Picture of Muhammad Ali

The Religious Conversions That Changed American Politics

It’s never just about religion, says the author of a book about celebrities discovering new religious identities.
Book cover of Public Confessions: The Religious Conversions That Changed American Politics"

Sex, Lies, and Repentance

Reflection on the importance of sex in the spiritual redemption narratives that riveted the American public.
Illustration of white Quakers with enslaved Africans in the background.

Slavery in the Quaker World

Christian slavery and white supremacy.
Enslaved people being baptized.

'Christian Slavery: Conversion and Race in the Protestant Atlantic World'

A Q&A with author Katharine Gerbner about "Protestant Supremacy."

Conversion and Race in Colonial Slavery

To convert was not just a matter of belief, but also a claim to power.

The Freedom to Choose Your Religion Comes With a Price

In a new book, a historian explores the American fascination with conversion, and its costs. 
Engraving of Christopher Columbus and a friar on their knees in prayer on the shore of the New World

The Roots of Christian Nationalism Go Back Further Than You Think

To fully understand the deep roots of today’s white Christian nationalism, we need to go back at least to 1493.
Woman in yoga pose
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Religion of the Devil, Philosophy of the Coiled Serpent

In yoga’s early days in the United States, skeptics warned it would lead people (e.g., women) of good faith and standing into paganism and ill repute.
Cover page of "Cotton Mather's Spanish Lessons." Beige cover with a small red image of a tonsured monastic scribe with a book in front of him, evidentally engaged in scholarship.

Structures of Belonging and Nonbelonging

A Spanish-language pamphlet by Cotton Mather explodes the Black-versus-white binary that dominates most discussions of race in our time.
The historic campus of the College of William & Mary, drawn ca. 1740 by John Bartram.

William & Mary's Nottoway Quarter: The Political Economy of Institutional Slavery and Settler Colonialism

The school was funded by colonial taxation of tobacco grown by forced labor on colonized Indian lands.
"Submission of the Mohawk," illustration of Native Americans making offerings to Europeans.

America and the "Heathen": How We Set Ourselves Apart From "Sh**hole Countries"

The concept of "heathenism" may seem outmoded, but it defines race and religion in America.
Elle Hardy and the cover of her book, Beyond Belief: How Pentecostal Christianity is Taking Over the World.

The Rise of Pentecostal Christianity

While the world’s fastest-growing religious faith offers material benefits and psychological uplift to many, it also pushes a reactionary political agenda.
Man holding a poster of Malcolm X, African American Day Parade, 2010 in Harlem.

Malcolm X’s Gospel

A look into how Malcolm X employed gospel rhetoric to critique the mainstream civil rights movement for catering to white Christianity.
Arizona State Senator Wendy Rogers speaking before the appearance of former president Donald Trump at a Save America Rally on Jan 15th in Florence, Arizona.
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The Bond That Explains Why Some on the Christian Right Support Putin’s War

Russia has become an ally in a global movement.
Painting of a Dutch merchant with his wife and an enslaved servants, standing on the shore with Dutch ships sailing in the background

The Legacies of Calvinism in the Dutch Empire

In the 17th century, Dutch proselytisers set out for Asia, Africa and the Americas. The legacy of their travels endures.
Drawing of ailing person in bed with another person sitting in chair facing them

How Early Americans Narrated Disease

Early Americans coped with disease through narratives that found divine providence and mercy in suffering.
Artist's rendition of Omar ibn Said

A Quest for the True Identity of Omar ibn Said, a Muslim Man Enslaved in the Carolinas

Omar ibn Said was captured in Senegal at 37 and enslaved in Charleston. A devout Muslim, he later converted to the Christian faith of his enslavers. Or did he?
Black-and-white image of John Coltrane writing on a piece of paper, with a saxophone in his lap.

How Malcolm X Inspired John Coltrane to Embrace Islamic Spirituality

Reflections on "A Love Supreme," artistic transformation, and the Black Arts Movement.
Worshipers at a Pentecostal church, Chicago, 1941

A Praise House of Many Mansions

In a book and documentary series, Henry Louis Gates Jr. offers a wide-ranging tour of Black religion in America.
A picture of the Dudley Diggs House

At William & Mary, a School for Free and Enslaved Black Children is Rediscovered

Opened in 1760, the school may be the oldest still-standing building of its kind.