Special Software For Analyzing the Biblical Text

"The new software analyzes style and word choices to distinguish parts of a single text written by different authors, and when applied to the Bible its algorithm teased out distinct writerly voices in the holy book."

New Vatican News Portal Going Online

"Vatican officials said Saturday that Benedict has been following the development of the portal, which will for the first time aggregate information from the Vatican's various print, online, radio and television media in a one-stop-shop for Holy See news."

Mental Illness Often Ignored By Churches

"Mental illness is prevalent in church communities but is also accompanied by significant distress that is often ignored, U.S. researchers found."

Half of U.S. Evangelical Leaders Gloomy About Future, Study Finds

"Half the world's evangelical Protestant leaders are optimistic about the future, confident that evangelical Christians have an increasing influence in their countries and that things will be better for them in five years. The other half are pessimists, convinced they're losing influence on the life of their countries and mostly not persuaded that things will be better for Christianity where they live in the future."

Despite Horses and Buggies, Amish Aren't Necessarily 'Low-Tech'

"Brende, author of the book Better Off: Flipping the Switch on Technology, says the Amish do use technology frequently. They just consider gadgets on a case-by-case basis."

Church of England to Allow Gay Bishops Who Remain Celebate

"Openly gay clergy can become bishops as long as they are, and promise to remain, celibate."

Human Hands, God's Fingerprints

"We asked pastors and worship planners how they design times of worship that lead to Christ-likeness, not just to more hard-to-please consumers of worship services."

Does Islam Stand Against Science?

"Many of the hottest topics in science challenge traditional Muslim beliefs about the world. How those conflicts are resolved could determine the future of science."

One Fifth of Voters Say They Won't Back Mormon

"While the majority of Americans say they'd vote for their party's presidential nominee if that person is a Mormon, more than a fifth wouldn't, a poll indicates."

21st Century Evangelicals in the UK

Interesting report on Evangelicals in the United Kingdom

Catholic Bishops Keep Abuse Prevention Policy

"The nation's Roman Catholic bishops on Thursday renewed their plan to prevent clergy sex abuse, making only minor revisions despite lapses in some dioceses that created pressure for more dramatic change."

Evangelicals: Less Likely to Vote for Gay or Mormon Candidates

"The May 25-30 survey from the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press asked people how they would vote for presidential candidates with different traits. The survey found that a third of evangelicals (34 percent) said they would be less likely to vote for someone who is Mormon, compared to Mainline Protestants (19 percent) or Catholics (16 percent)."

Southern Baptists Adopt Plan to Appeal to Minorities

"With the election of a black pastor to a senior position this week and a new action plan to increase ethnic diversity in its leadership, the Southern Baptist Convention has taken its most concrete steps yet to overcome a history of racial exclusion and to broaden its appeal in a changing American population."

Herculaneum Sewer sheds Light on Secrets of Roman Life

"Archaeologists have been discovering how Romans lived 2,000 years ago, by studying what they left behind in their sewers."

Study: How Satanists See Death

"A researcher from Concordia University recently published a journal article with some rare access to high level Satanists exploring what they think about death and dying."

Islamic Education on the Rise in US, Struggle for Acceptance

"The Islamic School League of America (ISLA), a nonprofit that connects Muslim educators and institutions, estimates that 40,000 students are enrolled in Islamic schools in the United States, a 25 percent increase from 2006."

Nation's Largest Protestant Group Faces 'Decline'

"In 2010, Southern Baptists baptized 332,321 people, or 17,416 fewer than in 2009, according to a report released by Nashville-based LifeWay Research. This marks the eighth time in 10 years that baptisms have declined and the lowest number of baptisms since the 1950s."

U.S. Muslims Double by 2030

"In the United States, the number of Muslims is expected to increase from 2.6 million in 2010 to 6.2 million by 2030, in large part because of immigration and higher-than-average fertility among Muslims."

After 90 Years, a Dictionary of an Ancient World

"Ninety years in the making, the 21-volume dictionary of the language of ancient Mesopotamia and its Babylonian and Assyrian dialects, unspoken for 2,000 years but preserved on clay tablets and in stone inscriptions deciphered over the last two centuries, has finally been completed by scholars at the University of Chicago."