Forget the centuries-old narrative of Christian missionaries being predominantly white and Western. Workers from the Global South are the force behind one of the great transformations of missions in the modern age.

A new wave of research on religious leadership is finding significant numbers of clergy show evidence of struggling with clinical signs of narcissism. Yet there is a powerful countervailing force: Humility.

Social and medical sciences are increasingly finding evidence to support how religion promotes better health, including living longer. This voluminous new wave of research is helping both religious communities and medical professionals to understand the promises and pitfalls of the faith-health connection. The potential for science and religion to work together for the common good holds great promise for improving global health during the coronavirus pandemic and beyond.

New evidence indicates every generation in a modernizing country is on average less religious than the previous one. Since children are not only influenced by society, but very strongly also by their parents, a self-reinforcing process is set in motion in which increasingly less religious former generations create ever more secular later generations. The U.S. may be no different.

Today’s anti-Semitism is significantly more complex to analyze when compared to the pure and simple hatred and persecution toward Jews in the past. The killings at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, for example, can be tied back to the anti-immigrant and racially charged rhetoric of the U.S. president. To combat anti-Semitism, individuals must both recognize its historical roots and the various contemporary political, social and religious factors that play a part in its revival.

It came as a shock when a synagogue in my middle-class suburb in Australia recently was desecrated by Nazi swastikas painted over the front and sides of the building. But these are no longer isolated incidents anywhere. The official reports of rising anti-Semitism in Australia, where Jews number less than half of 1 percent of the nearly 25 million population, have kept pace with those in Europe, America and elsewhere. An ancient evil, defined as words and actions that dehumanize, condemn and promote hatred against Jewish people based on deceitful, false stereotypes, continues to be widespread. The question becomes: What can each of us do?
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This is a perilous period for religious freedom throughout the world. There is no region or world religion or secular government that is exempt from denying religious freedoms. Moreover, a consistent research finding is that religious minorities are the most frequent targets for receiving reduced freedoms, increased discrimination and open persecution. But when freedoms are uniformly secured for all, the freedoms for even the smallest minority become the freedoms for others.

Pope Francis, the first Latin American pontiff, was charged in his own way with opening the windows of the Catholic Church to the modern world with his election in 2013. But such a change was not going to happen without resistance from powerful forces within the ancient institution. Follow the successes and challenges of his papacy through this overview from the celebrated global religion journalist who has known Jorge Bergoglio intimately since their days together in Argentina.

Human beings may be hard-wired since evolution to separate into tribes in response to fear and uncertainty. But science also shows we are capable of working together for the common good when we leave our tribal cocoons and get to know our neighbors in ways that promote understanding. It starts with listening to one another.

Fashion is often viewed as frivolous. But the rise of modest fashion shows another side of the industry, the ability of a major social and economic engine to influence cultural change. Today, stylish women of many faiths that encourage modesty have embraced coverings or other relevant adaptions of dress and behavior as signs of fashion and faith. In so doing, this largely women-led movement is breaking down legal and social barriers to religious freedom. Movement luminaries also are engaging the world’s leading religions with the rights of women to interpret religious texts and religious practices in everyday life in ways informed by their own conscience and authority.