Awakening or Apocalypse?
The Promises and Perils of our TimeA Zoom Conversation with Diana Butler Bass
Now available via recording!
Awakening or Apocalypse?
The Promises and Perils of our Time
Awakening opens the imagination toward what might be,
a dream we dare to dream, to actually be America.
America is in the midst of an awakening.
Our cultural tumult marks a new “Great Awakening” – an extraordinary period of change, one brought about by lost faith, social disorientation, and cultural distortion, that will result in bringing in those who have been marginalized and create a politics whereby more can flourish. To insist that this is an awakening is to insist on hope – that distress and chaos are not the last word.
This is not simply a steady march of progress. Every awakening in American history was also accompanied by a counter-awakening: a backward movement toward a supposedly perfect past. The incipient possibilities of awakenings are often threatened by powerful forces seeking to abort the future. Yet this dangerous backlash is also a hopeful sign: it is part of the deeper spiritual process of cultural revitalization: opposition is evidence of a genuine American awakening.
About Diana Butler Bass
Diana Butler Bass, Ph.D., is an award-winning author, popular speaker, inspiring preacher, and one of America’s most trusted commentators on religion and contemporary spirituality. Diana’s passion is sharing great ideas to change lives and the world – a passion that ranges from informing the public about spiritual trends, challenging conventional narratives about religious practice, entering the fray of social media with spiritual wisdom and smart theology, and writing books to help readers see themselves, their place in history, and God differently. She does this with intelligence, joy, and a good dose of humor, leading well-known comedian John Fugelsang to dub her “iconic,” the late Marcus Borg to call her “spontaneous and always surprising,” and Glennon Doyle to praise her “razor-sharp mind” and “mystical heart.”
She holds a doctorate in religious studies from Duke University and is the author of ten books (below). Her bylines include The New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN.com, Atlantic.com, USA Today, Huffington Post, Christian Century, and Sojourners. She has commented on religion, politics, and culture in the media widely including on CBS, CNN, PBS, NPR, CBC, FOX, Sirius XM, TIME, Newsweek, Rolling Stone, and in multiple global news outlets. In the 1990s, she wrote a weekly column on religion and culture for the Santa Barbara News-Press, which was distributed nationally by the New York Times Syndicate.
Her work has received two Wilbur Awards for best nonfiction book of the year, awards from Religion News Association for individual commentary and for Book of the Year, Nautilus Awards Silver and Gold medals, the Illumination Book Award Silver medal, Books for a Better Life Award, the Frank S. and Elizabeth D. Brewer Prize for Church History, multiple nominations for the Library of Virginia Literary Awards, and Publishers Weekly’s Best Religion Book of the Year.
Original live event: Friday, September 25th, 2020 4:00 pm – 5:30 pm ET USA (UTC/GMT-4)
Registration
 | Awakening or Apocalypse - Recording | $20.00 | Out of stock |