01:  The Young Spirit series of children’s’ books by Hampton Roads Publishing Company in Charlottesville, Va., represents an interest among parents to introduce their children to spirituality outside of the structures of institutional religion. Twenty percent of Americans are said to identify themselves as “spiritual but not religious” and many want to raise likewise “spiritual children.” Book […]

01: Deism, the religious philosophy held by some U.S. founding fathers and Enlightenment thinkers and many scientists, is gaining a new following, as well as organizational structure through the work of the World Union of Deists (WUD). Deism teaches that God created and reveals himself through creation and natural laws rather than revelation and direct involvement in the […]

In an age where people are increasingly identifying themselves as “spiritual” but not “church people,” it is unusual to find a group of people who identify themselves as “church people” but are decidedly not spiritual. When four former altar boys in Dallas, Texas formed the North Texas Church of Freethought, they may have hit on an idea that will be […]

01: Until now the co-housing movement has mainly consisted of secular and liberal religious people wishing to balance a sense of community with personal privacy [see February 99 RW]. But the Temescal Cohousing Project in Oakland, Calif., is one of the first evangelical Christian expressions of this new living arrangement. Like other co-housing projects, Temescal residents live […]

01: The mentoring program Kids Hope USA is a leading example of the new partnerships developing between faith groups and public schools. The organization was started in 1994 and it  is now active in 100 schools across 18 states, reaching more than 1,600 children. The program, headed by Virgil Gulker, is simple in operation: congregations — usually evangelical […]

01: The New Media Bible is the result of a decade-long attempt to redesign scriptures to meet the needs and interests of today’s technological society. Published by the American Bible Society (ABS), the ongoing project includes video productions of major New Testament stories, and fresh versions of the Bible using secular market strategies. Long the recognized leader […]

01: The rapidly growing independent  Pentecostal congregation in South Dallas, Texas, Potter’s House. is now attracting considerable national and scholarly attention. Led by Pastor T.D. Jakes, whom the New York Times in 1999 included as one of five preachers likely to succeed Billy Graham,  the multi-program congregation has over 23,000 members. At the age of 42, Jakes is considered […]

01: The Oranienburg Youth Center is among the few ministries reporting growth as well as social impact in the former East Germany. The youth center, located in the suburbs of Berlin, is also unique in being one of the few charismatic Christian ministries in Germany funded by the government for its work among youth, particularly skinheads. The center, […]

01: A book attracting considerable public attention is Finding Your Religion: When the Faith You Grew Up With Has Lost its Meaning (Harper SanFrancisco). Written by the chaplain at Tufts University, Scotty McLennen, it presents narratives of spiritual searching among Protestants, Catholics, Jews, Muslims, and Buddhists. The author’s thesis is that religion and spirituality are just like your [the […]

01: In a move directly related to the larger struggle now going on within the Christian Right over whether to drop out of secular society and form a countercultural society or to keep trying to transform secular society, leaders of the latter course of action are starting the Patrick Henry College. The Purcellville, Va.-based college is […]