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LINGUA SACRA:
Negotiating God-talk in America

Thursday, April 28, 4:00 p.m.
Boston College, Cushing Hall 001


This panel discussion, which includes experts on the social development of Christianity and Judaism in the United States as well as filmmakers from the PBS series God in America, will examine the question of how Americans understand and talk about God.

PANELISTS:

David Belton
Writer, series director, producer Frontline/American Experience series God in America

Sarah Colt
Writer, director, producer Frontline/American Experience series God in America

Cynthia L. Lyerly
Associate professor, College of Arts and Sciences, history department

Mark S. Massa, S.J.
Dean, Boston College School of Theology and Ministry

Rachel Gordan
Doctoral candidate in American religious history, Harvard University

MODERATOR:

Erik Owens
Associate director, Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life and adjunct assistant professor of theology and international studies, Boston College

The United States is among the most religiously diverse nations on earth and yet has comparatively little history of religious violence, in large part because of a widespread view of religion as a matter of private, not public, concern. As Thomas Jefferson famously wrote in 1781, "It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg." Granted strong legal protections by the First Amendment, free speech and religious freedom have come to be cherished social conventions, too, even (perhaps especially) among those who see religion as more of a public matter. Indeed, talking about God is something of a national pastime, one that in recent decades has broadened to include conversations among and about multiple religious traditions. What we say about God–and how we say it, through words and deeds–reveals much about our national character, principles, and beliefs.

A panel discussion sponsored by the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry, the Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life, and the Office of Marketing Communications.

This event is free and open to the public www.bc.edu/events.

For directions and parking information, visit www.bc.edu/about/maps.