|
About Diana Butler Bass
Diana Butler Bass is an author, speaker, and independent scholar specializing in American religion and culture. She holds a Ph.D. in religious studies from Duke University and is the author of six books including the best-selling Christianity for the Rest of Us, released by Harper One in 2006. That book was named as one of the best religion books of the year by Publishers Weekly and Christianity Century, won the Book of the Year Award from the Academy of Parish Clergy, and was featured in a cover story in USA TODAY. She is currently Senior Fellow at the Cathedral College of the Washington National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. Diana regularly consults with religious organizations, leads conferences for religious leaders, and teaches and preaches in a variety of venues.
She is currently working on two books. A People’s History of Christianity, a history of Christian spirituality and social justice, is scheduled for March 2009 release from Harper One. Pilgrimage, part of the “Seven Ancient Practices” series, will be published in 2010.
From 2002 to 2006, she was the Project Director of a national Lilly Endowment funded study of mainline Protestant vitality—a project featured in Newsweek, U.S. News and World Report, the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times. She serves on the board of directors of the Beatitudes Society, and participates in an advisor for Emergent Village and Synagogue 3000. She is part of Sojourner’s Red Letter Christians and is a regular contributor to the God’s Politics blog on Beliefnet.
Diana has taught at Westmont College, the University of California at Santa Barbara, Macalester College, Rhodes College, and the Virginia Theological Seminary. She has taught church history, American religious history, history of Christian thought, religion and politics, and congregational studies. From 1995-2000 she wrote a weekly column on American religion for the New York Times Syndicate. She has written widely in the religious press, including Sojourners, Christian Century, Clergy Journal, and Congregations. She has appeared on CNN, PBS, FOX, and NPR.
Diana’s other books include The Practicing Congregation: Imagining a New Old Church (Alban, 2004), which has been lauded as one of the most important books on mainline Protestantism in the last two decades. In addition, she has written From Nomads to Pilgrims: Stories from Practicing Congregations (Alban, 2006), Broken We Kneel: Reflections on Faith and Citizenship (Jossey-Bass, 2004), Strength for the Journey: A Pilgrimage of Faith in Community (Jossey-Bass, 2002) earned a starred review in Publishers Weekly and was named one of the best religion books of 2002 by the same publication, and her dissertation, Standing Against the Whirlwind: Evangelical Episcopalians in 19th Century America (Oxford University Press, 1995), which won the Frank S. and Elizabeth D. Brewer prize of the American Society of Church History. Two of her books have been nominated for the Louisville Grawemeyer Award.
She, her husband, Richard Bass, and their family live in Alexandria, Virginia. She is a member of the Episcopal Church of the Epiphany in downtown Washington, D.C. In addition to her family and church, she loves mystery novels, wine tasting, walking, Duke basketball, art museums, quiet evenings at home, interesting conversation with people who want to change the world, and vacationing pretty much anywhere with warm breezes, palm trees, and a beach.
|
