The Internet has given unofficial and dissenting Mormon groups more breathing space, while the official LDS church is increasingly taking an optimistic approach toward this technology, writes Hugo Oaiz in the independent Mormon magazine Sunstone (December). At first the open and dynamic quality of the Internet worried church leaders and other LDS members as participation in this […]

A growing interest in books on discernment points to a renewed search for guidance and direction among Christians, reports Religion Bookline (Jan. 7). Driving the trend is more than a concern about seeking what God wants Christians to do with their lives.  Popular titles such as Debra Farrington’s “Hearing with the Heart: A Gentle Guide to Discerning God’s […]

There have recently been several books and major articles about “cultural creatives” and other influential  Americans who set the trends in society. A series on the “creative class” in the Austin American-Statesman (Dec. 29) newspaper reports that an important trait of this group of Americans is their high interest in spirituality while showing less confidence in organized religion. […]

For several decades, Ukrainian Greek Catholics have cultivated the dream of getting their own Patriarchate, a status enjoyed by six other Eastern Churches in union with Rome. This goal has often been expressed in diaspora communities and in Ukraine itself as soon as the Ukrainian Greek Catholics emerged from their clandestine existence in late 1989. […]

A new religious phenomenon based around a select group of gurus proclaiming instant enlightenment has emerged in several Western countries. In the journal Nova Religio (October) Liselotte Frisk writes that by the end of the 1990s, a group of Westerners claiming to have reached enlightenment were touring Asia and the West holding meetings to help others make […]

The question of whether Islamic groups should accept aid from Saudi Arabia is raising debate and divisions in the American Muslim community, reports the Los Angeles Times (Dec. 1). Since Saudi Arabia is increasingly seen as the importer of the militant “Wahhabi” branch of Islam, both the U.S. government and American Muslim groups themselves debating the consequences […]

Although Sept. 11 still reverberated across the American landscape, religious trends emerged from several unexpected places in 2002. As is customary, the following review looks at the trends unfolding from last year’s news that are likely to carry some impact in 2003 and beyond. Some of the trends have received fuller treatment in previous issues […]

While evangelicals are usually associated with the unofficial and illegal underground churches in China, there is a new trend of these believers working with official church bodies. The evangelical digest Current Thoughts & Trends (December) reports on missionaries who willingly work with the Chinese government’s Three Self Patriotic Movement and are establishing flourishing evangelical seminaries, Bible institutes […]