Philip Jenkins
Religion by the numbers: Demography drives change
Demography drives religious change....
Decline and scandal: Symptoms of secularization
This has been a dreadful year for the Roman Catholic Church in Europe. Across the continent, churches are suffering from sexual scandals of a kind long familiar in the United States....
Pilgrims of our time: Looking for miracles
Once upon a time, Europe lived in an age of faith, which found buoyant expression in the massive popularity of pilgrimage....
Martyrs in the family: What Seoul and Kampala have in common
What has Seoul to do with Kampala?...
Born again again: When Christians and missionaries meet
In the 19th century, European and North American missionaries spanned the world, bringing the light of the gospel into what they thought were the dark corners of heathendom....
Church-state disconnect: Official secularism
Even after a century of Christian expansion worldwide, Europe still matters immensely in the map of the faith....
One man, one woman? The paradox of polygamy: The paradox of polygamy
Christian attitudes toward polygamy are more controversial today than they have been for many years. As Euro-American churches debate the issue of same-sex unions, African Christians attack Westerners for their moral laxity and for caving in to secular hedonism. In response, some Western liberals retort that Africans themselves need to put their own house in order. Do African churches define marriage as a sacrosanct union between one man and one woman? If so, then why do their leaders tolerate polygamous unions?
Muslims go Dutch: While churches thrive
For many American Christians, the religious experience of modern Western Europe offers a dire warning. European church membership has been in free fall for a generation....
BRICs of faith: Religion and the four emerging powers
When the U.S. government imagines the global future, the term BRIC features prominently....
Mass appeal in Brazil: Catching up with the Pentecostals
At first glimpse, Marcelo Rossi is a textbook example of the pastor as showman. A handsome, stylish man in his early forties, he leads a flourishing São Paulo congregation legendary for its music....
Take and read
What happens when a superb scholar who studies both North American religious history and global...
The Nestorian faithful: Assyrian and Chaldean churches
I had the opportunity to meet members of one of the world’s oldest and most heroic churches recently when I spoke to the national youth conference of the Holy Apostolic Catholic Assyrian Church of ...
Nations at risk: Fertile ground for persecution
It’s the world’s least desirable club: the league of failed and failing states. Every year, the Fund for Peace presents its list of the world’s shakiest political entities....
A second Jerusalem: Lalibela, Ethiopia
Lalibela, in Ethiopia, should be high on anyone’s list of contenders for the title of most astonishing site in the history of Christian art and architecture....
The crypto-Christians: One of the world's largest religious groups
For most American Christians, re straints on the open expression of religious loyalties normally involve situations in which believers might be seen as imposing their views on others—through evange...
A faith explosion: The global reach of Congo's churches
Most Western observers of the Christian scene have learned to take African developments very seriously. They know that Africans will make up an increasing share of most denominations....
Reforma evangélica: Protestant growth in Latin America
When Americans discuss the great crisis facing the Roman Catholic Church, they usually are thinking of the notorious sex abuse scandals....
The Sufi next door: A wonderful historical irony
Many excellent scholars study Islam. Many other scholars explore the changing face of global Christianity....
When South is North: Familiar faith of ordinary people
North is North, and South is South, and never the twain shall meet. Well, actually, they do....