This is thinking in public, a program dedicated to intelligent conversation about

frontline theological and cultural issues with the people who are shaping them.

I'm Albert Mueller, your host and president of the

Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. Mary Eberstadt is a senior

fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. She's also been a research fellow at

Hoover Institution and was

executive editor of the National Interest magazine. She was a member of the

Policy Planning Staff, the United States State Department, a speechwriter for

Secretary of State George P. Schultz Schultz and a special assistant to Ambassador

Jean J. Kirkpatrick at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations.

A four-year Telluride scholar at Cornell University, she graduated Magna Cum Laude. She has written widely for magazines and newspapers

among them first things, Policy Review, The Weekly Standard, The Wall Street Journal, and

commentary. Her latest book and the catalyst for our conversation today for thinking in public is

how the West really lost God a new theory of secularization published by

Templeton Press. Mary Everstadt, welcome to thinking in public.

Thank you very much Dr. Moly. Thank you for having Everstat, welcome to thinking in public.

Thank you very much, Dr. Moly.

Thank you for having me.

I'll just tell you at the onset, I think your book is really important and extremely timely.

And we've talked about some of these things and patterns and ideas before but I want

to say how much I appreciate the fact that now in book length you're making an argument that

on the one hand should have been made some time ago but on the other hand could only

...