Department of Religion, Princeton University

Check out what's on Professor AnneMarie Luijendijk's summer reading list!

Summer Reads 2026: Princeton professors share what's on their lists This summer’s mix includes botany, sculpture, music, some sci-fi and fantasy deep cuts, novels set in France, Ireland, Sweden, the Swiss Alps and across Asia, a memoir from Cameroon, a book of letters from ancient Egypt, a cat behavior book and more.

Religion graduate students David Reed Hall and Ashley Douglas contributed to this forum on the film, *The Testament of Ann Lee.*

We are thrilled to announce on the American Religion website a new series on The Testament of Ann Lee (2025)! Edited by Dana Logan (UNC Greensboro), the roundtable features responses from three graduate students on various aspects of the film:
- David Reed Hall, "A Cult Movie"
- Savannah Flanagan, "The Trauma of Childbirth"
- Ashley Douglas, "Outsider Hagiographies"

Read their responses here: https://www.american-religion.org/testament-ann-lee

With the support of the Princeton Histories Fund, Professor Bryan Lowe has created a digital project tracing the life and career of Kenneth Ch'en, Princeton's first Professor of Buddhist Studies as part of a broader endeavor considering the lives of the Asian and Asian-American scholars who founded the field of Buddhist Studies in North America.

Kenneth Ch'en (1907–1993) A Life of the Move

Reinventing the Study of Chinese Religions
A Conference in Honor of Stephen F. Teiser
June 9th and 10th
Register Here: https://religion.princeton.edu/form/form-reinventing-the-study-of-ch

Congratulations to our own Melissa Yorio, who is among the recipients of a Princeton University Graduate School 2026 Graduate Teaching Awards for her work as head preceptor in Professor AnneMarie Luijendijk's course, "Jesus: How Christianity Began."

Congratulations to Princeton Religion graduate alum William Stell on the publication of *Born Again Q***r: A History of Evangelical Gay Activism and the Making of Antigay Christianity.*

A groundbreaking history of evangelicalism and homosexuality in the United States.

Born Again Q***r by William Stell is now available (14 July UK pub).

Learn more: https://hubs.ly/Q04fYZ-p0

Evangelicals claim that their opposition to homosexuality is an inherent feature of their faith, rooted in their unchanging beliefs about the Bible. Most scholars, journalists, and observers have accepted this account; in Born Again Q***r, William Stell upends it. Arguing that the antigay majority in evangelicalism has been less dominant and more vulnerable than previously thought, Stell describes a network of authors, ministers, and professors—all veterans of major evangelical institutions—who worked in the 1970s and 1980s to persuade Christians that their churches should affirm the relationships and ministries of gay and le***an members. By the late 1970s, some even thought that these activists might shape the future of evangelicalism.

Of course, that speculation proved mistaken, and the antigay evangelical majority eventually overpowered the gay-affirming minority. Stell’s history of the rise and fall of evangelical gay activism shines a light on this largely forgotten chapter in American evangelicalism. Drawing on extensive archival research and interviews, Stell documents the work of four prominent activists: the founder of a predominantly LGBTQ+ denomination called the Metropolitan Community Churches, the leader of a gay advocacy organization called Evangelicals Concerned, and the evangelical feminist coauthors of the influential book Is the Homosexual My Neighbor? By recovering the successes of evangelical gay activists and the struggles of their opponents, Stell’s account transforms how we think about evangelicalism, how we talk about the culture wars, and how we approach both religion in q***r movements and q***r activism in religious movements.

Professor AnneMarie Luijendijk Awarded Humanities Council Magic Grant for her Textuality, Materiality and Reading Practices Workshop.

https://humanities.princeton.edu/2026/05/05/council-awards-2026-27-grants-for-humanities-innovation-and-collaboration/

Religion, War, and Revolution: What are we getting right and/or wrong about religion in Early United States?
with Kathleen Sands, Seth Perry, and Philippa Koch.
May 6th at 2:00pm. Open to the public with registration.

Religion, War, and Revolution | Religion and America at 250 #4 – AAR "Religion, War, and Revolution: What are we getting right and/or wrong about religion in Early United States?" with Kathleen Sands and Seth Perry This is the fourth of our "Religion and America at 250" webinAAR series that will engage central questions around the meaning of religion, the meaning of....

Princeton Holds Third Annual Native American and Indigenous Studies Film Screening and Conversation with “So Surreal: Behind the Masks”

Princeton Holds Third Annual Native American and Indigenous Studies Film Screening and Conversation with "So Surreal: Behind the Masks" On Wednesday, March 25, 2026, Princeton welcomed documentary filmmakers Neil Diamond (Cree) and Joanne Robertson to The Princeton Garden Theater for a special screening of their film, So Surreal: Behind the Masks. Organized, hosted and moderated by interdisciplinary Princeton faculty whose research....