Religion Watch Archives

Monitoring Trends in Religion - From February 1990 to January 2016

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Witchcraft appealing to new generation of teenage girls

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The interest in witchcraft among teenage girls in the 1990s, was reflected in such shows and movies as Buffy the Vampire Slayer and The Craft. Now it seems to have carried over to a new generation of youths, reports The Guardian (Oct. 26). “In the young-adult section of bookshops, shelves that recently groaned under the […]

Unpaid, bi-vocational clergy gaining traction among mainline Protestants

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A “growing breed of mainline Protestant clergy” are serving congregations in exchange for little or no compensation, reports Christian Century magazine (Oct. 18). Although evangelical churches have most commonly used unpaid and part-time clergy, that is changing as many mainline Protestant clergy can no longer afford full-time or nearly full-time pastors. Scott Thumma, a Hartford […]

`None’ uprising leading to new approaches, innovations in seminaries

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Seminaries are struggling with the swelling number of religiously unaffiliated young Americans, with some of them retooling their programs to cater to this population. In Trust (Autumn), a magazine on seminary education, reports that reactions of seminary leaders to the polls showing the rising tide of “nones” has run the gamut from “I told you […]

On/File: September/October 2013

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A continuing survey of new groups, movements, events, and people impacting religion The Congregation of the Oratory, a conservative liturgical and theological order founded by St. Phillip Neri in 1575, is finding a following among young Catholics in England at a time when other parts of the church are in decline. The Oratorians came to […]

Findings & Footnotes: September/October 2013

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01: Social Compass, an international journal on the sociology of religion, devotes most of its September issue to the state of Italian Catholicism. The Catholic Church in Italy has long been considered something of an exception from the rest of secular Western Europe in commanding a fair level of devotion and identity among its adherents. […]

Political religion finds a place in secular Estonia

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Estonia is reported to be among the most atheistic of countries, but a study of the Baltic country’s last elections showed that religion is playing a new role in its national identity and politics. An article in the journal Religion, State & Society (September) by political scientist Alar Kilp argues that the 2011 parliamentary elections […]

Foreign jihadists meet resistance from Syria’s Muslims

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While foreign Islamic volunteers in Syria are sometimes well-equipped and fierce fighters, organizations under their control are smaller and seen as foreign elements by most Syrians, who envision the future of their country in terms other than a global struggle, according to Laurent Vinatier (Thomas More Institute, Paris, and Small Arms Survey, Geneva). Vinatier recently […]

Current Research: September/October 2013

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01: Young women, Baptists and other seekers who have had personal contact with Anabaptist life are most likely to join the Amish and other “plain Mennonite” groups, according to a recent study by Corey Anderson of Ohio State University. In the ARDA blog, Ahead of the Trend (Aug. 28), David Briggs reports that the study […]

Neopagans find interfaith acceptance while experiencing internal conflicts

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Neopagansim has experienced considerable success in gaining acceptance in interfaith circles. However, at the same time has been drawn into increasing controversy over the diverse racial tendencies in its East European expressions, according to a prominent scholar in the field. At the New York meeting of the Association for the Society of Religion, Michael York, […]