Department of Religious Studies
Department of Religious Studies
Daryn Henry

Daryn Henry

Assistant Professor
james.daryn.henry@virginia.edu
Curriculum Vitae (203.86 KB)

Education

  • PhD, Boston College (2016)
  • MAR, Yale University (2009)
  • BA, University of Western Ontario (2007)

Research Interests

My research specializes in the Religious History of the Americas (North & Latin America) and the ways in which various contemporary Christian communities (Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, Pentecostal) dynamically interact with modern and postmodern cultures: intellectual-philosophical, pluralistic-democratic, popular-aesthetic, scientific-technological cultures. In my most recent book, AB Simpson and the Making of Modern Evangelicalism, I examine this leading figure in North American religion at the turn of the 19th/20th centuries and show how Simpson crafted an “enchanted modernity” that both spurned aspects of Gilded Age modern developments and also provided a highly devout and supernaturalist pathway through modernity. The book further displays how Simpson played a role in shaping many of the key developments in Evangelical religious culture of the time. My first book, The Freedom of God: A Study in the Pneumatology of Robert Jenson, engaged a major contemporary Christian thinker’s interpretation of the symbol of the Holy Spirit against the backdrop of a range of 20th century Holy Spirit movements and discourses.

Teaching

  • American Catholic History (RELC 2401)
  • American Religious Historiography (RELG 8760)
  • Christian Nationalism (RELC 5559)
  • Eastern Orthodoxy (RELC 3043)
  • Ethical Engagements (EGMT 1540)
  • Evangelicalism (RELC 3115)
  • Global Christianity (RELC 2245)
  • Holy Spirit in Christian Tradition (RELC 3559)
  • Religious Americana (RELG 4500)
  • Religious Bioethics (RELG 2650)
  • 20th c. Roman Catholic Thought (RELC 3559)

Selected Publications

Books

Articles

  • "Five Books That Shaped the Study of American Religions" Religious Studies Review, 50th Anniversary ed. (forthcoming, 2025)
  • "Review of Aaron Ross, The Holy Spirit and the Eagle Feather: The Struggle for Indigenous Pentecostalism in Canada (McGill-Queen's, 2023)", Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses, 53.3 (September 2024)
  • "Review of Carl Weinberg, Red Dynamite: Creationism, Culture Wars, and Anticommunism in America (Cornell University Press, 2021)," Journal of American History, 109.4 (March 2023)
  • "Review of Dennis Dickerson, The African Methodist Episcopal Church: A History (Cambridge University Press, 2020)," Religious Studies Review, 46.4 (Dec 2020)
  • “Invitation to the Triune Conversation: Explorations of Prayer through the Theology of Robert Jenson,” Dialog: Journal of Theology, 52:4 (Winter 2013): 340-48
  • “Chants of Conversion: Inspiration, Individualism and Adherence in American Evangelicalism” Journal of Religion & Society, 11:1 (2009)

Select Awards & Grants

  • UVA Undergrad Opportunities in Research Advisor Grant
  • UVA Dean's Office Faculty Summer Research Grant 
  • UVA Seven Society Monticello Dinner Series Honoree for Contribution to Students 
  • Boston College Donald J. White Award for Teaching Excellence
  • Boston College Dean of Summer Session Doctoral Teaching & Research Fellowship
  • Social Science & Humanities Research Council of Canada Doctoral Fellowship
  • Yale Rev. Harry B. Adams Academic Scholarship
  • Governor General of Canada’s Medal for Academic Excellence