As a girl growing up in Point Pleasant Beach, I didn’t give much thought to Princeton University. It was the 1970s and I was, shall we say, distracted. If I thought about our state's Ivy League jewel at all, I saw it as an inaccessible, dusty treasure chest full of academic stuffiness and snobbery.

If we're lucky, we grow up and find out the world's gems are much more accessible than we ever imagined. What a delight it was then, a few years ago, to learn that Princeton has a thriving faith community and offers a bounty of free public religion events.  

It’s a pleasant 45-minute drive west on Route 33 and across Route 1 to the university from coastal Monmouth County and a great way to spend an afternoon or evening while enriching one's understanding of the religious landscape.

I’ve been to numerous events at the university since I heard about its Center for the Study of Religion. I've written articles about a few of them, like The Fragility of Truth and Other Inescapable Facts, a report on the Princeton Project on Fragility, which now appears to be defunct; This Is Your Brain on Evangelicalism, a critique of a lecture given by National Public Radio journalist Barbara Bradley Hagerty about her book The Fingerprints of God: The Search for the Science of Spirituality; and, The Abortion Debate: Open Hearts, Open Minds, and Tragedy As a Fairminded Word, a reflection on a conference at which key players in the abortion debate came together in search of common ground. 

Last Thursday evening, my husband and I attended Exploring the Spiritual Dimension: A Night of Forms, Food, and Faith at the university art museum.  It was part of the fifth annual Coming Together Interfaith Conference, which brought student leaders together from across the country to improve interfaith dialogue.

The event was organized by Paul Raushenbush, who is both associate dean of Religious Life at Princeton, and editor of The Huffington Post Religion channel, for whom I write. (Qasim Rashid, of the Muslim Writers Guild, reported on the conference there yesterday.)

Raushenbush said the goal of the student-led event was to exchange best practices. 

"We have people here who've been doing this a lot, but we also have people here who are just starting," Raushenbush said.

He also told me story after story about the hard-won friendships that develop among members of Princeton's Religious Life Council. The council  is comprised of student leaders who "promote dialogue across religious boundaries and encourage campus-wide discussion of the role of religion and ethics in the personal, academic and societal arenas."

Surrounded by the museum's sacred and secular art, my husband and I munched free cookies and basked in an evening of sacred performance by a Hindu duo, a Jewish a capella group, a Georgian choir, a solo dancer, and two Muslim readers. Then we took a quick tour of the museum.

I asked Raushenbush if it's true that Princeton is the Ivy League school that is most hospitable to religion. "That's the reputation," he said.  With Revolutionary War era roots in the evangelical wing of the Presbyterian church, it's no wonder.

This afternoon, I’m headed to Islamophobia and the Reconstruction of Muslim American Culture, a lecture by Yvonne Haddad, a professor from the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University.

On March 2, there is a panel discussion of Jeffrey Stout's New Book, Blessed are the Organized: Grassroots Democracy in America.  

On March 23, the annual Doll Lecture on Religion and Money will be given by political thinker Michael Walzer. His talk is titled Humanitarianism: What Is It?

David Miller, director of the university's Faith & Work Initiative, conducts conversations with business leaders in the Faith in the Executive Suite series. The next one is on March 8 with Dale Jones, vice chairman of Heidrick & Struggles.

Although Princeton Theological Seminary is not affiliated with the university, it too presents public events (not all of which are free). On March 10 and 11, the seminary will host the Institute for Faith and Public Life. The keynote speakers will be Joshua DuBois, executive director of the White House Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships and David Beckman, president of Bread for the World and winner of the 2010 World Food Prize.

Princeton University’s campus offers free Wi-Fi to visitors and some of the events are followed by complimentary refreshments. Nassau Street, which abuts to the campus, is also home to a variety of inexpensive restaurants. Free visitor parking is available in Lot 21, on the east side of the campus, and there is a public parking garage off Nassau Street on the west side.

When I'm in Princeton, I usually stop for groceries at The Whole Earth Center, which has been in business since 1970, or at  Trader Joe's, a quirky, but affordable chain I discovered in Southern California. Trader Joe's is a few miles south of the university on the northbound side of Route 1. 

Monmouth and Ocean  counties offer a wealth of local opportunities for exploring faith, but if you’re ever in the mood for a leisurely drive to a beautiful campus and a stimulating discussion of religion, Princeton is the place to go!