Anthea Butler, PhD

Dr. Anthea Butler has devoted her career to studying relationship between religion and culture. As the Geraldine R. Segal Professor in American Social Thought at the University of Pennsylvania and recipient of the prestigious Martin Marty Award from the American Academy of religion, she brings both scholarly depth and personal insight to all of her work. Her recent book, White Evangelical Racism: The Politics of Morality in America, invites readers into a nuanced exploration of how religious identity and racial history have shaped each other. “I think we have to go back to what is the foundation,” Butler has said. By exploring historical shifts in society, she is able to find connections and patterns that have otherwise gone unnoticed. And this can lead to startling discoveries. In her work, Butler distinguishes between theological traditions and cultural expressions of faith. For her, evangelicalism has undergone a kind of evolution, taking on a new “cultural and political definition.” As a student of religious and cultural history, she finds this shift fascinating. As faith communities have become aligned along more overtly political lines, they have produced religious leaders who are operate as celebrities and have to navigate the challenges of a very public life. She points to Billy Graham’s relationship with President Eisenhower as a pivotal moment when religious leadership began to take on this more political aspect. What makes Butler’s perspective distinctive is her attention and commitment to diversity within religious traditions. For her, it’s a mistake to talk about the evangelical movement. There are “evangelicals plural”—white, Black, Latino, Asian-American, and more. Understanding the difference between how these communities engage with their faith is essential for understanding American religious life. She urges us to widen the aperture and to examine what she calls “parachurch movements.” These are religious gatherings outside traditional church structures that offer community and purpose. “It gives you the sense of community, but also gives you the sense that you, too, as an individual, have the power to change something,” she says, highlighting how these spaces fulfill a person’s need for belonging and meaning. Through all of her work, Butler invites us to consider how our faith shapes our identity and how religious communities live on the porous border between private and public life. This creates a powerful, potent tension at the heart of life in America. And she shows us that in order to understand the present, we have to pay deep attention to the past.