Dr. Arthur Remillard

Books

• Bodies in Motion: A Religious History of Sports in the United States America
• Gods, Games, and Globalization: New Perspectives in Religion and Sports, Sports and Religion Series (Mercer University Press, 2019) co-edited with Rebecca Alpert
• Southern Civil Religions: Imagining the Good Society in the Post-Reconstruction Era, The New Southern Studies Series (University of Georgia Press, 2011)
  • Winner of the 2012 Harry T. and Harriette V. Moore Award from the Florida Historical Society
  • Reviewed in: Choice; American Historical Review; Southern Jewish History; Journal of Interdisciplinary History; Journal of Southern Religion; Journal of American History; Journal of Southern History; Register of the Kentucky Historical Society; The Southern Historian; Journal of African American History

Reviews of Southern Civil Religion

"By focusing on a diverse set of characters, in a relatively understudied sub-region, through the lens of people talking about a 'good society,' and using a number of vivid examples, this book makes a significant contribution to post-Civil War southern history."
—Paul Harvey, author of Freedom's Coming: Religious Culture and the Shaping of the South from the Civil War through the Civil Rights Era

"An exciting, revisionist study that is clear in argument. Anyone wanting to understand how a variety of people in the South have understood its spiritual and moral meanings will like this book."
—Charles Reagan Wilson, author of Baptized in Blood: The Religion of the Lost Cause, 1865-1920

"Carefully researched and gracefully written, this study transforms our understanding of the post-Reconstruction Wiregrass South. Not the monolith often assumed, the region nurtured a rich diversity. Remillard demonstrates that competing and sometimes conflicting views of the good society—of civil religion—brought white southern Protestants, northerners, African Americans, Catholics, Jews, nativists, and others into lively, contested conversation. He shows how the views of each faction shaped and modified the image of the good society fashioned by the others, resulting in a variety of civil religious understandings. Essential reading for anyone hoping to understand the complex spirit of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century Wiregrass South."
—Charles H. Lippy, coeditor, Encyclopedia of Religion in the South

"Remillard attempts to pull together the sundry strands and competing visions of the Wiregrass Gulf South—upper Florida, southern Georgia, and lower Alabama—by examining the moral vision of not only elite whites who perpetrated the Lost Cause mythology, but also the politically, socially and economically disadvantaged groups who suggested what society ought to be. . . .His work expands the dialogue and scholarly borders in analyzing the post-Reconstruction South and brings new life to southern voices long ignored."
—Choice

“It is a rare treat to study the construction of southern identity from the perspective of so many different groups interacting with each other steadily over time. In this regard, Southern Civil Religions can be a model for future histories of the post-Reconstruction South.”—John M Giggie, American Historical Review

"Remillard writes with admirable clarity and brevity. He utilizes a wide range of primary materials that present a variety of perspectives. . . . [The] book reminds us that even a society as locked down as the 'solid South' failed to keep down courageous, alternative visions of the good society."—Gavin James Campbell, Journal of American History

"This portrayal of the New South is humane and affirming, clear-eyed and yet refusing cynicism. In Remillard's hands, civil religion becomes not a smothering uniformity but a vocabulary in which people of all backgrounds, even in the repressive South, claimed a place for their vision of a just America. This book is itself an example of the benefits of a broader and more inclusive vision of what civil religion might mean."—Edward L. Ayers, Journal of Southern Religion

Blogs, interviews, news

• "In the Beginning," Faith and Sports Blog,(April 20, 2020)
• “Sir Roger Bannister’s ‘Miracle’ On The Track,” Sightings: Religion in Public Life,(March 22, 2018)  
• “From Durkheim to Game Day: Sports as a Bridge for Introducing Religious Studies,” Religious Studies News (October 27, 2016)  
“Ten Christian Athletes Who Were Tebowing Before Tebow,” Christianity Today, co-authored with Paul Putz (September 28, 2016)  
• “Ethiopia’s Heroic Marathoners from Rome to Rio,”Sacred Matters(September 30, 2016)
• “Protests, Pigskin, and Patriotism: Colin Kaepernick and America’s Civil Religions,” Oxford University Press Blog (September 17, 2016)  
• "Tree Huggers, Tree Cutters, and the Challenge of Pope Francis,"Sojourners
• "Confessions of an Academic Carpetbagger,"Journal of Southern Religion
• "The Honor of Struggling and Failing,"Christian Century
• "Is Religion Losing Ground to Sports?"Washington Post (co-authored with Chris Beneke)
  • Radio interview on "The Think Tank" (New Orleans)
• "Warrior Culture and Muscle Men in the NFL,"Christian Century
• "Steelers Nation and the Seriously Religious Side of Football,"Marginalia Review of Books
  • Radio interview about the article on Essential Pittsburgh
  • MRB's "Most Read" article of 2013
• Podcast interviews for the Marginalia Review of Books
• Podcast interviews for the Journal of Southern Religion
• "The Aimless Pilgrim,"Religion in American History
• "Capturing Boston,"Religion in American History
• "Can Civil Religion Be Saved,"Religion in American History
• "Civil Religious Revivals and Awakenings,"Religion in American History
• Featured in "God and the NFL: What Tim Tebow’s Celebrity Says About America,"Time
• Review of Out of Left Field: Jews and Black Baseball by Rebecca Alpert, WPS
  • Interview with the author, Religion in American History
• "An Amish Paradox That Isn't All That Paradoxical,"Religion in American History
• "Building Bridges from 'Muscular Christianity' to 'The Tebow Thing',"The Historical Society
• Course featured in "Relay for Life...", Altoona Mirror
• Review of Anetso, the Cherokee Ball Game by Michael Zogry, Religion in American History
• "What do Puritans, Shakers, Food, Beer, and Running Shoes Have in Common? Eden, of Course,"Religion in American History
• "Duke Redux,"Blogtalkradio
• Review of The Great Match Race by John Eisenberg, WPSU
• "O'Connor, Shelley, and Interpreting Beyond Intentio Auctoris,"Hogwarts Professor
• Featured in "Cancer portrayal raises awareness of disease,"Altoona Mirror
• "Lost in Thought about Lost,"Religion in American History
• "On Illness Stories and Hospital Beds,"Religion in American History
• "A Surprisingly Unsurprising Look at Southern Jewish Life in the Age of Leo Frank,"Religion in American History
• "On Pardons and Penance,"Religion in American History
• "Dirt, Order, and HGH,"Religion in American History

Research Articles

• “‘The Pure of Body are Pure of Soul’: Religion and the Emerging Sports Culture of the New South” Southern Religions, Southern Cultures: Essays Honoring Charles Reagan Wilson (University Press of Mississippi, 2018)

• “ From Prizefights to Praying Colonels: Civil Religion, Sports, and a New(ish) Direction for the Lost Cause,” Journal of Southern Religion 17 (2015)
• “Playing on Sacred Ground: Uncovering the Religious Dimensions of Athletic Venues around the World,” The Changing World Religion Map, ed. Stanley D. Brunn (Springer, 2014)
• "Movement, Maps, and Wonder: Civil Religious Competition at the Source of the Mississippi River, 1805-1832," in Gods of the Mississippi, ed. Michael Pasquier (University of Indiana Press, 2013)
• "Between Faith and Fistic Battles: Moralists, Enthusiasts, and the Idea of Jack Johnson in the New South," Perspectives in Religious Studies 39, no. 3 (2012)
• "From Muscular Christianity to Divine Madness: Sports and/as Religion in America," Faith in America: Changes, Challenges, and a New Spirituality, ed. Charles H. Lippy (Praeger, 2006)
• "Holy War on the Football Field: Religion and the Florida State University Mascot Controversy," Horsehide, Pigskin, Oval Tracks, and Apple Pie: Essays on Sports and American Culture, ed. James Vlasich (McFarland, 2005
  • Reprinted in:Taking Sides: Clashing Views in Race and Ethnicity, eds., Raymond D'Angelo and Herbert Douglass (McGraw-Hill, 2012 [8th edition])

•  “Religion and Sports in America,”  Oxford Research Encyclopedia, ed. John Corrigan (March 2016)
• "Civil Religion: Christian Contact, Theological Exchanges, and Current Issues" and "Civil Religion: History, Beliefs, and Practices," Handbook of Religion, ed. Terry C. Muck (Baker Academic, 2014)
• “Bob Hayes” and “Michael Johnson,” American Sports: A History of Icons, Idols and Ideas, ed. Murry Nelson (ABC-CLIO, 2013)
• "Sports," The Encyclopedia of Religion in America, eds. Charles H. Lippy and Peter W. Williams (C.Q. Press, 2010)
• "Father Divine" and "Mother Ann Lee," The Encyclopedia of American Counterculture, ed. Karen Karbiener (M.E. Sharpe, 2009)
• "Jeremy Bentham" and "William Ellery Channing," The Encyclopedia of Protestantism, ed. Hans J. Hillerbrand (Routledge, 2004)
• "Spanish Colonization in North America" and "Spanish Empire," The Encyclopedia of Religious Freedom, ed. Catharine Cookson (Routledge, 2003)

In Print

Catholicism Today: An Introduction to the Contemporary Catholic Church, by Evyatar Marienberg. In Choice Reviews (2015)

The Secular Spectacle: Performing Religion in a Southern Town, by Chad E. Seales. In Choice Reviews (2014)

Sister Thorn and Catholic Mysticism in Modern America, by Paula M. Kane. In Choice Reviews (2014)

The Last Segregated Hour: The Memphis Kneel-Ins and the Campaign for Southern Church Desegregation, by Stephen R. Haynes. In Church History (2014)

A Cry for Justice: Daniel Rudd and His Life in Black Catholicism, Journalism, and Activism, 1854-1933, by Gary B. Agee. In Church History (2013)

Diverging Loyalties: Baptists in Middle Georgia During the Civil War, by Bruce T. Gourley.  In Civil War Book Review (2012)

A History of the Catholic Church in the American South, 1513-1900, by James M. Woods.  In The American Historical Review (2012)

Out of Left Field: Jews and Black Baseball, by Rebecca Alpert. In Religious Studies Review (2012)

Game Day and God: Football, Faith, and Politics in the American South, by Eric Bain-Selbo. In Religious Studies Review (2011)

Tennis and Philosophy: What the Racket is All About, edited by David Baggett. In The Journal of Sports History (2011)

Kentucky's Most Hated Man: Charles Chilton Moore and the Blue Grass Blade, by John Sparks. In The Journal of Southern History (2011)

Liquor in the Land of the Lost Cause: Southern White Evangelicals and the Prohibition Movement, by Joe L. Coker. In Church History (2008)

Religion on Our Campuses: A Professor's Guide to Communities, Conflicts, and Promising Conversations, by Mark U. Edwards, Jr. In Religious Studies Reviews (May 2008)

We Hold These Truths: Catholic Reflections on the American Proposition, by John Courtney Murray. In Religious Studies Reviews (2008) 

Feast of Souls: Indians and Spaniards in the Seventeenth-Century Missions of Florida and New Mexico , by Robert C. Galgano. In Religious Studies Reviews (October 2007)

Authentic Fakes: Religion and American Popular Culture, by David Chidester. In Journal of Religion and Popular Culture, Vol. 15 (2007) 

From Season to Season: Sport as America Religion, ed. Joseph L. Price. In Journal of Religion and Popular Culture, Vol. 2 (2003)

Online

God and War: American Civil Religion since 1945, by Raymond J. Haberski. For the Society for U.S. Intellectual History blog ( 2012)

Rounding the Bases: Baseball and Religion in America, by Joseph L. Price. In H-American Studies, Humanities & Social Sciences Online (2008)

The South's Tolerable Alien: Roman Catholics in Alabama and Georgia , 1945-1970, by Andrew S. Moore. In H-Catholic, Humanities & Social Sciences Online (2008)

The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture, Volume I: Religion, ed. Samuel S. Hill. In H-American Studies, Humanities & Social Sciences Online (2007)

French and Spanish Missions in North America, by John Corrigan and Tracy Leavelle with Arthur Remillard, California Digital Library (University of California, Berkeley, 2005)

Creating an Old South: Middle Florida's Plantation Frontier before the Civil War, by Edward E. Baptist. In H-USA, Humanities & Social Sciences Online (2004)

The Martyrs of Columbine: Faith and the Politics of Tragedy, by Justin Watson. In H-USA, Humanities & Social Sciences Online (2003)

• “‘Heroes of the Black World’: Race, Boxing, and Civil Religion(s) in Early America,” Eastern International Regional Meeting of the American Academy of Religion in Syracuse, NY (13-15 April 2018)
• “Civil Religions in America,” Society for Values in Higher Education Annual Meeting, Boston, MA (12-16 July 2017)
• “‘Let Us Pray for God’s Blessing on Our Game’: Evangelicals and Sports from Muscular Christianity to Tim Tebow,” Land Center Lecture, Southwest Baptist Seminary, Houston, TX (27 September 2016)
• “Is Civility Possible in the Climate Change ‘Debate’? An Interfaith and Interdisciplinary Panel on Pope Francis and Laudato Si’,” (Organizer and presider), Society for Values in Higher Education, Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH (13-17 July 2016)
• “‘The Pure of Body are Pure of Soul’: Religion and the Making of the South's Sports Culture, 1865-1926,” Porter Fortune History Symposium on Southern Religion, University of Mississippi (26-28 February 2015)
• “From Prizefights to Praying Colonels: Civil Religion, Sports, and a New Direction for the Lost Cause,” Southern Intellectual History Circle, Edgefield, South Carolina (19-21 February 2015)
• “‘Baton Rouge is Football Crazy’: Religion and the Origins of College Football Mania in the South, 1892-1926,” Invited Lecture, Louisiana State University (10 February 2014)
• “‘Jack Johnson, We Have Waited So Long For You’: Religion, Race, and Boxing in the New South,” Sam Hill Lecture in Southern Religion at the University of North Carolina-Asheville (18 April 2013)
• Panel review of Charles Reagan Wilson’s Flashes of a Southern Spirit: Meanings of the Spirit in the U.S. South, Southeastern Regional of the American Academy of Religion, Greenville, SC (15-17 March 2013)
• “Francis of Assisi, beyond the Birdbath: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Teaching Compassion,” Society for Values in Higher Education, Madison, NJ (3-7 August 2012)
• “The ‘Race Problem’ as a ‘Place Problem’: Catholics, Race, and Place in the New South,” American Academy of Religion, San Francisco, CA (19-22 November 2011)
• “Life after Graduate School,” invited talk, Florida State University Graduate Symposium, Tallahassee, FL (18-20 February 2011)
• “Understanding Illness through Stories and Service-Learning,” Southern Alleghenies Learn and Serve Alliance Workshop, Juniata College, Huntington, PA (1 May 2010)
• “Homemaking at the Headwaters: Henry Rowe Schoolcraft’s Civil Religious Expedition to the Source of the Mississippi,” American Society of Environmental History, Portland, OR (11-13 March 2010)
• “Coming and Going to the Source: Producing Sacred Space at the Headwaters of the Mississippi River,” American Society of Church History, New York, NY (2-5 January 2009)
• “‘True’ and ‘Un-True’ Americans: Anti-Catholicism, Civil Religion(s), and the Murder of Father James Coyle,” Mid-Atlantic American Academy of Religion Meeting, Baltimore, MD (1-2 March 2007)
• “Images of Jesus in Contemporary America,” invited lecture, Saint Francis University Philosophical Society, Loretto, PA (21 March 2005)
• “‘A Place to Commune with God’: Running as Religion in Contemporary America,” Saint Olaf Conference on Sport and Religion, Northfield, MN (24-26 June 2004)
• “Conflict Competence: Art and the Continual Creation of America’s Civil Religion,” Florida State University Graduate Symposium, Tallahassee, FL (19-20 March 2004)
• “Holy War on the Football Field: Religion and the Native American Mascot Issue at Florida State University,” Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association National Conference, New Orleans, LA (17 April 2003)
• “Ritual Running: An Ethnographic Exploration of Competitive Running and Religious Identity,” The Mid-Atlantic Popular Culture Conference, Pittsburgh, PA (2 November 2002)

Professional Experience

Honors Program at Saint Francis University

• Associate Director (Fall 2019-)

Wolf-Kuhn Ethics Institute at Saint Francis University

• Director (Fall 2018-)

Journal of Southern Religion (http://jsr.fsu.edu)

• Interim Book Review Editor (2017-2018) 
• Managing and Book Review Editor (2002-2013) 
• Podcast Director (2012-2013)

Marginalia Review of Books (http://themarginaliareview.com/) 

• Radio Director (2013-2016)

The Examined Life: An Undergraduate Conference in the Liberal Arts 

• Founder and Co-Director (2007-2018)

American Academy of Religion

• Steering committee member for “Religion, Sports, and Play” group (2012-2014)
• Co-chair of “Religion, Sports, and Play” group (2014-2019)

Society for Values in Higher Education

• Board of Directors (2013-2016)

Religion in American History blog (http://usreligion.blogspot.com/) 

• Contributing Editor (2007-2014)

Manuscript Referee

• Religion and American Culture;  Journal of Southern History; Journal of Religion and Popular Culture; Journal of Southern Religion; North Carolina Historical Review; Contemporary Philosophy; Soundings: An Interdisciplinary Journal; Routledge Press; Columbia University Press; InterVarsity Press; University of Tennessee Press

Awards

• Selected Participant, Teaching Interfaith Understanding Seminar, Interfaith Youth Core, Chicago, IL (June 17-21, 2018)
• Robert Spivey Excellence in Scholarship Award (July 2017)
• Selected Participant, Faculty Athletics Representative Institute, NCAA, Indianapolis, IN (June 18-20, 2016)
• Inducted into Delta Epsilon Sigma National Scholastic Honor Society (April 2015)
• John F. Coleman Award for Outstanding Teaching and Research (Spring 2012)
• NEH Summer Scholar, “The Ethnohistory of Indians in the American South,” at UNC-Chapel Hill (June 12–July 15, 2011)
• Mary Jo Small Fellowship, Society for Values in Higher Education (Summer 2010)
• Saint Francis University Faculty Research Grant (Spring 2009)
• Florida State University Travel Grant (November 2002, April 2003, June 2004)
• Florida State University Dissertation Research Grant (February 2004)