WASHINGTON (RNS) With the support of a $30 million endowment, Washington University in St. Louis announced Wednesday (Dec. 16) it will open a religion and politics center named for former Sen. John C. Danforth.

Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton said the purpose of the center, which will open in January, is to deepen academic and public understanding of religion and U.S. politics and “encourage a civil discourse in which a pluralistic society can respectfully address profound issues on which its citizens sometimes disagree.”

Danforth, an Episcopal priest who served 18 years in the Senate as a Republican from Missouri, said he believes the center can help create common ground for a diverse country to move beyond political polarization.

“I think part of the polarization has had to do with the use of religion to divide and to fracture and to build support from the base by creating an us-against-them mentality,” Danforth, the author of a book on faith and politics, said at the National Press Club. “If religion has been part of the problem, maybe it can be part of the answer.”

The St. Louis-based Danforth Foundation, which was created by the former senator’s grandparents, is providing the $30 million endowment for the center. It will be used to fund five full-time professors, offer courses and conferences, and publish an e-newsletter on religion and politics. While most of its activities will be in St. Louis, officials expect to offer some programs for students and congressional staffers in Washington.