#72 | Fertility and Faith: Unpacking the Global Shift in Religion with Philip Jenkins

Travis has a conversation with well-known scholar Philip Jenkins. Jenkins is an award-winning author and scholar. Travis & Philip discuss Dr. Jenkins's book, Fertility and Faith, and how secularization may affect the institutional practice of religion worldwide.

Dr. Philip Jenkins has a doctorate from Cambridge in history, and taught at Penn State University and Baylor University's Institute for Studies of Religion. He is a well-known commentator on religion, past and present, having written about 30 books including The Next Christendom, The New Faces of Christianity: Believing the Bible in the Global South and God's Continent: Christianity, Islam and Europe's Religious Crisis, The Lost History of Christianity, Jesus Wars, just to name a few.

He has published articles and op-ed pieces in several media outlets across the U.S. and Europe, including the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, New Republic, Foreign Policy, First Things, and Christian Century. The Economist has called him “one of America's best scholars of religion.”

He has been interviewed on several television and radio shows, including CNN documentaries and news specials covering a variety of topics, such as global Christianity, the sexual abuse crisis in the Catholic Church, as well as serial murder, and aspects of violent crime.

Jenkins is much heard on talk radio, including multiple appearances on NPR's All Things Considered, and on various BBC and RTE programs. In North America, he has been a guest on widely syndicated radio programs such as NPR’s Fresh Air, as well as the nationally broadcast Canadian shows Tapestry and Ideas. His influence goes beyond North America to newspapers and radio stations in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Canada, Australia, Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands, and Brazil.

Now, in the highlight of his life ;-), he is on Apollos Watered! Travis & Phil discuss tacos, sushi, the 80's movie Matewan, and the possible correlation between secularization, religious institutions, birth rates, and gender roles in society. It's not just a European thing, but a global thing. It's truly a deep and heady conversation that helps us wrestle with our world and our place in it.

Takeaways:

• Fertility rates in the United States have declined to European levels, signaling a demographic shift.
• The relationship between secularism and declining birth rates is evident across various cultures.
• Understanding the trends in global fertility can provide insights into religious institutional health.
• The rapid decline of religious practices in Europe raises questions about the future of the American faith.
• As societies become more secular, the role of family structures and values is changing significantly.
• Immigration can introduce new religious communities, potentially reshaping the landscape of faith in the West.

Get Fertility and Faith and be sure to check out many of Philip's other books.

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