The Center for the Study of Religion and Conflict

In his book Culture Wars (1992) Hunter "coined" the term that titled the book and it has been a staple within popular circulation ever since.  He argued that America was in the midst of a "culture war" over "our most fundamental and cherished assumptions about how to order our lives."  In 1998 Wolfe challenged this idea of a culture war in One Nation After All. He proposed the alternate thesis, that a majority of Americans were seeking a middle way, a blend of the traditional and the modern.  With the nation seemingly polarized as ever these two distinguished scholars will discuss what this means for religion, society, and identity in America.

James Davison Hunter is Labrosse-Levinson Distinguished Professor of Religion, Culture, and Social Theory at the University of Virginia and Executive Director of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture. His various works are centered around the problem of meaning and moral order in a time of political and cultural change in American life. His most recent book To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World.

Alan Wolfe is Professor of Political Science and Director of the Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life at Boston College. He is the author and editor of more than 20 books, most recently, The Future of Liberalism and his work has appeared in Commonwealth, The New York Times, Harper's, The Atlantic Monthly, The Washington Post.