The Building the Future of Religion and Public Life project’s goal is to sustain, seed, and encourage the efforts of centers/institutes in shaping the conversation on religion in public life and bolstering civic vitality during a time of rapid change. We want to increase the reach and efficacy of our individual efforts by creating a community of learning and peer-resourcing across our network to solve challenges and leverage local and regional knowledge to deepen the broader impact of our work.
We believe that having a formalized network in place enables our centers to respond to wider institutional uncertainty and to the current moment of cultural reckoning in collaboration, rather than in isolation. This network not only amplifies the critically important work already being done by the centers but also provides the opportunities to innovate and explore for greater long-term impact and sustainability.
This project is generously funded by the Henry Luce Foundation and is in collaboration with the Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture; the Institute for Religion, Culture and Public Life (IRCPL) at Columbia University; Department of Religious Studies at University of Tennessee, Knoxville; and the Boniuk Institute’s Religion and Public Life Center at Rice University