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Culture and Review - Religion and Society

Religion and Society

  • 21 Jan 2012
    Getting it together: Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2012

    Traditionally celebrated between 18 and 25 January (in the northern hemisphere) or at Pentecost (in the southern hemisphere), the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity mobilises countless congregations and parishes around the world.

  • 19 Jan 2012
    Photographic exhibition celebrates Germany's religious diversity

    A photography exhibition at a historic monastery near Nuremburg takes visitors on a journey to the heart of Germany's many faiths.

  • 17 Jan 2012
    Ministerial and religious exemptions in the USA

    US society is rife with "religious exceptions" or exemptions, notably in relation to tax breaks, says Martin E. Marty. Now "ministerial exceptions" can be added to the list. The generally free ride given religious institutions even in a “secular time” should inspire thought: With all its contradictions, the United States remains a generous place in which religions can prosper. They would do well to serve the common good freely and openly.

  • 1 Dec 2011
    School wars of religion: RE in Free Schools

    A good RE syllabus would allow young people to explore, without either naivety or unwarranted suspicion, how the world might look from different perspectives and to learn to think critically and with minds open to the possibilities as well as to the limitations and dangers of different political and cultural norms, says Alison Jasper. But how far the kind of organisations sponsoring the government's Free Schools is another question, she acknowledges.

  • 9 Nov 2011
    Jesus and the term 'Abba'

    How extraordinary it is that so many interpreters cling to "Abba" as indicating Jesus' unique relationship to God as "Daddy", using mysterious language from which - upon closer examination - the gospel writers seek to escape, says Deirdre Good, dispelling some common biblical misunderstandings.

  • 30 Oct 2011
    St Paul's: Showing off, shutting out or showing up?

    Do the managers at St Paul's Cathedral have the stomach to engage in the real world at the crest of a tidal race between people, money and power? asks Bishop Alan Wilson. Or are they just overgrown public schoolboys playing indoor games in their own self-important Tourist Disneyland?

  • 1 Oct 2011
    Marriage: commitment, creativity and celebration

    Marriage. What’s it all about, then? In a sermon marking the wedding of two established friends of Ekklesia, Simon Barrow looks at the spiritual and social embeddedness which means that, in Bonhoeffer's words, “It is not your love that sustains the marriage, but from now on, the marriage that sustains your love.”

  • 27 Sep 2011
    Dead Sea Scrolls online after high-tech photo process

    The Dead Sea Scrolls, which include the world's oldest known biblical manuscripts, are now available online through a cooperative effort between the Israel Museum, where they are housed, and Google.

  • 27 Sep 2011
    Major theological online resource launched

    A unique and ambitious web-based theological resource has been launched in Geneva by the World Council of Churches and Globethics.net. It aims to redress a global imbalance of access to research materials in theology and related disciplines.

  • 21 Sep 2011
    'Culture wars', schools, science and religion

    The issue about creationism in schools is part of a wider set of misleadingly contructed arguments about religion and science, says Bob Carling. But ‘culture wars’ are often played out often by ignoring (or unfairly vilifying) those who take seriously the religious aspects of being human (and thus are theistic or agnostic) and who on the other hand take seriously the scientific evidence for evolution.

  • 17 Sep 2011
    Argentinians hold a 'month of the Bible'

    In Argentina, as in many Latin American countries, September is a month to celebrate the Bible. Churches coordinate lectures, workshops and conferences for youth.

  • 2 Sep 2011
    Musicology and philosophy, religion and political science

    Why it is that so few ‘secular’ scholars engage meaningfully with ‘religion’, wonders Michael Marten. Or to put it another way: why is it that so many religion scholars depend upon and practice disciplinary heterogeneity, whereas many of the scholars they use do not appear to engage substantially with what they write?

  • 14 Jul 2011
    Religions as instruments of peace at Bossey

    Moving beyond tolerance of differences to appreciation is both the aim and the outcome of a 2011 summer course on 'Building an interfaith community' at the Ecumenical Institute in Bossey, Switzerland. Theodore Gill of the World Council of Churches explains the background.

  • 13 Jul 2011
    Celebrating spirituality and peace after 9/11

    The Festival of Spirituality and Peace, which runs this year in Edinburgh from 6 - 29 August 2011, seeks to reawaken the heart of the Edinburgh festival for people who, ten years after 9/11, want to work together for a peaceful future. The director, Donald Reid, introduces its main theme.

  • 22 Jun 2011
    'Saving the Indians' souls' in colonial Peru

    Ethnohistorical and other studies show the great influence and power the historic Spanish mission had over the native population?s lives and souls in the Andean region, says Sabine Dedenbach-Salazar. At the same time as they document the missionaries' daily struggle to impose European ways of life onto other cultures, they also indicate that indigenous people were not only victims, but also agents in re-shaping their living conditions and their cultural identities.