Mark Silk is an American academic. He is Professor of Religion in Public Life at Trinity College, where he also serves as the Director the Leonard E. Greenberg Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life. In addition, Silk is a Contributing Editor of the '' Religion News Service'', specializing in Spiritual Politics.

Early life and education

Silk was born in

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. It is a suburb in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, located directly across the Charles River from Boston. The city's population as of the 2020 United States census, ...

, on May 12, 1950, and graduated from

Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate education, undergraduate college of Harvard University, a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Part of the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Scienc ...

in 1972,

magna cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sout ...

. In 1982 he earned a Ph.D. in

medieval history In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

from

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...

. He was editor of the '' Boston Review'' from 1985 to 1986, and worked as a reporter, editorial writer, and columnist for the ''

Atlanta Journal-Constitution ''The Atlanta Journal-Constitution'' (''AJC'') is an American daily newspaper based in metropolitan area of Atlanta, Georgia. It is the flagship publication of Cox Enterprises. The ''Atlanta Journal-Constitution'' is the result of the merger ...

''.

Career

Silk is the author of ''Spiritual Politics: Religion and America Since World War II'' and ''Unsecular Media: Making News of Religion in America'' and co-editor of ''Religion by Region'', an eight-volume series on religion and public life in the United States, and columnist for the ''Religion News Service''. With Andrew Walsh he wrote the series summary volume, ''One Nation Divisible: How Regional Religious Differences Shape American Politics'', published in hardcover in 2008. In the 1980s and 1990s Silk was a regular contributor to the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', contributing essays and book reviews on

feminist theology Feminist theology is a movement found in several religions, including Buddhism, Hinduism, Zoroastrianism, Sikhism, Jainism, Neopaganism, Baháʼí Faith, Judaism, Islam, Christianity, and New Thought, to reconsider the traditions, practices, scri ...

new religious movements A new religious movement (NRM), also known as a new religion, is a religious or spiritual group that has modern origins and is peripheral to its society's dominant religious culture. NRMs can be novel in origin, or they can be part of a wider re ...

Jewish identity Jewish identity is the objective or subjective sense of perceiving oneself as a Jew and as relating to being Jewish. It encompasses elements of nationhood, "The Jews are a nation and were so before there was a Jewish state of Israel" "Jews are ...

, and other religion-related topics. In 1984 he traced the use of "

Judeo-Christian The term ''Judeo-Christian'' is used to group Christianity and Judaism together, either in reference to Christianity's derivation from Judaism, Christianity's recognition of Jewish scripture to constitute the Old Testament of the Christian Bibl ...

" in American culture. In 1995 he argued that the American news media approach religion with certain Western religious preconceptions that do not always do justice to the varieties of religious belief and behavior. In 2005, he traced the history of the idea of civil religion through changing views of the figure of

Numa Pompilius Numa Pompilius (; 753–672 BC; reigned 715–672 BC) was the Roman mythology, legendary second king of Rome, succeeding Romulus after a one-year interregnum. He was of Sabine origin, and many of Rome's most important religious and political ins ...

, the second king of Rome. Since 2007 Silk has blogged about religion in public life at ''Spiritual Politics'' that began as "A blog on religion and the 2008 election campaign" and is hosted at Religion News Service. Silk's areas of speciality include religion in America, religion and media,

, and intellectual history of the West. As of 2021, Silk teaches Religion and American Politics and Religion and Climate Change at Trinity College.

References

External links

Spiritual Politics
Archives at Religion News Service {{DEFAULTSORT:Silk, Mark Living people Trinity College (Connecticut) faculty American religion academics Researchers of new religious movements and cults Harvard College alumni 1950 births