It was an all or nothing attitude. He grew more interested in the intersection between faith and film and literature and how religion affects people. After all, he noted, even atheists have rituals and are affected by religion and seek meaning. Authors like Walker Percy, who converted to Catholicism, or Flannery O'Connor, their entire aesthetic in their novels is deeply shaped by their experience of being Catholic. I'm interested in the way religiosity shapes aesthetics and world views.
Religion can be a pretty decent lens through which to view art.
And one's neighbors. At Emory I've been given a sense that religion is a very dynamic factor in people's lives and really enriches the way people live. And any understanding of people will only be helped by an attempt to understand their religion as much as we can. I study religion as a living thing and it's very easy to see the ways in which my own tradition is very much a living thing that needs to be treated with the respect that's due to living things. If religion has been the fuel of his fire, then comedy has provided sparks preventing burnout.