National Museum of American Religion

12/05/2024

NMAR President Chris Stevenson talks with Dr. Susannah Heschel, professor of Jewish Studies at Dartmouth College, about the legacy of her father, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel — particularly his activism during the Civil Rights Movement and Vietnam War. Go here for full episode: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2jiuKawLAuPKz7TlfvsCnD

11/16/2024

We met Kathleen Wall at this year's Smithsonian Folklife Festival put on by the Smithsonian Folklife Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage. Later we interviewed her in our limited series "The Making of US: Lived Religion in America": https://lnkd.in/eH-2yiJG

Her expressions of both her Catholic and Indigenous belief practices make this is an important episode in the quest to understand America as one never has before.

10/17/2024

THIS MONTH IN HISTORY: 180 years ago this month, New York-based Baptist preacher William Miller’s predicted date of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ failed to occur.

Read more about the 1844 “Great Disappointment” here: https://www.nmar.org/this-month-in-history

10/10/2024

NEW PODCAST! NMAR President Chris Stevenson talks with Professor of American Studies Randall Stephens of the University of Oslo about religious responses to the Great Depression — particularly the providentialism that defined this era. See https://open.spotify.com/episode/2xCyzkn2k28o1lezKpqoHC?si=JqzEQ_-OSEennUZvzB6xgw

09/30/2024

In NMAR's second installment of Religion and the Great Depression, our podcast examines the Protestant response to the Dust Bowl. Between 1929 and 1932, U.S. national income dropped by more than 50%. For about two years — up to 1933 — church giving held steady relative to the national income. However, after 1933, church contributions declined further, and churches began to turn spending inward. Parents were increasingly dropping their children off at orphanages, which were often run by Protestant churches. These were typically a child's best bet for a meal and an adequate education, but by 1932, orphanages began to turn away children due to lack of resources. The language used during sermons did not change much throughout the Great Depression — but the language used in religious publications did. For instance, some publications began to blame capitalism for the downturn rather than focusing on individual responsibility. Listen here to learn more from scholar Randall Stephens, Professor of American and British Studies at the University of Oslo: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/religion-and-the-great-depression-part-ii/id1536446052?i=1000670756996

09/19/2024

While there is disagreement over whether Thomas Jefferson was a hardcore secularist or a born-again Christian, the truth of Jefferson’s relationship with religion is more complicated.

Jefferson’s early family life was largely molded by Anglicanism; his father was even a leader in Anglican parishes. However, during his time at William and Mary, British Enlightenment thought influenced Jefferson to be more skeptical about traditional Christianity.

Unlike George Washington, Jefferson believed that "true Christianity" could have no connection to the state. Instead, "true Christianity" would promote liberty and never coerce people into certain religious beliefs or practices.

Contrary to Jefferson's hardliner views, he supported a treaty with the Kaskaskia tribe during his presidency. The treaty would provide the Catholic church with government money to support its priests as more Kaskaskia people were converted to Catholicism.

Jefferson believed that the spread of Christianity would stabilize the frontier, showing he was not a strict secularist. However, in office, he also refused to recognize Thanksgiving because he believed it promoted the unity of church and state.

Listen here to learn more about Thomas Jefferson's unique relationship with religion: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-religion-of-thomas-jefferson/id1536446052?i=1000648148358

08/03/2024

Watch to this timely and important "Religion in the American Experience" podcast episode about Pentecostalism and national politics with Dale Coulter of Pentecostal Theological Seminary and Valerie Cooper of Duke Divinity School. You can also listen to it on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts!

As part of our multi-episode series about Pentecostalism – a relatively unknown and perhaps misunderstood, fast growing, and very large part of Christianity,...

05/06/2024

On April 22nd, Utah Valley University professor Brandon Ro (AIA, NCARB, ICAA) brought his third-year architecture students to D.C. where they presented their designs for the National Museum of American Religion. The projects were absolutely fantastic, demonstrating the students' hard work, dedication, imagination, creativity, and technical skills. It was an honor to be part of this project. We extend special thanks to NMAR's outside counsel Darin Lowder and the law firm Foley Lardner for opening up their beautiful spaces.