Patheos - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

History

Patheos was founded in 2008 by Leo and Cathie Brunnick, both web

World Wide Web

The World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet...

technology professionals and residents of Denver, Colorado

Denver, Colorado

The City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Denver is a consolidated city-county, located in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains...

. Leo, a non-practicing Catholic

Catholic

The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...

, and Cathie, a Lutheran-turned-Evangelical, started the project the week they were married as they tried to blend their families.

Having living among various faiths they amassed hundreds of essays and works from around 200 scholars into a "religion library" that they wanted to become the "WebMD

WebMD

WebMD is an American corporation which provides health information services. It was founded in 1996 by Jim Clark and Pavan Nigam as Healthscape, later Healtheon, and then acquired WebMD in 1999 to form Healtheon/WebMD...

of religion and spirituality." As a start-up, early employees included religious-studies scholars.

The name Patheos is a portmanteau of "path" and "theos," the Greek word for god.

Content

The site features portals with material on Buddhists, Roman Catholics, evangelicals, Hindus, mainline Protestants, Jews, Mormons, Muslims, Pagans, and over 50 belief systems. Each portal has its own editor--for instance, the Managing Editor of the Catholic Portal is Elizabeth Scalia

Elizabeth Scalia

Elizabeth Scalia is the Catholic Portal's Managing Editor at Patheos, an online magazine that deals with religious topics. She also maintains a blog there, The Anchoress, formerly hosted at First Things magazine—when it maintained a more extensive stable of in-house bloggers. Scalia is now a...

. The online library is intended to provide "accurate, balanced and peer-reviewed information; side-by-side comparisons of religious traditions; directory of worship houses and other religion-related activities; a forum for discussion and debate called the Public Square; and a series of portals to online faith communities and more forums." In addition, Patheos publishes articles of interest to religious historians and people of faith.

The site also features nonsectarian histories, maps, videos of religious services, and weekly debates.

Approach

The project seeks to be the "premier online destination" for "the global dialogue about religion and spirituality," providing resources on various belief systems and "productive, moderated discussion."

Patheos tries to stand on middle ground between academia (which is credible, yet dry), popular media (which is consumable, yet shallow), and faith sites (which are passionate, yet biased). Founder Leo Brunnick called it "the ESPN

ESPN

Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....

of Religion."

Beliefnet

Beliefnet

Beliefnet is a large multi-faith e-community that aims to provide a free forum for religious information and inspiration, spiritual tools, and discussions and dialogue groups. Beliefnet provides information about various religious and spiritual beliefs, ranging from Christian denominations to...

founder Steven Waldman

Steven Waldman

Steven Waldman is Senior Advisor to the Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, serving out of the Office of Strategic Planning. Previously, Waldman was the Editor-in-Chief, President, and co-founder of Beliefnet, a multi-faith spirituality website....

observed that Patheos is used for learning about other religions, while people use Beliefnet to explain their own religion.

Reception

TIME magazine

Time (magazine)

Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...

called Patheos's materials "streamlined" and "reader-friendly". Religion News Service

Religion News Service

Religion News Service is a news agency about religion, ethics, spirituality and moral issues. Based in Washington, D.C., RNS has a network of correspondents around the world, providing news and information on all faiths and religious movements to the nation's leading newspapers, news magazines,...

described it as "a more cerebral approach to what Beliefnet

Beliefnet

's been doing for nearly a decade." Though some technical kinks existed in 2009, it was still "a pretty impressive product."

The site is listed as 10th out of the 50 best spirituality blogs ranked by Online Christian Colleges. It was also ranked by a writer for the Buxton Initiative, a nonprofit supporter of interfaith dialogue, as the seventh top website on Islam, calling it "very objective" and "sort of a Wikipedia just on religion."

In mid-2010, Patheos invited many religious figures and scholars to contribute to a series on the future of religions. This has attracted much attention and increased web-traffic from 100,000 visitors per month to 250,000.

January 3rd, 2011 Newsweek

Newsweek

Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...

listed Patheos as one of "21 Ways To Be Smarter in 2011."

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