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Peter Steinfels

Peter Steinfels writes the “Beliefs” column on religion and ethics in The New York Times and is the author, most recently, of A People Adrift: The Crisis of the Roman Catholic Church in America. He co-directs Fordham University's Center on Religion and Culture.

Recent Articles

Changing Faiths

Religious Americans are far more diverse, tolerant, and compassionate than the image of an evangelist upsurge would suggest.

Peter SteinfelsOct 07, 2010
Evangelical Pastor Rick Warren, whose selection to speak at Obama's inauguration generated outrage among gay-rights groups (Flickr/Andy Cornejo)

American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us, by Robert D. Putnam and David E. Campbell, Simon & Schuster, 673 pages, $30

American Grace is a scrupulously researched, extensively documented, and utterly clear book filled with findings that should rattle the assumptions of anyone, religious or secular, who cares about religion in American public life.

Findings like these:

Democracy's Faith-Based Troubles

Religion and rationality have been clashing for centuries. Is it possible to talk about this conflict without going nuts?

Peter SteinfelsJan 31, 2010
Salman Rushdie (Flickr/Canada 2010)

Taming the Gods: Religion and Democracy on Three Continents by Ian Buruma, Princeton University Press, 144 pages, $19.95

A Darwin for the Divine

Evolution and religion are compatible if we accept that even our cultural development displays inbuilt direction.

Peter SteinfelsSep 19, 2009
(iStock)

The Evolution of God by Robert Wright, Little, Brown and Company, 567 pages, $25.99

Religiously Equal?

In her new book, philosophical titan Martha Nussbaum questions the separation between church and state, arguing that constitutional law has more often derived from prejudice than principle.

Peter SteinfelsApr 18, 2008

Liberty of Conscience: In Defense of America's Tradition of Religious Equality by Martha C. Nussbaum, Basic Books, 406 pages, $28.95

If democrats win the white house and Congress next November, one reason will be the party's success in neutralizing suspicions that it is hostile to religion, but that will not be the end of the matter. Whether religious Americans feel they have a place in a government shaped by liberals will depend on how a new administration and Congress respond to the issues that religious groups care about.

Be Not Afraid

Peter SteinfelsAug 14, 2006

Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism by Michelle Goldberg (W.W.Norton, 224 pages, $23.95)

Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis by Jimmy Carter (Simon & Schuster, 224 pages, $25.00)

The Faiths of the Founding Fathers by David l. Holmes (Oxford University Press, 240 pages, $20.00)

American Theocracy: The Peril and Politics of Radical Religion, Oil, and Borrowed Money in the 21st Century by Kevin Phillips (Viking, 480 pages, $26.95)