An American nun crosses her hands in front of her Rosary Beads as she attends the 2008 World Youth Day celebrations in Australia. (AP)

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In recent decades, the number of Catholic nuns in the United States has fallen dramatically, but their perspectives on spirituality, calling, and the Roman Catholic Church have broadened dramatically.

Many have left convent and habit — and some, Church teaching — far behind, to live more deeply in the world.

Now, the Vatican is investigating whether American nuns have strayed too far — whether they are “living in fidelity” to the religious life as prescribed by Rome. Some sisters are pushing back, charging inquisition.

This hour, On Point: What’s going on with America’s Catholic nuns.

You can join the conversation. Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, and on Facebook.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Joining us from New York is Laurie Goodstein, national religion correspondent for The New York Times. She’s covered American Catholic life for more than a decade. Her recent article, “U.S. Nuns Facing Vatican Scrutiny,” has stirred up some debate.

From Berkeley, Calif., we’re joined by Sister Sandra Schneiders, professor emerita of New Testament studies and spirituality at The Jesuit Theology School at Berkeley. She is a member of Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, an order in Monroe, Michigan. She has expressed concern publicly over the Vatican’s inquiry into American nuns, but makes clear that she’s speaking for herself, not her order or theology school.

From Pittsburgh, we’re joined by Sister Mary Traupman, a practicing attorney a member of Sisters of Divine Providence, an order in Allison Park, Pennsylvania. In her legal work she helps senior citizens with issues from guardianship to social security. She has also worked as a teacher and as a health care administrator.

And from Gallup, New Mexico, we’re joined by Mother Mary Quentin Sheridan, Superior General of The Religious Sisters of Mercy of Alma, Michigan. She is also a founder and current president of the Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious, which supports more traditional roles for women in Catholic religious orders.

Here’s an excerpt from their thought-provoking exchange, beginning with Jim Wallis:

Wallis, who is morally opposed to abortion but does not believe it should be criminalized, has been advising the Obama administration. Ragsdale, who has called abortion a “blessing,” has been pushing back hard since the killing of Kansas abortion provider Dr. George Tiller and giving a full-throated defense of abortion rights.

What do you think? You can listen to the full show and join the conversation in the comments section.

A memorial of flowers outside the Women's Health Care Clinic in Wichita, Kan., on June 1, 2009. The clinic was owned by Dr. George Tiller, who was gunned down during church services the day before. (AP)

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Ten days ago, abortion provider Dr. George Tiller was shot dead in the foyer of his Wichita, Kansas church.

Yesterday, Tiller’s clinic in Wichita was closed, after years of threats and attacks — and now murder.

Abortion opposition has spoken with gunfire. Today, we’ll hear from a prominent defender. Episcopal priest Katherine Ragsdale has called abortion a “blessing.” She says there’s been too much compromise with opponents, too little straight-up defense.

This hour, On Point: In the face of gunfire, a full-throated defense of a woman’s right to choose abortion.

You can join the conversation. Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, and on Facebook.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

The Reverend Katherine Ragsdale joins us in our studio. She is the incoming dean and president of Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and outgoing executive director of Political Research Associates, which tracks right-wing political movements. She’s a board member of NARAL Pro-Choice America and a former chair of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice. She has been Vicar of St. David’s Episcopal Church in Pepperell, Mass., since 1996.

You can read her remarks on abortion as a “blessing,” in a speech in Birmingham, Alabama, in July 2007.

Joining us from Washington is Jim Wallis, founder and editor of Sojourners, a progressive evangelical Christian magazine and faith community. An influential voice on religion and politics in America, he’s the author of several books, including “The Great Awakening: Seven Ways to Change the World” and “God’s Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn’t Get It.” (Listen to his previous interview with On Point in January 2005.)

More links:

The Boston Globe profiled Rev. Ragsdale, with a look at her involvement in national political issues, this past March.  Last week The Boston Phoenix ran this longer consideration of her thinking on abortion.

In a lenthy interview with Christianity Today last year, Jim Wallis explained his thinking on abortion, gay marriage, and other issues.

President Barack Obama is hooded as he receives an Honorary Doctorate Degree in Laws during commencement ceremonies at the University of Notre Dame on Sunday, May 17, 2009. At left is University Registrar Harold Pace and on the right is Chairman of the Board of Trustrees Richard C. Notebaert. (AP)

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For weeks there was fury over Notre Dame’s decision to invite President Barack Obama to address its 2009 graduation, and to give the famously pro-choice president an honorary degree.

One bishop called that “truly obscene.” Scores formally objected.

Yesterday, before the gathered thousands of graduates and family in South Bend, the president sought to calm the waters on abortion. Some heckled with shouts of “baby killer.” More cheered with Obama’s cry of “Yes, we can.” The president called for open hearts, open minds.

This hour, On Point: Catholics, abortion, and Obama at Notre Dame.

You can join the conversation. Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, and on Facebook.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Joining us from South Bend, Indiana, is Scott Appleby, professor of history and director of the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame. He attended the commencement ceremony yesterday. 

Read the transcript of President Obama’s speech at Notre Dame.

From Washington we’re joined by E.J. Dionne, columnist at The Washington Post and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. His latest book is “Souled Out: Reclaiming Faith and Politics after the Religious Right.”  In his Post column today, Dionne calls President Obama’s Notre Dame address “both the most radical and the most conservative speech of his presidency.”

Also from Washington, we’re joined by Helen Alvare, professor of law at George Mason University and nationally-recognized speaker on pro-life issues. She is a member of Pope Benedict XVI’s Pontifical Council for the Laity, former attorney for the National Council of Catholic Bishops, and a senior fellow at the Culture of Life Foundation.

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Award-winning journalist William Lobdell grew up an indifferent Episcopalian. Drifted from faith. By age 28, his life was a mess. He couldn’t stand the person he’d become. A friend told him, “You need God.”

Lobdell found Jesus. Felt his heart split wide open. Was born again, to the tune of Amazing Grace. Was saved.

And then, over fifteen years, it all fell apart. Now, Lobdell puts himself in the ranks of American atheists. And he’s telling the wrenching story of his journey into and out of faith.

This hour, On Point: William Lobdell and his new book, “Losing My Religion.”

You can join the conversation. Have you found religion? Lost it? Why? Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, and on Facebook.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guest:

William Lobdell joins us from Culver City, California.  He covered religion for the Los Angeles Times for eight years, first as a columnist, then as beat reporter. His new book is “Losing My Religion: How I Lost my Faith Reporting on Religion in America – And Found Unexpected Peace.” Christianity Today chairman John Huffman calls it a “must read filled with warnings and wake-up calls” for the faithful.

You can read excerpts from “Losing My Religion” at his website. You can also browse excerpts at HarperCollins.com.

Jay O. Sanders, left, as Galileo and Edward Hermann as Pope Urban VIII in the Huntington Theater Company's production of Richard Goodwin's play "Two Men of Florence." (Courtesy Huntington Theater Company)

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Four hundred years ago this year, the great Italian physicist and astronomer Galileo Galilei first picked up the telescope. And, of course, turned it on the heavens.

What he saw there, and all around him, put him on a collision course with the Church. Before that epic clash of faith and science was over, Galileo had tangled with a pope — and lost.

Science marched on. So did the fight. It’s still in the headlines. And now, on stage, in a dramatic recreation of the clash by former JFK speechwriter Richard Goodwin.

This hour, On Point: Faith and science, Galileo and the pope, tangle again.

You can join the conversation. With stem cells, global warming, and all the rest, is the battle between faith and reason really over? Is it ever over? Can, should, one side win?

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

With us in our studio today are:

Richard Goodwin, author, speechwriter and playwright. He was adviser and speechwriter to JFK, LBJ, and Robert Kennedy. His play, just opened in Boston’s Huntington theater, is “Two Men of Florence.”

Jay O. Sanders plays Galileo Galilei in the Huntington production of “Two Men of Florence.”  He has a long list of stage, film and TV credits to his name: “Revolutionary Road,” “Cadillac Records,” “Glory,” “Law & Order,” and much more.

Edward Hermann plays Cardinal Maffeo Barberini, who goes on, in the play, as in history, to become Pope Urban VIII, Galileo’s inquisitor. A Tony Award winner, in his long film and TV career he has starred in “Reds,” “Annie,” “The Purple Rose of Cairo,” “Law & Order,” and “M*A*S*H.”

Watch a trailer for “Two Men of Florence” and a mini-documentary about the Huntington Theater production:

Image A for the afterlife, if we’ve got one at all, is pretty sketchy. Harps, clouds, angels, pearly gates. Fire and brimstone.

Maybe you picture something else. Strawberry fields. Bliss. Nothingness. Reincarnation.

Neuroscientist David Eagleman has a hobby of imagining afterlives. He’s pictured scores. Really thought them through. Now he’s put forty in a new book. Forty ways of thinking about the afterlife, if there is one.

God is he. God is she. God is they. God is gone. You’re young in heaven. You’re old. You’re a microbe.

This hour, On Point: Imagining the afterlife.

You can join the conversation. How do you picture it? Something? Nothing? Heavenly choirs?

-Tom Ashbrook

Guest:

David Eagleman, neuroscientist at Houston’s Baylor College of Medicine and author of the new book “Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives.” 

You can read four stories from “Sum” on the book’s website. And here are short summaries of all 40 stories.

Supporters of Barack Obama at Grant Park in Chicago on election night, Nov. 4, 2008. (AP)

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While there’s life, there’s hope, said Cicero millennia ago. And it’s no less true today.

Yes, baby, it’s cold outside. There’s economic meltdown, and war, and every week some fresh news of global warming. But there’s also hope — and its good, tough sisters determination, smarts, and hard work.

Rush Limbaugh mocks hope. Calls it a sentiment for fools. Barack Obama made it his campaign theme. Americans voted. But what is hope? And how does it work — even now?

This hour, On Point: Theologian Martin Marty and physician Jerome Groopman on hope.

You can join the conversation. Are you feeling hope? Where does it come from? Faith in God? Faith in your fellow men and women?  Do you believe in the power of hope? Is it vital? Can we live without it?

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Martin Marty, professor emeritus at the University of Chicago Divinity School, where he taught for 35 years. He has been a pastor in the Lutheran Church since 1952, and he is the author of many books, including “Our Hope for Years to Come: The Search for Spiritual Sanctuary” and “The One and the Many: America’s Struggle for the Common Good.”

Jerome Groopman, M.D., professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and chief of experimental medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. He writes about medicine and biology for The New Yorker and other publications, and is author of several books, including “The Anatomy of Hope: How People Prevail in the Face of Illness.”

Click here to listen to the rebroadcast show

“I think, therefore I am,” said the great mathematician and philosopher Rene Descartes. And the world has never been the same.

Putting thought at the center of existence meant no more automatic acceptance of the word of kings or the divine. It meant scientific method, secular culture, modern life. And centuries of struggle between the champions of faith and reason. A struggle that is hot again today.

A new intellectual detective story tracks not just the ideas of Descartes but his actual bones through the philosophical battlefield and today’s headlines.

This hour, On Point: Faith, reason and Descartes’ bones.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guest:

Joining us from Atlanta is Russell Shorto. He’s a contributing writer for The New York Times Magazine and bestselling author the 2004 book “The Island at the Center of the World,” about Dutch Manhattan. His new book is, “Descartes’ Bones: A Skeletal History of the Conflict Between Faith and Reason.”

You can read an excerpt from the book.

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“The best,” wrote the Irish poet Yeats, “lack all conviction, while the worst / Are full of passionate intensity.”

Philosopher Susan Neiman says the world may be a confusing place, full of clashing values, beliefs and interests, but there is still such a thing as moral clarity. The Bible’s Abraham had it, she says. The ancient wanderer Odysseus had it. Politicians on the left and the right in Washington, Tel Aviv, and Tehran claim to have it.

But a lot of liberals, she says, have lost it — or at least lost its vocabulary, concepts and conviction. Time for everyone to bone up, she says.

Neiman looks out on American politics and the “culture wars” and says everyone in this country could use a little moral clarity these days. The left, she says, has grown far too wary of the very ideas of good and evil, heroism, nobility, dignity. The right, she argues, has adopted a kind of fundamentalism that takes human reason out of moral conversation.

This hour, On Point: One philosopher’s take on politics, morality and values — with an eye on the November election.

You can join the conversation. Have you got it? Moral clarity? Do Republicans? Do Democrats? What do you turn to for a clear-eyed view of the good?

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Susan Neiman, a professor of philosophy and director of the Einstein Forum in Potsdam, Germany. She is the author of “Moral Clarity: A Guide for Grown-Up Idealists.” You can read the book’s introduction at Neiman’s website.

Jack Beatty, On Point news analyst and senior editor at The Atlantic Monthly.

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Kerry Kennedy grew up, morning and night, on her knees – praying in the Roman Catholic tradition. Seventh of eleven children, daughter of Bobby Kennedy, niece of JFK – in the heart of the most famous Catholic family in America.

Catholicism, she says, is central to her understanding of God, humanity, her heritage, her family. And yet, as an adult, the Church confronted her with messages she found anathema to her values.

Now she’s talking, and talking to other Catholics – Bill Maher, Nancy Pelosi, Bill O’Reilly and more.

This hour, On Point: Kerry Kennedy on being Catholic now.

What does Catholicism stand for today? Catholics, where has your spiritual journey taken you? Tell us what you think.

- Tom Ashbrook

Guest:

Kerry Kennedy, author of “Being Catholic Now: Prominent Americans Talk About Change in the Church and the Quest for Meaning.”

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Forty years ago, on the backroads and high roads of the plains and mountain West, Robert Pirsig and his young son set out on a journey that became a quest and meditation.

But a meditation from the roaring seat of a motorcycle.

The journey and the search became a huge bestselling book: “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.” A generation — and in the years since, much more — flocked to its message of peace and enlightenment within the wild clatter of technology. Of the Buddha in the gearbox.

This hour, On Point: On the road, again. Retracing the journey of “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.”

You can join the conversation. Did you read it way back then? Ten years ago? Yesterday? Did it change your life? What’s the appeal of “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance”? What’s the message you took away? Share your thoughts.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Joining us from Denver is “Pirsig Pilgrim” Mark Richardson. He is a writer at the Toronto Star and author of the new book “Zen and Now: On the Trail of Robert Pirsig and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.” You can browse inside the book here.

Also joining us from Denver is Ron DiSanto. He’s a professor of philosophy at Regis University and co-author, with Father Thomas Steele, of a study of Pirsig’s philosophy titled “Guidebook to Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.” You can browse inside it here.

More links:

The site robertpirsig.org is a good resource on Robert Pirsig’s philosophy, including this 2005 essay by Pirsig on what he called his Metaphysics of Quality (MOQ).

Here’s a short video trailer for a new DVD series on Pirsig and his philosophy, featuring Pirsig himself:

“He does not speak for me,” says Barack Obama, of his former Chicago pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright. But Jeremiah Wright keeps speaking anyway.

After weeks of lying low, in the past week Rev. Wright has been all over: with Bill Moyers Friday night, preaching in Dallas and speaking before the NAACP on Sunday, taking questions at the National Press Club in Washington yesterday.

Wright says he is defending the black church. Critics say he’s undercutting the campaign of the first black American with a real shot at the White House.

This hour, On Point: listening to Rev. Wright.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Peter Nicholas, a reporter for the Los Angeles Times, he covered Jeremiah Wright’s appearance at the National Press Club.

Jonathan Walton, an ordained minister, professor of religious studies at the University of California at Riverside, and author of the forthcoming book “Watch This! Televangelism and Black Popular Culture.”

Bill Leonard, dean of the Divinity School and professor of church history at Wake Forest University.

Next week Pope Benedict makes his first papal visit to the United States. He won’t come wagging his finger at a country in moral decline, as some may expect. We’re told he will come with a gentle message, eager to share his church’s values of honesty and love of faith.

But the big question is how he will treat the country’s and the Church’s wounds. Will he address the sexual abuse crisis? Will he encourage a nation at war to make peace? Will he inspire a new generation to believe?

This hour, On Point: the meaning and message behind Pope Benedict’s upcoming tour.

-Jane Clayson

Guests:

David Van Biema, chief religion writer at Time magazine, he wrote the cover story “The American Pope” in the latest issue.

Father Richard Neuhaus, Catholic priest and editor-in-chief of First Things, a monthly journal of religion, culture and public life.

Scott Appleby, professor of history at the University of Notre Dame, director of the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, and author of “The Ambivalence of the Sacred: Religion, Violence and Reconciliation.”

In our post-9/11 world, religion is often seen as one of the most divisive forces. And for good reason. Religious extremism drives conflicts from Afghanistan to Iraq, fuels terrorism from Europe to Sri Lanka, and makes enemies of Israelis and Arabs.

And yet, says scholar Alan Wolfe, the world is not headed for a new era of religious wars. Quite the opposite. Around the world, he points to a decline in religious extremism as societies modernize and become more secular.

This hour, On Point: religion, secularization, and the coming era of religious peace.

-Jane Clayson

Guests:

Alan Wolfe, professor of political science and founding director of the Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life at Boston College, he is the author of many books, including “The Transformation of American Religion.” His article on “the coming religious peace” appears in the March issue of The Atlantic.

Martin Marty, professor emeritus of religion at the University of Chicago, and a Lutheran pastor, he is the author of more than 50 books, most recently “The Christian World: A Global History.”

Daniel Philpott, associate professor of political science and a faculty fellow of the Joan B. Kroc Institute of International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame, he studies the role of religion in global politics.

Sister Olga Yaqob was born and raised in Iraq. She came of age in the terrible years of Saddam Hussein’s rule and hard Western sanctions. She worked with the poor and wretched in the streets of Baghdad and in Abu Ghraib prison long before American troops took the Iraqi capital.

For the last half dozen years, she’s been on the outside looking in as Iraq descended into chaos and insurgency. Now this tiny Iraqi nun has gone back to Iraq, to bring comfort and bear witness and tell the world what’s unfolding there.

This hour, On Point: a nun’s tale. Iraq from the inside, with Sister Olga of the Eucharist.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guest:

Sister Olga Yaqob, a diocese hermit in the Roman Catholic Church and a campus minister at the Boston University Catholic Center.

There was a time in the 1970s when you could not pass a telephone pole or bulletin board on an American college campus without seeing a flier with the long, flowing hair and beard of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the guru who brought transcendental meditation to the West.

When the Beatles trekked to his ashram in India to study, his movement was the exotic realm of superstars. This week, the Maharishi died, in his 90s, and Eastern spirituality, meditation buzzwords, and yoga studios are all over the American landscape.

This hour, On Point: the path from the Maharishi to Yoga Nation.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Mark Juergensmeyer, professor of sociology and religious studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and director of its Center for Global and International Studies.

Geoff Gilpin, author of “The Maharishi Effect” (2006), a personal account of his involvement in the Transcendental Meditation movement in the 1960s.

Pandit Rajmani Tigunait, spiritual head of the Himalayan Institute, one of the most prominent centers in the U.S. for the study of yoga, meditation, spirituality, and holistic health. He is a contributor to Yoga + Joyful Living magazine.

“Faith doesn’t just influence me,” Mike Huckabee told evangelicals last week. “It defines me.” And then he lost in South Carolina to John McCain.

In Nevada, labor lined up for Barack Obama, then Clinton took the vote. And Latinos carved their own way over political and color lines.

These are big players, speaking for the first time in the weekend’s big votes.

This hour, On Point: voices of Christian conservatism, labor and the Latino West, and their choices in campaign ‘08.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Earl Black, professor of political science at Rice University and co-author of “The Rise of Southern Republicans” and the new book, “Divided America: The Ferocious Power Struggle in American Politics.”

Oran Smith, president of the Palmetto Family Council, the South Carolina affiliate of Focus on the Family.

Anjeanette Damon, chief political reporter for the Reno Gazette Journal, she writes the blog “Inside Nevada Politics.”

Hilary Haycock, spokesperson of the Service Employees International Union, which represents 17,500 health care and public service employees across Nevada.

Mo Denis, second term assemblyman representing Nevada’s 28th District, in northeast Las Vegas, the largest Hispanic assembly district in the state, representing roughly 60,000 people.

It sounds like a culture-war set piece: Hollywood rolls out a religious-themed Christmas blockbuster and conservative believers go ballistic. That was the story this weekend with the release of “The Golden Compass.”

Based on the wildly popular fantasy novels by British author Philip Pullman, a famously outspoken atheist, the film casts God and the Church as evildoers. Or does it?

Some have called for a boycott of the film. But Pullman fans say the movie lacks the deeper spiritual meaning of the books.

This hour, On Point: the storm surrounding “The Golden Compass.”

-Jane Clayson

Guests:

Stephen Prothero, chair of the religion department at Boston University and author of “Religious Literacy: What Americans Need to Know.”

Hanna Rosin, contributing editor to The Atlantic Monthly and author of “God’s Harvard: A Christian College on a Mission to Save the Nation.”

Father James Martin, Catholic priest, associate editor of America: The National Catholic Weekly, and author of “My Life With the Saints.”