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Christopher Caldwell’s new book on Islam and the West is fraught with inconsistency, selective history, and outright error. But, for all that, it is a must-read.

Japan, in the throes of political and financial turmoil, is still dealing with the long-running controversy over a national shrine for WWII dead.

RD News Round-Up: November 17, 2008: New surveys on the faith vote; Rev. Moon’s plans for the UN; Jews to Mormons: lay off the dead; plus Jill Stanek, Tom Minnery and Joel Hunter

There are many stories on which a Mormon is raised: narratives of the elect, America and the Constitution, the latter days, and free agency—all of which play a role in Mitt Romney’s “severe” conservatism.

What does it mean that Rhodes Scholar and Progressive Evangelical Brad Braxton resigned as senior pastor of the influential Riverside Church? In this discussion over the implications, a reverend and a scholar ask whether multiracial churches require making white people comfortable, why God needs liberal protestants to get out of the bubble, and what the future holds for the mainline church as a whole.

Revealing why citing “chapter and verse” once had no meaning, why 16th century Catholics capitalized “Word” but not “God,” and why the King James Bible is anti-Puritan, Lori Anne Ferrell’s new book reminds us that everything is historical: the Christian religion, the Christian people, the Christian book.

The fantasy realms of online gaming become even more surreal when religion enters the scene; imagine Batman going on pilgrimage to Mecca, or a virtual crucifixion, or massive Bibles, raining from the sky.

Since a primary goal of creationist endeavors like the proposed “Ark Park” is to rally the faithful and generate group cohesion, the various faulty logic and specious claims make little impact; it provides an explanatory framework for its intended audience’s frustrations and concerns about contemporary American life.

The New Apostolic Reformation has been in the news a great deal since Rick Perry first announced his prayer rally, The Response. Sarah Posner has an investigative journalist’s view of this movement, its place in religious movements of the 20th and 21st centuries, and in politics. Here she is in conversation with Anthea Butler, a scholar of American religious history.

There is little doubt as to why Orthodoxy seems appealing to a white nationalist movement.