Speaking about The Church

I am available to give individual talks in parish and/or diocesan settings. My speaking fees are generally $1500 for an individual address and $1750-2250 for a one day multiple-presentation workshop. The fee for presentations given over more than one day will be negotiated on an individual basis.. Queries regarding speaking engagements can be made by clicking on the "Contact" tab on the home page of my website and sending me an e-mail.

Shopping for God: The Influence of Consumerism on Contemporary American Christianity
Many social scientists of the early and mid-twentieth century proposed a "secularization thesis" in which they predicted that with the rise of modernity religion would see an inexorable decline in public influence. Here in the United States, however, this has hardly been the case. The United States remains in profound ways a deeply religious society. What we have seen is less the processes of secularization than the increasing commodification of religion. That is, religion is often transformed into a sanitized and easily consumed "product" rather than a bracing way of life that calls us and the world to conversion. In this talk I will explore the ways in which Christianity has succumbed to the forces of commodification. I will then consider ways in which this trend might be countered by drawing on insights from our tradition.