Please introduce yourself and the background of your stay as Research Fellow in Tübingen in one or two sentences.
I like to tell people that I am a Bible scholar by training and political theologian or religious-political thinker by necessity. I am originally from the US and first became interested in the academic study of the Bible as it became a central source of American political discourse and identity posturing in the late 2010s. I have had the privilege to collaborate with colleagues in fields such as political science, law, and sociology to analyze similar trends on this side of the Atlantic and imagine ways in which religious traditions can be sources of democratic resilience. Thanks to the local funding of Baden-Württemberg, I can continue my research on the Bible and nationalism, which is under political pressure in the US, in partnership with my biblical studies colleagues at the Evangelisch-Theologische Fakultät.
Which problem or question does your research address and what fascinates you about your research area?
A lot of my research focuses on the mutual influences of the Bible on politics and politics on the Bible, both in its original ancient west Asian context and in modern-day Europe and the US. In Tübingen, I’m working to push back on narratives that trace the origin of nationalism back to the Hebrew Bible, specifically to the book of Joshua, by instead highlighting how the texts are shaped by imperial ideals, especially conquest. What fascinates me is how natural it feels to modern Western minds to identify “nations” or political concepts like “sovereignty” in ancient texts. This is largely because the modern study of the Bible and even vernacular Bible translations, which became the heart of European religious and cultural identity, were themselves intertwined with the rise of nationalist thought, especially in Germany. So not only does nationalism subtly shape our modern political imagination but also the historical and religious discussion around the Bible and the very language we use to talk about it.
Please briefly outline the social relevance of your research.
With the global resurgence of nationalism and transnational far-right networks, the Bible is being coopted by both religious and nonreligious movements as a weapon of political consolidation. Conservative religious communities, who have been alienated by secularist politicians denying the relevance of sacred traditions today, are told that nationalism is the only truly “biblical” form of political engagement. In some cases, academic scholarship is being appropriated to bolster historical claims that the Bible itself is a “proto-nationalist” document. My work specifically challenges religious and political fundamentalist narratives, not only by correcting historical misconceptions, but by demonstrating how the Bible itself contains a diverse collection of voices who continually renegotiated and reimagined belonging as their circumstances changed. Similarly, as the same Bible texts have been interpreted differently throughout history – Joshua, for example, was used both for and against Apartheid in South Africa – interpretation can be a source of inclusion and discourse rather than othering.
Where do you see future opportunities for international and interdisciplinary cooperation for the university, and what role can an institution like the College of Fellows play in this?
Tübingen has a unique concentration of expertise at the intersection of religion and nationalism, particularly between the Theology Faculty, including one of the only departments of Islamic Theology in Germany, and the Institute for Research on Far Right Extremism (IRex). As demonstrated through their collaboration in hosting an international conference on Religion and the Far-Right (29-31 July 2026), the university has the unique opportunity to spearhead the growing international interest in this area—both within Europe, perhaps in partnership with initiatives like the Oxbridge Political Theologies Conference series, and beyond, building on the Transatlantic connections of the German-American Institute (d.a.i.) to reach institutions like the Public Religion Research Institute, that have analyzed these movements in North America and are eager to share their knowledge. The College of Fellows, which already boasts a focus group on Far-Right Threats to Democracy, is the perfect venue to bring together these seemingly disparate organizations and fields to address the multi-facetted global issues around religion, democracy, and co-existence.
