The Importance of New Religious Community at the End of Civilization: Looking Beyond Secularism and Religionism
Alan Jay Richard is a progressive religious organizer, activist, and writer with the nonprofit group Realistic Living. His current work focuses on building networks of “secular religious” experimentation within existing tradition of religious practice that help people engage seriously with rather than seek to escape from our common problems in a culturally diverse, interconnected global society. In this capacity, Dr. Richard assists in developing and publishing a non-academic lay journal of theology and other materials to support networks of secular religious experimentation in Christianity. Dr. Richard earned a doctorate in Religion from Syracuse University with areas of concentration in philosophy of religion, postcolonial religious expression in Melanesia, and the Reformation. While a graduate student, he became an AIDS activist, working in the Treatment and Data and Action Planning committees of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT-UP) Syracuse. While finishing his dissertation, he joined an HIV prevention and epidemiology research firm in Houston, Texas and began conducting federally funded social research in psychological and social influences on HIV risk behavior. After eight years directing research projects, he began working with Houston nonprofits to develop and manage service projects in a broad range of areas his research had shown to be related to disease transmission, including housing affordability, social support networks, and adolescent mental health. In addition to his primary work with Realistic Living, Dr. Richard serves as Research Director at The Center for Success and Independence, an adolescent mental health organization in Houston, Texas, directing the Center’s Adolescent and Family Treatment project. He also serves as Senior Scientist for RTH Research Group, an evaluation consulting firm. Dr. Richard has recently published in the online journal Political Theology, has an article slated to appear in the newest volume of Buddhist-Christian Studies, and is working on a book to be published as part of Palgrave’s New Approaches to Religion and Power series.
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