Movsesian at the University of Virginia (August 23)

For FT readers in the area, I’ll be participating next week in the biannual conference of the International Center for Law and Religion Studies, being held this year at the University of Virginia Law School. I’ll present a paper, “Psychic Sophie and the Rise of the Nones.” Here’s the abstract:

The most important story in American religion today is the rise of the “Nones,” the category of people who declare no religious affiliation. The numbers are contested, but, by some accounts, one-fifth of American adults are in this category, and the group has exploded in the past two decades. Surprisingly, perhaps, the Nones tend to be believers; very few of them say they are atheists or agnostics. They reject not belief but organized religion, and draw on a variety of traditions to create their own, a la carte, spiritualities. In this paper, I explore the rise of the Nones and the tensions it exposes in American law, particularly with regard to the definition of religion. To illustrate, I rely on a recent US appeals court case in which the plaintiff, “Psychic Sophie,” argued that the state had interfered with the exercise of her religion — which she defined, in typical None fashion, as “following her inner flow.”

Details about the conference are here . Stop by and say hello!