Even before 2020, religions worldwide were enduring a period of turbulence, marked by rapid demographic change, a transformation of attitude to gender and sexuality, and a larger crisis of institutional and organizational faith. Already, we were hearing grim prophecies about imminent secularization, and the growth of those citing their religious affiliation as “None.” Since 2020, the pandemic has raised fundamental questions about collective worship, about participation, and how we “do” religion. What will all this mean for the future of faith, not just in the United States, but globally?

Join the Program for Research on Religion and Urban Civil Society (PRRUCS) and Collegium Institute for this keynote lecture delivered by Philip Jenkins, Distinguished Professor of History at Baylor University’s Institute for Studies of Religion. Jenkins is also Co-Director of Baylor’s Program on Historical Studies of Religion and Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of Humanities Emeritus at Pennsylvania State University. Among his more than twenty-five books, which have been translated into sixteen languages, the following titles are included: The Next Christendom: The Rise of Global Christianity (Oxford, 2002; third edn 2011), The New Anti-Catholicism: The Last Acceptable Prejudice (Oxford, 2003), God’s Continent: Christianity, Islam, and Europe’s Religious Crisis (Oxford, 2007), Laying Down the Sword: Why We Can’t Ignore the Bible’s Violent Verses (HarperOne, 2011), and most recently, Fertility and Faith: The Demographic Revolution and the Transformation of World Religions, just published in July 2020.

This event is presented by the University of Pennsylvania’s Program for Research on Religion and Urban Civil Society and Collegium Institute. The event is cosponsored by Penn’s Department of Religious Studies, the Center on Religion and Culture at Fordham University, American Catholic Historical Association, the Lumen Christi Institute, The Human Flourishing Program at Harvard University, the Genealogies of Modernity Project, Boston University’s Center for Global Christianity & Mission, Baylor Institute for Studies of Religion, and Harvard Divinity School’s Center for the Study of World Religions.

Date: Friday, March 5, 2021

Time: 12:00 PM-1:30 PM ET

Location: Zoom

Registration: This lecture is free and open to the public. Click the button on the left to sign up.

This lecture was recorded. To watch the video on our YouTube channel, click the button on the right.