Diana Butler Bass, Ph.D., is an award-winning author, popular speaker, inspiring
preacher, and one of America’s most trusted commentators on religion and
contemporary spirituality.
Diana’s passion is sharing great ideas to change lives and the world—a passion that
ranges from informing the public about spiritual trends, challenging conventional
narratives about religious practice, entering the fray of social media with spiritual
wisdom and smart theology, and writing books to help readers see themselves, their
place in history, and God differently. She does this with intelligence, joy, and a good
dose of humor, leading well-known comedian John Fugelsang to dub her “iconic,” the
late Marcus Borg to call her “spontaneous and always surprising,” and Glennon Doyle to
praise her “razor-sharp mind” and “mystical heart.”
She holds a doctorate in religious studies from Duke University and is the author of
eleven books. Her bylines include The New York Times, the Washington Post,
CNN.com, Atlantic.com, USA Today, Huffington Post, Spirituality and Health, Reader’s
Digest, Christian Century, and Sojourners. She has commented on religion, politics, and
culture in the media widely including on CBS, CNN, PBS, NPR, CBC, FOX, Sirius XM,
TIME, Newsweek, Rolling Stone, and in multiple global news outlets. In the 1990s, she
wrote a weekly column on religion and culture for the Santa Barbara News-Press, which
was distributed nationally by the New York Times Syndicate.
Her work has received two Wilbur Awards for Best Nonfiction Book of the Year, awards
from Religion News Association for individual commentary and for Book of the Year,
Nautilus Awards Silver and Gold medals, the Illumination Book Award Silver medal,
Books for a Better Life Award, Book of the Year of the Academy of Parish Clergy, the
Frank S. and Elizabeth D. Brewer Prize for Church History, Substack Fellowship for
Independent Writers, and Publishers Weekly’s Best Religion Book of the Year.
She and her husband live in Alexandria, Virginia, with their dog and their
sometimes-successful backyard garden