How does religion motivate political and community action? My research in this field has led to the concept of providential beliefs–the belief that God has a plan that people can help bring about.
Publications:
- “Faith and Community: How Engagement Strengthens Members, Places of Worship, and Society” Temple University Press, forthcoming, 2024.
- “African American Pastors: Navigating Dialectics in the Collaborative Process.” Journal of Applied Communication Research. Volume 51, Issue 3, 2023. With Kirk Leach and Gerald Driskill.
- “Using Social Media to Advance Community Based Research.” With Morgan Paige Topping (undergraduate coauthor), PS: Political Science and Politics, Volume 54, Issue 2, 2021.
- “Connecting with Community and Facilitating Learning through the Little Rock Congregations Study.” With Gerald Driskill and Kirk Leach, Metropolitan Universities, Volume 31, Issue 3, 2020.
- “When Spiritual and Material Meet: Explaining Congregational Engagement in the Local Community.” With Emilie Street (graduate student coauthor), Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion, Volume 16, Article 6, Pages 2-35, 2020.
- “The Differential Impact of Religion on Political Activity and Community Engagement.” Review of Religious Research, Volume 62, Pages 1-26, 2020.
- “Acting for God: Types and Motivations of Clergy Political Activity.” Politics and Religion, Volume 11, Issue 4, 2018.
- “How Religion Influences Peacemaking.” Peace and Conflict Studies, Volume 25, Number 2, Article 3, 2018. See also the Peacemakers Executive Summary and a Peacemakers Infographic of the results of the study.
- “Providentiality: A New Measure of Religious Belief.” Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion, Volume 13, Article 3, 2017.
- “America’s Missions: Religion and Foreign Policy in the 21st Century and Beyond.” In Companion to Religion and Politics in the United States, Barbara McGraw, ed. Wiley-Blackwell, 2016.
- “Bridging Religion and Politics: The Impact of Providential Religious Beliefs on Political Activity.” Politics and Religion, Volume 8, Issue 3, 2015.
- “For God or Country: Comparing the Sources of Anti-American and Anti-Muslim Attitudes.” Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations, Volume 27, Issue 2, 2016.
- “Divine Direction: How Providential Religious Beliefs Shape Foreign Policy Attitudes.” Foreign Policy Analysis, Volume 9, Issue 2, 2013.
- “Religion and Realism: Charting a Middle Path for International Relations Theory.” In Religion and the Realist Tradition: From political theology to International Relations theory and back, Jodok Troy, ed. Routledge, 2013.
- “Religiously Motivated Political Violence in Iraq.” In Religion, Conflict, and Military Intervention. Rosemary Durward and Lee Marsden, eds. Ashgate, 2009.
- “Genocide: An Obligation to Fight?” In Rethinking the 21st Century: ‘New’ Problems, ‘Old’ Solutions. Amy E. Eckert and Laura Sjoberg, eds. Zed Books, 2009.
- “Just Intervention in Genocide: Extending the Theoretical Application of Just War Theory.” Genocide, War Crimes, & Crimes Against Humanity, Volume 3, Issue 1, 2008.
Works in Progress:
- Principle Investigator of the Little Rock Congregation Study. Summary results from the 2020 LRCS are available in this Community Report. For more information, check out the Little Rock Congregations Study tab or the project website: http://research.ualr.edu/lrcs.
- “Race and Faith: The Role of Congregations in Racial Justice.” With Gerald Driskill and Dominika Hanson (graduate student coauthor). Manuscript recently revised and resubmitted to an academic journal. Community resources available here.
- “Linking Community-Based Research and Faith-Based Racial Justice.” With Gerald Driskill and Owen Haynes (undergraduate coauthor). Manuscript recently invited to revise and resubmit at an academic journal.
- “Banning the Veil: The Effect of Religious Clothing Restrictions on Attitudes towards Muslims and Immigrants in Europe.” With Christopher J. Williams and Leon Kockaya (graduate student coauthor).