Marie Griffith
R. Marie Griffith, the John C. Danforth Distinguished Professor in the Humanities at Washington University in St. Louis, is director of the John C. Danforth Center on Religion & Politics and editor of Religion & Politics. She obtained her undergraduate degree at the University of Virginia in Political and Social Thought and a PhD in the study of religion from Harvard University. She held professorships in American religious history at Princeton and Harvard Universities before joining Washington University. She is the author or editor of several books, including God’s Daughters: Evangelical Women and the Power of Submission, which examines the practices and perceptions of contemporary evangelical women; and Born Again Bodies: Flesh and Spirit in American Christianity, which explores the history of Christian-influenced attitudes and practices related to embodiment in modern America, culminating in the evangelical diet and fitness movement. These books, along with her three edited volumes—Women and Religion in the African Diaspora: Knowledge, Power, and Performance (co-edited with Barbara Dianne Savage, 2006), Religion and Politics in the Contemporary United States (co-edited with Melani McAlister, 2008), and American Religions: A Documentary History (2007)—exhibit Griffith’s varied interests. Her next book will be an analysis of sexuality debates in twentieth-century American Christianity titled Christians, Sex and Politics: An American History. In addition to her books Professor Griffith has published over thirty-one articles and books chapters and written more than twenty reviews.
