The Immanent Frame

On April 25th, 2012, Gyaltsen Norbu, the 11th Panchen Lama, delivered a speech for the first time outside of the Chinese mainland.

Last week the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), and its Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Liberty released a lengthy statement entitled “Our First, Most Cherished Liberty,” the latest manifestation of the tensions between the USCCB and President Barack Obama’s administration.

Over at Foreign Affairs, Andrew Preston has written an article exploring the paradox of religion in U.S. foreign policy.

Following reports of NATO personnel burning copies of the Qu’ran in Afghanistan, the United States Institute of Peace convened a closed-door roundtable of scholars, practitioners, government officials, and policy experts to discuss the implications.

On March 16th, Archbishop Rowan Williams announced his acceptance of the position of Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge, effective January 2013.

Over at the New Statesman, Jonathan Derbyshire interviews Charles Taylor on his new book Secularism and Freedom of Conscience.

A 2007 SSRC study on religion and higher education contradicts Rick Santorum’s claims about loss of faith and college attendance.

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) recently released a new guide, Partnering with Religious Communities for Children, intended to support UNICEF staff and  other child rights organizations build effective partnerships with religious communities, in particular religious leaders, networks, and local faith communities.

Over at the New York Times, Neil MacFarquhar writes about the recently published Love, InshAllah: The Secret Love Lives of American Muslim Women, by Ayesha Mattu and Nura Maznavi.

In Religion Dispatches, Katherine Stewart asks what the Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. E.E.O.C. decision can tell us about how religion is viewed by the courts and, more broadly, by the government.