Gerardo Martí

@gerardomarti

William R Kenan Jr Professor of Sociology @ Davidson College | Race, Religion, Power, Social Change | Past Roles: Journal Editor Sociology of Religion, President SSSR & ASR, Chair ASA Religion, AAR Religion & Social Science Unit | cv

4.534 Folgt17.337 Follower341 Posts

Bluesky

Ist das dein Profil?Übernimm es — dann gehört dir gerardomarti.dirty.social.Profil übernehmen

Gerardo Martí@gerardomarti· 14d

Outstanding interdisciplinary contribution based in medieval studies, many insights on religion & race. Core is careful comparison btwn Spanish Christian Teresa de Jesus & Moroccan Sufi Sidi Ridwan. My March trip to Spain added knowledge of the Iberian Peninsula, adding some context to my reading.

Between
Dung
and
Blood

Purity, Sainthood, and Power in the Early Modern Western Mediterranean

MANUELA CEBALLOS

< UC Press >

Gerardo Martí@gerardomarti· 14d

Concise, yet highly detailed, examination of archaeological evidence for women’s leadership in Early Christianity. There’s a lot. Clearly written and an excellent corrective to lots of popular discourse/ theology.

CARINA OLIVEIRA

EXCAVATING WOMEN
THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF LEADERS IN EARLY CHRISTIANITY
< Fortress Press >

Gerardo Martí@gerardomarti· 16d

“Mulder and Martí have written a compelling narrative…” New Book Review of The Church Must Grow or Perish: Robert H. Schuller and the Business of American Christianity 👉 academic-oup-com.proxy048.nclive.org/jcs/article-...

Journal of
CHURCH & STATE

JOURNAL ARTICLE
The Church Must Grow or Perish:
Robert H. Schuller and the
Business of American Christianity
By Mark T. Mulder and Gerardo Marti

Gerardo Martí@gerardomarti· 16d

Yet another interview with Emily Wilson 👉 www.vulture.com/article/the-...

There was also a negative response from readers who were angry at your translation. How did you approach that?

It isn't really about my translation.
It's a stand-in for a whole lot of made-up culture-war things. The people who are getting angry haven't spent years studying Homeric Greek. There's a lot of anxiety about gender, race, and whiteness tied to the discourse about greatness. I don't think any of that has anything to do with me, but somehow people have latched on to this.

Why do you think people feel such ownership of The Odyssey?

I find it quite baffling. It's people who don't care about the poem, yet when it comes to this culture-war internet discourse, they perform anger about it and a protectiveness of it.
It has to do with an idea of a totally stable notion of greatness and masculinity. Anything that challenges that interpretation of what ancient history is threatens their identity in terms of their gender and racial identities.

Gerardo Martí@gerardomarti· 17d

Horned Puffin Tufted Puffin

Gerardo Martí@gerardomarti· 17d

Seward, Alaska

View of green grass and more distant line of mountains, green trees, American flag on flagpole bordering on left, sun also to left and visible round white glow

Gerardo Martí@gerardomarti· 18d

Learning about Lox & Loaded 👉 loxandloaded.org

Gerardo Martí@gerardomarti· 19d

Landing in Alaska

Jet engine, wing of plane, blue sky, white clouds, blue sea — View from airplane window seat of Alaskan coast

Gerardo Martí@gerardomarti· 20d

Friend sent this from the door of an evangelical church in Spain

POR FAVOR APAGUE
SU MÓVIL.
Para hablar con Dios no lo necesitas.
GRACIAS.

Gerardo Martí@gerardomarti· 21d

My first Odyssey was written by “Lawrence of Arabia” and published under the name T.E. Shaw, originally published 1932. I found a worn hardcover years ago in a used bookstore, $3 according to the pencil mark on the inside cover, and the prose drew me in. Finished that one pretty quickly.

Hardcover The Odyssey of Homer, with decorative Greek ship on front.

Inside cover, endpapers feature map of the Mediterranean around Greece, and a few decorative costumed figures (Athene is one) with a little Greek ship and decorative statement The Wanderings of Odysseus, Son of Laertes, Lord of Ithaca, Kinsman of Zeus

Title page

THE ODYSSEY OF HOMER
NEWLY TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH PROSE
BY T. E. SHAW
LAWRENCE OF ARABIA
<decorative figure of Homer with a harp>
NEW YORK
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

Gerardo Martí@gerardomarti· 22d

🎶 One of these things is not like the otherrrr 🎵🎶🎵

USA TODAY
Breaking News
1h ago
RFK Jr. says cyclosporiasis is 'under control,' responds to criticism over health care cuts

WCNC CHARLOTTE
New Cyclospora cases
1m ago
NC cyclosporiasis cases surge past 500; still no source found. Here's how to protect yourself

Gerardo Martí@gerardomarti· 27d

Trending at #1 @ Interpretation The Changing Church and the Challenge of Racial Justice Sage 👉 doi.org/10.1177/0020... ResearchGate 👉 www.researchgate.net/publication/...

Sage Journals

Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology

Research article

The Changing Church and the Challenge of Racial Justice

Gerardo Martí

Gerardo Martí@gerardomarti· 28d

Giving a keynote address that begins right at start of 2nd half of ENG-ARG Need to be especially compelling to keep them from being glued to phone/laptop, but can’t control alerts …

Gerardo Martí@gerardomarti· 28d

Invited to spend the day in discussion and Q&A on religious innovation with leaders of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America

Gerardo Martí@gerardomarti· Jul 13

Reviewing proofs for our forthcoming book 👏👏👏

Aspiring to Antiracism
The Pursuit of Racial Justice in White
Progressive Churches

GERARDO MARTÍ
MARK T. MULDER
KEVIN D. DOUGHERTY

OXFORD
UNIVERSITY PRESS

Gerardo Martí@gerardomarti· Jul 11

Feel good movie on Hulu. Save it for later.

"A Ridiculously Charming British Comedy"

<4 and 5 star reviews>

The Duke

Jim Broadbent

Helen Mirren

Gerardo Martí@gerardomarti· Jul 11

Mood

Tap 100
Norge
🍏 Music
Top 100: Norway
Apple Music

Gerardo Martí@gerardomarti· Jul 4

A little downtime at Lake Norman

Gerardo Martí@gerardomarti· Jul 2

New Essay reviewing our theorizing on "religious innovation" by Galen Watts. Posted on The Immanent Frame 👉 tif.ssrc.org/2026/07/02/f...

First–the case for “religious innovation.” The most compelling argument is what I’ll call the argument from agency. Vaidyanathan, Martí, Winston, and Sun all advance some version of this. Talk of “spiritual innovation” foregrounds the agentic actor; individuals are not mere religious dopes, passively adapting, responding, or merely surviving, but rather creatively and imaginatively innovating. As Martí puts it, “innovators act intentionally.” So, when Vaidyanathan contends that “religious innovation” promises certain “analytical advantages” I take him to mean, chiefly, that it enables us to see the active, contingent, and dynamic aspects of religious change–of the way exogenous pressures force religious actors to innovate new political configurations and traditions, as Winston documents, or of the way endogenous concerns for legitimacy motivate spiritual and institutional innovations, as Martí theorizes.

Gerardo Martí@gerardomarti· Jun 28

On the shift from “Christian Nationalism” to “Christian Civilization” NYT 👉 www.nytimes.com/2026/06/28/b...

"I wouldn't describe it as a rebranding; I think what's going on is far more radical than that," Philip Gorski, a professor of sociology and religious studies at Yale, told me. "What you're seeing is a reorganization and reorientation of the Christian right in the United States and other parts of the world that really is quite profound."

Gerardo Martí@gerardomarti· Jun 24

"Except for white evangelicals, Americans have soured on Trump’s leadership" 👉 baptistnews.com/article/exce... Features several great graphs from @prri.org ALT TEXT provides narrative summary

$This PRRI survey graph, titled “Favorability of Pope Leo XIV vs. Donald Trump, by Religious Affiliation,” uses a diverging back-to-back bar chart to compare the percentage of Americans holding "very or somewhat favorable" views of Donald Trump (teal, left) versus Pope Leo XIV (light green, right). General Overview Among All Americans, the Pope holds a 22-point net advantage over Donald Trump (56% vs. 34%). However, the data illustrates a fractured landscape defined by race, political alignment, and theological tradition. Key Demographic Insights The Evangelical Outlier: White evangelical Protestants are the single greatest outlier on the chart. They are the only demographic to give Trump a massive favorability lead over the pontiff (67% vs. 41%). Hispanic Protestants are the only other group where Trump edges out the Pope, albeit with low overall enthusiasm (37% vs. 35%). The Catholic Split: While Catholic identity unites behind the Pope, it fractures politically by race. White Catholics give the Pope his highest rating on the board (75%) alongside moderate support for Trump (46%). Conversely, Hispanic Catholics hold high favorability for the Pope (64%) but largely reject Trump (23%). Broad Mainstream Appeal: Pope Leo clears a 50% favorability majority in 8 of the 10 listed subgroups. He holds commanding leads among Jewish Americans (66% vs. 31%), White mainline Protestants (61% vs. 48%), and the Religiously Unaffiliated (54% vs. 21%). The Narrowest Gap: Latter-day Saints are the most evenly divided demographic surveyed, leaning just slightly toward the Pope (47% vs. 44%). Lowest Trump Support: Favorable views of Trump bottom out among Black Protestants and members of other non-Christian religions, tying at just 13% (both groups view the Pope favorably at 52% and 56%, respectively). Summary: The Pope enjoys broad, cross-demographic goodwill, whereas Trump’s favorability is heavily concentrated inside conservative white Christian traditions.$

Gerardo Martí@gerardomarti· Jun 24

Summer reading, published 1981

they find a pope? There was a feeing that to make a robot a pope would be sacrilegious. They could not use a human, even if they could have laid hands on one, which, at the time they came here, they could not. A human would be too short-lived to serve as a pope for a robotic church, the members of which, theoretically, could live forever. With a little proper care, that is. In any case, aside from this severe limitation, a human probably would not have been acceptable. An ideal pope, to their way of think-ing, should be immortal and all-knowinginfallible beyond the infallibility of a human pope. So they set out to make a pope-"
"To make a pope?"
"Yes. A computer pope."
"Oh, my God!" said Tennyson.
"Yes, oh, my God, Dr. Tennyson. They are still building him. They build him and improve him year by year. Over the centuries he expands. He is crammed with additional data almost every day, and as the years go by, he becomes more infallible."
"I can't believe it. It is—"
"You do not need to believe in it. Nor do I. It is enough that the robots believe it. After all, it is their faith. And if you sit down quietly and think about it quietly, it can begin to make a lot of sense."
"Yes, I suppose it does. Faith is based on instant and authoritative-infallibleanswers. Yes, come to think of it, it makes a lot of sense. The data, I suppose, comes from the Search Program."

Gerardo Martí@gerardomarti· Jun 24

😝

A two-panel black-and-white comic strip.

The first panel is titled "BEFORE CORPORATE TRAINING" and shows a giant, spiky, spotted monster looming over a tiny man. The monster says, "I'm going to eat you."

The second panel is titled "AFTER CORPORATE TRAINING" and features the exact same image, but the monster adds a superficial personalized touch, saying, "I'm going to eat you, Steve." with "Steve" underlined.

Gerardo Martí@gerardomarti· Jun 22

Journalist from El País provides a 20 minute video documentary overview of Pentecostalism in Spain LINK 👉 elpais.com/videos/2026-...

En vídeo

Miracles by Appointment: Evangelical Extremism in Spain

EL PAIS
0:00 / 23:51
IGLESIA EVANGÉLICA
Milagros con cita previa: el extremismo evangélico en España

El discurso fundamentalista cala en una parte de esta rama del cristianismo a través de las iglesias neopentecostales, cercanas a la ultraderecha

ANTONIO NIETO | LUIS ALMODÓVAR
14 JUN 2026 - 05:15CEST

Gerardo Martí@gerardomarti· Jun 21

If I were an artist, I would places pieces of this on canvas, sell them with a clever title: The Art of the Peel Taxpayer Blue No. 14 Of the People, By the People, For the Contractor No-Bid Blue American Flake Gross Domestic Polymer A House Divided Cannot Adhere The Emancipation of the Topcoat

"Trump's reflecting pool coating is now coming off in sheets. Jen Bendery"
Image from HuffPost
Trump's $14M Reflecting Pool Paint Job Is Now Peeling Off And Floating To The Surface
Sara Boboltz, Jennifer Bendery
Thu, 18 June 2026 at 4:41 pm GMT-4
https://nz.news.yahoo.com/trumps-14m-reflecting-pool-paint-204158001.html

Gerardo Martí@gerardomarti· Jun 19

The 1526 Project is a 20 week spiritual formation curriculum. Twenty Sundays, July 4 through the First Sunday of Advent — each pegged to a moment in the Christian liturgical year and to a rebellion the textbooks tried to bury. Website resistance500.com Preview resistance500.com/The_1526_Pro...

THE 1526
PROJECT

Resistance at 500

In 2026, America will throw the most expensive birthday party in the history of empires. We are celebrating the anniversary of resistance instead.

1526 – 2026 • Independence Day to the First Sunday of Advent

Gerardo Martí@gerardomarti· Jun 18

Is Juneteenth a Lie? This blunt claim not only misreads how emancipation actually unfolded but also dismisses a tradition through which Black Americans have written themselves into our national history for over 150 years. Posting Tomorrow, June 19th @ 10:30am 👉 open.substack.com/pub/gerardom...

Gerardo Martí@gerardomarti· Jun 17

Excellent New Article @jssreligion.bsky.social What Counts as Discrimination Against Whom? Understanding Perceived Discrimination Against Christians Michele F. Margolis “White evangelicals are especially attuned to slights directed at fellow Christians” 👉 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/8H6MDB...

The results show that white evangelicals do not interpret events in a consistent fashion: the protagonist matters. They are quick to identify discrimination when the target is a fellow Christian, even in ambiguous cases. In fact, perceptions of discrimination against Christian individuals remain roughly the same regardless of whether the discriminatory cue is overt or subtle. In contrast, the bar for recognizing discrimination is higher when the target is Muslim: The same ambiguous scenario that triggers concern when directed at a Christian does not prompt the same response when aimed at a Muslim.
Moreover, this pattern is unique to white evangelicals. Among white non-evangelicals and non-white evangelicals, perceptions of discrimination are shaped primarily by the context of the rejection (i.e., whether it is overt or ambiguous), not by the religious identity of the applicant. The results suggest that white evangelicals exhibit a distinctive pattern of in-group bias in ambiguous situations—one not mirrored across the broader Christian population.

Gerardo Martí@gerardomarti· Jun 12

Arrived today My endorsement of this new edited volume from Routledge is printed on the back 👇

Edited by Mark Silk and Rhys H. Williams
Understanding
Christian Nationalism
Perspectives on the Political Religion of Trump's America
ROUTLEDGE

[…]

"Featuring a stellar lineup of distinguished scholars tracing the evolution of faith-based social conservatism over the last half-century, this outstanding volume demonstrates how Christian nationalism has emerged as a totalistic political theology. With extraordinary depth and range, this volume is an indispensable resource for understanding the sacralization of modern partisan politics." Gerardo Marti, William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Sociology at Davidson College and author of American Blindspot: Race, Class, Religion, and the Trump Presidency

Offering the first comprehensive, interdisciplinary account of what Christian nationalism in America is and isn't, and how it became the political religion of Donald Trump's MAGA movement, the chapters in this book describe the way Christian nationalism has embedded itself in American politics… Christian nationalism's sacralization of the US must be seen against the backdrop of American civil religion, which since the founding of the republic has represented the country in sacred terms that transcend political partisanship. By contrast, partisanship is central to the Christian nationalist enterprise… the Christian nationalism experienced in today's America derives from the rise of the religious right in the late 1970s. Adapting civil religious language to advance the electoral success of the Republican Party, the religious right set the stage for the MAGA movement by promoting the restoration of a country dominated by White, heterosexual men, when Protestant Christianity enjoyed favored status as the country's effective religious establishment… many Christian nationalists in America see themselves as part of an international movement to restore Christian values around the world. Featuring chapters that use historical methods, media analysis, survey data, interviews, and ethnographic observations, this book is essential…

Mark Silk …
Rhys H. Williams …

Gerardo Martí@gerardomarti· Jun 9

JUST POSTED A theology shaped to see one injustice does not automatically see another. 👉 open.substack.com/pub/gerardom...