WS Chronicle

Author, speaker and independent scholar Diana Butler Bass, who specializes in American religion and culture, will speak at the Wake Forest University School of Divinity’s Steelman Lecture on Monday, Oct. 29 about her bestselling book, “Christianity After Religion: The End of Church and the Birth of a New Spiritual Awakening.”

Her lecture is open to the public and will begin at 4:30 p.m. in Wait Chapel on the Wake Forest campus. She will speak about the importance, the depth, and the complexity of religion and spirituality in history, culture and political life.

Butler Bass is the author of eight books, including “A People’s History of Christianity: The Other Side of the Story,” which was nominated for a Library of Virginia literacy award, and “Christianity for the Rest of Us,” which was named as one of the best religion books of the year in 2006 by Publishers Weekly and was featured in a USA Today cover story.

Currently, she is a Chabraja Fellow with the SeaburyNEXT project at Seabury Western Theological Seminary and regularly consults with religious organizations, leads conferences for religious leaders, and teaches and preaches in a variety of venues. She blogs at The Huffington Post and Patheos and regularly comments on religion, politics and culture in the media, including USA Today, Time, Newsweek, The Washington Post, CNN, FOX, PBS and NPR.

The Steelman Lectures, which were endowed in 1998 with a gift from Dr. Standford L. Steelman, a distinguished biochemist from Hickory, were established in honor of his wife, Margaret A. Steelman. The endowment invites prominent lecturers of Judeo-Christian theology to the School of Divinity each year.