Issues, ethics, memory
In the Introduction to his book Journeys to Justice, Joe Gunn, executive director of Citizens for Public Justice (CPJ) writes a letter to the next generation, including his own young adult children. He expresses frustration that largely they don’t know about the struggles by members of Christian churches for justice in the not-so-distant past, and... Continue Reading →
When I have time, I enjoy browsing in the new books section at the Carleton University Library in Ottawa. Recently, I came upon After Secularism: Rethinking Religion in Global Politics, written by Erin Wilson, a professor in the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands. Wilson begins with a... Continue Reading →
Writer Christopher Hitchens has died at age died at age 62. One of his most popular and controversial books is God is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything. In a guest column for this blog, Eric Schiller, a Quaker and a retired University of Ottawa professor, writes about the book and analyzes Hitchens' attack on organized... Continue Reading →
The young protesters of the Occupy movement who have been living in tents in urban parks from Vancouver to Halifax are being forced out or threatened with eviction. In one respect, the mayors are inadvertently doing them a favour -- sparing them the discomfort and perils of living outdoors in winter and also allowing them... Continue Reading →
The Ottawa-based Hill Times carried an interview with me in its October 17 edition regarding my new book, Pulpit and Politics: Competing Religious Ideologies in Canadian Public Life. It was released earlier in October by Kingsley Publishing of Calgary. It is available in Ottawa at Brittons magazine stores: 846 Bank Street or 352 Richmond Road, or from Alpine... Continue Reading →
Those of you who follow my blog will wonder why I have not been posting for the past number of weeks. In fact, several of you have contacted me to ask about it. The truth is that I have been taken up with the final edits of a book that I will publish in October.... Continue Reading →
By Dennis Gruending Sociologist Reginald Bibby is probably Canada's closest observer of religious trends. He has been polling on religious practices and attitudes since 1975 and has placed the numbers into context in several books beginning with Fragmented Gods in 1987. Bibby has just released another book called Beyond the Gods and Back, and he... Continue Reading →
By Dennis Gruending The much-anticipated Munk Centre debate in Toronto between former Prime Minister Tony Blair and writer Christopher Hitchens has come and gone. A sell out crowd of about 2600 people paid up to $500 each to sit in plush seats at Roy Thomson Hall and hear the two debate whether religion is a... Continue Reading →
By Dennis Gruending Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair is set to debate acerbic writer Christopher Hitchens at the Munk Centre at the University of Toronto on whether religion is a force for good or evil. Blair, of course, is the former three-term Labour prime minister who stunned most everyone by converting to Roman Catholicism... Continue Reading →
By Dennis Gruending The American sociologist and professor of religious studies, Mark Juergensmeyer is known and respected for his investigations into global religion. His latest contribution is a book called Global Rebellion: Religious Challenges to the Secular State, from Christian Militias to al Queda. Juergensmeyer believes that the contemporary world is experiencing what he calls... Continue Reading →
Pulpit and Politics 