John Allen Chau’s life could be summed up in two sentences, according to his family. He loved God. And he had “nothing but love for the Sentinelese people.” Chau, a young missionary from the United States, was killed on Nov. 17 while illegally attempting to invade the land of the North Sentinel Islanders, an indigenous Read more
If you think religion belongs to the past and we live in a new age of reason, you need to check out the facts: 84% of the world’s population identifies with a religious group. Members of this demographic are generally younger and produce more children than those who have no religious affiliation, so the world Read more
After assessing Christian missionary efforts from 1668 to 1950, researchers claim to have found the spread of Christianity in the Pacific was driven more by the influence of political leaders than grassroots empowerment. This challenges one of the most widely cited reasons for Christianity’s popularity, that it spread from the “bottom-up” by empowering lower classes Read more
Five hundred years ago, Martin Luther, a German monk, initiated a split in Christianity that came to be known as the Protestant Reformation. After the Reformation, deep divisions between Protestants and Catholics contributed to wars, hostility and violence in Europe and America. For centuries, each side denounced the other and sought to convert its followers. Then, in the early 1900s, Read more
Which is generally more often to blame if a person is poor: lack of effort on their own part or difficult circumstances beyond their control? The Washington Post and the Kaiser Family Foundation asked 1,686 American adults to answer that question — and found that religion is a significant predictor of how Americans perceive poverty. Read more
Muslims will outnumber Christians by 2070, ending two millenniums of Christian dominance going back to the birth of Jesus Christ, projections released Thursday by the Pew Research Center show. Islam is projected to grow more than twice as fast as any other major religion over the next half century because of a higher fertility rate. Read more
Top-notch preaching most attracts people looking for a new place to pray. That’s the conclusion of a new Pew Research Center study, released Tuesday (Aug. 23), which asked 5,000 people about their search for a new church or other house of worship. “This is what people value in a congregation — a good message, a good Read more
British Christianity is in pretty poor shape. A UK Social Attitudes survey has revealed that, for the first time in history, more people now regard themselves as having “no religion” than being a Christian. A cultural shift is to blame: people raised in the faith but who don’t practice it have ceased to identify with it. Read more
Christians are taught to despise the Enlightenment. It is hard to find a theologian with a good word for this era of rational presumption, glistening certitude and powdered wiggery. The Enlightenment is the sin of the modern, the chimera of crass autonomy. Popular writers have been no kinder. Enter the world of knockdown apologetics and Read more
US presidential hopeful Donald Trump has labelled Pope Francis’s questioning of his Christianity as “disgraceful”. Francis was asked in a press conference on a papal flight from Mexico for his reaction to Mr Trump’s proposal of a US-Mexico border wall, and what he might say to US Catholics supporting Mr Trump. Francis said that he Read more