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Today, the Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture made its Proceedings available . This publication allows those who were not able to make it to Indianapolis in June to access the ideas shared at the conference. Or, for those like me, it helps attendees view those ideas with fresh eyes.  In conjunction with the the publication of the Proceedings, today's guest post reviews R&AC's 5th Biennial Conference from the perspective of a first-year PhD student. Our guest author is  Melanie Monteclaro Pace, a Ph.D. student in American Religions at the University of Virginia. Readers can follow her on Twitter: @monteclaro_pace Melanie Monteclaro Pace In June, I drove from Charlottesville to Indianapolis to attend the 5th Biennial Conference on Religion & American Culture. As a first-time conference attendee, I wasn’t sure what to expect—especially at an event that typically draws only a handful of graduate students, and even fewer first-year Ph.D. students like ...

Lauren Turek The U.S. Catholic Historian recently shared this call for papers for a future issue on the theme of "War and Peace." Here is the announcement with all of the details for proposing a contribution: "For thirty-five years the U.S. Catholic Historian has published theme-based issues relevant to the history of American Catholicism.  An upcoming issue will address the theme of war and peace. Contributions could include, but are not limited to, studies of the following: Catholic involvement in conflicts as officers, soldiers, nurses, and chaplains. U.S. efforts at humanitarian aid during war: War Relief Services/Catholic Relief Services, etc.  The approach of the U.S. Catholic hierarchy or certain bishop(s) to particular conflicts. Catholic responses to documents including Pacem in Terris (1963), The Challenge of Peace (1983), etc.  Catholic peace movements and activism such as the Catholic Peace Fellowship, Catholic Worker, etc. Catholic conscientious objectors ...

Today's guest post comes courtesy of Guy Aiken.  Guy graduated in May with a PhD in Religious Studies (American Religions) from the University of Virginia. His dissertation was on the American Friends Service Committee in Germany and Appalachia between the world wars. He is an Arthur J. Ennis Postdoctoral Fellow at Villanova University. You can read his previous guest posts  here  and here . Guy Aiken “Speak truth to power.” Everyone knows the phrase—John Fea recently used it at the end of his  article  in the Washington Post on Trump and white evangelicals—but almost nobody knows where it comes from: the title of a 1955 pamphlet on international relations issued by the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), a Quaker organization headquartered in Philadelphia. [1] Those who do know this immediate provenance of the phrase often assume that it originates ultimately with an eighteenth-century Quaker, or even with the founder of Quakerism himself, the British ...

Andrea L. Turpin I’m trying something new this semester. After six years of teaching roughly the same books in my U.S. history survey class (1877-present), I’m changing most of them up. Yay for the time tenure provides! My motivation is two-fold. First, let’s be honest, I’m pretty sick of the ones I’ve got. They’ve worked great, but I teach this course every semester, and six years is a long time. But second, I also want to do a better job of incorporating religion into the course narrative. This is perhaps an odd situation for someone who works at a religiously affiliated institution (Baylor). Nevertheless, while I’ve generally been happy with how I have integrated religious history into my upper-level courses, I’ve never quite found my groove with the survey. (So many topics! So little time!) One problem is, of course, the textbook. I’ve noted in a previous post the surprising similarities I’ve found teaching fundamentalism and teaching feminism. Well, I’ve also found a similarity b...

Benjamin J. Wetzel (on behalf of the Cushwa Center) As usual, the Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism at the University of Notre Dame is hosting a lineup of events this fall that will be of wide interest to scholars of American religion.  All of the events are free and open to the public. 1) Lecture and Panel: "Land O'Lakes and Its Legacy" | Sep. 5 In 1967, Notre Dame President Theodore Hesburgh, C.S.C. convened a group of Catholic educators at Land O'Lakes, Wisconsin to discuss the role of academic freedom in the modern Catholic university.  This year, the 50th anniversary of the conference, provides an appropriate occasion to reflect on the landmark report they produced, which came to be known as the Land O'Lakes Statement.  The event will feature a lecture by John T. McGreevy, I.A. O'Shaughnessy Dean of the College of Arts and Letters and professor of history at the University of Notre Dame; and a panel discussion featuring five presidents o...

Erin Bartram,  William Black,  Michel Sun Lee, and  Moxy Moczygemba Four of us— Erin Bartram (University of Hartford), William Black (Rice University), Michel Sun Lee (University of Texas at Austin), and Moxy Moczygemba (University of Florida)—are excited to present part three of the 2017 book preview list! This post covers releases from September through December 2017. Thank you, Paul Putz, for all your incredible work with the book lists thus far and for entrusting us with the reins. By the way, check out part one and part two if you missed them earlier this year. As is the custom, here’s a little preface we’ve mostly borrowed from Paul: we’ve listed the books in roughly chronological order based on the month of their tentative release date. We’ve tried to include as many relevant and interesting titles as we could find, but are sure we’ve missed some worthy new books. Our reason may be that some publishers don't have updated information on their websites, or becau...

Racialized Christianity's Roots: The Christian Imagination As historians, you all know this, but it's worth stating anyway: we are shaped by our contexts – theological, geographical, class, race, family, gender, national, etc.   Sometimes we begin to really see the water in which we swim by stepping into another stream.   Other times, reading about our stream's origins, its headwaters, can help us see our stream more clearly.   I study American history, my research is primarily in the twentieth century, and I don't read outside my field nearly enough.   But this summer I had the opportunity to do so with a group of Wheaton College colleagues when we read Willie Jennings's The Christian Imagination: Theology and the Origins of Race .   Jennings, a theologian, has written a historical piece that explores the interconnections between western Christianity, racial hierarchies, capitalism, commodification of bodies and places, and pedagogy.   Those who study re...