Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere

A prize-winning historian and commentator on religion in American life, Randall Balmer holds the John Phillips Chair in Religion and is Director of the Society of Fellows at Dartmouth College. Dr. Balmer has published widely, both in scholarly journals and the popular press. His more than a dozen books, on Jimmy Carter, Billy Graham and the making of evangelicalism, secure his position as a leading authority on American evangelical Christianity. His second book, Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory: A Journey into the Evangelical Subculture in America, was made into an award-winning documentary for PBS. Beyond academia, Dr. Balmer’s public commentaries on religion and American life have appeared in The Los Angeles Times, the Des Moines Register, and The New York Times, and magazines such as New Republic, Christian Century, and The Nation. His Scudder lecture continues his reflections in recent months on Donald Trump and Evangelical Christianity.

The Scudder Lecture Series is funded by the Dr. Delton L. Scudder Endowment in Religious Studies. This fund was established in 1983 to honor Professor Scudder, the Department’s founding chair.