Pennsylvania State
University
and
Distinguished Senior Fellow, Institute for Studies of Religion
Baylor University
and
Distinguished Senior Fellow, Institute for Studies of Religion
Baylor University
In 2009, I became a Distinguished Senior Fellow at Baylor University’s Institute for Studies of Religion. I will also co-direct ISR’s Initiative on Historical Studies of Religion.
BOOKS
My most recent book is The Lost History of Christianity: The Thousand Year Golden Age of the Church in the Middle East, Africa and Asia - and How It Died (HarperOne, 2008). This is now available in a paperback edition.
Booklist named this book one of the top ten religion titles for 2009, terming it "the most eye-opening religious history book of the year."
My next book (March 2010) is Jesus Wars: How Four Patriarchs, Three Queens, And Two Emperors Decided What Christians Would Believe For The Next 1,500 Years. The book describes the turbulent fifth century debates over Christ’s divine and human natures, and the religious struggles that focused on the Councils of Ephesus (431) and Chalcedon (451). Like The Lost History of Christianity, this will also be published by HarperOne.
The Polish edition of my book The Next Christendom (2002) appeared as Chrześcijaństwo Przyszłości (Warsaw: Verbinium, 2009)
A Korean translation of Next Christendom also just appeared.
My book God's Continent (2007) just appeared in Italian translation, as Il Dio dell'Europa: Il cristianesimo e l'islam in un continente che cambia (Editrice Missionaria Italiana, 2009).
In all, my books have been translated into eleven languages: Chinese, Estonian, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Serbian, and Spanish.
OTHER RECENT WRITING
So far during 2009, I have published two academic articles, respectively in the British Journal of Criminology and the Journal of Mormon History.
I published two articles in the Ideas section of the Boston Globe: one on Sufi Islam, another on violent passages in the Bible and the Quran.
American Conservative has published two of my pieces in the past few months: one on Argentina, one on militia panics in modern US history. I now serve as a contributing editor for this magazine.
I write a monthly column on Global Christianity for the Christian Century.
Some other writing of mine this year:
The Devil’s Publicist, Foreign Policy, February 4, 2009
Back to Jerusalem, PurposeDriven.com, February 12, 2009
The Forgotten Christian World, History Today, April 2009
Their Separate Ways, Wall Street Journal, July 17, 2009
Die Macho-Reformation, Rheinischer Merkur, July 30, 2009
Iraq: il Dramma dei Cristiani Dimenticati, Il Riformista (Rome), September 8, 2009
In Search of Lost Christian Worlds, in Mysteries of Faith 2009, US News and World Report Special
Esuli da Babilonia: Lamento per le Chiese d’Oriente, Vita e Pensiero (Milan), July-August 2009
BOOK REVIEWS
I reviewed Robert Frykenberg's Christianity in India, in Christian Century, May 2009
I published a review essay of the People’s History of Christianity in the September 2009 issue of Church History
I also reviewed Zvi Ben-Dor Benite's The Ten Lost Tribes, in Books and Culture, September-October 2009
OTHER ITEMS
This Fall, Ignatius Press will be reprinting Harry Sylvester's novel Dayspring, for which I wrote an introduction. Harry Sylvester is an author I admire, and hope to see more of his stuff in print.
The New York Times quoted me in this story about Catholic-Anglican relations.
Writing in London's Sunday Times, Dominic Lawson recently quoted my article on Anti-Semitism in the Victorian Novel.
In Reason magazine (October 2009), Jesse Walker cited my work in a major article on The Paranoid Center: How The Panic Over Right-Wing Violence Is Being Used To Marginalize Peaceful Dissent.
The Dutch newspaper Katholiek Nieuwsblad interviewed me about my Lost History of Christianity
A German magazine published a piece about my work on global Pentecostalism
The Italian newspaper L'Avvenire interviewed me on religious trends in contemporary Europe
The Italian Tempi also interviewed me on Catholic-Anglican relations
FUNDED RESEARCH
I am co-investigator in a research project on the role of "Mimicry, Deception and Violence: A Multidisciplinary Investigation of Social, Psychological and Cultural Dynamics in Terrorist Movements." Funded by the Office of Naval Research, this work is organized through Penn State's International Center for the Study of Terrorism
TEACHING
I am teaching two undergraduate courses at Penn State this Fall:
The World at War 1939-1945, History 144
Sects, Cults and New Religious Movements, Religious Studies 132W
PUBLIC LECTURES AND PRESENTATIONS
My talks and public presentations from 2009 include events at:
Aurora University, Aurora, IL
Grove City College, PA
Bethel University, St. Paul, MN
Air Command and Staff College (USAF), Montgomery, AL
Pepperdine University, Malibu, CA (W. David Baird Distinguished Lecture)
St Andrew’s Presbyterian College, Laurinburg, NC
Youth Conference of the Assyrian Church, meeting in San Jose.
Duke Divinity School: 2009 Convocation and Pastors’ School
Baylor University: Symposium on Secularization and Revival
Free University, Amsterdam: Symposium on 400 Years of Dutch-American Relations
The Finish Line Summit - Church of God, Cleveland TN (remote presentation by Skype)
In December, I will be giving a plenary address to a Stockholm conference organized by the Church of Sweden
I was one of the experts interviewed in the History Channel TV documentary film Time Machine: 70s Fever.
In 2007, I spoke at the Conference on Islam and Muslims in the World Today, organized by the British government, and held in Lancaster House, London. I am standing at the far left of this photograph, just behind Tony Blair.
