The issue of mixed marriages was at the core of the 7th meeting of the Presidents of the Roman Catholic Bishops’ Conferences of Southeast Europe, which took place in Romania in early March. Marriages “with a difference in worship” are reported to be on the increase in that area of Europe, especially with Muslims. According […]

Calvary Chapel, one of the most influential evangelical movements, is facing a crisis over the accountability of its pastors and its disciplinary practices, reports Christianity Today magazine (March). Calvary Chapel pioneered the Jesus movement of the early 1970s and developed much of the contemporary style of worship in evangelicalism. From his base in southern California, founder Chuck […]

In seeking to stem the effects of continuing decline, the Jesuit order is redistributing its resources and members to meet global needs and stressing the involvement of laity, writes Raymond Scroth in the National Catholic Reporter (Feb. 23). With a membership peaking in 1960 of 8,338 members, there are now only 2,991 Jesuits with an average age […]

The evolutionary approach to religion is evolving itself, moving from the view that religion is a maladaptive feature carried over from primitive times to a more nuanced and varied look at faith and its role in the lives of believers. A cover story in the New York Times Sunday Magazine(March 4) reports that during the 1990s […]

The recent controversy about the documentary on the tomb of Jesus reveals less about an archeological breakthrough than about the growth of speculative biblical scholarship and the attraction of alternative readings of Christianity, reports Time magazine (March 12). The Jesus Family Tomb, aired on the Discovery Channel in early March, which claimed to uncover the bones of […]

There is a renewed interest in socialism among Christian theologians, writes Stephen H. Webb in First Things magazine (April). It is particularly theologians associated with the “Radical Orthodoxy” movement who have sought to develop ties with the economic left. Radical Orthodox theologians such as John Milbank and Graham Ward have sought to revive the role of Christian […]

Women priests are being reintroduced in Hinduism, in India as well as in the diaspora. In the current issue of the magazine Hinduism Today (April-June), Lavina Melwani reports on four US-based women pujaris, who perform the same ceremonies as their male counterparts. There once were women priests among Hindus in ancient times, but they had disappeared by […]

A study conducted by researchers in Shanghai on behalf of the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China concludes that 31.4 percent of Chinese aged 16 and above describe themselves as believers, reports the Chinese magazine Oriental Outlook, quoted in Eglises d’Asie (Feb. 16). This figure is three times higher than the official one. The results […]