A Social Research Conference at The New School, March 5th and 6th, 2009:
The conference will explore the tension between religion and secularity in the United States, which is long-standing, widespread, and increasingly intense. This is evident in contemporary debates over such issues as evolution and intelligent design which challenge the traditional absence of religious discourse from education, in the increasing importance of religious priorities in political decision-making, in governmental reliance on spiritual or faith-based philanthropy, and on the role of faith-based communities in lobbying for legislation or bringing out the vote to elect candidates. Given the increasing number of calls we are hearing for lowering the “wall of separation” erected between church and state by our Constitution, the question at hand is whether we are experiencing a major shift in the role of religion in political decision making and in our lives.
The keynote address will be delivered by Charles Taylor. Also on the agenda: Richard J. Bernstein, José Casanova, William E. Connolly, Daniel C. Dennett, Sheila Davaney, Noah Feldman, Susan Harding, George Kateb, Mark Lilla, David Martin, Winnifred Sullivan, Peter van der Veer, and more.
Register 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.
