Panel Discussion: Belief and Belonging in the 21st Century

On October 25th, UVA Mormon Studies and the Forum on Religion and Democracy will host three scholars of American religious identity to discuss “Belief and Belonging in the 21st Century”

Religious identities have shifted dramatically in the last quarter century. But how, and it what ways? Is religion as we once knew it dying in the U.S.? Or are people finding other ways of expressing the same kinds of needs for affiliation and meaning in different forms? What do people really mean when they say they are spiritual but not religious? Or religious but not affiliated with any traditional communities or institutions?

Join us for a panel discussion about what recent trends might tell us about the future of faith and belonging in American life. Our panel of experts, moderated by Bushman Chair Laurie Maffly-Kipp, will allow for both a deep exploration of one of the most communitarian traditions, the Mormon faith, as well as a broader exploration of American culture and spirituality.

 

 

About the Event

The event is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be provided

Time: The panel will be held from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, October 25.

Location: The South Meeting Room of Newcomb Hall on UVA’s Grounds in Charlottesville, Va: 180 McCormick Road Charlottesville, VA 22903.

Parking: Paid parking is available in the Central Grounds Parking Garage, directly adjacent to Newcomb Hall. Free parking is available after 5 p.m. in Culbreth Garage, a 15-minute walk to Newcomb Hall.

 

About Our Panelists

Rosemary Avance is Assistant Professor of Media and Strategic Communications at Oklahoma State University. Her research focuses on the interplay between social dynamics, communication technologies, and identity formation across diverse domains. Avance’s recent book, Mediated Mormons: Shifting Religious Identities in the Digital Age, examines case studies of practicing and former Latter-day Saints to understand how these individuals relate to the church, the internet, and modernity during our media-saturated age.

Matthew Hedstrom is Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia. He specializes in religion and culture in the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, particularly examining the intersections of American modernity and Protestant and post-Protestant religious modernity in the United States. Within this field, Professor Hedstrom studies the rise in spirituality among Americans who aren’t tied to particular religious institutions, as explored in his 2012 book The Rise of Liberal Religion: Book Culture and American Spirituality in the Twentieth Century, and his popular undergraduate course: “’Spiritual But Not Religious’: Spirituality in America”.

Jana Riess is an author, editor, and senior columnist for Religion News Service. Her written works have primarily focused on the intersections of American religion with popular culture, ethics, and society. Riess’s most recent book, The Next Mormons: How Millennials Are Changing the LDS Church (Oxford University Press, 2019) discusses the faith practices and institutional distrust of Millennial Mormons. She is currently writing a follow-up book, based on her research with Benjamin Knoll, about the Mormon faith crisis and changing understandings of belonging among Latter-day Saints.

About The Moderator

Laurie Maffly-Kipp is the Richad Lyman Bushman Chair of Mormon Studies at the University of Virginia. She is a distinguished scholar of American religious history and has authored numerous influential works on Mormonism, religion in the American West, and African American religious history. Over the past few decades, Professor Maffly-Kipp has become an influential interpreter of Latter-day Saint history and participated in shaping the field of Mormon Studies. She is also a former president of the American Society of Church History and the Mormon History Association.