Skip to main content
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
Arts & Culture
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • University Statements
  • Syracuse University Impact
  • |
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
Sections
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • University Statements
  • Syracuse University Impact
  • |
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
Arts & Culture

Harvard humanist chaplain to speak at SU March 29

Friday, March 26, 2010, By Rob Enslin
Share
College of Arts and Sciencesspeakers

Greg Epstein, Harvard University’s humanist chaplain and author of The New York Times best-seller “Good Without God: What a Billion Nonreligious People Do Believe” (HarperCollins, 2009), will speak at Syracuse University on Monday, March 29, at 12:45 p.m. in Joyce Hergenhan Auditorium in Newhouse 3. His lecture, “Being Good Without God: Humanists and the Media,” is free and open to the public, and is sponsored by the Religion and Society Program in SU’s College of Arts and Sciences.

For more information, call program director Gustav Niebuhr at (315) 443-5723.

“What’s important about Greg Epstein is that he offers a new defense of humanism, an argument that is different and considerably more nuanced than the attacks on religion by leading atheists,” says Niebuhr, associate professor of newspaper and online journalism in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. “Epstein tells us about the many different ways that people can find purpose in life and compassion for others without holding a belief in God.”

About 15 percent of Americans—nearly 40 million people—classify themselves as religiously unaffiliated.

Epstein sits on the executive committee of the 36-member corps of Harvard chaplains. In 2005, he was ordained as a humanist rabbi by the International Institute for Secular Humanistic Judaism. The former rock musician holds a B.A. in religion and Chinese and an M.A. in Judaic studies from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in addition to a master’s degree in theological studies from Harvard Divinity School.
In addition to publishing The New Humanism, Epstein blogs for Newsweek magazine and The Washington Post. He and his work have appeared on/in dozens of international outlets, including ABC-TV, National Public Radio, BBC Radio, USA Today, U.S. News & World Report and Al Jazeera.

Religion and Society is an interdisciplinary program that provides the opportunity to study the pervasive role of religion in contemporary society, especially in U.S. politics, international relations, economic development and popular culture—and in most facets of social change broadly conceived.

  • Author

Rob Enslin

  • Recent
  • Student Veteran Anthony Ruscitto Honored as a Tillman Scholar
    Friday, July 18, 2025, By John Boccacino
  • Bandier Students Explore Latin America’s Music Industry
    Thursday, July 17, 2025, By Keith Kobland
  • Architecture Students’ Project Selected for Royal Academy Exhibition
    Thursday, July 17, 2025, By Julie Sharkey
  • NSF I-Corps Semiconductor and Microelectronics Free Virtual Course Being Offered
    Wednesday, July 16, 2025, By Cristina Hatem
  • Jianshun ‘Jensen’ Zhang Named Interim Department Chair of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
    Wednesday, July 16, 2025, By Emma Ertinger

More In Arts & Culture

Architecture Students’ Project Selected for Royal Academy Exhibition

In a prestigious international honor, a project by three students from the School of Architecture has been selected for inclusion in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2025, currently on view in London. The work, titled “Evolving an Urban Ecology,” was…

Vintage Over Digital: Alumnus Dan Cohen’s Voyager CD Bag Merges Music and Fashion

Bucking the trend of streaming music platforms and contrary to what one might expect of a member of his generation, musician Dan Cohen ’25 prefers listening to his favorite artists on compact disc (CD) and record players. His research and…

VPA Announces New Drama Department Chair

The College of Visual and Performing Arts (VPA) has appointed Eleanor Holdridge as the new chair of the Department of Drama effective July 1. Holdridge comes to Syracuse University from the Catholic University of America, where she served as professor…

Swinging Into Summer: Syracuse International Jazz Fest Returns With Star Power, Student Talent and a Soulful Campus Finale

Get ready for the sweet summer sounds of jazz in the city and on campus. The University is again a sponsor of the Syracuse International Jazz Fest, a five-day celebration of world-class jazz music and community spirit, taking place June…

Tiffany Xu Named Harry der Boghosian Fellow for 2025-26

The School of Architecture has announced that architect Tiffany Xu is the Harry der Boghosian Fellow for 2025–26. Xu will succeed current fellow, Erin Cuevas, and become the tenth fellow at the school. The Boghosian Fellowship at the School of…

Subscribe to SU Today

If you need help with your subscription, contact sunews@syr.edu.

Connect With Us

  • X
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
Social Media Directory

For the Media

Find an Expert Follow @SyracuseUNews
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
  • @SyracuseU
  • @SyracuseUNews
  • Social Media Directory
  • Accessibility
  • Privacy
  • Campus Status
  • Syracuse.edu
© 2025 Syracuse University News. All Rights Reserved.