You Tube Theology

Calvin University (https://www.calvin.edu) history professor Kristin Kobes Du Mez on her new book Jesus & John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation (https://kristindumez.com/books/jesus-and-john-wayne). In this book talk, Prof. Du Mez provides a brief overview of the book followed by Q&A about her research and findings.

Jesus and John Wayne is a sweeping account of the last 75 years of white evangelicalism, showing how American evangelicals have worked for decades to replace the Jesus of the Gospels with an idol of rugged masculinity and Christian nationalism. Historian Darren Dochuck describes the book as “A searing and sobering book, one that should be read by anyone who wants to grasp our political moment and the religious movement that helped get us here,” while Publishers Weekly calls it “[an] engaging history of the shifting ideal of Christian masculinity…. This lucid, potent history adds a much-needed religious dimension to understanding the current American right and the rise of Trump.”

Kristin Kobes Du Mez is a professor of History and Gender Studies at Calvin University. She holds a PhD from the University of Notre Dame and her research focuses on the intersection of gender, religion, and politics. She has written for the Washington Post, Religion News Service, Christianity Today, Christian Century, and Religion & Politics, and has been interviewed on NPR, CTV, the CBC, and by CNN, the New York Times, the Economist, the Christian Post, PBS News Hour, and the AP, among other outlets, and she blogs at Patheos’s Anxious Bench.

Find out more about the book and author here: https://kristindumez.com/books/jesus-and-john-wayne/

Find out more about studying history at Calvin University: https://calvin.edu/academics/departments-programs/history/