As if smart phones have not done enough already to secure a secular imaginary, they are now allowing you to engage in well-worn debates over God’s existence and the practicality of faith. Welcome, unsurprisingly, to the latest space of religion’s return, quarantine, and treatment.
John Lardas Modern is the Arthur and Katherine Shadek Professor of Religious Studies at Franklin & Marshall College. Modern is the author of Secularism in Antebellum America (University of Chicago Press, 2011) and The Bop Apocalypse: The Religious Visions of Kerouac, Ginsberg, and Burroughs (University of Illinois Press, 2001). His most recent book, Neuromatic, or; a Particular History of Religion and the Brain (University of Chicago Press, 2021) was awarded the best book prize by the International Society for Science and Religion in 2022. Modern is currently working on a long-term project on real intelligence and another on religion, rubber, and Akron, OH.

















