• religion trends
• religion scenarios
• futures studies
• religious futurist
• futurist
• environmental scanning
• religious wildcards
• eschatology
• ecumenism
• religious tolerance
• post-modern theology
• spiritual marketplace
• redemptive violence

Sites Visited Almost Daily
These are sites that update their content frequently and are useful for gathering religious news items on a more or less daily basis.

Beliefnet: Spirituality, Religion, Morality, Faith, Belief, Community

This does as good a job as any site I know at covering all religions. Daily news stories and original features and commentary.

Religion Today (at crosswalk.com) 

Good daily news coverage with a Christian focus.

International Fides Service

Daily news coverage with a Catholic focus.

oneworld.net

Great world news coverage with a focus on Social Justice.

BBC World Service

More great world news coverage.

religioustolerance.org - 

Tracks news stories about religious tolerance issues. Unfortunately most are about religious intolerance.

About.com - Alternative Religions Page.

About.com - Islam Page.

About.com - Hinduism Page

About.com - Buddhism Page

About.com - Judaism Page

About.com - Pagan/Wiccan Page

About.com - Atheism/Agnosticism Page

About.com hires experts to keep up with each of its myriad topics. Near daily updates keep track of what's happening in all of the above areas.

The Obscure Store and Reading Room

One of the most popular weblogs ever. A step more highbrow than "News of the Weird" or tabloid journalism, Obscure Store reports on fringe news with a bite of social commentary.

Less Frequently Visited
These are sites that update their content infrequently and can be scanned weekly or monthly. These are useful for gathering commentary and analysis of issues related to religious futures.

Barna Research Online

A strategic research firm for religious organizations, Barna comes out with a new report every two weeks or so with a new trend or survey result.

Phuture

Dedicated to what it calls the Second Reformation, Phuture covers postmodern worship and minstry to emerging generations.

The Pluralism Project -- Committee on the Study of Religion at Harvard University

Concerned with the study of world religions in America.

Catholic World News

Like the name says -- Catholic news from around the world.

Next-Wave webzine

Another postmodern ministry web zine.

The Ooze -- a full service site for the Postmodern Church

Interactive postmodern ministry webzine which offers a community of sorts for those engaged in innovative ministry.

Beyond Magazine

A web zine for artists, designers, and writers who want to link their faith and their work. Updated monthly.

Boundless Webzine

Sponsored by Focus on the Family, a web zine that addresses the issues affecting evengelical college students.

shoot the messenger

An Aussie web zine with commentary on the intersection of faith and popular culture.

Ship of Fools

A humorous web site that pokes gentle fun at the absurdities of religious life.

Edges Magazine

Based out of the U.K., a voice for marginalized people -- homeless, drug addicts, mentally handicapped. Covers the subject of ministry to those populations.

Aril/CrossCurrents Online

Updated quarterly, an academic approach to global religions.

New Renaissance Magazine: progressive and holistic commentary

A quarterly magazine covering the future of society from a progressive perspective.

YES! Magazine

A journal focusing on the positive aspects of the future.

Journal of Buddhist Ethics

Critical academic studies in Buddhism.

Leonard Sweet Homepage

A pop futurist. Religion's answer to Faith Popcorn and Alvin Toffler.

Do Something - Young People Changing the World

News and features covering young people's efforts toward positive social change.

Contemporary Conflicts

Clickable world map that keeps a pulse on current military and political conflict around the world.

CNN - Earthweek - A Diary of the Planet

Clickable world map updated every Friday that tracks natural and manmade disturbances in the global environment. The link is not easy to find -- it's buried in the middle of the CNN Nature page, and you can't link directly to it -- but it's worth seeking it out.

Salon Magazine

One of the most popular web magazines covering culture and society. With a decidedly liberal bias.

EurekAlert!

Gathers press releases from scientific research organizations. Read tomorrow's science news here.

New Scientist Planet Science

Based out of the U.K. Like Wired would be if it were not so focused on gadgets and its design didn't hurt your eyes. Good scientific features and coverage of science-related trends.

Slate Magazine

The first major web magazine. Slate covers politics, society, and culture. Best features are its many scanning columns -- Slate delivers regular summaries of what's happening in the daily newspaper headlines, world news papers, weekend political pundit TV shows, academia, movie reviews, and even tabloids.

Utne Web Watch Daily

Utne Online doing for the web what the print mag does -- covers the alternative web.

Arts & Letters Daily - ideas, criticism, debate

An online weblog devoted to covering Intelligent discourse and cultural commentary.

SciTech Daily Review - science, technology, future developments, innovations, implications

By the people who bring us Arts and Letters. Does the same thing for the fields of Science and Technology.

Coalition for Marriage, Family and Couples Education

Clearinghouse for scanning the areas of marriage and relationships.

Telepolis

Based out of Denmark. Covers trends and emerging issues on the Internet from an international perspective.

The Club of Rome

Legendary futures studies organization with a global systems perspective.

Resources and Reference
Besides being generally useful for research, the links here are also good for digging up new sources for your topic

Newscenter

A portal of up to the Minute News Resources Compiled By: Gary Price, MLIS George Washington University Virginia Campus Library/Gelman Library. If there's a newswire service on the Internet, it's listed here.

Strategic Futures International - Links to the Future

The single most complete list of Futures Studies related links there is.

Journalists' Source List

Meant for journalists to use to find experts to interview for stories, it's also a good place to start research.

Weblog Monitor Home

Good place to get a cross-section of the weblog world. Keeps track of which weblogs have fresh material when.

AcqWeblog

A librarian's weblog. Covers new and nifty online info sources.

refdesk.com religion page

Excellent list of religion links. World religions are well represented.

CEO Express: Executive Gateway to the Internet

One of the best, most useful portals I know of. Has a little bit of everything with a business slant.

Llama Links: The Best of the Alternative Web! 

Your portal to the fringe of the net world. Warning: I really mean fringe here. Some material is not for the timid or easily outraged.

Mr. Smith E-Mails Washington(sm) & Mr. Smith E-Mails The Media(sm)

Provides an easy way to contact people of influence in government and in the media. Want to email the Secretary of The Interior or the editor of Time? It's pretty easy, go ahead.

Bible Study Tools on crosswalk.com

A complete collection of Bible references. Many translations and concordances.

Information Today, Inc.

A webzine for online researchers

reference refdesk.com

A portal that acts as a virtual reference section.

Web Soup

Low-tech portal site that leads to all the prominent "of-the-day" pages on the Web.

Subject Index to Literature on Electronic Sources of Information

This librarian's portal to online information will lead you to databases on any topic.

ResearchBuzz News

useit.com -- Usable Information Technology

Another weblog covering the field of online information

Search Engines and Info Tools
These search engines are my favorites for scanning. Plugging a keyword into these is my favorite method of undirected scanning. Each engine has a different focus, search domain, or method of sorting its hits that prove to be useful in its own way.

Oingo

The closest thing to true meaning-based search yet. Will let you refine your search terms according to their different meanings.

Google!

This search engine will rank it's findings based on popularity -- it reports the most linked-to findings first. A good way to check the reliability of a source.

SearchEdu.com - .

Searches education sites only. Over 20 million university and education pages indexed and ranked in order of popularity

Welcome to Dogpile

Meta search engine. Will search a dozen of the most popular search engines simultaneously.

The InvisibleWeb

Searches "hidden" and proprietary databases that cannot be reached by other search engines' bots.

Ask Jeeves

Jeeves will fetch you answers to an english question like "How do you make Chateaubriand?" or "What is Karma?"

Yep

A surf engine that lists your site based on quality as reviewed by users and the site staff.

The Electric Monk

Like Jeeves above, will attempt to answer English questions.

Traffick -- The Guide to Portals

Meta surfing site. Will help you search for the right portal site for your subject.

Internet Scout Project

Staff at the Computer Sciences Department, University of Wisconsin-Madison scout out new and useful information sources for a wide variety of subjects.