Humanist Chaplain Walker Bristol will speak on “Humanism and Atheism Today: New and Old Ways of Making Meaning in a Changing World” at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 18, in Hopwood Auditorium at the University of Lynchburg. The free event is sponsored by the University’s Spiritual Life Center.
“I’m very excited to connect with members of the Lynchburg community and learn more about what spiritual life looks like for young people there,” said Bristol, who serves both Tufts University and a local hospital.
Bristol’s talk will draw on their experience working with nonreligious people in both contexts.
“Younger generations — Millennials and Gen Z — are increasingly disinterested in getting involved with religion, yet they’re still very interested in finding meaning in the world, forming communities, and organizing around principles of justice,” Bristol said.
“I’ll speak about my experience working with young nonreligious people and learning about the new ways they are coming together and creating meaning in our world, often across lines of difference that previously would have divided them, especially in this historical moment.”
A graduate of Harvard Divinity School, Bristol has written for Huffington Post Religion, The Humanist magazine, and the interfaith engagement blog NonProphet Status. They joined Tufts University’s chaplaincy as humanist-in-residence in 2014. In 2018, that role was expanded to humanist chaplain.
Bristol directs the Tufts Humanist Chaplaincy and curates programming for Tufts’ atheist, agnostic, secular humanist, and otherwise non-religious community members. Bristol also coordinates chaplaincy resources at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine in Grafton and is currently serving as a confidential resource for the Tufts Center for Awareness, Education, and Resources.
Born and raised in southeastern North Carolina, Bristol graduated from Tufts in 2014 with a bachelor’s degree in religion and philosophy before receiving a Master of Divinity from Harvard Divinity School in 2018. Bristol was fully endorsed as a humanist chaplain by the American Humanist Association in January 2017.
For more information about this event, email spirituallife@lynchburg.edu.