Is faith the fuel that drives life in America?

John Wigger, a noted scholar of religion who holds a degree in petroleum engineering from West Virginia University thinks so, and hes coming back to his alma mater this month to talk about it.

Wigger is this years Manfred Meitzen Distinguished Lecturer in Religion Studies, and hell discussThe Persistence of Religion in American Lifeat 4 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 29, in Room 126 of Oglebay Hall. The event is sponsored by the Department of Religious Studies in the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences.

After earning his bachelors degree from WVU s College of Engineering, Wigger, a Morgantown native, went on to Fuller Theological Seminary for a masters degree. He also earned graduate and doctoral degrees from the University of Notre Dame.

His research interests center around the social and religious history of late-Colonial America and Americas early republic.

Wigger is the author ofTaking Heaven by Storm: Methodism and the Rise of Popular Christianity in America, 1770-1820and co-editor ofMethodism and the Shaping of American Culture.He is currently at work on a book about Francis Asbury, the first bishop of the American Methodist Church.

The lectureship is named in honor of Meitzen, a longtime WVU professor and religious studies chair who died 10 years ago.

For more information, contact Jane Donovan, lecturer in religious studies, at jane.donovan@mail.wvu.edu or 304-293-4611.