Religion &: Conversations at the Center Welcome to our new podcast series titled Religion &: Conversations at the Center. These episodes will feature conversations led by scholars at the Center for the Study of Religion & American Culture with thought leaders, provocateurs, and groundbreaking scholars and practitioners in the fields of religion and American culture. Our goal is to have conversations that will push the field and the broader public to think deeply and to elevate issues and questions about religion and religious communities that have otherwise been buried or under examined and bring them to the center for debate, engagement, and, hopefully, for communities to explore and transform these ideas together. Our Conversation with R. Marie Griffith In this episode, Philip Goff, Co-Director of Institutional Relationship at the Center for the Study of Religion and American Culture, interviews R. Marie Griffith, the John C. Danforth Distinguished Professor in the Humanities at Washington University in St. Louis. The two discuss a wide array of topics including leading centers on American religion, the ways the field has shifted in the recent past, and current scholarship that excites them. About R. Marie Griffith R. Marie Griffith is the John C. Danforth Distinguished Professor in the Humanities at Washington University in St. Louis. She served for 12 years (2011–2023) as the director of the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics and the editor of the Center's journal, Religion & Politics. Her research focuses on American Christianity, including the changing profile of American evangelicals and ongoing conflicts over gender, sexuality, and marriage. Marie is the author or editor of seven books. Her first, God's Daughters: Evangelical Women and the Power of Submission (University of California Press, 1997), examines the practices and perceptions of contemporary evangelical women. Her next book, Born Again Bodies: Flesh and Spirit in American Christianity (University of California Press, 2004), explores the history of Christian-influenced attitudes and practices related to embodiment in modern America; while Moral Combat: How Sex Divided American Christians and Fractured American Politics (Basic Books, 2017) traces conflicts over sexual morality, feminism, and gender in American religion and politics. Her latest book, Making the World Over: Confronting Racism, Misogyny, and Xenophobia in U.S. History (UVA Press, 2021), urges a re-reading of the nation's history that opens up greater complexity than our stock narratives. These books, along with her three edited volumes—Women and Religion in the African Diaspora: Knowledge, Power, and Performance (co-edited with Barbara Dianne Savage, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006), Religion and Politics in the Contemporary United States (co-edited with Melani McAlister, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008), and American Religions: A Documentary History (Oxford University Press, 2007)—exhibit Griffith's varied research interests. In addition to her books, Professor Griffith has published numerous scholarly articles, book chapters, and essays. Griffith is a frequent media commentator and public speaker on current issues pertaining to religion and politics. She is currently writing the first in-depth comparative history of the clergy sexual abuse crises within American Christianity, focusing on the U.S. Catholic Church and evangelical groups such as the Southern Baptist Convention.
