Abstract: Academics across America are rethinking the place of religion on college and university campuses, and religion has become a hot topic of conversation. Some conversations focus on religious literacy, while others contrast religion with spirituality; some understand religion in light of specific traditions or communities of faith, while others focus attention on concerns such as personal meaning and civic engagement. The American University in a Postsecular Age brings together these divergent conversations. Three of the fourteen essays in the volume are written by the editors, including an introductory essay that explains the term “postsecular,” another on church-related higher education, and a concluding essay that suggests a framework for talking about religion in the academy. The other authors represented in the book are all well known scholars in the fields of religion and higher education including, for example, Amanda Porterfield, past president of the American Society of Church History, Lee Shulman, president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, and Robert Wuthnow, the prolific sociologist of religion from Princeton. The volume is divided into two parts: a first group of essays focuses on religion, institutions, and faculty roles; the second group deals with the place of religion in the curriculum and in student learning. The book as a whole assumes that increased attention to religion will enhance the work of the academy, but a wide variety of perspectives are included.

Keywords: conversation, faculty, higher education, learning, postsecular, religion, spirituality