#  Enlightenment Here: Steven Pinker's Myth of a Secular Harvard 

 





March 29, 2018

 

 

Notre Dame.

 ![CSWR](/sites/g/files/omnuum2606/files/francisclooney/files/6051.jpg)

 

I am enjoying a productive semester's sabbatical at the University of Notre Dame, at its wonderful [Institute for Advanced Study](https://ndias.nd.edu/). But for over a decade I have been a professor at Harvard University, in the Divinity School. As such, I could hardly ignore the new book by my Harvard colleague, Steven Pinker, *Enlightenment Now*, in particular regarding the repetition there of Professor Pinker's insistent critique of religion, and determination to exclude it from the university. I was going to publish my critique here, but *Commonweal* magazine was kind enough to agree to publish my piece, and you can read it [there](https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/enlightenment-here).

Note: I rarely argue with my Harvard colleagues, particularly from outside the Divinity School. But in 2016, writing for *Common Knowledge*, I did challenge Professor E. O. Wilson - certainly not for his brilliant work in entymology - but for stray and unnecessary comments on religion in *The Meaning of Human Existence*. You can read my review, which also looks into David Bentley Hart's very fine *The Experience of God*, [here](https://muse.jhu.edu/article/605216).