After decades of quasi-hibernation, the Theosophical Society (TS) in Denmark has started growing again. The number of its members quadrupled over the past twenty years, from 300 to nearly 1,200, writes René Dybdal Pedersen (University of Aarhus, Denmark) in the latest issue of Aries: Journal for the Study of Western Esotericism (9(2), 2009). Many TS […]

More Jewish women are taking leadership roles in Europe, reports Toby Axelrod (Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Aug. 6). Female rabbis have held high positions in several countries of Western and Eastern Europe. One currently heads the Central Council of Jews in Germany. While the number of women on such positions is still small—the German case being […]

While Portugal shows signs of secularization, the pattern of religious decline is far from uniform, with the Catholic Church enjoying greater social and media influence, according to Steffen Dix. Throughout its history, the trajectory of secularization in Portugal has been anything but unidirectional, according to Dix, who presented a paper at the ASR conference in […]

The clash between immigrants and the evangelical-influenced second generation in the Indian Orthodox Mar Thoma Church in the US is significant enough to change the nature of this liturgical and mystical church, according to Syracuse University sociologist Prema Kurian. In a paper she presented at the ASR conference in San Francisco in mid-August, Kurian found […]

The LDS (Mormon) church is courting the Catholic Church in the US, attempting to form alliances over moral and social issues, and Catholic leaders are finally warming to such overtures, writes James Massa in the newsletter Ecumenical Trends (July–August). Mormons were particularly interested in how Catholics have turned out electable politicians while still being a […]

Long perceived as a “moderate” member of mainline Protestantism, the recent decision by America’s largest Lutheran body to allow for homosexual relations and approve of the ordination of gays and lesbians came as a shock in some quarters. But seasoned observers of the 5.5 million-member Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) registered little surprise at […]

A more diverse, activist and, in some cases, tolerant secularism is emerging, according to several papers presented at the recent meeting of the Association for the Sociology of Religion (ASR) in San Francisco in mid-August. Although those involved in secularist “free-thought” groups are often identified as belonging to one monolithic group of atheists, there is […]

A new phenomenon in Israel has been the rise of spiritual communities fusing their Israeli and Jewish identities, and thus producing a new type of loosely organized, “post-denominational” Judaism, without predefined rules and rituals, writes Eetta Prince Gibson in the Jerusalem Report (June 22). While there are some genealogical links with Reform or Conservative Judaism, […]

While English-speaking African churches have often been viewed as representing global South Christianity and influencing the North, Francophone African nations, especially the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), are playing a role in religion far beyond their borders. Philip Jenkins writes in the Christian Century (June 16) that the DRC could be placed alongside the […]