News Sources: Islam Overtakes Roman Catholics

Islam has overtaken Roman Catholicism to become the world's largest single religious denomination, according to L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper. Monsignor Vittorio Formenti, compilier of the Annuario Pontificio, the Vatican yearbook, figures for 2006 showed that Catholics accounted for 17.4 per cent of the world population while Muslims accounted for 19.2 per cent. Reporters looking for experts to interview on this topic can find them online at the collegenews.org database of news sources and subject matter experts from America's leading liberal arts colleges and universities, including (click on names for contact information):

Selva Raj - Professor of Religious Studies, Albion College - Raj is an expert on religious leaders and Eastern religions such as Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism, as well as a scholar of Christian religions. His book, Popular Christianity in India: Riting Between the Lines, is in production. A colleague of the late Mother Theresa, Raj pinpoints characteristics of religious leaders and their teachings and determines the attraction by devotees/disciples.

David O'Brien - Director of the Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture, College of the Holy Cross - O'Brien is among the nation's top historians on American Catholicism. He is the author of numerous books on the subject, including From the Heart of the American Church: Catholic Higher Education and American Culture and The Renewal of American Catholicism.

William C. Placher - Professor of Philosophy and Religion, Wabash College - Placher is recognized as one of the great contemporary theologians. He is the author of The Domestication of Transcendence: Where Modern Thinking About God Went Wrong and A History of Christian Theology.

The Sky is Not a Ceiling

As an astronomer, Aileen O'Donoghue has spent a lifetime struggling to answer the question: "What's out there?" In the course of her quest, the stars drove O'Donoghue back to morning Mass. Her new book, The Sky Is Not A Ceiling, lays out the spiritual and scientific journey of the St. Lawrence University Priest and Associate Professor of Physics.

News Sources: God and the Capitol Flags

The acting Architect of the U.S. Capitol has decided to overturn a policy that banned political and religious statements on certificates included with flags flown over the U.S. Capitol. His action follows complaints from House Republican Leader John Boehner of Ohio, numerous Republican members of Congress and citizens across the country who said the separation of God and country had gone too far. Reporters looking for experts to interview on this topic can find them online at the collegenews.org database of news sources and subject matter experts from America's leading liberal arts colleges, including (click on names for contact information):

William C. Placher - Professor of Philosophy and Religion, Wabash College - Placher is the author of The Domestication of Transcendence: Where Modern Thinking About God Went Wrong. He is recognized as one of the great contemporary theologians.

Lief Carter - McHugh Distinguished Professor of Political Science, Colorado College - Carter's areas of expertise include constitutional law, legal theory, courts and politics, administrative law and politics, contemporary Supreme Court, and religion and law. He is the author of five books, including Contemporary Constitutional Lawmaking: The Supreme Court and the Art of Politics, and The Limits of Order.

Paul Apostolidis - Assistant Professor of Politics, Whitman College - Apostolidis has extensively researched the politics of U.S. evangelical conservatism, including analyzing radio broadcasts of Focus on the Family, a leading Christian right organization. He published his findings in "Stations of the Cross: Adorno and Christian Right Radio"

News Sources: Episcopalian-Anglican Accord

In an overwhelming vote, the bishops of the U.S. Episcopal Church have taken steps to head off schism in the worldwide Anglican community and to shore up unity within the American church. At the close of a six-day meeting in New Orleans, they promised to "exercise restraint" by not consecrating more gay bishops or authorizing rites for the blessing of same-sex unions. Reporters looking for experts to interview on this topic can find them online at the collegenews.org database of news sources and subject matter experts from America's leading liberal arts colleges, including (click on names for contact information):

William C. Placher -Professor of Philosophy and Religion, Wabash College - Placher is recognized as one of the great contemporary theologians. He is the author of The Domestication of Transcendence: Where Modern Thinking About God Went Wrong and A History of Christian Theology. He was a member of the committees to draft a statement of reform and a new catechism for the Presbyterian Church, USA in 1983.

Eric Michael Mazur - Associate professor of religion, Bucknell University - Mazur is the author of author of The Americanization of Religious Minorities: Confronting the Constitutional Order and a contributing co-editor of God in the Details: American Religion in Popular Culture. He co-chairs the Church-State Studies Group of the American Academy of Religion and serves on the editorial board of the on-line Journal of Religion and Popular Culture.

David Wulff - Professor of Psychology, Wheaton College - Wulff is an expert on the psychology of religion and the author of Psychology of Religion, Classic and Contemporary, now in its second edition. He is the book review editor for the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion and president of Division 36, Psychology of Religion, of the American Psychological Association.