Aaron L. Griffith
I am an assistant professor of American church history at Duke Divinity School. I write and speak about American religion, politics, and criminal justice for academic and popular audiences.My book God's Law and Order: The Politics of Punishment in Evangelical America was published in 2020 with Harvard University Press. It won the 2022 Best Book Award for History & Biography from Christianity Today. My writing has also appeared in publications such as TIME, The Washington Post, Christianity Today, Religion News Service, Religions, and Fides et Historia.If you are interested in connecting, you can contact me here.
© Aaron Griffith
Writing
My book God's Law and Order: The Politics of Punishment in Evangelical America was released in November 2020. Please consider purchasing from your local bookstore.Here are some of my other recent publications and contributions:"You Won’t Find God Through an AI Chatbot", TIME, September 28, 2023"The Complicated Commodification of Easter" TIME, April 7, 2023"What Asbury’s Christian Revival Says About America’s Need for Connection," TIME, February 28, 2023"Crime Concern and the 2022 Midterms," PRRI Spotlight, January 27, 2023"Christians Shouldn’t Kill Christians—Even on Death Row," Christianity Today, August 26, 2022"Black Americans’ Skepticism Toward the Death Penalty," PRRI Spotlight, August 12, 2022"American Christians “Backing the Blue”: On Faith and Policing,"* Religion & Politics,* May 17, 2022"Is There Hope To End Mass Incarceration?"Christian Community Development Association, February 9, 2022"Died: Bill Glass, Football Star Who Changed Evangelical Approach to Sports and Prisons," Christianity Today, December 9, 2021"Preaching and Practicing: Fathers and Sons Shaping the Common Good, Sometimes Very Differently", Christian History, Issue #141"‘Policing Is a Profession of the Heart’: Evangelicalism and Modern American Policing", Religions, March 2021"A Vaccine Could Save Prisoners’ Lives. Christians Can Help," Christianity Today, December 17, 2020"Recognizing a Pattern of Police Violence," Auburn Seminary's Future Story of America, October 2020"Burl Cain Promises ‘Good Praying’ for Mississippi Prisons. It’s Not Enough," Christianity Today, June 8, 2020"Do White Evangelicals Love Police More Than Their Neighbors?" An interview with the "Quick to Listen" podcast at Christianity Today, June 3, 2020"Paula White-Cain’s Evangelical Support Squad Isn’t as Surprising as It Seems," Christianity Today, October 22, 2019 (co-authored with Leah Payne)"'The Real Victim of Lynch Law Is the Government': American Protestant Anti-Lynching Advocacy and the Making of Law and Order", Religions, February 2019“‘Jesus Christ is the Only Control’: Crime, Delinquency, and Evangelical Conversion in the Early Postwar Era,” Fides et Historia 50, no. 1 (Winter/Spring)"Wheaton’s controversy over Muslims and Christians ignores the school’s own history," The Washington Post, January 5, 2016“Why Evangelicals Are Divided by Afterlife Testimonials,” Religion News Service, March 26, 2015"How Evangelicals Use Marijuana to Sell Religion," The Christian Century, March 26, 2014"Prisoners and the Least of These in American Protestantism," The Christian Century, April 30, 2014I have also been quoted in publications such as Christianity Today, The Atlantic, the Deseret News, and AL.com and regularly speak at churches, conferences, and community events on topics related to American religion, politics, and criminal justice. If you would like my thoughts or are interested in having me come speak for your event, please contact me.
About
I am an assistant professor of American church history at Duke Divinity School. I previously taught at Whitworth University and Sattler College. I was also a postdoctoral research associate at the John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics at Washington University in St. Louis. I also have taught in Washington University’s Prison Education Project and Duke’s Kenan Institute for Ethics.I earned my master’s and doctoral degrees from Duke University Divinity School, and a BA in philosophy from Wheaton College. I have received fellowships from organizations such as the Louisville Institute and the Center for the Study of Philanthropy and Voluntarism at Duke's Sanford School of Public Policy.I recently published my first book, God's Law and Order: The Politics of Punishment in Evangelical America, on the history of evangelical Christian influence in modern American criminal justice. My broader academic interests include American religious history (particularly evangelicalism, African-American religions, and social activism), Christianity in the global south, and American political history.
Teaching
Whitworth University
Slavery and the Civil War, Spring 2023
Becoming a Historian, Spring 2023
Core 350: Policing, Spring 2023
American History Since 1877, Fall 2022 and Spring 2023
African American History, Fall 2022
American Intellectual History, Spring 2022
Global Christianity, Spring 2022
Race, Identity, and Power in American Life, Fall 2021
The United States in a Global Context, Fall 2021 and Spring 2022
Pacific Northwest History, Fall 2021Sattler College
Slavery and Abolition: A Global History, Spring 2021
Early American History, Spring 2021
Modern American History, Fall 2020
History of Global Christianity, Fall 2020
Race and Religion in American Life, Spring 2020
History, Philosophy, Literature, and Art of the Modern Era, Spring 2020 and 2021
Historical Theology, Spring 2020
Crime and Punishment in American History, Fall 2019
History, Philosophy, Literature, and Art of Medieval and Renaissance Europe, Fall 2019 and 2020Prison Education Project, Washington University in St. Louis
Religion and American Society, Summer 2019John C. Danforth Center on Religion and Politics, Washington University in St. Louis
Religion and American Society, Summer 2019
Religious Dissent and Reform in American Life, Spring 2019Duke Divinity School, Co-Instructor
Restorative Justice, Prison Ministry, and the Church (with Douglas Campbell), Spring 2018Kenan Institute for Ethics, Duke University
Religion and Mass Incarceration in America, Spring 2017La Iglesia Evangelica Metodista in Cusco, Peru, Instructor
History of Christianity, Methodist Course of Study, March 2015
Contact Me
God's Law and Order:
The Politics of Punishment in Evangelical America
An incisive look at how evangelical Christians shaped—and were shaped by—the American criminal justice system.A winner of the 2022 Best Book Award for History & Biography from Christianity Today.See recent reviews, interviews, and features of God's Law and Order at The Other Journal, Christianity Today, Religion News Service, The Metropole, Baptist Press, The Anxious Bench, The Englewood Review of Books, Church History and the Journal of Law and Religion.Purchase via Amazon, IndieBound, or Barnes & Noble. Or buy from Hearts & Minds Books and receive 20% off.“Carefully researched and persuasively argued, Griffith’s rich history makes enormous contributions to our understanding of politics and culture in modern America.”—Elizabeth Hinton, author of _From the War on Poverty to the War on Crime: The Making of Mass Incarceration in America_“This brilliantly crafted and beautifully written work forces us to reevaluate the origins of the religious right and adopt a wider purview when trying to make sense of evangelicalism’s political ascent and present course of action. This book deserves—indeed, demands—a wide readership.”—Darren Dochuk, author of Anointed with Oil: How Christianity and Crude Made Modern America“Griffith’s account of how modern evangelicalism and the carceral state came of age together is nothing short of pathbreaking.”—Heath W. Carter, author of Union Made: Working People and the Rise of Social Christianity in Chicago“An outstanding contribution to religious history and the history of criminal justice. Griffith offers a deeply researched, limpidly written, and exceedingly well balanced account of the surprisingly complex involvement of white evangelicals with issues of criminal justice, prison ministries, and prison reform.”—Mark Noll, author of _A History of Christianity in the United States and Canada_
