Contents alert

Religious Studies Review has published an informative overview of websites concerned with religion and a very useful review article on some recent books on the topic of Internet and religion.

This is what the Blackwell contents alert says:

Contributors to the issue were asked two very general questions, posed as though they came from a student or a faculty member without a background in their field:

• • “What are some good websites for getting information about your topic of research?”
    
  • “Why are those websites reliable?”

In addressing these questions, some contributors selected three or four websites that they believed were the best for this pursuit. In other cases, the contributors recognized themes or categories of online activities related to their field of study and then chose websites that were best suited for that particular theme. In both cases, contributors reviewed some of the most up-to-date and important websites, explaining why they are good sources, what type of information can be found at the site, and also some of the limitations or cautions that should be taken when using the Internet and the Web for their particular research.

• Biblical studies
• Christianity
• Wicca
• Witchcraft
• Modern Paganism
• New religious movements
• Buddhism
• Judaism
• Islam
• Hinduism
• Religious statistics
• Religion and the media

Browse the abstracts online: www.blackwell-synergy.com/toc/rsr/32/4

Religionstylebook.org is an online guide created for journalists who report on religion. Yet it is also a useful online source for those trying to read and understand the articles written by journalists in newspapers and magazines. So if you get lost in reading an article on religion in Iraq, or if you need clear definitions of the many ‘new’ religions today (neo-paganism, neo-evangelicalism, neo-pentecostalism, neo-orthodoxy, new age), try this dictionary.

The German journal Der Spiegel has just published a special issue on religion and politics. Visit their website for the table of contents.

“Thus, the very experience of the weakening of the foundations of religion becomes the starting point for the reconsideration of European religious heritage with reference to two specific aspects: firstly, the possibility of redefining autonomy on the basis of Judeo-Christian concepts of otherness and mutual relations, rather than as merely the liberal affirmation of an individual’s autonomy in his or her private life; secondly, the issue of dominion over nature, which might be considered, in the light of the Judeo-Christian concepts of the Creation, as something other than raw material and a source of revenue. In my opinion, the question of the “European soul” is best addressed by considering these two aspects, not by referring nostalgically to a religious past that is both glorious and painful but which has, in any case, definitively ceased to exist.”

Read more of this interesting article by Hervieu-Léger at the excellent online magazine, Eurozine.com