Archive
Tuenjai Deetes: Eliminating Statelessness in Thailand
This article was originally published in Southeast Asia Globe, with the support of CRCC’s global project on engaged spirituality. The week started with an unexpected long, warm hug. Thai people usually do not hug …
Swami Agnivesh: How One Hindu Monk’s “Inner Evolution” Fuels Social Justice Work
This article was originally published in The Christian Science Monitor, with the support of CRCC’s global project on engaged spirituality. This past November, in a small hamlet in the Indian state of …
RNS: Indian Priest Warner D’Souza Makes The Kitchen His Pulpit Amidst the Pandemic
This article was originally published in Religion News Service with the support of CRCC’s global project on engaged spirituality. MUMBAI, India (RNS) — From his kitchen in a suburb of North Mumbai, 50-year-old Catholic …
Ashin Issariya: Leading the Charge Against Militant Buddhism
This article was originally published in New Statesman, with the support of CRCC’s global project on engaged spirituality. January is the cool, dry season of traveling sermons in Myanmar, where members of …
Creating Human-centric Nursing Homes in Japan
This article was originally published in Inkline, with the support of CRCC’s global project on engaged spirituality. Masue Katayama, an 80-year-old social entrepreneur, has spent her entire life, changing the childcare and nursing care …
Fachruddin Mangunjaya: Fusing Faith, Education and Environmentalism
This article was originally published in Global Landscapes Forum, with the support of CRCC’s global project on engaged spirituality. When Fachruddin Mangunjaya was researching his master’s dissertation in 2006 on attitudes toward …
Tuenjai Deetes: Helping the Stateless in Thailand
This video was published in DW Women, with the support of CRCC’s global project on engaged spirituality.
The Diplomat: South Korea’s Megachurches
South Korean megachurches are growing and innovating, despite a competitive Korean religious market, reported The Diplomat, in a story about CRCC-sponsored research. Despite many church-related controversies like sex scandals and embezzlement, church …
Korean Papers Cover Seoul Conference on Religious Competition and Creative Innovation
CRCC’s research partners in Seoul, South Korea hosted a conference for the Religious Competition and Creative Innovation project, inviting scholars from around the world to discuss the themes of the project. Korean …
Religious Competition and Creative Innovation Around the Globe at Seoul Conference
CRCC researchers went to Seoul, South Korea for a conference on Religious Competition and Creative Innovation. Seoul serves as a comparison city to Los Angeles for the CRCC project, and the Seoul …
Manny Pacquiao, Championship Boxer, Has a New Opponent: Philippine Poverty
This article originally appeared in Christianity Today. It is available in full behind a paywall on their site. A political candidate was recently elected who is a bigger celebrity than Donald Trump, …
Slimming the Megachurch in Seoul and Los Angeles
Yoido Full Gospel Church is the world’s largest megachurch. When we visited the Seoul church one weekday morning last fall, I was struck by two things: First the church was full, but …
How Korea’s “Nones” Differ from Religiously Unaffiliated Americans
Looking at a simple pie chart depicting current patterns of affiliation in Los Angeles and Seoul—the comparison case in CRCC’s Religious Competition and Creative Innovation (RCCI) project—the cities seem remarkably similar. About …
The Korean Buddhist Version of a Megachurch
Seoul isn’t just the megachurch capital of the world; Nungin Sunwon Zen Center is considered a mega-temple, with 100,000 members. Gold #Buddha at Nungin Sunwon #Zen Center in #Seoul, #SouthKorea. #ReligioninSeoul #nunginsunwon …
Traditional and Innovative – How Korean Buddhism Stays Relevant
South Korea has become most widely known for its rapidly growing Christian population in the recent past, but nearly a quarter of the country’s population identify as Buddhist. (A majority of the …
A Crisis of Integrity in Seoul, the Megachurch Capital of the World
Seoul, South Korea is the “Megachurch Capital of the World.” Not only is Seoul home to the largest known Protestant church in the universe, Yoido Full Gospel Church, the city has more …
Why Terrorists Can’t Win in World’s Largest Muslim City
A few minutes after newswires began to buzz with reports of a terrorist attack in Indonesia, I received a text from a friend at the Los Angeles Times. “My Starbucks in Jakarta …
VOA: Hong Kong Protest Leaders Recall Spiritual Motivation At SSSR
CRCC Executive Director Donald Miller moderated a discussion with two of the founders of Hong Kong’s Umbrella Movement, a pro-democracy protest movement that came into being in 2014, at the 2015 Society …
Why Do Buddhists Give Money in Sri Lanka, But Not in the U.S.?
During visit to observe a Los Angeles-based mindfulness group a few months ago, the teacher asked me to explain to her students the significant role that dana, one of the ten pāramitā …
#ReligionInSeoul: CRCC studies Religion in Korea
As a part of CRCC’s research on religious competition and creative innovation, the CRCC team traveled to Korea to see how religion is changing there. Seoul provides a comparison case for Los …