Best Selling Author Robert Putnam coming to Baton Rouge | Business

On Sunday, April 22 at 3 p.m., Robert D. Putnam, Malkin Professor of Public Policy at Harvard University and author of  the 2000 best-seller, Bowling Alone, will speak about his most recent book, American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us. The presentation will be held in the Conference Center at First United Methodist Church, 930 North Blvd., in Baton Rouge.

Unique among nations, the United States is deeply religious, religiously diverse, and remarkably tolerant. But in recent decades, the nation’s religious landscape has been reshaped. Based on two of the most comprehensive surveys ever conducted on religion in the U.S., the book also includes a dozen in-depth profiles of diverse congregations across the country. Nearly every chapter of American Grace contains a surprise about American religious life.

American Grace won the Wilson Award as the "best book published in the U.S. during 2010 on government, politics, or international affairs." It promises to be the most important book in decades on religion in America, and an essential tool for understanding our nation today.

Putnam’s presentation is free and open to the public, with a freewill offering to Volunteers in Public Schools. Please register that you are coming at www.firstmethodist.org or e-mail fumcinfo@firstmethodist.org. You may also call (225) 383-4777, ext. 210, to register.