Anthea Butler

Learn about Anthea Butler — the American professor of religion, public intellectual, and critic of evangelicalism and race in America. Explore her biography, major works, perspectives, and influence.

Introduction

Anthea Deidre Butler is a prominent American scholar of religion and professor known for her incisive work at the intersection of race, religion, politics, gender, and popular culture. She holds the Geraldine R. Segal Professorship in American Social Thought and serves as Chair of the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Pennsylvania.

Her writing challenges conventional narratives about American evangelicalism, white supremacy, and religious identity, making her a widely cited voice in public discourse and academia alike.

Early Life & Education

Anthea Butler was born in Texas in 1960. Jesse and Willa Mae (Anthony) Butler. La Marque High School in La Marque, Texas, where she was active in music — notably winning awards in local contests playing the marimba.

Her academic path:

• B.A. from University of Houston–Clear Lake

• M.A. in Theology from Fuller Theological Seminary

• M.A. in Religion from Vanderbilt University

• Ph.D. in Religion from Vanderbilt University (2001). Her dissertation was titled A Peculiar Synergy: Matriarchy and the Church of God in Christ, advised by Lewis V. Baldwin.

Her education equipped her with deep grounding in both religious studies and critical theory, especially relating to African American religious experience and gender dynamics.

Academic & Professional Career

After earning her Ph.D., Butler held a Postdoctoral Fellowship in Race, Religion, and Gender at Princeton University (2001–2002). Harvard Divinity School in its Women’s Studies in Religion program.

In 2009, she began her tenure at the University of Pennsylvania (Penn), where she now leads the Religious Studies department.

Her research focuses on:

• African American religion and history

• Evangelicalism and white evangelical identity

• Race, media, politics, gender, and sexuality

• The public role of religion in American society

She is also active as a public commentator. Her essays and opinion pieces appear in outlets like Religion Dispatches, The Washington Post, CNN, TheGrio, and others.

At Penn, she holds the Geraldine R. Segal Chair in American Social Thought, a prestigious endowed professorship.

She has also served leadership roles in professional societies: for instance, she was President-Elect of the American Society for Church History.

In recognition of her public scholarship, Butler was honored with the Martin E. Marty Award for the Public Understanding of Religion.

Major Works & Contributions

Some of her most influential books and writings include:

• Women in the Church of God in Christ: Making a Sanctified World — examining African American women’s roles within Pentecostal tradition.

• The Gospel According to Sarah: How Sarah Palin’s Tea Party Angels Are Galvanizing the Religious Right — analyzing how evangelicalism and right-wing politics intersect in modern America.

• White Evangelical Racism: The Politics of Morality in America (2021) — a critical exploration of evangelicalism’s relationship to race, politics, and white supremacy.

Her current and future projects include work on “Reading Race: How Publishing created a lifeline for Black Baptists in post-Reconstruction America” and studies of African American women’s educational and mission work.

Butler often brings archival research, historical narrative, and cultural critique together to trace how religious identity is entangled with social structures of race and power.

Perspectives & Influence

Here are some key themes and viewpoints Butler is known for:

• Evangelicalism as a political identity
  Butler argues that in the U.S., “evangelicalism” has long functioned not just as a religious category, but as a political and racial formation. Her book White Evangelical Racism emphasizes how evangelicalism has been mobilized to support white Christian nationalism.

• Race, religion, and power critique
  She interrogates how religious doctrines and institutions are implicated in systems of Black subordination and white dominance rather than merely being neutral spiritual bodies.

• Gender and authority in Pentecostalism
  Butler’s dissertation and earlier book investigate women’s leadership, matriarchal structures, and gendered authority in African American Pentecostal churches (e.g. Church of God in Christ).

• Public intellectual role
  Butler sees academics as having responsibility beyond the academy: engaging public debates, influencing policy, and helping society reflect on religious and racial assumptions.

• Critical engagement, not dismissal
  She often contends that critique of evangelicalism doesn’t require rejecting faith but pushing for reformed, just religious practices.

Her voice is influential among scholars, activists, religious communities, and the media, especially on topics of white Christian nationalism, religious rhetoric in politics, and the intersections of faith and racial justice.

Selected Quotes

Here are some notable lines attributed to Anthea Butler (or reported in public interviews):

“Evangelicalism is not a simply religious group at all — it’s a racialized political formation.”

“If you think voting is the only thing that’s going to do it, you are sorely mistaken.” (On civic participation beyond electoral politics.)

“The Black Church is a site of both liberation and limitation — both resistance and reproduction.” (Paraphrase of her critique in public lectures.)

“Faith, for many, is not separate from race and power; rather, it is embedded within them.”

These statements encapsulate her view that religious life is always in conversation with social structures and inequality.

Lessons from Her Life & Work

1. Scholarship with moral urgency
   Butler’s work shows that academic research can—and arguably should—engage urgent social issues, especially when religion impacts public life and injustice.

2. Bridging the academy and the public
   She models how scholars can maintain rigorous research while also being accessible and influential in public discourse.

3. Interdisciplinary lenses
   Her blending of history, religion, cultural studies, and race theory demonstrates how complex questions demand crossing disciplinary boundaries.

4. Critique from within
   Rather than abandoning religion, she offers reformist critique — treating faith as a site for change rather than denial.

5. Courage to provoke conversation
   Her willingness to name evangelicalism’s racial dimensions, particularly in a politically charged context, shows intellectual boldness despite controversy.