Paul Elie on Postsecularism
National Book Critics Circle Award finalist Paul Elie joins us to discuss his new book, The Last Supper, which explores the origins of our postsecular present and the moment when popular culture became the site of religious conflict, namely the 1980s.
From Andy Warhol’s adaptation of The Last Supper to the boycott sparked by Madonna’s “Like a Prayer” music video, “crypto-religious” artists pushed back against the spirit of the age, venturing into vexed areas where politicians and clergy were loath to go. Elie traces the beginning of our age of postsecularism, in which religion is both surging and in decline. And he presents an outlook — open to belief but wary of it — that those artists and Americans today have in common.
This program is part of the AWM’s American Prophets: Writers, Religion, and Culture exhibit and programming series, which examines the relationship between American writers and religion. American Prophets opens November 2025 and is supported by a grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. through its Religion and Cultural Institutions Initiative.
This program is presented in partnership with the Chicago Humanities Festival.
About the author:
PAUL ELIE is the author of The Life You Save May Be Your Own (2003) and Reinventing Bach (2012), both National Book Critics Circle Award finalists. He is a senior fellow in Georgetown University’s Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs, and a regular contributor to The New Yorker. He lives in Brooklyn.