Please join us for this event where Professor Christian Smith will share insights from his forthcoming book Occulture: The New Face of American Spirituality which will be released in early 2027 by Oxford University Press. In the book, Smith and collaborators Matthew Coetzee and Bridget Ritz argue that the last several decades have witnessed a sea change in American culture as traditional religion has declined significantly. What has taken its place, however, is not widespread secularism, but a growing interest in magic, spirituality, alternative healing practices, neopaganism, psychic powers, eastern religions, the New Age, and more. Occulture draws on survey data, interviews, and more to provide the first, ground-breaking, big-picture examination of the re-enchantment of America.
Christian Smith
Christian Smith is the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Sociology emeritus and founding Director of the Center for the Study of Religion and Society at the University of Notre Dame. He earned his PhD and MA from Harvard University and his BA from Gordon College in 1983. Smith is well known for his research on religion, adolescents and emerging adults, social theory, and critical realism. He was a professor of sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for 12 years before his move to Notre Dame. His most recent published books are Why Religion Went Obsolete (OUP, 2025) and Divided By Faith (OUP, 2025).
This lecture is co-sponsored by the Institute for Religion, Culture, and Societal Futures.