Lesley Hazleton

Writer and psychologist Lesley Hazleton, aka The Accidental Theologist, explores the vast and volatile arena in which religion and politics intersect. And does so as a resolute agnostic — thus her latest book, Agnostic: A Spirited Manifesto.

Born and educated in the UK, Hazleton reported from Jerusalem for 13 years, contributing to The New York Times, The New York Review of Books, Harper’s, The Nation, and others. She moved to Seattle in 1992 to get her pilot’s license, found the perfect houseboat (“basically, a shack on a raft”), and stayed. Now working on a new book — her thirteenth — she also blogs at www.accidentaltheologist.com, casting “an agnostic eye on religion, politics, and existence.”

A repeat TED speaker, her talks have been viewed over three million times. Among her most quoted sentences: “Life is paradox; the danger is one-dimensional thinking.”