Program on Historical Studies of Religion

The program in Historical Studies of Religion is a new venture sponsored by Baylor University’s Institute for Studies of Religion (ISR). It is designed to create the world’s preeminent interdisciplinary venue for historical research and writing on religion. Historical Studies of Religion will fulfill this aim by fostering influential and broadly-tailored historical scholarship in religion.

In addition, we hope to raise public awareness of the very substantial work that has been done in the history of religion in recent decades. While academic research has boomed, it has also suffered from issues of over-specialization, so that much excellent work is chiefly available in technical academic journals and presses, in which scholars speak chiefly to scholars. We hope to counteract this by making knowledge widely available to non-specialist audiences.

The primary purposes of Historical Studies of Religion will be to:

*encourage interdisciplinary historical research on religion among new and existing Baylor faculty,
as well as ISR-affiliated scholars
*sponsor and host major international conferences on the history of religion
*welcome prominent and promising historians of religion to Baylor through visiting faculty programs and postdoctoral fellowships
*seek external funding for the program’s activities from private and public sources
*communicate the findings of specialized scholarship to an interested public
*stress the value and legitimacy of excellent faith-based scholarship

Upon opening, Historical Studies of Religion will have two administrators who will work in concert with Byron Johnson and Rodney Stark, the co-directors of the Institute for Studies of Religion. These administrators are:

Philip Jenkins Co-director Baylor ISR Distinguished Senior Fellow and the Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of Humanities at Pennsylvania State University	Thomas Kidd Co-director Baylor ISR Resident Scholar of Religious History and Associate Professor of History at Baylor University

The co-directors will primarily promote the work of the program through writing and lecturing. Jenkins and Kidd will also focus on the development of conferences and visiting scholars programs. They will direct Ph.D. students at Penn State through a special ISR dissertation fellowship, and also at Baylor, upon the opening of Baylor’s history Ph.D. program.

David Bebbington, ISR Non-Resident Scholar & Distinguished Visiting Professor of History at Baylor University History of Religion, University of Stirling, Scotland and J. Gordon Melton, Baylor ISR Distinguished Senior Fellow & Research Specialist in the Department of Religious Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara, will also serve as major faculty advisors to the center.

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