Churches are becoming more involved in making films for “faith-based audiences,” reports Charisma magazine (January). Christian film producers and directors are teaming up with congregations to make films that stress both high quality and production values with a strong viewer base, writes Adrienne Gaines. The success of the films Facing the Giants and Fireproof, produced […]

While Shiite assertiveness gives rise to concerns and nervousness among Sunni regimes, observers should be careful not to explain all developments and attitudes through religion and also be aware of the significance of political dimensions and alliances. This was the implicit message in several papers presented at the international conference on Sunni–Shia relations organized by […]

Religious groups and leaders may represent the strongest challenge to President Ahmadinejad’s leadership since the popular uprisings of last summer went underground after government crackdowns, reports The Tablet magazine (Oct.17). Ahmadinejad’s increasingly authoritarian rule is helping to “forge an unlikely but powerful alliance between orthodox mullahs and secular democrats,” writes Edward Stourton. There is increasing […]

Addressing a large audience at the Montreal conference of the American Academy of Religion—attended by RW—Tariq Ramadan (Oxford University) summarized his message of the need for a radical reform within Islam while remaining faithful to the sacred text. According to the influential Swiss Muslim thinker, this will be made possible by contextualization. Indeed, not only […]

For a long time, Buddhism was too much associated with “funeral Buddhism” in the minds of most Japanese to pay attention to other, new forms of “engaged Buddhism,” said Ranjana Mukhopadhyaya (University of Delhi) at a session of the Japanese Religions Group at the Montreal conference of the American Academy of Religion. But a number […]

While Internet penetration remains lower on the African continent than in other places around the globe, new religious movements born in Africa have been appropriating new media technologies, reported Afe Adogame (University of Edinburgh) at the conference of the American Academy of Religion in Montreal. Use of media is not a new feature among African […]

Unitarianism is growing relatively rapidly in Africa, surprising even American Unitarians who discourage missionaries and even support of overseas congregations. The official magazine of the Unitarian-Universalist Association, UU World (Summer), reports that whereas a decade ago, Africa counted only a handful of UU congregations—mainly in South Africa—today the continent boasts of churches in Uganda, Burundi, […]

Gangs in Central America are showing a new respect for evangelical churches and those ex-members who convert to them, but those “backsliding” from the church may face a good deal of danger, according to researcher Robert Brenneman of Notre Dame University, who presented a paper on the topic at the SSSR meeting. In conducting research […]