Spiritual Infrastructure of the Future
How are religious and spiritual changes happening in the United States today? What are the institutions through which spirituality, religion and broader approaches to meaning making are and will continue to be taught, learned and passed across generations?
About this Work
Religious infrastructures are changing in the United States. Fewer people are religiously affiliated, thousands of churches and other local houses of worship are closing, and the shape of religious leadership is increasingly in flux. At the same time, people are organizing around spirituality and broader approaches to meaning-making in new ways inside and outside of existing organizations.
This project brings scholars, educators, religious leaders, journalists and students together to advance research about what we are calling the spiritual infrastructure of the future. We will document this chapter in religious innovation and ensure that scholars, educators and religious leaders are prepared to lead in the midst of changes transforming institutions that have carried these ideas and practices forward in the United States for hundreds of years.
How We're Exploring the Question
This project has three parts: scholarly research, public-facing programming, and building pipelines to professional leadership. Learn more below.
Research
Our research will examine congregational closures (endings), spiritual innovation (beginnings), and the changing shape of religious leadership in the United States... learn more.
Public-Facing Programming
This project will expand public knowledge about the religious and spiritual landscapes by sharing its findings through legacy and new medium including traditional news ... learn more.
Professional Pipelines
This project will enable current doctoral students to complete paid internships outside of the academy to better understand and prepare for leadership in the emerging spiritual infrastructure... learn more.
In the News
Brandeis Professor, Jonathan Anjaria, co-leads $3.9M initiative mapping America's religious future
June 12, 2025, Brandeis.edu - Brandeis Professor of Anthropology Jonathan Anjaria will co-lead new research under a $3.9 million grant from the Templeton Religion Trust. The funding will support a three-year... Read the article.
New Research and Teaching Initiative to Map the Religious and Spiritual Infrastructure of the Future
May 30, 2025, MarketWatch - Made possible by a $3.9 million grant from the Templeton Religion Trust, this three-year, multi-faceted initiative aims to map the religious and spiritual infrastructure of the future... Read the article.
Project Leadership
Diane Winston
Knight Chair in Media and Religion
Annenberg School for Communication, University of Southern California
Jonathan Anjaria
Associate Professor of Anthropology and Faculty Director of Professional Development
Brandeis University Graduate School of Arts & Sciences
Kraig Beyerlein
Associate Professor; Director, Center for the Study of Religion and Society; Director of Graduate Studies
University of Notre Dame
Robert Wuthnow
Professor of Sociology Emeritus and former director of the Princeton University Center for the Study of Religion
Princeton University
