Faith in the inevitability of betterment is the driving force of modern knowledge. What happens to our scholarship and teaching when trust in our institutions begins to falter? With increased scrutiny and pressure on our campuses and from the broader public, studying and teaching religion can start to feel unbearable. In this episode of Religion &, our panelists will examine the implications of this tension on teachers, thinkers, and scholars of religion. Join us for a conversation exploring how the state of today's campuses and classrooms impact the work of religion scholars and how we might help our students, readers, and the broader public respond to our current moment through our teaching and scholarship.

Robert Orsi is Grace Craddock Nagle Chair of Catholic Studies at Northwestern University, where he is also Professor of Religious Studies, History, and American Studies. He studies modern and contemporary religion, with a special focus on Catholic practices and ideas, from both historical and ethnographic perspectives. He also researches and writes on theory and method in the study of religion. His most recent book is History and Presence. He is currently at work on a book called Give Us Boys about the formation of young men at a Jesuit high school in the Bronx in 1967-1971. A native New Yorker, Orsi is married to the theologian and Luther scholar Christine Helmer and has two sons (Clarence and Anthony) and two dogs (Rocco and Gemma).

Matthew J. Cressler is a writer, independent scholar, and chief of staff of the Corporation for Public Interest Technology. He's the author of Authentically Black and Truly Catholic: The Rise of Black Catholicism in the Great Migrations and creator of Bad Catholics, Good Trouble, an educational webcomic series. He's published numerous articles in public-facing magazines and academic journals. His co-reported Religion News Service series "Beyond the Most Segregated Hour" won a Wilbur Award from the Religion Communicators Council. He has two forthcoming books: the co-authored Body & Blood: Catholic Horror in America (NYU Press, 2026) and Catholics and the Making of MAGA (HarperCollins, 2027).

Atalia Omer earned her PhD at Harvard University in 2008. She is a Professor at the University of Notre Dame. Until recently, she served as a senior fellow at Harvard University's Religion, Conflict, and Peace Initiative. Omer authored Decolonizing Religion and Peacebuilding (Oxford University Press, 2023), When Peace is Not Enough: How the Israeli Peace Camp Thinks about Religion, Nationalism, and Justice (University of Chicago Press, 2015), and Days of Awe: Reimagining Jewishness in Solidarity with Palestinians (University of Chicago Press, 2019). Omer is a co-editor of the Oxford Handbook of Religion, Conflict, and Peacebuilding (Oxford University Press, 2015) and Palestine/Israel Review, centering analysis of power.

Thelathia "Nikki" Young is Vice President for Institutional Equity and Access, Professor of Religion, and Professor of Gender and Sexuality Studies at Haverford College. She received her Ph.D. from the Graduate Division of Religion at Emory University, M.Div. and Th.M. from Candler School of Theology at Emory, and B.A. in biology from UNC-Asheville. Her research focuses on the intersection of ethics, race, gender, and sexuality, and she is interested in the impact of black queerness on moral reasoning. Nikki has published three books: Black Queer Ethics, 2016; (with Barreto and Myers) In Tongues of Mortals and Angels, 2018; and (with Schneider) Queer Soul and Queer Theology, 2021. She is currently working on a book about freedom.

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In the U.S., religion remains by far the largest recipient of individuals' charitable giving, though that proportion has been declining for years—reflecting major shifts in American religiosity and religious practice. In light of the shift of lessened giving coupled with a growing need for philanthropic efforts, we will explore the emerging patterns of everyday giving and volunteering as well as major trends in big philanthropy, asking how they impact and reflect shifts in religious life, civil society, and public discourse. Finally, we will address the overlapping themes of religion and philanthropy in a time of political uncertainty when it comes to funding sources, the nature and role of community, individual obligation, and the changing shape of moral imagination.

David P. King is the Karen Lake Buttrey Director of the Lake Institute on Faith and Giving and Associate Professor of Philanthropic Studies within the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. Having served congregations and national faith-based organizations, he is fueled by facilitating conversations with faith leaders, donors, and fundraisers (of all generations) around the intersections of faith, giving, and the public good. In 2022, he served as the Fulbright Scotland Distinguished Scholar at the University of Edinburgh. His first book, God's Internationalists: World Vision and the Age of Evangelical Humanitarianism (UPenn Press, 2019) won the Peter Dobkin Hall Prize for the best book in the history of philanthropy.

Jason Garrett has been working for over 20 years to bridge, organize, and fund member-based communities, faith groups, and more to bring about justice. As the Senior Vice President of Faith, Bridging and Belonging, Jason supports Freedom Together Foundation's mission to build the power of people who have been denied it by expanding the number and diversity of people who are rooted in a shared vision and community, and who activate their collective power to challenge oppressive systems and build a more democratic society.

Catherine Orsborn, Ph.D., is Senior Director of Programs and Public Policy at the El-Hibri Foundation, leading initiatives that strengthen leadership, resilience, and cross-sector collaboration to advance a just and pluralistic society. Formerly Executive Director of Shoulder to Shoulder, she trained faith leaders and led advocacy addressing anti-Muslim bias. An academic and teacher, Catherine has taught at multiple universities and holds a Ph.D. in the Study of Religion. She lives in Nashville with her husband and three children.

Benjamin Soskis, a historian of philanthropy and civil society, is a senior research associate at the Urban Institute's Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy, the co-editor of the web publication HistPhil, and in 2025, a Visiting Scholar at Independent Sector. A frequent contributor to The Chronicle of Philanthropy, his writing on philanthropy and civil society has also appeared in The Washington Post, The Atlantic, and the Guardian. Soskis is coauthor of The Battle Hymn of the Republic: A Biography of the Song that Marches On (Oxford, 2013) and co-editor of Giving in Time: Temporal Considerations in Philanthropy (Rowman & Littlefield/Urban Institute, 2023). He received his PhD in American History from Columbia University.

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This episode of Religion & delves into how contemporary religious movements address urgent political, cultural, and environmental crises, from technological transformation to ecological collapse. Looking across a wide array of new religious movements, participants will investigate how these movements reimagine ancient practices for modern concerns while creating new frameworks for living. Join us for a lively discussion at the intersection of modern-day crises and the ways religion shapes and is shaped by these shifts in religious tradition.

Kelly E. Hayes is Professor of Religious Studies at Indiana University Indianapolis. An ethnographer who conducts long-term fieldwork projects, she is an expert on alternative and new religious movements, Brazilian religions, religion and healing, religions of the African diaspora, and religion, gender and sexuality. She studies forms of human cultural production that outsiders label as "cults" or "black magic"—that is, ways of engaging the supernatural that are deemed illegitimate — and the communities that form around them. Her body of work centers these communities and the lived experiences of their members. It argues not only for the significance of these groups, but that taking them seriously yields important theoretical insights for the field of religious studies and the humanities more broadly.

Knut Graw (PhD) is a social and cultural anthropologist and a permanent research fellow at the Center for Advanced Studies for the Humanities and Social Sciences – Erlangen "Alternative Rationalities and Esoteric Practices in Global Perspective" (CAS-E) at the Friedrich Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg. His research focuses on divination, migration, and religious practices in Senegal and the Gambia. His theoretical interests include phenomenological theory, ritual studies, and questions of anthropological methodology. He is the co-editor of "The Global Horizon: Migratory Expectations in Africa and the Middle East" (Leuven University Press).

Daria Hartmann is a PhD candidate at the University of Münster, where she also teaches in the Department of Religious Studies. She holds a BA in Religious Studies and Anthropology from the University of Münster and an M.Sc. in Conflict Resolution and Governance from the University of Amsterdam. Following training in non-violent conflict transformation, her research now examines the intersection of religion, politics, and digital culture, with particular attention to conspiracy theories. Her dissertation investigates QAnon as a case study for understanding how digital platforms reshape religious meaning-making and truth production.

Benjamin E. Zeller is the Irvin L. & Fern D. Young Presidential Professor of Religion at Lake Forest College (Chicago, USA). He studies North American religion, focusing on such topics as new religions, the religious engagement with science, and the quasi-religious relationship people have with food and other forms of culture. He is the author or editor of six books, and co-general editor of Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions.

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Religious nationalism is not bound by national borders. Examining Christian nationalism in the United States and Brazil provides an opportunity to discuss the similarities and differences in its history, prominence, and influence in a cross-national perspective. This discussion will also reflect on the various responses to religious nationalism in each country both institutionally and across the population. In this episode of Religion &, we will explore the intersection of two contrasting versions of Christian nationalism and how we might better understand the impetus for and responses to each.

Andrew Whitehead is Professor of Sociology and Executive Director of the Association of Religion Data Archives (theARDA.com) at the Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture at Indiana University Indianapolis. He is also a research fellow for the Charles F. Kettering Foundation. Whitehead is one of the foremost scholars of Christian nationalism in the United States. He is the author of American Idolatry: How Christian Nationalism Betrays the Gospel and Threatens the Church, which was awarded the 2024 Gold Medal Book Award for Religion from Foreword Reviews and the 2024 Midwest Book Award winner for Religion & Philosophy.

João Chaves is Assistant Professor of the History of Religion in the Americas at Baylor University's Department of Religion. At Baylor, he also serves as a codirector of the Baptist Scholars International Roundtable, a member of the Graduate Faculty in Religion, and an affiliated faculty member in the Ethics Initiative of the College of Arts and Sciences. An award-winning author of several books, Chaves is currently working on projects that examine Latino migration and religion, the Christian far right in the Americas, and transnational investment patterns of immigrant-led churches in the US. His public-facing scholarship has been published in various periodicals and magazines, including The Washington Post and The Christian Century.

Miranda Cruz is Professor of Historical Theology at Indiana Wesleyan University. She teaches theology and church history, with a focus on the practical application of Christian doctrine in life and ministry. She has written several articles on topics related to Christianity under Communism in Eastern Europe. She is also the author of Faithful Politics: Ten Approaches to Christian Citizenship and Why It Matters (IVP Academic, 2024).

Ronilso Pacheco, a Brazilian theologian graduated from PUC-Rio (Catholic Pontifical University of Rio de Janeiro) and holds an M.A. in Religion and Society from Union Theological Seminary in New York City. Ronilso is the program director at ISER (Institute of Studies on Religion) and was a professor of Ethics in the Philosophy Department at Manhattan University. Ronilso is a researcher interested in democracy, race, fundamentalism, and extremism. He is the author of the books Teologia Negra (Black Theology) and Occupy, Resist, and Subvert. He is a frequent contributor to various media outlets in Brazil and a regular columnist for the UOL channel, where he comments on international politics and religion.

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Religion &: Conversations at the Center

Welcome to our new podcast series titled Religion &: Conversations at the Center. These episodes will feature conversations led by scholars at the Center for the Study of Religion & American Culture with thought leaders, provocateurs, and groundbreaking scholars and practitioners in the fields of religion and American culture. Our goal is to have conversations that will push the field and the broader public to think deeply and to elevate issues and questions about religion and religious communities that have otherwise been buried or under examined and bring them to the center for debate, engagement, and, hopefully, for communities to explore and transform these ideas together.

Our Conversation with Willie Jennings

In this episode, Dr. Joseph L. Tucker Edmonds, Associate Director of the Center, interviews Dr. Willie James Jennings, the Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Theology and Africana Studies at Yale University Divinity School. The two discuss a wide array of topics including the study and terminologies of Black thought, the relationship between scholarship and creativity that is often ignored, and the reality of connection that is centered on the natural world.

About Willie Jennings

Willie James Jennings is a theologian who teaches in the areas of Christian thought, race theory, decolonial, and environmental studies. Dr. Jennings is the author of The Christian Imagination: Theology and the Origins of Race, published by Yale University Press and recipient of the 2010 American Academy of Religion Book of the Year in the Constructive-Reflective Studies category. It is one of the most important books in theology written in the last 25 years and is now a standard text read in colleges, seminaries, and universities.

Dr. Jennings' commentary on the Book of Acts won the Reference Book of the Year Award from The Academy of Parish Clergy. He is also the author of After Whiteness: An Education in Belonging, which was the inaugural book in the much-anticipated book series, Theological Education Between the Times, and has already become an instant classic, winning the 2020 book of the year award from Publisher's Weekly. It was also selected as a finalist for the 2021 American Academy of Religion Book of the Year in the Constructive-Reflective Studies category and in 2023 won the Lilly Fellows Program Book Award.

Dr. Jennings is completing work on a two-volume project on the doctrine of creation. Volume two, provisionally titled, Jesus and the Displaced: The Redemption of Habitation, will be published before volume one which carries the provisional title, Unfolding the Word: Recasting a Christian Doctrine of Creation. Dr. Jennings is also finishing a book of poetry entitled, The Time of Possession.

On this episode of Religion &, we invited scholars to engage in a wide-ranging conversation with Judith Weisenfeld on facets of her newest publication Black Religion in the Madhouse: Race and Psychiatry in Slavery's Wake (NYU Press, 2025). Listen to our conversation with Dr. Judith Weisenfeld that unpacks Black religious beliefs, new religious movements, and "religious excitement" as a psychiatric concept in institutionalization.

Joseph L. Tucker Edmonds is Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Africana Studies at Indiana University Indianapolis and the Associate Director of the Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture. He earned his Bachelor of Arts in Religious Studies and Economics from Brown University, his Master of Divinity from Union Theological Seminary in New York City, and his PhD in Religious Studies from Duke University. His research interests are Black religion and the Black body, alternative Christianities, and the role of scripture in African and African American religious traditions. His book, The Other Black Church: Alternative Christian Movements and the Struggle for Black Freedom (Fortress, 2020), highlights the variety and vibrancy of the African American Christian sphere during the latter half of the twentieth century and it adds to the growing body of work that is addressing alternative Christian traditions in the Black public sphere.

Philippa Koch is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at Missouri State University. Her research and teaching center on religion, health, and society in America and its global context. Her recent publications include "Records of Relinquishment: Caregiving and Emotion in the Philanthropy Archive," an article which appeared in The Public Historian in May 2024, as well as her first book, The Course of God's Providence: Religion, Health, and the Body in Early America, which was published in 2021 by NYU Press. She is currently working on her next book, Medicine and American Religion, which is under contract with Routledge.

Judith Weisenfeld is Agate Brown and George L. Collord Professor of Religion and associated faculty in the Department of African American Studies and the Program in Gender and Sexuality Studies at Princeton University. Her research focuses on early twentieth-century African American religious history, including the relation of religion to constructions of race, the impact on black religious life of migration, immigration, and urbanization, African American women's religious history, religion in film and popular culture, and religion and medicine. She is the author of Black Religion in the Madhouse: Race and Psychiatry in Slavery's Wake (NYU Press, 2025), New World A-Coming: Black Religion and Racial Identity During the Great Migration (NYU 2016), which won the 2017 Albert J. Raboteau Prize for the Best Book in Africana Religions, Hollywood Be Thy Name: African American Religion in American Film, 1929–1949 (California 2007), and African American Women and Christian Activism: New York's Black YWCA, 1905–1945 (Harvard 1997), as well as many articles and book chapters on topics in African American and American religious history and culture. Her current research focuses on the psychiatry, race, and Black religions in the late nineteenth and early 20th century United States.

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This episode will cover three new directions at the intersection of religion & Latinx traditions. First, panelists will reflect on politics and voting, offering insight from the 2024 election. Second, they will discuss emerging patterns in religious conversion or switching. Finally, the panelists will offer insight into new research directions in the field of US Latinx religion. Join us for an enlightening conversation where we explore Religion & Latinx Traditions.

Lloyd Barba is Assistant Professor of Religion and Core Faculty in Latinx and Latin American Studies at Amherst College. Along with Sergio González of Marquette University, he is the co-writer and co-host of the recently released, seven-episode podcast series Sanctuary: On the Border of Church and State. He is the author of the award-winning book Sowing the Sacred: Mexican-Pentecostal Farmworkers in California (Oxford University Press, 2022; paperback 2023) and editor of the newly-released volume Latin American and US Latino Religions in North America (Bloomsbury, 2024).

Jonathan Calvillo is Assistant Professor of Latinx Communities at Emory University's Candler School of Theology. His work examines how distinct Latine populations build communities of belonging through faith and creativity, often amidst systemic exclusion. As a sociologist and ethnographer, his expertise resides at the intersections of Latine lived religion, ethnoracial formation, civic engagement, urban migration, and grassroots creative movements. Calvillo has published three books: The Saints of Santa Ana: Faith and Ethnicity in a Mexican Majority City, In the Time of Sky-rhyming: How Hip Hop Resonated in Brown Los Angeles, and When the Spirit Is Your Inheritance: Reflections on Borderlands Pentecostalism.

Gastón Espinosa is Arthur V. Stoughton Professor of Religious Studies at Claremont McKenna College. He has directed nine major surveys on Latino religions, politics, and activism from 1998–2022. He is the author or co-author of nine books; fifty refereed articles, book chapters, and reviews; sixty encyclopedia entries; 200 scholarly keynotes and presentations around the world; has made numerous television, radio, and media appearances; and has served as the director of eight major conferences.

Sujey Vega is Associate Professor of American Studies and Women and Gender Studies at Arizona State University. Trained as an applied anthropologist, Vega's publications range from ethno-religious belonging, addressing the needs of Latina domestic violence survivors, and amplifying the voices of Latina/o Midwestern communities. Her first book, Latino Heartland (2015) earned honorable mention by the Gloria E. Anzaldúa Book Prize committee. Her forthcoming book, Mormon Barrio: Latinx Belonging in the Church of Latter Day Saints, historically locates the growth of Latina/o LDS members in the Phoenix area and the role the LDS church plays in the lives of current Latino Mormons.

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On this episode of Religion &, we featured a special preview conversation about Christian Smith's forthcoming book, Why Religion Went Obsolete: The Demise of Traditional Faith in America (Oxford University Press, 2025). Christian Smith, William R. Kenan Professor of Sociology at University of Notre Dame, has been a leading scholar of American religion for more than 30 years with many agenda-setting concepts, arguments, and books to his name. Based on a new survey and hundreds of interviews, Smith offers a sweeping account of why many Americans have lost faith in traditional religion and why it can be considered "obsolete." Our conversation will address the book's main themes and findings, probe Smith's thinking about religion, secularism, and enchantment, and engage the many implications of the trends Smith outlines. Listen to this conversation that is provocative and illuminating on the current state of faith decline.

Host: Brian Steensland

Brian Steensland is Professor and Chair of Sociology at Indiana University Indianapolis. His areas of interest include religion, culture, politics, and civic life in contemporary American society. His books include Situating Spirituality: Context, Practice, and Power (Oxford, 2022), co-edited with Jaime Kucinskas and Anna Sun; The New Evangelical Social Engagement (Oxford, 2014), co-edited with Philip Goff; and The Failed Welfare Revolution: America's Struggle over Guaranteed Income Policy (Princeton, 2008). His articles include The Measure of American Religion (Social Forces, 2000) and Cultural Categories and the American Welfare State (American Journal of Sociology, 2006).

Panelist: Carol Ann MacGregor

Carol Ann MacGregor is Vice President Academic and Dean (VPAD) at St. Jerome's University which is the Catholic university federated with the University of Waterloo in Waterloo, Ontario. Dr. MacGregor holds a PhD in Sociology from Princeton University and her research on Catholic K-12 education, religious non-affiliation and religion and civic engagement has appeared in journals including American Catholic Studies, American Sociological Review, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, and Social Science Research. Dr. MacGregor previously served as Vice Provost of Academic Affairs and was an Associate Professor of Sociology at Loyola University New Orleans.

Panelist: Christian Smith

Christian Smith is the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Sociology and Director of the Center for the Study of Religion and Society at the University of Notre Dame. Smith is a leading American theorist of the philosophy of critical realism and the social theory of personalism. His larger theoretical agenda has been to move personhood, morality, motivated action, culture, and identity to the center of sociological theorizing generally and the sociology of religion specifically. Smith's critical realist personalism require social science to revise its dominant approaches to causation, social ontology, and explanation.

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