Ideas
What the Heck Is the Emerging Church? A “Velvet Elvis” Answer
I always like new ideas, and I relish nothing more than watching big, paradigm-shifting movements overturn the status quo. (This probably has something to do with my birth-order position as a “rebellious” second child, but anyways.) Emergent Christianity has tickled my interest recently because it is just that: a completely new way of doing things. [...]
16Jul2008 | Andrea Useem | 4 comments | ContinuedWhen Orthodoxy Is Good for You: Making Sense of the “Hajj Effect”
Headlines about Islam usually write themselves: A Muslim blowing up innocent people is dog-bites-man. A Muslim acting thoughtful or funny or anything besides angry is man-bites-dog. The obvious headline from a recent academic study, “Estimating the Impact of the Hajj: Religion and Tolerance in Islam’s Global Gathering,” fell into the latter category: Three economists [...]
10Jun2008 | Andrea Useem | 7 comments | ContinuedIs Obama’s Real “Faith Asset” His Ability to Speak the Language of American Civil Religion?
Last June, at the Wharton Leadership Conference, Richard Greene, a well-known public speaking coach, offered his prediction that Barack Obama would win the Democratic nomination on the basis of his amazing strengths as an orator. Glossing over the fact that Greene said Romney would win the Republican nomination for the same reason (great speaking skills), [...]
4Jun2008 | Andrea Useem | 3 comments | ContinuedNeuroscience is Not Just for Buddhists: Reflections on the Physiology of Belief
Mega-pundit David Brooks has been talking a lot about neuroscience and religion lately. His column, “The Neural Buddhists,” was on the New York Times‘ “Most Emailed” list, and at this month’s Faith Angle conference in Key West — where the Pew Forum on Religion & Public LIfe invites the nation’s elite journalists to talk religion [...]
29May2008 | Andrea Useem | 3 comments | Continued