I do think that the U.S. has an opportunity as a democracy to really exemplify what a religiously diverse society can be when it embraces the plurali….

My first intellectual challenge was to try to understand this incredible city of Banaras (also called Varanasi) in India and its meaning for Hindus. ….

Some of my best friends are Hindu or Buddhist or Sikh, my students as well. This is the sea in which I swim..

The journey to sacred places is the most common way that people travel in India. They are always going on pilgrimages to sacred places. They are alwa….

India is a culture in which religious life and spirituality is very much on the surface of things. That doesn't mean it doesn't have depth, but it is….

We are built on a structure of the freedom of religion and the non-establishment of religion. That really is a pretty sturdy rudder for the U.S..

I guess one of the things that is an advantage of the world in which we live is that I can at least I can have multiple homes. I can have that attach….

I will say that the power of being a stranger in someone else's religious community has its own lessons, really. It is something like the power of vi….

Places where one can experience some of that separation from the world of the familiar, to defamiliarize ourselves with what we take for granted and ….

Pluralism isn't just diversity; it's something we create out of this diversity..

My whole worldview has changed because of the work that I do. Specifically, the way in which I appropriate my own faith as a Christian, and the way i….

There are two great things that we need to find in life: one is love, probably the most important, and the second is work, and they compete with one ….

I grew up going around with family, camping and living in a very beautiful mountain valley, knowing the names of the mountains and the rivers. I thin….

There's still plenty of people who have this deep conviction that America is a Christian country and ought to say so in its Constitution, etc. But th….

When immigrants come, the freedom to practice their faith is a guarantee. They may have trouble with their neighbors, but freedom of religion is part….

Be prepared for changes..

The idea of going on a spiritual journey is really part of the DNA of India itself..

I was a young woman who had grown up in the mountains of Montana as a Protestant Methodist in a pretty good social gospel tradition. I became fascina….

The issue of "who we are" has been an ongoing one. It's part of the ongoing identity crisis of America..

What people see in the news are places where things have not going so well..

If you went to the headwaters of most rivers of the United States, you'd have a wonderful naturalistic hike or trek, but you wouldn't find a shrine t….