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Review the news today, at any time, and you will encounter a narrative on faith and governance. Regardless of the topic, I assure it possesses a lengthy background, with repercussions extending across various domains: law, healthcare, economics, and others.

In 2010, Washington University in St. Louis inaugurated the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics to explore how these subjects interconnect and to engage the public in comprehending them. Public scholarship aims for a broad audience, yet in a way distinct from social media personalities or commentators and opinion shapers. Within an academic institution, quality research underpins and enhances all public outreach. We initiate with research, but every endeavor must focus on involving the community. In an era when the significance of universities is increasingly questioned, we must articulate and listen beyond our campus confines — particularly on vital matters like faith and governance, which impact countless issues and numerous lives.

The influence of religion and politics is straightforward to elucidate. Take, for instance, the Bioethics Research Center at WashU Medicine. James DuBois, the center’s leader and the Steven J. Bander Professor of Medical Ethics and Professionalism, launched the Healthcare, Values, and the Spiritual Life research initiative in 2022. The program’s inaugural major project, backed by the NIH, investigates how belief influences perspectives on topics such as prenatal genetic assessment, stem cell research, and mRNA vaccines. Researchers are also interviewing 180 faith leaders to grasp how public health can collaborate with faith communities in a manner that is both respectful and productive. Simultaneously, the Weidenbaum Center, which promotes social scientific research in public policy, economics, political science, and sociology, inevitably encounters the profound perspectives shaped by faith.

Researchers at the Danforth Center on Religion and Politics prioritize both depth and scope. They provide insights into “breaking” news that rushes by us each hour. At the center, we are attentive to headlines while also striving to highlight the often-overlooked ways religion and politics intersect and influence American culture, both presently and historically. Current topics of interest invariably possess a much richer past, and many scholars at the center are specialists in that culturally impactful history. We cannot understand our current position without acknowledging how we arrived here.

In recent years, for example, the media has focused on the endorsement of white evangelicals for President Trump. It doesn’t require an academic institution to form an opinion on that issue. However, we can uniquely facilitate such discussions (and we have). We could investigate, for instance, the fifth of white evangelicals who have consistently resisted President Trump — a demographic generally overlooked by the media — and consider what qualifies as an “evangelical,” given that definitions frequently evolve. Equally important, the center can remind us that evangelicals represent just one variant of Christianity in the U.S., and that Christianity encompasses only one facet of faith. What are the stances of others, and how do they impact governance, ethics, policy, and culture?

Through our online journal, Arc, as well as other publications and public discourse, we contribute history, insight, and context to contemporary matters and issues. Faculty member Tazeen Ali, for instance, has extensively analyzed the portrayal of Islam in media and public conversation, spanning politics, television series, and beyond. Fannie Bialek, a faculty member who focuses on love, vulnerability, and more, regularly engages with Jewish communities, translating and disseminating her work more broadly. Each of our faculty finds both specific and general audiences.

Regardless of the audience or subject matter, the objective of the Danforth Center on Religion and Politics consistently remains deeper insight and improved comprehension. We aspire to build foundations for a shared existence. It requires scholarship to uncover that foundation, and thoughtful approaches to public engagement to learn from others and disseminate our findings.

By building upon the outstanding efforts of the center, I hope to continue expanding the breadth of its profound academic contributions. The center can both benefit from and add to various educational disciplines, enhancing historical understanding with political science, for instance, or merging new data with cultural analyses in humanistic disciplines. Such breadth will elevate the Danforth Center even more as a premier organization dedicated to the study of religion and politics in the United States. At the center, we pause, we deliberate, and we endeavor to foster understanding of pressing contemporary issues in ways only a university can — and for a public audience that extends far beyond our campus.

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