James Hudnut-Beumler

Anne Potter Wilson Distinguished Professor of American Religious History Vanderbilt University

  • Nashville TN

Expert in the history of religion in the American South.

Contact

Vanderbilt University

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Biography

Hudnut-Beumler served as Dean of the Divinity School from 2000 until 2013. Prior to coming to Vanderbilt in 2000, he was dean of the faculty at Columbia Theological Seminary, a program associate for Lilly Endowment, and director of the undergraduate program in Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. Hudnut-Beumler is the author of Looking for God in the Suburbs: The Religion of the American Dream and Its Critics, 1945-1965 (Rutgers, 1994) and Generous Saints: Congregations Rethinking Money and Ethics (Alban, 1999), and is co-author of The History of the Riverside Church in the City of New York (NYU, 2005). He is also the author of an economic history of American Protestantism from 1750 to the present, entitled, In Pursuit of the Almighty’s Dollar: A History of Money and American Protestantism (University of North Carolina, 2007) and Strangers and Friends at the Welcome Table: Contemporary Christianities in the American South (University of North Carolina, 2018) and co-editor of The Future of Mainline Protestantism (Columbia, 2018) Professor Hudnut-Beumler and his wife, Heidi, are both Presbyterian ministers and make their home in Nashville.

Areas of Expertise

Religion and philanthropy
History of religion in the U.S.
Religion in the American South
Religious symbolism in the U.S.

Accomplishments

Vanderbilt Distinguished Faculty Member

2020-06-16

Awarded Vanderbilt Distinguished Faculty Member in 2003

Associated Church Press, Best Professional Article

2020-06-16

Awarded Best Professional Article by Associated Church Press in 1991

Princeton University Fellowship

2020-06-16

Held Princeton University Fellowship from 1984-87

Education

The College of Wooster

B.A.

Union Theological Seminary

M.Div.

Princeton University

M.A., Ph.D.

Affiliations

  • American Academy of Religion
  • American Society of Church History
  • Organization of American Historians

Selected Media Appearances

Middle TN lawmaker wants schools to have option to display Ten Commandments

WKRN  tv

2025-01-02

Giving public schools across the Volunteer State the choice to post the Ten Commandments is the goal of a Middle Tennessee lawmaker. Critics say the idea crosses the line of religious freedom, but supporters say the Ten Commandments are a founding historical document of our country. News 2 spoke with all sides.

“It’s been adopted in other states, and, of course, quickly subjected to court challenges,” said Professor James Hudnut-Beumler, who teaches American religious history at Vanderbilt’s Divinity School.

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New Louisiana law requiring classrooms to display Ten Commandments churns old political conflicts

Associated Press  online

2024-06-20

Disputes over the law likely won’t just be about whether the commandments should be mandated on school room walls, but also which version, said James Hudnut-Beumler, a professor of American religious history at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.

“The Ten Commandments always look universal until you put a shortened list up on the wall and discover that there’s room for dispute.”

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Methodists end anti-gay bans, closing 50 years of battles over sexuality for mainline Protestants

Associated Press  online

2024-05-05

The United Methodist Church was the last of the major U.S. mainline groups to liberalize its policies on sexuality in part because of its large presence in rural, small-town and Southern areas, where a more conservative sexual ethos prevails, said James Hudnut-Beumler, a professor of American Christian History at Vanderbilt University. He is a Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) minister and co-author of “The Future of Mainline Protestantism.”

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