Although charismatic and Pentecostal revivals have simmered down in the last few years, the recent establishment of “healing rooms” may have more staying power in this movement, according to sociologist Margaret Poloma. Writing in the current issue of Pneuma (Vol. 28, No. 1), a journal of Pentecostal studies, Poloma notes that the idea of “healing rooms,“ existing […]

Years ago, periodicals studying political violence would mostly publish articles on secular-based movements; but today more and more space is given to groups claiming some type of religious justification, especially Islamic ones. And some terrorism experts have come to a conclusion similar to Muhammad Haniff bin Hassan’s (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore) writing in the journal Studies […]

The Alevis, a Turkish-based group long considered part of Islam though with heterodox leanings, are undergoing changes in their identity due to developments in Turkey and the diaspora, reports Martin Eichhorn in the August issue of Materialdienst der EZW. Germany plays a key role in that evolution. According to 2004 statistics, there are 410,000 Alevis in […]

The destruction of a Mandaean temple in the al-Ahshar district of Basra (Iraq) by Shi’ite guerillas on June 28 was the latest in a long series of attacks since the beginning of the occupation of Iraq, writes C.G. Haberl in the August issue (No.4) of the online newsletter The Arab Washingtonian. Mandaeans are the descendents of […]

Just as the conflict between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland has grown less violent if still persisting, historic sectarian tensions in Scotland appear to be subsiding. The Tablet of London (Aug. 4) reports that in both countries, the Protestant Orange orders’ traditional anti-Catholic edge has been dulled. In Northern Ireland, the government has proposed […]

The Democratic Union Party (DUP), now the largest political party in Northern Ireland, has distanced itself from much of its fundamentalist past and is accommodating a more pragmatic wing, according to Gladys Ganiel of Trinity College, Dublin. In a paper presented at the meeting of the ASR, she traced how the DUP has changed from […]

Known for its strict segregation of the sexes, ultra-Orthodox Judaism in Israel is undergoing a notable change in gender relations, according to a researcher at Hebrew University. A paper by Nurit Stadler presented at the meeting of the Association for the Sociology of Religion (ASR) finds that the image of Heredi, or ultra-Orthodox, Jewish men […]

There is a growing alliance between social conservatives made up largely of evangelicals and Catholics and the new Conservative Party in power in Canada, reports Religion in the News (Summer). Although the emergence of a religious right and culture wars in the mold of the U.S. is unlikely in Canada, the election of Conservative Party leader Stephen […]