He is the C. Allyn and Elizabeth V. Russell Professor Emeritus of Religion in America at Boston University[1] and the author or editor of eleven books on religion in the United States, including the New York Times bestseller Religious Literacy.

He has commented on religion on dozens[citation needed] of National Public Radio programs and on television on CNN, NBC, CBS, Fox, PBS, MSNBC, The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, and The Colbert Report.

[2] He was the chief editorial consultant for the six-hour WGBH television series God in America[3] and he served as a consultant on American religious history at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.

His books have been translated into Dutch, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, and Ukrainian.

[5] He delivered the William Belden Noble Lectures at Harvard University on November 18–20, 2008, on the topic: “The Work of Doing Nothing: Wandering as Practice and Play.