By Madison Ferril Baylor Lariat Reporter For many Americans, thinking of Kuwait may spark thoughts of the First Gulf War. However Dr. Alessandra Gonzalez, an alumna and research fellow with the Baylor Institute for the Study of Religion, thinks of feminism. Gonzalez is the author of the book ­ “Islamic Feminism in Kuwait: The Politics [...]

By Kathryn Jean Lopez December 6, 2012 12:45 P.M.  Despite the look of things culturally and otherwise, Americans remain a religious people. That’s what Gallup president Frank Newhouse is noting this week, and it’s the subject of a new book by Rodney Stark, a Baylor University professor.  “America is an unusually religious nation,” the Stark explains [...]

Baylor professor Rodney Stark’s The Triumph of Christianity: How the Jesus Movement Became the World’s Largest Religion (HarperOne) provides long-term perspective. It is WORLD’s 2012 Book of the Year. This is WORLD’s fifth year of honoring a book published during the past 12 months. Our first two times we chose works that directly explained Scripture: [...]

WACO, Texas (May 8, 2012) – Hindu and Buddhist groups have grown steadily in the United States since changes in immigration laws in 1965 and 1992, with particularly high concentrations in Texas, California, the New York Metropolitan Area, Illinois and Georgia, according to a Baylor University professor who helped compile the newly released 2010 U.S. [...]

HOUSES OF WORSHIP  May 3, 2012 In Charlotte, churches cooperate in an experiment to attract twenty-somethings By NAOMI SCHAEFER RILEY Charlotte, N.C. If you’ve been to church lately, you probably know how unusual it is to see a critical mass of young people in attendance. According to studies by the Barna Group, church engagement falls [...]

By Joshua Madden A&E Editor Trying to document the history of the world’s largest religion would be a difficult task for anyone, but Baylor Distinguished Professor of the Social Sciences Dr. Rodney Stark decided to fit in all in a book around 500 pages long without sacrificing quality or accuracy. I’m happy to say that [...]

FIRST THINGS MAY 2011 Counting China’s Christians: There are as many Christians in China as there are members of the Communist Party. by Rodney Stark, Byron Johnson, and Carson Mencken Through much of the twentieth century, it was widely believed among Western intellectuals that the Chinese were immune to religion—an immunity that long preceded the [...]

Baylor Media Communications May 23, 2006 The John M. Templeton Foundation has awarded $1.7 million to Baylor University’s Center for Religious Inquiry Across Disciplines (CRIAD) to conduct a study on the spiritual beliefs and practices in China titled “An Empirical Study of Religions in China” (ESRIC). “This grant allows us the chance to produce scholarship [...]