German Protestant churches are seeing a return to liturgical worship after centuries of eschewing ritual. In a United Press International-based article (April 4), Uwe Siemon-Netto writes that in the homeland of the Lutheran Reformation, Protestant churches have long adopted a formal yet plain service, in part due to the influence of the Enlightenment. “By contrast, in […]

During the last week of March, a delegation of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) headed by Metropolitan Kirill, chairman of the Department of Foreign Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, visited Iraq, according to the Russian news agency RIA, March 25. Such a visit — the first of its kind — may sound intriguing, since the Orthodox […]

The Times of London (April 9) publishes a report under the title: “Church of Scotland Facing Extinction.” While an obituary is obviously premature, a new report from the Church’s Board of National Mission notices alarming trends, and describes a Church “on uncertain ground”, according to a Church’s news release (April 19). In 2000, the Church had […]

Brainwashing has sometimes been used as an explanation for Osama bin Laden’s and Al Queda’s actions by Western experts and observers, but now the theory has found a home among Muslims. In the wake of Sept. 11, psychologists, anti-cultists and some of the media claimed that the only way the terrorists could retain their resolve […]

Although long outshined by Contemporary Christian Music, traditional Southern gospel music has kept its fans and has even grown as it has moved closer to its evangelical roots. In his new book Close Harmony: A History of Southern Gospel (University of North Carolina Press, $24.95), historian James R. Guff Jr. writes that the gospel music tradition, as […]

The spiritual or religious interpretation of dreams has been a staple of New Age spirituality, but  now “dream readings” are being used by charismatics as a way to bring Christianity to the alternative spirituality community. Charisma magazine (April) reports that the phenomenon was seen during the recent Winter Olympics, where teams of dream interpreters held “readings” around […]

Although most modern evangelicals have disdained the practice of door-to-door evangelism, this aggressive method of recruiting has been revamped to stress building relationships with prospective converts, according to Christianity Today (April 22). Like the Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons, evangelical and fundamentalist Protestants had long practiced door-to-door evangelism, but making “cold calls” (knocking on random doors) fell into […]

While the sexual abuse crisis continues to unfold within the Catholic Church, a trend toward greater activism and independence among the laity — whether conservative and liberal — is already visible. Polls taken during the crisis show that American Catholics’ faith in basic church teachings have not changed drastically since the scandals have come to […]