Silk was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on May 12, 1950, and graduated from Harvard College in 1972, magna cum laude.
He was editor of the Boston Review from 1985 to 1986, and worked as a reporter, editorial writer, and columnist for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
[1] With Andrew Walsh he wrote the series summary volume, One Nation Divisible: How Regional Religious Differences Shape American Politics, published in hardcover in 2008.
In the 1980s and 1990s Silk was a regular contributor to the New York Times, contributing essays and book reviews on feminist theology,[4] new religious movements,[5] Jewish identity, and other religion-related topics.
[8] In 2005, he traced the history of the idea of civil religion through changing views of the figure of Numa Pompilius, the second king of Rome.