READING: Erecting the Pulpit by Amy Laura Hall

Join us for a reading by Amy Laura Hall from her new book, Erecting the Pulpit: Muscular Christianity from Teddy Roosevelt to Donald Trump (Bloomsbury, 2026).

Erecting the Pulpit examines a powerful yet overlooked form of Christian Nationalism—one that fuses faith, masculinity, capitalism, and political power under the guise of moral leadership.

Beginning with Theodore Roosevelt’s “Muscular Christianity” and tracing the conceit of faithful and fit male leadership through figures like Billy Graham and cultural institutions like National Prayer Breakfasts and modern mega-churches, and flourishing under the administration of Donald Trump, Erecting the Pulpit reveals how religious rhetoric has been wielded to sanctify power and divide communities.

Drawing on her firsthand experiences and years of conversations with participants—from Cowboy Churches to NASCAR chaplaincies and storefront churches with folding chairs to meetings with the parachurch group Young Life—theologian Amy Laura Hall examines the cultural and political forces that have made evangelicalism “ambient” while consolidating wealth and influence.

At a time when politicians are expected to pray in public and religious themes shape public policy, Hall offers a vivid, incisive exploration of how religious expressions of faith in the United States have been strategically repackaged to sustain political and economic hierarchies and keep women subservient to men.

The Rev. Dr. Amy Laura Hall is an Associate Professor of Christian Ethics and Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies at Duke University, where she has taught since 1999. She is the author of four books, including Conceiving Parenthood: American Protestantism and the Spirit of Reproduction (2007) and Laughing at the Devil: Seeing the World with Julian of Norwich (2018). A noted authority on Christianity and culture in the U.S., Hall has also contributed provocative essays on Protestantism and politics to Religion Dispatches and Religion News Service.

Order the book: HERE.

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