American Fanatics: Spirited Rebellion and the Policing of Religion

My current book project examines how nineteenth-century ministers, scholars, and government agents developed the concept of fanaticism in an era of religious and political freedom—and radicalism. Examining institutional efforts to police diverse communities such as women abolitionists, Filipino insurgents, and black prophets, this book invites readers to reconsider how we categorize dissent. In addition to this discursive analysis, American Fanatics draws on the academic study of religion to offer insights into how powerful institutions and rebellious communities alike have sparred over divine authenticity, spirited feelings, and sacred violence. This history shows how fanaticism, far from being an aberration, has been a common, though contested, feature of US culture and politics.

Teaching & Research Areas

Studying Religion in the Modern World

Predictions about the decline of religion—or at least its relegation to private life—have been premature. The discerning student of the academic study of religion can see religion’s enduring importance and how it is intimately connected to culture and politics. Knowing about religion and knowing how to study religion are critical skills to be an informed and responsible citizen of the world. The field, and my courses, offer religious and non-religious students the tools necessary to study the power of the building blocks of religion: myth, ritual, community, authority, the sacred, tradition, ethics, and supernaturalism.

Students and interested citizens can learn more about the academic study of religion at Iowa State University at our program’s website and @ISUphilRS on Facebook and Instagram.

Religion in US history

My primary field of study is religion in the United States. In my teaching and research, I emphasize how (Protestant) Christian norms have influenced US nationalism and culture, even as the US has become home to a wide array of communities and traditions. The study of secularism in the US provides an analytical framework for thinking about how secular institutions define what counts as religion proper in accordance with particular priorities and assumptions. I understand modern US statecraft to be defined not by secularization (the privatization or disappearance of religion), but by the strategic deployment of differences between science, religion, and superstition, among other key terms. Such differentiations are especially complicated to track in the environment of religious innovation and marketing that defines the US. My work brings together analyses of law, popular culture media, religious authorities, and politicians to complicate notions of religious freedom and religion as reducible to individualized private belief.

Cults, Fanaticism, Violence

Though the common sense thinking of liberal secularism suggests that religions are, or at least should be, peaceful, recent scholarship argues that we should also attend to the varieties of religion categorized as cult-ish, fanatical, or radical. Such categories and communities require historicization and contextualization to properly understand. My work, especially in my book project American Fanatics, attends to how secular institutions and religious communities alike have sparred over divine authenticity, spirited feelings, and sacred violence. Such conflicts are at the heart of US religion and US religious freedom.

Religious STudies x Game STudies

Games are increasingly a dominant form of media globally that reflect and shape human cultures. I am interested in religion-y games, including games created by religious communities and games that represent imagined or existent religions. From the earliest board games like Senet and Mehen to modern games like Civilization, Assassin’s Creed, and Dungeons and Dragons, religion has played a role in the development, experience, and social interpretation of games. My emerging research projects examine the rise of cult-builder games and representations of the Catholic Church across diverse game industries.