Edith Blumhofer

Dr. Blumhofer's research focuses in the history of Christianity in post-Civil War America. She is interested in lived religion and has recently been exploring the history of Protestant hymnody. Dr. Blumhofer enjoys cooking and working with children; most summers, she combines these interests by cooking at a camp for inner-city children at Brant Lake in New York's Adirondack Mountains. Dr. Blumhofer is married to Edwin, and they have two sons and a daughter, all graduates of Wheaton College.

Harvard University
Ph.D., American Religious History

Hunter College of the City University of New York
M.A., American History

Hunter College of the City University of New York
B.A., History

• Introduction to Historical Inquiry
• History of Christianity
• Topical seminars in the History of Christianity and American History

 

• American Historical Association
• American Academy of Religion
• American Society of Church History
• Society for Pentecostal Studies: past president
• Conference on Faith and History

Dr. Blumhofer is writing Evangelicalism: A Very Short Introduction for Oxford University Press and researching three nineteenth-century British hymn writers — Frances Ridley Havergal, Cecil Frances Alexander, and Catherine Winkworth — for a book soon to be published by Paulist Press. She has written another book, People of Faith, that is currently at press.

In addition to teaching in the history department, Dr. Blumhofer directs the Institute for the Study of American Evangelicals (ISAE). Current ISAE projects include examining the changing American Protestant conceptions of "mission to the world, 1910-2010" (a centennial review of the vision of the Edinborough Missionary Conference); examining the changing face of American evangelicalism (funded by the Henry Luce Foundation); exploring the ways in which confessional traditions in the United States respond to the anti-confessionalism that has characterized American religion (funded by the Lilly Endowment); preparing a set of web-based resources to facilitate the teaching of church music (funded by the Wabash Center for Teaching and Learning in Theology and Religion). Another ISAE project she is involved in is developing a six-part interactive small-group video series on the history of Christianity in America. For more information, visit the ISAE Website.

Dr. Blumhofer is working with the Leonard Greenberg Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life on the Future of American Religion Project. She is co-editor of a book on the future of American evangelicalism. She is a consulting editor for Christianity Today and The Christian Century.

Blumhofer, Edith. "'Her Heart Can See': The Life and Hymns of Fanny Crosby." Library of Religious Biography, edited by Mark Noll, Nathan Hatch, Alan Guelzo. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 2005.

Blumhofer, Edith L. and Mark A. Noll, eds. "Singing the Lord's Song in a Strange Land: Hymns and Immigrant Experience." Religion and American Culture Series, edited by David Edwin Harrell, Wayne Flint, Edith Blumhofer. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2004.

Blumhofer, Edith L. "Women in Pentecostalism." Union Seminary Quarterly Review 57 (2003): 101-122.

Blumhofer, Edith L. "From India's Coral Strand: Pandita Ramabai and U. S. Support for Foreign Missions" In The Foreign Missionary Enterprise at Home: Explorations in North American Cultural History, edited by Daniel H. Bays and Grant Wacker. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2003.

Blumhofer, Edith L., ed. Religion, Education and the American Experience: Reflections on Religion and American Public Life. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2002.

Blumhofer, Edith L., ed. Religion, Politics and the American Experience: Reflections on Religion and American Public Life. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2002.

Blumhofer, Edith L. "William H. Durham: Years of Creativity, Years of Dissent" in Portraits of a Generation: Early Pentecostal Leaders, edited by James R. Goff and Grant Wacker. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 2002.

Blumhofer, Edith L. The Assemblies of God Tradition: Religious Beliefs and Healthcare Decisions. Religious Traditions and Health Care Decisions Handbook Series, Park Ridge, IL: Park Ridge Center, 2002.

Blumhofer, Edith L. Aimee Semple McPherson: Everybody's Sister. Library of Religious Biography, edited by Mark Noll, Nathan Hatch, and Alan Guelzo. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1993.

Blumhofer, Edith L. Restoring the Faith: The Assemblies of God, Pentecostalism, and American Culture. Champaign and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1993.