BA, University of Sussex. MSt, University of Oxford. MA, PhD, University of Pennsylvania. Raeburn is a scholar of religion and politics, with a particular focus on 20th century American Christianity and questions of race, wealth, and inequality. Currently he is working on two book projects. The first, tentatively titled Preaching Prosperity: Pentecostals and the Remaking of American Religion, 1900-2024, explores the influence of Pentecostals on American religion and politics across the 20th and 21st centuries. Raeburn’s work uncovers the religious, racial, and political movement building undertaken by Pentecostals across the Ozarks and southern plains. Overturning a scholarly consensus that Pentecostals were apolitical actors compared to their evangelical and Catholic counterparts, Raeburn shows that these former religious outsiders came to dominate religious media and developed a distinctive form of interracial politics that reshaped religious conceptions of the origins of and the solutions to racial and economic inequality. The second project is a biography of the historian Eugene D. Genovese, one of the foremost historians of American slavery in the 20th century. Raeburn has previously published on Genovese’s career and relationship to radical historiography in Modern Intellectual History. Prior to joining Sarah Lawrence College, Raeburn spent three years at Harvard University, first at the Harvard Slavery Remembrance Program and then at the History Design Studio at the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research. Raeburn is an avid proponent of public history. Alongside his work at the Harvard Slavery Remembrance Project, he is a Tours and Public History Research Associate for the Dialogue Institute at Temple University. At the University of Pennsylvania, he taught courses on religious history including “Religion and Politics in America,” “Religions of the West,” “God and Money,” and “American Jesus.” At Harvard University, he ran workshops such as “Research Methods for Studying Slavery.” Raeburn has presented his research on three continents and is a regular presenter at the American Academy of Religion and the American Society of Church History. He has also presented at the American Historical Association, Historians of the Twentieth Century United States, Popular Culture Association, and the International Conference on Media, Religion, and Culture. His research has been supported by fellowships and grants from the University of Pennsylvania, as well as the Mellon Humanities, the National Institute of Social Sciences, the American Heritage Center at the University of Wyoming, and the Carl Albert Center at the University of Oklahoma. SLC, 2026–
Previous Courses
Religion
Broadcasting the Gospel: Religion and Media
Open, Seminar—Spring
RLGN 3316
In recent years, streaming platforms have found a ready audience for shows such as Wild, Wild Country and The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives. At the same time, religious broadcasting networks such as Trinity Broadcasting Network remain a staple of cable and satellite television. This seminar will explore both the representation of religion in media and the use of media by religious communities and individuals over time. How were different religious groups and individuals represented in print media, television, and film? What role does media play in distinguishing between “cults” and “religions” in popular culture? How have religious actors utilized radio, music, and television to spread their messages, build their audiences, and influence American politics and culture? In what ways does the utilization of radio and television not just spread the gospel but fundamentally reshape it? How have new forms of digital media, such as the internet, influenced public perceptions of religion? Throughout the semester, we will interact with a range of different media, including film, music, print journalism, radio, and television, as well as reading several theorists on the intersection of religion and media.
Faculty
Religion and Capitalism in American History
Open, Lecture—Spring
RLGN 2138
The sociologist Max Weber famously argued in The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism that Calvinism drove the rise of modern capitalism in western Europe and North America. Ever since Weber’s claim over a century ago, scholars across the humanities and social sciences have vigorously debated the relationship between Protestantism and capitalism and between religion and economy more broadly. This course will introduce students to the relationship between religion and capitalism in colonial America and the United States from the 1600s through to the present. From the Puritans to the Mormons, and from the Social Gospel to the Prosperity Gospel, religious life in North America has never been divorced from questions of economy, labor, and capital. How have religious individuals and communities affirmed or challenged capitalism? Was capitalism an outgrowth of religious belief or were religious ideas a justification for the economic order? Throughout the semester, lectures will be supplemented by readings from theorists of religion and economy, a range of primary sources from religious actors both supportive and critical of capitalism, and scholarly readings on American religious history.
Faculty
Religion and Politics in Modern America
Open, Seminar—Fall
RLGN 3164
For over a century, scholars predicted that religion’s influence in the United States would decline due to the forces of modernization and secularization. They were wrong. As recent Supreme Court rulings on abortion, prayer in public schools, and education funding demonstrate, religion’s impact on American politics remains far from marginal. Religion shapes laws, influences voting patterns, and impacts how many Americans view pressing social and economic issues. This seminar will explore the relationship between religion and politics in the United States from a historical and contemporary perspective. Starting at the beginning of the 20th century and moving roughly chronologically, we will analyze how different religious groups and individuals have influenced and responded to a range of topics, including, but not limited to, abortion rights, civil rights, the economy, the environment, foreign policy, immigration, public education, and the sexual revolution.
Faculty
Religion and the Black Freedom Struggle
Open, Lecture—Fall
RLGN 2229
What impact has religion had on the fight for racial equality in the United States? This lecture course will introduce students to the role of religion in shaping the histories of Black Americans from slavery through to the present. As a class, we will interrogate whether religion helped or hindered the struggles for freedom and equality. We will look at how religion was utilized by enslaved individuals, ordinary people, and civil rights activists to find dignity in an unequal world, build organizing spaces, and create social and political networks. At the same time, we will analyze the ways in which religion was deployed to justify slavery, racial segregation, and inequality. Topics will include: religious practices under enslavement; the use of scripture by abolitionists and enslavers; the growth of the Black church; the use of religion throughout the long civil rights movement; the writings and activism of African American Protestant clergy; the role of Black religious women as organizers; the religious influence on non-violent civil disobedience; the role of the Nation of Islam within the Black Power movement; Jewish responses to the civil rights movement; and fundamentalist Christian defenses of racial segregation. The course will end by asking what role does religion play today and in the future for the fight for racial equality in the United States?