Recent Posts

May 10th, 2013

The Vatican Spring?

posted by The Editors

Does the election of Francis I signal a major shift in Vatican policy, structure, or doctrine? How significant is Francis’ status as an “outsider” to the Roman Curia, especially his background as a Latin American and a Jesuit? Is this status likely to position him as an agent of change within the Church, or do his theological continuities with his predecessors and the entrenched Vatican bureaucracy guarantee that any reform he initiates will be largely cosmetic?

Read responses by Michele Dillon, John L. Esposito, Jeffrey Guhin, Cecelia Lynch, James Martin, S.J., J. Michelle Molina, and Sarah Shortall.

Read The Vatican Spring?
March 5th, 2013

Prayer, imagination, and the voice of God—in global perspective

posted by Steven Barrie-Anthony

March 4th, 2013

Confused parchments, infinite socialities

posted by John Lardas Modern

March 1st, 2013

Reconciliation in the real world

posted by Daniel Philpott

~ More recent posts ~

Recent comments

Featured

Was antebellum America secular?

posted by Michael Warner

Secularism in Antebellum America CoverThe question “Was Antebellum America Secular?” obviously depends on what one means by secular. Because the term is dialectical by nature and immanent to the struggles of the age, we cannot expect it to be a neutral analytic framework; like secularism or religion, it requires constant qualification to be of any analytic use. As Gauri Viswanathan has noted, in many polemical contexts “words like ‘secular’ and ‘religious’ have lost their descriptive value and function instead as signposts to given attitudes.” It is almost impossible to see the question of my title without anticipating that a question of validity will be at stake.

Read Was antebellum America secular?

Related: Confused parchments, infinite socialities by John Lardas Modern

_____

The politics of religious freedom

guest edited by Elizabeth Shakman Hurd and Winnifred Fallers Sullivan

Received wisdom from across the political spectrum suggests that securing religious freedom results in peaceful co-existence and ensures individual and associational flourishing vis-à-vis the state. Meanwhile, a deficit of religious freedom is seen as a driving force behind—if not the proximate cause of—insecurity and violence. The logic of these assumptions is currently being used to justify a wide range of well-funded public and private interventions in many parts of the world. But what is religious freedom, and why are we talking about it now?

Browse all of the essays in this expansive discussion.

Featured discussion

Sex abuse in the Catholic Church

Drawing from a Yale University conference on the subject, this new discussion seeks to interpret the sex abuse scandal as a subject for the study of religion.

Featured publication

The Future of Religious Freedom

Editor Allen D. Hertzke assembles a diverse team of international scholars to not only determine the current status of religious freedom in the world but also understand the prospects for improvement.

Featured interview

American civil religion in the age of Obama

Philip S. Gorski discusses the book he’s writing on civil religion, jokes about Obama’s messianic burden, and considers what present-day America might learn from Émile Durkheim.