Having been studying religion in all its magnificent diversity, I am now on every sort of mailing list—Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, Eastern Christian Orthodox. I get print and electronic publications from all these sources, as well as from some others (including a shrilly anti-American bulletin from a supposedly progressive Islamic center in Malaysia). For some time […]

In its issue of August 9, 2011, The Christian Century reported that Michele Bachmann, the Republican presidential candidate, had resigned from her church six days before launching her campaign. (This was also reported in some secular media.) The church in question is Salem Lutheran Church in Stillwater, Minnesota, which is affiliated with the Wisconsin Evangelical […]

Moment is a journal on Jewish affairs, founded in 1975 by Elie Wiesel and currently edited, with great imagination and verve, by Nadine Epstein. In its issue of July-August 2011 it carries a cover story, with a shorter piece, on Jewish thinking about life after death. A symposium ranges across the spectrum of contemporary Judaism. […]

Leila Ahmed, who teaches at the Harvard Divinity School, is the author of a recently published book, A Quiet Revolution: The Veil’s Resurgence, from the Middle East to America. She tells a very interesting story.Ahmed originally comes from a middle-class background in Egypt. In her early years no women in her circle were veiled, even […]

The Texas State Board of Education has been a recurring locale of what is conventionally understood as the battle between science and religion. The agency has the power to decide which textbooks are to be used in Texas public schools. Since Texas has a huge system of public education, and since it would be expensive […]

On July 1, 2011, thirteen US senators opposed to the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) participated in a video that is meant to encourage gays and lesbians to persevere and to be optimistic about the future. One of the thirteen, Senator Robert Wyden (Democrat from Oregon), said: “DOMA, folks, is on the wrong side of […]

Some thoughts on the Austro-Hungarian empire’s legacy on the occasion of the passing of Otto von Habsburg.

On July 5, 2011, The Boston Globe carried a story by Joanna Weiss with the title “Mormons on center stage”. She felt that we are in a Mormon moment. She may well be right.Mormons are certainly very visible on the political scene. As Republican candidates for the presidency are popping in and out at a […]

The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science focuses on a single topic in each issue. In its July 2011 issue the topic is “Patrimonial Power in the Modern World”, edited by two sociologists, Julia Adams and Mounira Charrad. The topic is interesting in itself, and the several authors provide a vivid […]

Demography has very probably been a factor in religious history all along. The Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language (a favorite book of mine) tells us that our word “proletarian” derives from the Latin proles, ”offspring”: A proletarius was “a citizen of the lowest class, useful only by producing children.” One may modify this […]