Initiative on Religion, Pluralism, and American Public Life (iRPA)
The 2026 Symposium
“Reimagining Solidarity, Strengthening Democracy: New Visions of the Common Good”
September 17, 2026 | Wait Chapel
On September 17, Wake Forest University School of Divinity hosts “Reimagining Solidarity, Strengthening Democracy: New Visions of the Common Good,” the 2026 Initiative on Religion, Pluralism, and American Public Life (iRPA) Symposium, in Wait Chapel. Dr. Walter Earl Fluker, longtime editor of the Howard Thurman Papers Project, opens the day. A 1:00 p.m. panel, “Strengthening Solidarity Across the Nation,” brings together leaders from United Way Worldwide, interfaith communities, evangelical ministry, LGBTQ+ legal advocacy, and Jewish public affairs. Rabbi David Saperstein, former U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom, delivers the closing keynote. The symposium is free and open to the public.
The 2026-2027 Theme
“Sacred, Secular, Solidarity: New Visions of the Common Good”
Building on the previous year’s conversations, the Initiative deepens its examination of how religious and secular traditions cultivate democratic life, civic responsibility, and shared flourishing in a pluralistic society. As the nation marks its 250th anniversary, the program reflects on America’s democratic experiment, its aspirations, and its unfinished work. Particular emphasis falls on the relationship between constitutional ideals and twenty-first-century pluralism, bringing together voices across disciplines to illuminate civic imagination and collective action.
Revisit Past Events
Since its founding in 2024, building on the School’s 2023 Elizabeth and Robert Strickland Symposium, Religion, Pluralism, and the Fate of Democracy, iRPA has convened scholars, faith leaders, and public officials to examine religion’s role in American civic life. Each recording preserves the full conversation, offering the same depth and rigor audiences can expect.
“In a moment when our nation is embroiled in an intense struggle over the very substance of democracy in America, an understanding of how religion fuels our highest aspirations and animates our deepest fears is needed now more than ever.”
Corey D. B. Walker, Dean and Wake Forest Professor of the Humanities
About the Initiative
Wake Forest University School of Divinity’s Initiative on Religion, Pluralism, and American Public Life is a scholarly hub for critically examining how religion influences American public life and democracy. The initiative builds on the school’s ecumenical and interfaith commitments and, most recently, on the 2023 Elizabeth and Robert Strickland Symposium, “Religion, Pluralism, and the Fate of Democracy.” Through lectures, seminars, and public discussions by Wake Forest faculty and other leading scholars, the initiative aims to create unique intellectual spaces to engage some of the most challenging issues facing society and humanity.
At the installation service of Corey D. B. Walker as Dean of the Wake Forest University School of Divinity, the Wake Forest University’s 14th President Susan R. Wente announced she has committed funding to support the initiative on “Religion, Pluralism, and American Public Life” that will be based at the School of Divinity.
Spotlight
Recent resources featuring Wake Forest University School of Divinity faculty engaging religion, politics, and American public life.
Publications
Report | Religious Liberty for All: Celebrating This Founding Freedom at America 250
Book | African Americans and Religious Freedom: New Perspectives for Congregations and Communities
Curriculum| Black Religious Liberty Curriculum
Report | Maintaining International Religious Freedom as a Central Tenet of US National Security
Report | A Time to Heal, A Time to Build
Essay | “Between Anguish and Hope: A Response to Some Critical Re-visions of Liberation Theology”
Book | Sabrina E. Dent and Corey D. B. Walker, ed., African Americans and Religious Freedom
Commentary | “Religious Freedom’s Racial Reckoning”
Media
Article | “What America’s history can teach us about debates on religious freedom and its importance for democracy“
Article | “What James Madison can teach Americans about religious freedom today“
NY Times | “On Juneteenth, Freedom Came with Strings Attached”
WSJ | “United Methodist Church Votes to End Ban on Ordaining Gay Clergy”
Baptist News Global | “Revised book highlights religious freedom for African Americans”
Op-Ed | “The desire for retaliation is a fool’s errand”
Op-Ed | “Revisiting ‘natural law’ and gun rights”
Op-Ed | “Republicans, Democrats, PHNs and cutting the baby in half”
Op-Ed | “Religious Freedom in America is protected for some more than others”
Op-Ed | “Black, Jewish Americans have vested interests in fighting racism, anti-Semitism”
Article | “African Americans and Religious Freedom’ Aims to Get Readers on the Same Page Concerning Democracy”
Podcast | “Why Professor Corey D.B. Walker Looks to the Past to Understand Today’s Complex World”
Podcast | “Losing Sleep Before God” featuring Bill Leonard and Corey D. B. Walker
Events
Panel | “Faith and freedom: Reviewing the Trump administration’s executive actions on religion”
Panel | “The Politics of Belief: Religion, Law, and the Common Good”
Panel | “The Legacy of the Baptist Wars, Christian Nationalism, & the Fate of Democracy in America”
Lecture | “Abolition Christianity: Ministry Beyond Empire”
Conversation | “A Commonwealth of Hope: Reimagining Augustine’s Political Thought”
Panel | “Religion, Pluralism, and the Fate of Democracy”
Panel | “Founding Religious Freedom”
Thought Leadership Shaping this Moment
Be in the room where this conversation happens on September 17th.
