Sociology’s Lindsay to discuss power of U.S. evangelicals

Sociology’s Lindsay to discuss power of U.S. evangelicals

BY FRANZ BROTZEN
Rice News Staff

D. Michael Lindsay, Rice assistant professor of sociology and author of the Pulitzer-nominated “Faith in the Halls of Power, How Evangelicals Joined the American Elite,” is traveling the country to discuss his new book.
 

MICHAEL LINDSAY

Lindsay has spent the last five years studying evangelical elites and their growing power in the United States. He interviewed 360 evangelicals in politics, business and cultural fields to determine how this religious movement has been able to wield so much power in a relatively short span of time. While many observers have written about the growing clout of evangelicals in the United States, Lindsay said no one has attempted a systematic study of the phenomenon.

The Economist called it ”an impressive and admirably fair-minded book,” and added, “anybody who wants to understand the nexus between God and power in modern America should start here.”
 
Lindsay’s book tour will bring him to Houston Sept. 29, when he will speak at the Barnes & Noble bookstore at 3003 West Holcombe Blvd. at 2 p.m.
 
Rice alumni living outside Houston will also have a special opportunity to meet Lindsay in three other cities — Atlanta, San Antonio and Washington, D.C.

Lindsay will appear at a private reception and lecture for alumni and friends Sept. 27 at the Hotel Contessa in San Antonio, Oct. 17 at City Club of Washington-Franklin Square in Washington, D.C. and Oct. 24 at the Grand Hyatt-Buckhead in Atlanta. Alumni may register for these events at alumni.rice.edu or 800-742-3258.

Lindsay, who is also assistant director of Rice’s Center on Race, Religion and Urban Life (CORRUL), specializes in issues surrounding leadership, religion and culture. Before coming to Rice, Lindsay earned his doctorate in sociology at Princeton University, where he was named a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellow in 2002 and the Harold W. Dodds Fellow in 2004.