In a recent post at The Immanent Frame, Jason Bivins wondered in closing whether our present moment might become what Robert Orsi has called an “abundant event,” “characterized by aspects of the human imagination that cannot be completely accounted for by social and cultural codes.” Randall J. Stephens reports on a recent forum on “abundant history” in Historically Speaking, and has posted Robert Orsi’s lead essay and Jane Shaw’s response here.
Jonathan VanAntwerpen is program director for theology at the Henry Luce Foundation. Originally trained as a philosopher, he received his doctorate in sociology from the University of California, Berkeley. He is co-editor of a series of books on secularism, religion, and public life, including Habermas and Religion (Polity, 2013), Rethinking Secularism (Oxford University Press, 2011), The Post-Secular in Question (NYU Press, 2012), The Power of Religion in the Public Sphere (Columbia University Press, 2011), and Varieties of Secularism in a Secular Age (Harvard University Press, 2010). VanAntwerpen was the founding director of the SSRC's program on religion and the public sphere, and in 2007 he worked with others to launch The Immanent Frame, serving for several years as editor-in-chief.