Font Size
100%
Archive
Image courtesy of Pixabay
Religion, Remixed
October 15, 2019
Christian. Muslim. Atheist. Jew. Some people fall into neat, familiar religious categories. What about the folks who don't?
Book jacket courtesy of author Duane Bidwell
When One Religion Isn't Enough October 15, 2019
While a growing number of Americans are moving away from religion, for some people, one religion isn’t enough. A new book details the lives of the "spiritually fluid," those who practice more than one religion at the same time. Author Duane Bidwell is a professor of practical theology, spiritual care, and counseling at the Claremont School of Theology in California. He's also a Presbyterian minister with a robust Buddhist practice. Bidwell says he wrote When One Religion Isn't Enough to help other spiritually fluid people realize that there are more them than they might think.

Duane Bidwell, professor of practical theology, spiritual care, and counseling at the Claremont School of Theology in California, and the author of When One Religion Isn't Enough: The Lives of Spiritually Fluid People
A Different Sort October 15, 2019
Are you a Sunday Stalwart or a Religion Resister? The Pew Research Center has developed a way to categorize religious practice that goes beyond affiliation with specific traditions. The Religious Typology study doesn’t ask if a respondent is Christian, Muslim, Jewish, atheist, etc. Rather, it groups people by the ways in which they practice spirituality (or don’t). Becka Alper, lead author of this survey, spoke to us about what these new groupings can reveal about America’s religious landscape.

Becka Alper, lead author of The Religious Typology from the Pew Research Center 

Want to know what category you fall into? Click here to take the quiz. 

Who Are the 'Spiritual But Not Religious?' October 15, 2019
After her own spiritual journey, a religion scholar hypothesized that one common belief about the "spiritual but not religious" – that they aren't serious about their beliefs – is wrong. The Rev. Dr. Linda Mercadante, a senior professor of theology at the Methodist Theological School in Ohio, conducted hundreds of interviews with so-called SBNR's to let them tell their own spiritual stories. The result is her book, Belief Without Borders: Inside the Minds of the Spiritual But Not Religious.

The Rev. Dr. Linda Mercadante, senior professor of theology at the Methodist Theological School in Ohio