James P. Byrd

Professor of American Religious History
Cal Turner Chancellor’s Chair of Wesleyan Studies
Associate Dean for Graduate Education  

James P. Byrd is Professor of American Religious History, Cal Turner Chancellor's Chair of Wesleyan Studies, and Associate Dean for Graduate Education and Research.

Professor Byrd’s publications include “A Holy Baptism of Fire and Blood”: The Bible and the American Civil War (Oxford University Press, 2021), Sacred Scripture, Sacred War: The Bible and the American Revolution (Oxford University Press, 2013), and his latest book, The Story of Religion in America: An Introduction (WJK, 2021), co-authored with James Hudnut-Beumler.

He is currently writing a book on the assassination and sacred legacy of Abraham Lincoln, under contract with Oxford University Press.

Recent news and reviews

• Wall Street Journal review of Holy Baptism of Fire and Blood 
• Christianity Today names Sacred Scripture, Sacred War one of the top books of the year 
• Washington Post, "Was the American Revolution a Holy War?" 
• Christian Century, "War Sermons"
• Christian Century, "When the Founders Looked to Moses"
• Review of Sacred Scripture, Sacred War in Journal of American History
• Review of Sacred Scripture, Sacred War in Christian Century
• Review of Sacred Scripture, Sacred War in Religion in American History blog
• Review of Sacred Scripture, Sacred War in Christianity Today
• Sacred Scripture, Sacred War included in Thomas S. Kidd's Five Compelling Books on the American Revolution 

Courses (selected):

• Evangelicalism and Politics in the United States
• Religion and the Founding of the United States
• Religion, Slavery, and the American Civil War
• History of Global Christianity, II
• History of the United Methodist Tradition 

Selected publications:

• “A Holy Baptism of Fire and Blood”: The Bible and the American Civil War (Oxford University Press, 2021)
• The Story of Religion in America: An Introduction (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2021)

• Sacred Scripture, Sacred War: The Bible and the American Revolution (Oxford University Press, 2013)
• Jonathan Edwards for Armchair Theologians (WJK)
• The Challenges of Roger Williams: Religious Liberty, Violent Persecution, and the Bible (Mercer University Press)
• "We Can If We Will: Regeneration and Benevolence" in After Jonathan Edwards: The Courses of the New England Theology (ed. Oliver D. Crisp and Douglas A. Sweeney, Oxford University Press, 2012)
• "The New World of North America and Canada and the Globalization of Critical Biblical Scholarship" in The Hebrew Bible / Old Testament: The History of Its Interpretation, Vol. III, the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries (ed. Magne Saeboe,2013)
• "Baptist Tradition and Heritage" in Encyclopedia of Religion in America (ed. Charles Lippy and Peter Williams, CQ)
• Several articles in The Cambridge Dictionary of Christianity.