Christopher Driscoll

Biography

Christopher M. Driscoll, Ph.D. is associate professor of religion studies at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, PA. His work takes place at the intersections of religion and spirituality, race and social identity, immersive outdoor educational experiences, and the power of belief and disbelief. He is the author of numerous books on topics ranging race and religion, hip hop culture, and mountaineering religions; and, He has lectured extensively across the U.S. and internationally in universities, religious and spiritual communities, and various corporate settings. Having spent the first half of my adult life believing myself a skeptic and an atheist, a single distance reiki session several years ago transformed all of that. He has spent many years using the tools of scholarship to try and convince others that belief in God or forces we cannot see were dangerous and should be avoided. He is now in the process of unlearning and relearning how to use those tools in order to empower others both inside and outside of academia. His latest book, White Devils, Black Gods: Race, Masculinity, and Religious Codependency (Bloomsbury, 2022), chronicles much of his personal transformation that took place alongside research into a little known black American spiritual community called the Nation of Gods and Earths. While the book began as a way to tell the peculiar story of how race and masculinity and history impact this particular community’s belief that the white man is the devil, it evolved to include a deeply vulnerable account of a confrontation with the devil within himself. Other books include White Lies: Race and Uncertainty in the Twilight of American Religion (Routledge, 2015); Method as Identity: Manufacturing Distance in the Academic Study of Religion (Lexington, 2018); Kendrick Lamar and the Making of Black Meaning (Routledge, 2020); Mountaineering Religion – Culture and Religion (Routledge, 2021). He also hosts much of his work on his YouTube Channel – Christopher Driscoll, Ph.D. Take a second to click a link or two, and feel free to email him if something’s on your mind or if you’d like to discuss a project.