in the conservative Crisismagazine (July/August). Todd Aglialoro writes that a new generation of Catholic men are rebelling against what they see as pastoral or “feminine” -based catechesis and […]

Conscious dying — the new age’s last spiritual practice?

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Death has become an important issue in the New Age movement, and its longtime concern with spiritual transformation can now be seen in the practice of “conscious dying.” Trends in the diffuse New Age movement have closely tracked the life stages of its baby boomer pioneers–from middle age concerns with holistic healing to ruminations about […]

On/File: June 2007

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01: Writer Donald Miller has become a spokesman for evangelicals frustrated with evangelical culture while still trying to maintain their beliefs. Miller, whose best-selling books include Blue Like Jazz and To Own A Dragon, delivers his thoughts on Christianity in a personal, highly informal manner that candidly discusses the problems of being an evangelical. Miller speaks […]

On/File: July 2007

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01: The recent formation of the Council of Ex-Muslims is an attempt by religious “apostates” to support each other and speak out against their former religion in Europe. The council claims to represent the views of a majority of secular-minded Muslims in Europe. The council’s leader, Maryam Namazie, said it would be a branch of a […]

Findings & Footnotes: July 2007

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01: The summer issue of the evangelical-based journal Faith & International Affairs is devoted to “religion and torture in an age of terrorism”–an issue just moving on to the evangelical agenda. The centerpiece of the issue is the Evangelical Declaration Against Torture issued by a new group called Evangelicals for Human Rights. Because torture is a new […]

Confucianism vs. religious freedom in China?

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By drawing on some ideas from once-decried Confucianism, the Chinese state may actually delay religious freedom for all, writes Magda Hornemann in an article published on June 21 by Forum 18 News Service, an independent Christian news service reporting on religious freedom. Confucianism has made a comeback in recent years. Faced with declining credibility of Communist […]

Islamic modernization gaining ground?

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Both in the Muslim world and in the West, intellectuals are raising questions and launching debates which may be the starting point of a reform movement within Islam, writes journalist and anthropologist Nadia Khouri-Dagher in a report published in Le Monde 2 magazine (June 9). While it is true that many reformers face strong opposition, and possibly […]