The Immanent Frame

BBC News reported recently on the release of a collection of rare fifth-century Buddhist manuscripts, known together as the Lotus Sutra, in book form in India.

At The Atlantic, Conor Friedersdorf attempts to prove wrong writers, political commentators, and politicians who claim that post-9/11 Islamophobia is a media-conceived, unsubstantiated hoax.

Today at The New York Times, Laurie Goodstein reports on the United Methodist Church’s decision not to divest from companies that supply Israel with equipment used to enforce its control in the occupied Palestinian territories.

At The New Republic, Eg Kilgore explains why the Christian Right will overcome its apprehensions about Mitt Romney’s religion.

Gallup’s latest poll, released today, breaks down presidential candidate support by voter religiosity and religious identity.

At The Nation, Norman Birnbaum, professor emeritus at Georgetown University Law Center, rebukes the Catholic Church for its historical “unyielding insistence on the rule of men”; and more specifically, for its decision to reorganize the Leadership Council of Women Religious, an umbrella organization that represents eighty percent of American nuns.

British think tank Demos has recently released a new report, written by Jonathan Birdwell and Mark Littler, entitled “Faithful Citizens.” The report investigates “the different relationship between religion and politics in the UK and Europe.”

On April 18th, Columbia University’s Institute for Religion, Culture, and Public Life will host Nathan Schneider for a talk on “Why the World Needs Religious Studies (and Why Religious Studies Needs the World).”

At Salon, Troy Williams retells an old Mormon tale and chastises likely Republican candidate for president, Mitt Romney, for abandoning his religion’s socialist roots

At Al Jazeera English, Elizabeth Shakman Hurd gives an abridged history of the past half-century of Tunisian politics, and relays the Enahddan notion that the revolution in Tunisia is neither unambiguously Islamist nor secularist.