Mark Silk
{{Short description|American academic}}
{{BLP sources|date=November 2021}}
{{Infobox economist
|image=
|birth_place=Boston, Massachusetts
|birth_date={{birth date and age|1950|5|12}}
|alma_mater=Harvard College (1972 AB) magna cum laude
Harvard University (1982 PhD)
|awards=
|institution=Trinity College (Connecticut) 1996-present
}}
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, on May 12, 1950, and graduated from Harvard College in 1972, magna cum laude. In 1982 he earned a Ph.D. in medieval history from Harvard. 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.
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,{{Cite web|url=https://religionnews.com/columns/|title=Columns |website=Religion News Service |language=en-US|access-date=2018-05-10}} an eight-volume series on religion and public life in the United States,{{cite web | url=http://www.trincoll.edu/depts/csrpl/personnel.htm | title=Religion in the News Current Staff | publisher=Trinity College | work=Religion in the News | archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927155145/http://www.trincoll.edu/depts/csrpl/personnel.htm | archivedate=September 27, 2011 |url-status=dead}}[https://www.nytimes.com/1988/04/03/books/front-page-religion.html Front-page Religion], New York Times, 1988-4-3 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, contributing essays and book reviews on feminist theology,[https://www.nytimes.com/1982/04/11/books/is-god-a-feminist.html?pagewanted=1 Is God a feminist?], New York Times, 1982-4-11 new religious movements,[https://www.nytimes.com/1989/06/18/books/outsiders-welcome.html Outsiders welcome], New York Times, 1989-6-18 Jewish identity, and other religion-related topics.
[https://www.nytimes.com/books/98/05/17/reviews/980517.17silklt.html Styles of Jewish Identity], New York Times, 1998-5-7 In 1984 he traced the use of "Judeo-Christian" in American culture.{{cite journal | title=Notes on the Judeo-Christian Tradition in America | author=Silk, Mark | journal=American Quarterly | date=Spring 1984 | volume=36 | issue=1 | pages=65–85 | doi=10.2307/2712839| jstor=2712839 }} 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.{{cite book | last = Silk | first = Mark | title = Unsecular Media: Making News of Religion in America | url = https://archive.org/details/unsecularmediama00silk | url-access = registration | publisher = University of Illinois Press | year = 1995 | isbn = 978-0-252-06742-6 | pages = [https://archive.org/details/unsecularmediama00silk/page/91 91]–106}} In 2005, he traced the history of the idea of civil religion through changing views of the figure of Numa Pompilius, the second king of Rome."Numa Pompilius and the Idea of Civil Religion in the West," Journal of the American Academy of Religion 72, no. 4 (December 2004), 863-96. 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"{{cite web | url=http://www.spiritual-politics.org/ | title=Spiritual Politics | accessdate=September 13, 2018| archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080827202151/http://www.spiritual-politics.org/ | archivedate=August 27, 2008 |url-status=dead }} and is hosted at Religion News Service.{{cite web | url=https://religionnews.com/category/opinion/columns/mark-silk/ | title=Mark Silk: Spiritual Politics Archives | publisher=Religion News Service | accessdate=September 13, 2018}}
Silk's areas of speciality include religion in America, religion and media, medieval history, and intellectual history of the West. As of 2021, Silk teaches Religion and American Politics and Religion and Climate Change at Trinity College.
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [https://religionnews.com/category/opinion/columns/mark-silk/ Spiritual Politics] Archives at Religion News Service
{{Trinity College}}
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Category:Trinity College (Connecticut) faculty
Category:American religion academics
Category:Researchers of new religious movements and cults