Courtney Bender is professor of religion at Columbia University. She is the author of Heaven's Kitchen: Living Religion at God's Love We Deliver (University of Chicago Press, 2003) and The New Metaphysicals: Spirituality and the American Religious Imagination (University of Chicago Press, 2010), and a co-editor of volumes focused on religious pluralism, secular-spiritual practices, and the sociology of religion. She has served as the co-chair of the SSRC's Working Group on Spirituality, Political Engagement, and Public Life and chair of the SSRC’s grant program, New Directions in the Study of Prayer.