Ensign Lecture: Monica Toft, “The Global Resurgence of Religion and How We Missed It”

Monica Toft, a scholar of international politics at Tufts University, will give the annual Ensign Lecture at YDS during Convocation and Reunions on Wednesday, October 16. Professor Toft will address “The Global Resurgence of Religion and Why We Missed It.” The lecture will take place at 2 p.m. in Niebuhr Hall.
Toft will explore how predictions of the imminent demise of religious faith around the world have proven untrue and how, instead, the world has witnessed a global resurgence of religion. The question, she says, is why international relations scholars, and even some sociologists of religion, failed to notice the continued importance of faith in people’s lives. A key reason is that our understandings of religion, both theoretical and practical, were derived from experiences of Western societies and their models of secularism, which did not correspond with what was happening in most other corners of the world.
The Ensign Lecture will be broadcast on Livestream and available for replay on the YDS Livestream and YouTube channels.