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Are Evangelical Films Destined to Leave Secular Audiences Behind?

By Daniel Silliman

…e Chronicles of Narnia brought a big profit for Walt Disney and Walden Media—around $750 million globally. After a few films, the franchise stalled, though. Rising production costs, declining ticket sales and increasingly mixed reviews led to conflict between the various production companies. There’s currently a legal moratorium preventing a fourth installment. Other major studio efforts haven’t cracked the code for commercial success either: Darr…

Blame Series Bonus: Why We Want That Dish For Free, an Uncut Interview with Bertram Malle

By Andrew Aghapour

…Your Fault, a series on blame in contemporary society by RD’s The Cubit. AA: Is it fair to say that the psychological mechanisms we use for blaming are tuned for judging human individuals? BM: Yes. Because that’s the only place, and the only context, in which we can actually learn this. The way my research group has thought for a while about how blame emerges developmentally and gets refined in the course of growing up in a community, is really…

New Book by Olivier Roy Argues that Aggressive Attempts to Christianize the West Actually Hasten Secularism

By Ivan Strenski

…ow completely de-Christianized and secularized has Western Europe become? Data from the EU tell a tale of radically declining Christian belief and participation. The numbers of those attending Sunday services have tumbled into the single digits, and roughly the same number disavow belief in major Christian doctrines. Despite the political impact of white evangelicals, and the United States’ claim to being exceptional in escaping Western Europe’s r…

Ross Douthat on the Brink

By Haroon Moghul

…her refugees in Europe, however, only makes his conclusions that much more alarming. Though I often appreciate Douthat’s work (including his book, Bad Religion), this most recent column leaves me shaken. I am wondering just how deeply anti-Muslim animus extends among America’s elite. To avoid a return to fascism, Douthat suggests Europe pursue proposals fascists themselves would encourage. It is, if you will, a Munich moment. His own. Welcome to D…

‘America First’ and the Origin of the Modern Jewish Conspiracy

By Eric C. Miller

…re doing that work at a time when anti-Semitism seems to be resurgent once again. How do you situate this political moment within that larger history? That’s an interesting question. Conspiracy theories flourish in times of political and social turmoil. The Judeo-Bolshevik myth was born amid a general crisis in Europe at the end of World War I that saw revolutions, labor unrest, and in places civil wars. For many people, it seemed a way to explain…

Invited by Allah

By Amina Wadud

…and they said, “It might.” One of those whom I asked was the late Dr. Nasr aAbu-Zayd, who also offered this consolation: “People have a short memory, it will blow over.” I had no idea if five years was long enough for it to “blow over” when I applied for visa to make hajj this year. I also had no idea if the people who work in the embassy connect every detail of your life with your passport and visa requests. I know when I come into the United Sta…

Chris Caldwell Sees Muslim Bogeymen. Again.

By Bruce B. Lawrence

…et hopeful, engaged with problems but determined to address them, you pick analyses that suggest we live in challenging times where tough choices have to be made (but also can be made) that lead to a better, brighter future. Or you can select those nuanced screeds that remain screeds—decrying the present, presaging a dark future and ultimately an apocalyptic defeat for the forces of order, peace, and advance of the collective good. In “Europe’s Ot…

The Shared Assumption Behind Creationism and Anti-GMO in Europe

By Michael Schulson

…dig deeper into the more global side of these ideas, The Cubit rang up Stefaan Blancke, one of the book’s editors and contributors. Blancke, a postdoctoral fellow at Ghent University, in Belgium, studies the cognitive biases that shape our views of nature. We spoke about creationism in Europe, the influence of the First Amendment, and what anti-GMO and anti-evolution activism have in common. This interview has been edited for clarity and length. I…

Ian Buruma on the Political Excesses of Religion

By Lisa Webster

…quite a lot about the two most polarizing figures in this whole debate: Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Tariq Ramadan. And I’ve tried to find a nuanced position. I agree with some things they say, disagree with other things they say; I admire both for some reasons and am critical of both for some reasons. But it’s become so heated that saying anything critical about Ayaan immediately makes you into an enemy of enlightened values and anything good you might h…

Corporations Have Consciences and Contraceptives Are Cheap: Hobby Lobby at the Supreme Court

By Sarah Posner

…riking, though, was how all three female justices, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, fired the most challenging questions at the companies’ lawyer, Paul Clement, confronting the essential underpinnings of his clients’ claims. In particular, they questioned whether RFRA was intended to cover corporations, whether a party can claim a religious exemption if granting it impacts the rights of others (in this case, the companies’ em…