Holy Cross Lecture to Weigh Religion's Influence on Global Politics

Monica Duffy Toft, associate professor of public policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, will give a lecture titled “The Resurgence of Religion in Global Politics” on Tuesday, Oct. 18 at 4:30 p.m. in Rehm Library, Smith Hall at the College of the Holy Cross.

The lecture is one of the Deitchman Family Lectures on Religion and Modernity presented by the College’s Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture. It is free and open to the public.

Toft, who directs the Initiative on Religion in International Affairs at Harvard, asserts that contrary to past predictions of an increasingly secular society, religion’s influence on politics is surging. It has both incited violence and inspired peace. God’s Century: Resurgent Religion and Global Politics (Norton, 2011), a book Toft co-authored with Daniel Philpott and Timothy Samuel Shah, lays out examples of this and offers suggestions for confronting the challenges and taking advantage of the opportunities posed by globally resurgent religion.

Toft and her co-authors recently discussed God's Century on The Exchange on NHPR.

A 2008 Carnegie Scholar, Toft is author of Securing The Peace: The Durable Settlement of Civil Wars (Princeton University Press, 2009) and The Geography of Ethnic Conflict: Identity, Interests, and Territory (Princeton University Press, 2003) and co-editor of The Fog of Peace: Strategic and Military Planning under Uncertainty (Routledge, 2006). She has written opinion pieces for The Australian, Boston Globe, Christian Science Monitor, Dallas Morning News, Huffington Post, International Herald Tribune and the Washington Post.

For more information about this and other events hosted by the Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture, and to listen to lectures online, visit www.holycross.edu/crec.

About The Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture: Established in 2001 and housed in Smith Hall, the Center for Religion, Ethics and Culture provides resources for faculty and course development, sponsors conferences and college-wide teaching events, hosts visiting fellows, and coordinates a number of campus lecture series. Rooted in the College's commitment to invite conversation about basic human questions, the Center welcomes persons of all faiths and seeks to foster dialogue that acknowledges and respects differences, providing a forum for intellectual exchange that is interreligious, interdisciplinary, intercultural, and international in scope.  The Center also brings members of the Holy Cross community into conversation with the Greater Worcester community, the academic community, and the wider world to examine the role of faith and inquiry in higher education and in the larger culture.