This week, we relaunched the Post-Dispatch's blog about faith, Civil Religion. It's Civil Religion 4.0 — the fourth iteration of the blog since 2006.

We've reduced the number of our community bloggers to about a dozen and changed the format of the blog itself.

Each of our bloggers (we'll introduce them in a minute) will essentially have his or her own space under the Civil Religion umbrella. As always, we've tried to have a wide array of views represented. It's never possible to have every spectrum covered, but if you have thoughts about how we can expand our blogging coverage, let us know.

The changes to the blog are part of a broader overhaul of our online religion page at STLtoday.com called Belief St. Louis, a gathering place for news and perspectives on faith.

We've added features such as religion event listings, photos of faith communities and — through a partnership with the site Patheos.com — tools that allow you to research and compare religions.

We've given our Civil Religion bloggers a prominent spot on the page.

You'll see their smiling faces each time you visit STLtoday.com's religion page along with their most recent postings. If you want to check out an individual blog, just click the person's name above his or her photo. You can also see all the blogs together by clicking on the "most recent posts" link.

As always, the best of the Civil Religion blog will be reprinted here each week in this space, on the Saturday religion page.

We'll need that copy since this column, "Keep the Faith," is going on hiatus until the fall. I'm taking a leave of absence from the Post-Dispatch to finish writing a book.

It's about a Lutheran pastor from St. Louis who, at the age of 50, volunteered for the Army chaplaincy during the Second World War. At the end of the war, the Rev. Henry Gerecke was assigned to the 6850th Internal Security Detachment in Nuremberg.

Gerecke spent the year of the Nuremberg trials as chaplain to the 21 major Nazi war criminals on trial for crimes against humanity. The book is also about religion's role in confronting evil, and the appropriate place of forgiveness in the face of genocide.

So, while I'm off writing about evil and forgiveness and Nazis, our bloggers will be filling in for "Keep the Faith." To regular readers of the blog, five of the names will be familiar. An introduction:

The Rev. Karen Anderson Itinerant elder in the African Methodist Episcopal Church and pastor of Olive Chapel AME Church in Kirkwood.

Sharon Autenrieth Home-schooling parent and director of Christian education at Good Samaritan Church of the Nazarene in Collinsville.

Amelia Blanton

Senior at St. Louis University studying theology and communication.

The Rev. Pamela Dolan Episcopal priest who serves as curate at Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Webster Groves.

Ghazala Hayat Professor of neurology and psychiatry at St. Louis University and member of the Islamic foundation of Greater St. Louis.

The Rev. Christopher Keating Pastor of the Woodlawn Chapel Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) in Wildwood.

Robbie Mills Graduate student at Covenant Theological Seminary.

Kristi Ruggles Writer and communications professional.

The Rev. Travis Scholl Ordained Lutheran minister and managing editor of theological publications at Concordia Seminary.

Rabbi Hyim Shafner Rabbi of Bais Abraham Congregation, an Orthodox community in the Delmar Loop.

The Rev. Starsky Wilson Pastor of St. John's United Church of Christ in north St. Louis.