The Bob Graham Center for Public Service provides a wide variety of programs for students and the larger public on topics related to public service, public leadership and civic engagement.
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Robert D. Putnam on American Grace: How Religion Unites and Divides Us
November 30, 2010
Robert D. Putnam, one of the nation’s leading experts on community and civic engagement, discussed his new book on the changing composition of religious faith in the United States at the Bob Graham Center for Public Service on November 30th. Putnam, a professor of public policy at Harvard University, presented findings from the recently released American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us.
Written with David E. Campbell, a professor of political science at Notre Dame, American Grace combines exhaustive demographic and survey data with detailed narratives discussing the profound shift in the American religious landscape over the last three centuries. The topics covered range from how civically engaged believers are in the United States to the dynamics of conversion and the role in religion of gender, ethnicity and class.
Putnam, who the London Telegraph once described as “the most influential academic in the world today,” is the author of Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community, a classic work that actually sparked greater examination of civic engagement in the United States. Putnam’s advice is often sought out by policy makers on the state, national and international level.