Diana Butler Bass is an author, speaker, and independent scholar specializing in American religion and culture.
She holds a Ph.D. in religious studies from Duke University and is the author of nine books, including Grounded: Finding God in the World—A Spiritual Revolution and the widely influential Christianity After Religion: The End of Church and the Birth of a New Spiritual Awakening. Her other books include A People’s History of Christianity: The Other Side of the Story, nominated for a Library of Virginia literary award, and the best-selling Christianity for the Rest of Us: How the Neighborhood Church is Transforming the Faith which was named as one of the best religion books of the year by Publishers Weekly and was featured in a cover story in USA TODAY.
Diana regularly speaks at conferences, consults with religious organizations, leads educational events for religious leaders, and teaches and preaches in a variety of venues. She writes at The Huffington Post and The Washington Post and comments on religion, politics, and culture in the media including USA TODAY, Time,Newsweek, CBS, CNN, FOX, PBS, and NPR.
From 1995 to 2000, she wrote a weekly column on American religion for the New York Times Syndicate. She is a contributing editor for Sojourners Magazine has written widely in the religious press, including Christian Century, Clergy Journal, and Congregations.
From 2002 to 2006, she was the Project Director of a national Lilly Endowment-funded study of mainline Protestant vitality—a project featured in Newsweek, U.S. News and World Report, and the Los Angeles Times.
Dr. Butler Bass is the recipient of numerous grants and awards including the Frank S. and Elizabeth D. Brewer Prize of the American Society of Church History and an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from The General Theological Seminary in New York. She also serves on the board of Public Religion Research and is an advisor on the project for a National Museum of American Religion in Washington, D.C.
Additionally, Dr. Butler Bass has taught at Westmont College, the University of California at Santa Barbara, Macalester College, Rhodes College, and the Virginia Theological Seminary in subjects ranging from church history, American religious history, history of Christian thought, to religion and politics, religion and race, and congregational studies.
She and her family live in Alexandria, Virginia.