Russell Lecture on Spiritual Life 2019

Eboo Patel

Division or Unity: Religious Diversity and the American Promise

Dinner and Lecture: Monday, April 1, 2019,  5:30 p.m. Reception and Dinner, 6:30 p.m. Lecture, Breed Memorial Hall (51 Winthrop Street, Medford, MA 02155)

RSVP is required and requested 

Facebook event here. 

Join Tisch College and the University Chaplaincy for a conversation with author, educator, and interfaith leader, Eboo Patel. Patel is the Founder and President of Interfaith Youth Core, the renowned national nonprofit that brings young people from different faiths together to work on social action projects, fostering cooperation instead of conflict among youth of diverse beliefs. Named by U.S. News & World Report as one of America’s Best Leaders, Patel also served on President Barack Obama’s Inaugural Faith Council and partnered with the White House to launch the Interfaith and Community Service Campus Challenge in 2011. He is the author of four books, including his autobiography Acts of Faith and his recent book, Out of Many Faiths: Religious Diversity and the American Promise. A recipient of numerous awards and honorary degrees, Patel is a member of the Young Global Leaders network of the World Economic Forum and was recently selected as one of five future policy leaders to watch by Harvard University’s Kennedy School Review. Follow the conversation live at #EbooPatelAtTufts.

More About the Lecture:

Division or Unity: Religious Diversity and the American Promise

The current political moment in the U.S. is characterized by a sense of deep division along racial, religious, and ethical lines. Deeply American values such as religious freedom and civil rights are coming in tension in new ways, and it seems more difficult to feel sense of a common ground in a set of shared societal values and a vision for the future. What does the Judeo-Christian heritage and the growing religious and philosophical diversity of the United States suggest about how we might navigate our differences and weave a common social fabric? How do we explain the resurgence of public hate speech and hate crimes, the place of the interfaith movement, and the increase in people identifying as nonreligious? How can we build cohesion in a society where many hold conservative and many hold progressive beliefs?

About Eboo Patel:

Eboo Patel is a leading voice in the movement for interfaith cooperation and the Founder and President of Interfaith Youth Core (IFYC), a national nonprofit working to make interfaith cooperation a social norm. He is the author of Acts of Faith, Sacred Ground, Interfaith Leadership and Out of Many Faiths. Named by US News & World Report as one of America’s Best Leaders of 2009, Eboo served on President Obama’s Inaugural Faith Council.

He is a regular contributor to the public conversation around religion in America and a frequent speaker on the topic of religious pluralism. He holds a doctorate in the sociology of religion from Oxford University, where he studied on a Rhodes scholarship. For over fifteen years, Eboo has worked with governments, social sector organizations, and college and university campuses to help realize a future where religion is a bridge of cooperation rather than a barrier of division.

To learn more about Eboo Patel, please visit here.

James A. Russell Lectureship on Spiritual Life

The Russell Lectureship is the oldest lectureship at Tufts University, established by James Russell of West Cambridge (now Arlington) in 1867. In accordance with the provisions of the donor’s will, each year the university invites a distinguished lecturer to speak on a topic relating to spiritual life. (Source: Miller, Russell E. Light on the Hill: A History of Tufts College 1852-1952. Boston: Beacon Press, 1966.)

To learn more about past Russell Lectures on Spiritual Life, please visit here.