An Imaginary of Infinite Possibility: David Dark

Author and educator David Dark returns to Things Not Seen to discuss the reframed and expanded edition of his book, Life's Too Short to Pretend You're Not Religious.

With the same keen powers of cultural observation, candor, and wit his readers have come to know and love, Dark weaves in current themes around the pandemic and vaccine responses, Black Lives Matter, the #MeToo and #ChurchToo movements, Critical Race Theory, and more. By looking intentionally at our weird religious background (we all have one), he helps us acknowledge the content of our everyday existence--the good, the bad, and the glaringly inconsistent. When we make peace with the idea of being religious, we can more practically envision an undivided life.

David Dark is an American writer and public intellectual. A frequent speaker and podcast guest, he is the author of several books, including The Sacredness of Questioning Everything; Everyday Apocalypse: The Sacred Revealed in Radiohead, The Simpsons, and Other Pop Culture Icons; and The Possibility of America. His writing has appeared in Pitchfork, Paste, America magazine, The Christian Century, and Religion News Service. Dark teaches in incarcerated communities and at Belmont University. He lives in Nashville, Tennessee, with his wife, singer-songwriter Sarah Masen.