In Matters of Faith: Christianity vs. Stoicism

Research Note: College Students’ Attitudes toward Christianity in Xi’an, China

Atheism is the mainstream belief system in contemporary China. In recent years, a growing number of Chinese have converted to different religions, particularly Christianity. In this study, we conducted a survey in the region of Xi’an to investigate the following three questions: How common is Christianity among college students in Xi’an? How many of them have converted to the Christian faith? H...

Brics of Faith: New Categories in Religious Geography

It is no surprise to anyone in this audience that in the past century or so, worldwide Christianity has definitively moved South. In 1900, Christianity firmly rooted in Europe and North America, while by the mid-21 century it will find by far its greatest strongholds in Africa and Latin America. But while so much is familiar, it’s still tempting to position North and South in the familiar terms...

Psychoanalytic Theories of Religion in Protestant Contexts

Psychoanalysts since Sigmund Freud have tried to discuss the role of religion in modern societies. Freud himself saw religion as an illusion which had struck neurotics, while Slavoj Žižek viewed it as some sort of “perversion” which functioned in the cycle of law-transgression. In this essay, I dig into these theories to uncover traces of Lutheran interpretations of Paul’s words on the Jewish l...

CBT and Christianity: Strategies and Resources for Reconciling Faith in Therapy

Defining the Integration of Faith and Learning

A Common Task The integration of faith and learning is not a process that is strange, quaint, unusual, or unique to Christianity. The integration of learning (or knowledge) is an activity performed by everyone who understands the need for a coherent worldview, by everyone who knows that believing conflicting claims is not reasonable. Further, if we understand by “faith” the set of basic beliefs...