Faith and Secularization: A Dialogue
Our panelists have engaged issues of faith and secularization in significant ways in their work--from the organization of "free thinkers" in the 18th century, to the decline of religion in some quarters in the 19th and 20th centuries, to the rise of the "Nones" in the early 21st century. Jerome Baggett's recent book The Varieties of Nonreligious Experience: Atheism in American Culture, which focuses on the inner lives and experiences of atheists, will be the jumping off point for our discussion. This work will open up onto larger questions of the relationship between secularism and belief, the religious dimension or instinct in human life, and current practices, particularly in the U.S.