Paul Gutacker

Areas of Specialization

U.S. Religious and Intellectual History, History of Christianity, Anti-Catholicism, Memory and Tradition

Education

Ph.D., Baylor University
Th.M., Regent College
M.A. in Theological Studies (History of Christianity), Regent College
B.A., Bryan College

Academic Interests & Research Narrative

My research explores how popular narratives about Christian history influenced American religious and political life from 1780-1865. Through an analysis of sermons, tracts, treatises, and popular books, I show that religious memory shaped the most significant debates of the era—arguments over church and state relations, denominational competition, national identity, women's education and suffrage, racial equality, and slavery. More broadly, my research deals with themes of religion, memory and tradition, intellectual history, transatlantic print cultures, religious and political identities, and the history of Christianity.

Biography

Paul serves as the executive director of Brazos Fellows, a nine-month part-time residential fellowship for college graduates who desire to be formed through theological study, spiritual disciplines, vocational discernment, and life together. In his spare time, Paul enjoys reading fiction, running the Waco Riverwalk, cooking, and cheering on the Buffalo Bills. Paul and his wife Paige enjoy life in East Waco with their children, James, Marianne, and Matthew.

Selected Publications

Book

The Old Faith in a New Nation: American Protestants and the Christian Past. Oxford University Press, January 2023

Book Chapter

"Revivalism," co-authored with Thomas S. Kidd, in The Oxford Handbook to Early Evangelicalism, Oxford University Press, 2022: 406–425. 

Selected Articles and Review Essays

"Seventeen Centuries of Sin: The Christian Past in Antebellum Slavery Debates." Church History 89, no. 2 (June 2020): 307-332.

"What We Have Done and What We Have Left Undone: Christian History as Confession." International Journal of Christianity & Education 23, no. 2 (July 2019): 204-30.

"Recovering the Ancient Roots of Evangelical Protestantism." Fides et Historia 50, no. 2 (Fall 2018): 144-150.

"Joseph Milner and his editors: eighteenth- and nineteenth-century evangelicals and the Christian past." The Journal of Ecclesiastical History 69, no. 1 (January 2018): 86-104. doi: 10.1017/S0022046917000744.

"The Past Judging the Present: Joseph Milner's Evangelical Critique of Eighteenth Century Britain." CRUX 49, no. 2 (Summer 2013): 22-30.

Blog Posts

“One Year, Seven Transformations, and the Emergence of a ‘WEIRDER’ World.” Review of Andrew Walker’s Remaking the World. Christianity Today. December 2023.

“Defending the Protestant Nation: The Role of Church History in 1830s Nativism.” The Anxious Bench. July 2023.

“Tradition, the Bible, and America’s Debate over Slavery.” The Gospel Coalition. January 2023.

“The Old Faith in a New Nation: A Conversation With Paul Gutacker.” The Anxious Bench. January 2023.

“Resisting the Vice of Curiosity: Reflections on a PhD Quest for Knowledge.” Bear Tracks, Baylor Graduate School. November 2020.

“Don’t Think For Yourself: Attention, Discernment, and Community.” Bear Tracks, Baylor Graduate School. October 2019.

“Forming Communities of Practice.” Covenant Blog, The Living Church Foundation. April 2018.

“The Christian Past in the Early Republic: Church History, Disestablishment, and American Exceptionalism.” Berkley Center for Religion, Peace & World Affairs. September 2017.

“Leaving Christendom Behind: The Historiographic Roots of American Religious Freedom.” Berkley Center for Religion, Peace & World Affairs. July 2017.

Selected Activities

Awards

• 2023 A. Donald MacLeod Award for Presbyterian History from the Presbyterian Scholars Conference, 2023
• Recipient of Military Challenge Coin, Baylor Veteran Educational and Transition Services, 2018
• Florence Bell Scholar Award, Drew University, 2018
• Audience Choice Award, Three Minute Thesis Competition, Baylor University, 2017
• Doctoral Research Travel Award, Graduate School, Baylor University, 2017
• Doctoral Research Travel Award, History Department, Baylor University, 2017
• Board of Governors’ Prize for Proficiency in the Th.M. Degree Program, Regent College, 2014
• Church History Prize, Regent College, 2013
• Academic Symposium Prize, Regent College, 2013
• P.A. Boyd Award for Senior Influence, Bryan College, 2008
• Senior Communications Award, Bryan College, 2008

Fellowships

• Summer Research Fellowship, Religious Freedom Project at Georgetown University, 2017
• Armstrong Browning Library Teaching Fellowship, Baylor University, 2017
• Graduate Fellow, Baylor Institute for Studies of Religion, 2015 –2016
• Guittard Fellowship, Baylor University, 2014 –2017

Grants/Scholarships

• Graduate School Presidential Scholarship, Baylor University, 2014–2019
• Lynn E. May Study Grant, Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives, 2017
• Academic Entrance Scholarship, Regent College, 2011
• Catherine McDonald Communications Scholarship, Bryan College, 2007
• D.B. Rice Scholarship, Bryan College, 2005
• Presidential Scholarship, Bryan College, 2004

Regular Course Offerings

• Undergraduate:
  • HIS 1300 | US in Global Perspective: Anti-Catholicism in America

Social Media Handles

Twitter: @pgutacker