Spiritual Infrastructure of the Future

Much is in flux around religion and spirituality 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 changing. Simultaneously, people are engaging with spiritual practices and other forms of meaning-making in new and creative ways. 

This project brings scholars, educators, religious leaders, journalists, and students together to ask how. 

• How is what we are calling the spiritual infrastructure - the structures, institutions and practices through which people in the United States find meaning  - changing in the United States?
• How do we help students, journalists, scholars and the broader public understand these changes?
• How do we ensure that graduate students who will become leaders in civic life, the academy, philanthropy, and other fields are learning about these changes as they take place?

We pursue these questions through clusters of projects centered on research, public facing programs, and professional pipelines. This work is made possible by a grant, “Identifying and Advancing the Spiritual Infrastructure of the Future,” from the Templeton Religion Trust.