Since the 1920s Pentecostal churches have had a major impact in South Africa’s Indian community. Their converts have grown larger than all the other Christian denominations put together.
Academic rigour, journalistic flair
Religion – Analysis and Comment
Is it true that religious organisations are exempt from paying tax and from standard accounting and record-keeping obligations?
The popular TV series encourages us to question how we understand identity and community in light of religion.
For Muslims generally, as for conservative Christians, homosexual acts are sinful. Christian gays and lesbians have had to work hard for a measure of recognition among fellow-believers; their Muslim counterparts are just beginning that struggle.
Not only is the Australian Christian Lobby losing relevance, it has had to appeal to Bill Shorten to pay attention to the group in the lead-up to the 2016 election.
What are we really talking about when we criticize women who breastfeed in public?
The number of people who identify with a religion is declining, but that doesn’t mean it’s on its way out.
Henry II wouldn’t be amused – but rehoming relics is a way of making peace with the past.
The Catholic bishops have exhorted Australians to cast a “vote for the voiceless”, but it is doubtful that their plea will be paid much heed – by politicians or the public.
Experience in the US serves to highlight the potential long-term economic consequences if Australia fails to legalise same-sex marriage.
Twitter, Facebook and Instagram are helping change the top-down nature of organised Christianity.
Church cover-ups are extremely serious. Child victims are especially vulnerable and often suffer long-term psychological harm.
Local education authorities have mediated the RE syllabus for decades. Now, there might be a free-for-all.
It looks as if the story of the red priestess Melisandre is only just getting started. But is she a prophet, or a witch?
What, exactly, are the political goals of The Satanic Temple, which formed in 2013? A religion professor attended a recent satanic ritual to find out.
Pope Francis’ mercy mission to a migrant camp in Lesbos is another effort to rescue the tarnished and failing brand of Catholicism.
What makes cults so attractive to their followers?
In his new exhortation, Pope Francis issues the Catholic Church and its followers a bold challenge: to live God’s mercy more authentically.
The prosperity gospel – a uniquely American strand of Christian theology – creates a dilemma for its adherents.
Apart from having little or no knowledge of religion, the new crop of Islamic State recruits come primed for violence with a different set of skills, honed through criminal activity.
Church affiliation and attendance is on the wane in Australia – a trend that is unlikely to be reversed be the recent slew of sex abuse scandals.
Most scientists don’t think there’s an inherent conflict between their field and religion, so why do we?
Indigo, pink, saffron: colour for India isn’t just for throwing. It’s political, too.
Complex issues require a greater degree of literacy.
To know India’s future we must first understand Hindu nationalism’s past.