No registration required.

Dinner provided.

The event is sponsored by the USC Interfaith Council, USC Office of Religious & Spiritual Life, USC Sidney Harman Academy for Polymathic Study, and the USC Center for the Political Future. 

Digital Religion and Emerging Spirituality:  New Spaces for Meaning Making, Community Exploration, and Political Participation.

Technology is essential to the ways we live out as a human community and meaning-making. In the digital age, we are finding new ways to express, practice, and explore spiritual and religious identities through expanding ways to connect with others with whom we share values, interests, and a disposition toward curiosity. We are also finding new ways to be politically active in digital communities, fostering dialogue, collaboration, and activism while also navigating currents of conflicts, controversies, and misinformation. This lecture will examine some of the current trends and topics in digital religion, emerging spiritualities, and their connection to democratic participation in youth and young adults.

Dr. Elías Ortega is committed to building organizational systems in which people, especially those underrepresented in our society, can thrive. He uses the lenses of religious ethics, spirituality, and theological reflection to foster change in higher education, non-profit organizations, and religious institutions. Currently, the president of Meadville Lombard Theological School in Chicago and Professor of Religion, Ethics, and Leadership, Dr. Ortega, led cultural and institutional changes at the Unitarian Universalist Association through a three-year assessment of the barriers that maintain racial exclusion practices and inequality in the organization that resulted in recommendations for equitable practices and policies. He has also provided strategic planning and program support to community organizations, including the New Jersey Parent Caucus, a mental health and juvenile justice advocacy group, the Sila Maria Calderon Foundation, and the Drew Freedom School Initiative, a social justice program that provides non-violence resistance and community organizing.

Dr. Ortega’s work in change management is grounded in his teaching and research in Religious Ethics, Africana Studies, Latinx Cultural Studies, and Social Movements. He received his Ph.D. and M.Div from Princeton Theological Seminary. He also holds a B.A. in Communications Arts & Sciences and Philosophy and Religion from Calvin College.