When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, many lost the habit of churchgoing after almost every church in the country closed down their in-person services and shifted online. But did some of them give up on God? Sociologists like Michael Hout want to know. Hout, a professor of sociology at New York University, has long tracked the Read more
As the supreme governor of the Church of England, King Charles III is expected to continue his mother’s friendship and esteem for the Catholic Church, but it will form just part of his broad interest in all Christian denominations, other world religions, and his seeming religious fervour for environmental concerns. The new monarch, who immediately Read more
It’s a message young people in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints hear early and often: You should get married because marriage is wonderful and family life is at the heart of the faith. The problem is that church leaders haven’t grasped the power of cultural trends in technology, education and economics that Read more
“Faith seeking understanding” is a good definition of belief. Faith is our experience of God and belief is our attempt to express that experience in words and symbols. When we attempt to describe our experiences of God, we necessarily express ourselves in the symbols, words, and rituals that are products of our culture. All of Read more
For decades, viewers have enjoyed the Japanese reality TV series “Old Enough!” in which preschool children venture into the streets alone to run errands for their parents. What if American women asked their live-in boyfriends to stop playing video games, leave their couches and run errands? In the “Saturday Night Live” sketch “Old Enough! Longterm Read more
It’s easy to say that pilgrimage must be a movement forward, but it is not so easy to do. That’s because I can’t see the road ahead, which is getting wider and suggesting new scenery. What will it demand of me? We know we have to leave the oast. St Paul reminds us that we Read more
It’s an interesting experience being a churchgoer these days. We’ve been nudged to the periphery of society and lost out in numbers and influence. Countless revelations about sexual misconduct by clergy have shaken public confidence. The accumulation of negative publicity in very recent times has been remarkable: Dilworth School, Gloriavale, Destiny Church’s antics, Arise Church’s Read more
What is the difference between Faith and Belief? It was an interesting question, and if it had been asked in a room full of people, we could have had many answers. My response is that both are important, but Belief belongs to the head and Faith belongs to the heart. The journey from head to Read more
Pope Francis says the Lord does not expect us to be “perfect Christians,” and he (the pope) is afraid when he sees righteous and self-assured Christians. Francis told a crowd at the Vatican on Sunday that the Lord would prefer us “to seek him, to call on him or even, like Thomas, to protest, bringing Read more
US secular universities will benefit from a US$3.6m grant to create a national network of independent institutes of Catholic thought. Several secular universities are already home to many of these institutes. The aim of the plan is to help make Catholicism’s intellectual tradition a vital aspect of academic life, foccusing on the theology, arts, politics Read more