Marion S. Grau is assistant professor of theology at Church Divinity School of the Pacific, Berkeley, Calif. Her interests include how Asian American religious people interact with Western ideas, and Asian American contributions to Christian theology.

Tat-siong Benny Liew, who is ordained in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), is associate professor of New Testament at the Pacific School of Religion, Berkeley, Calif. His interests include Asian-American history and literature.

Read a Nov. 1, 2007, CNN story about two Christian pastors embracing elements of Scientology for their congregations.

Adherents.com provides a list of the numbers of people who self-identify as members of major world religions.

Read a June 29, 2009, report on the pope’s comments about the encyclical, “In preview of new encyclical, Benedict reprises ‘dictatorship of relativism’ speech,” by National Catholic Reporter columnist John L. Allen Jr.

Read a June 29, 2009, article at the First Things Web site, “Economic Heresies of the Left,” by Michael Novak. Novak is considered a conservative Catholic writer who defends capitalism in this essay and elsewhere against interpretations of papal teachings that some say criticize the capitalist system.

Read a July 1, 2009, Religion News Service article, “Groundbreaking economic encyclical on the way,” by Sister Mary Ann Walsh, spokesperson for the USCCB. It’s posted at the USCCB media blog site.

The media blog at the Web site of the United States Conference of Catholic bishops has a “Social Encyclical Primer” that sets out the history of papal encyclicals on social justice themes.

Read commentary at InsideCatholic by Deal Hudson from July 20, 2009, who has consulted on Catholic issues for Republican officials.