Welcome to “Ahead of the Trend,” a column bringing you the latest news in religion research from throughout the world.

This will be a collegial effort, enlisting the cooperation of researchers, universities, journal editors, institutes and associations of scholars to increase the impact and awareness of important findings in religion research.

What we will offer you is a regular update on the latest scholarship and articles and commentaries exploring the relevance of research to topical issues from health care to politics. My job, working with Chris Scheitle of Penn State University, is to provide this news in an efficient and entertaining manner, with links to the full papers and articles and other related research in the Association of Religion Data Archives site.

This effort is part of ARDA’s mandate to make religion research available and understandable to a global audience. We are confident this also will serve individual researchers, universities and journals by lifting up their work in a way that will garner attention from U.S. and international media and present their work to the public in an objective manner that will encourage further exploration.

Please stay in touch with new research findings and publications you consider of importance to the field. I can be reached at dbriggs@thearda.com or by phone at 615-891-7303.

Let the pursuit of truth set us free.

-- David Briggs

David Briggs, a former national writer for The Associated Press who holds a master’s degree from Yale Divinity School, is consistently honored among the Top 10 secular religion writers and reporters in North America.