New Books Network

About Ryan Shelton

Ryan David Shelton (@ryoldfashioned) is a social historian of British and American Protestantism and a PhD researcher at Queen’s University Belfast.

Ryan David Shelton (@ryoldfashioned) is a social historian of British and American Protestantism and a PhD researcher at Queen’s University Belfast.

NBN Episodes hosted by Ryan:

Christian Studies April 9, 2021

Glimpses of the New Creation

Worship and the Formative Power of the Arts

W. David O. Taylor and Jeremy Begbie

Hosted by Ryan Shelton
Churches have long sought the arts as a vehicle to communicate divine transcendence and to form worshipers. In Glimpses of the New Creation: Worship and the Formative Power of the Arts (Eerdmans, 2019) …
Christian Studies April 8, 2021

Singing the Congregation

How Contemporary Worship Music Forms Evangelical Community

Monique M. Ingalls

Hosted by Ryan Shelton
The choices that churches make about their musical style do more than simply change the sounds one hears in their gatherings, but actually form certain kinds of community. So Monique …
Christian Studies March 29, 2021

Survival and Resistance in Evangelical America

Christian Reconstruction in the Pacific Northwest

Crawford Gribben

Hosted by Ryan Shelton
In America's Pacific Northwest a group of conservative Protestants have been conducting a new experiment in cultural transformation. Dissatisfied with what they see as the clumsy political engagement and vapid literary …
Christian Studies March 22, 2021

Quakers, Christ, and the Enlightenment

Madeline Pennington

Hosted by Ryan Shelton
Histories of seventeenth-century Quakerism have far too often emphasized social and political factors as the agents of development and change. While the Quakers were not in a vacuum and persecution …
Christian Studies March 19, 2021

God’s Law and Order

Aaron Griffith

Hosted by Ryan Shelton
The rise of Neo-Evangelicalism as a social and political American movement accompanied shifting attitudes in broader American criminal justice policies. Religious leaders from Billy Graham to David Wilkerson found growing …
American Studies March 19, 2021

American Literature and the New Puritan Studies

Bryce Traister

Hosted by Ryan Shelton
Bryce Traister has edited a collection of 13 original essays exploring the shifting landscape in the historiography of American Puritanism in American Literature and the New Puritan Studies (Cambridge UP, 2017) …
History March 15, 2021

Saint Patrick Retold

The Legend and History of Ireland's Patron Saint

Roy Flechner

Hosted by Ryan Shelton
The only surviving contemporary texts that provide insight into the life of Saint Patrick were both written by the legendary patron saint of Ireland. By Patrick's own account, his life …
Christian Studies March 12, 2021

A Christian Approach to Corporate Religious Liberty

Edward A. David

Hosted by Ryan Shelton
How does individual religious liberty apply to religiously affiliated groups? Edward  A. David investigates the polarized ways legal theorists seek to understand group ontology in A Christian Approach to Corporate Religious Liberty (Palgrave MacMillan, 2020).  …
American Studies March 11, 2021

Puritans Behaving Badly

Gender, Punishment, and Religion in Early America

Monica D. Fitzgerald

Hosted by Ryan Shelton
The Puritans of Early America did not start out with gendered society and piety. Instead, Monica D. Fitzerald suggests, growing tensions between lay men and clergy over what was perceived …
Christian Studies March 8, 2021

Flow

The Ancient Way to Do Contemporary Worship

Lester Ruth

Hosted by Ryan Shelton
Traditional and mainline denominational churches who begin to make the transition to contemporary worship quickly learn that there is more at play than simply swapping organs for guitars or hymnals for projectors …
Christian Studies February 26, 2021

@ Worship

Liturgical Practices in Digital Worlds

Teresa Berger

Hosted by Ryan Shelton
Digital dualism, or a sharp division between online and offline activity as "virtual" or "real" has long been a feature of liturgical studies and discussions around worship gatherings for theorists and …
Christian Studies February 19, 2021

Eating Together, Becoming One

Thomas O'Loughlin

Hosted by Ryan Shelton
In November 2015, Pope Francis made a call to theologians to explore whether Catholic practice ought to be amended to include Christians from different churches in full participation in the …
Christian Studies February 17, 2021

The Logic of the Body

Retrieving Theological Psychology

Matthew A. LaPine

Hosted by Ryan Shelton
Matthew A. Lapine has written a fantastic interdisciplinary study weaving together the history of ideas, contemporary psychological anthropology, and Christian theology. The Logic of the Body: Retrieving Theological Psychology (Lexham Press, 2020) is …
Christian Studies February 16, 2021

They Knew They Were Pilgrims

Plymouth Colony and the Contest for American Liberty

John G. Turner

Hosted by Ryan Shelton
John G. Turner's excellent new history of the early American separatists, They Knew They Were Pilgrims: Plymouth Colony and the Contest for American Liberty (Yale University Press, 2020) provides a new …
Christian Studies February 10, 2021

Rhythm

A Theological Category

Lexi Eikelboom

Hosted by Ryan Shelton
Philosophers have long approached the concept of rhythm as a significant tool for understanding the human experience, metaphysics, language, and the arts. In her new study Rhythm: A Theological Category (Oxford …
Christian Studies February 2, 2021

Worship and the World to Come

Exploring Christian Hope in Contemporary Worship

Glenn Packiam

Hosted by Ryan Shelton
How does contemporary worship cultivate Christian hope? In a succinct and tightly researched volume, Worship and the World to Come: Exploring Christian Hope in Contemporary Worship (IVP Academic, 2020), the Rev. Dr …
Christian Studies January 29, 2021

Born Again

The Evangelical Theology of Conversion in John Wesley and George Whitefield

Sean McGever

Hosted by Ryan Shelton
While the ministries of John Wesley and George Whitefield have been thoroughly examined by historians and theologians, too little attention has been given to the nuanced doctrine that is most associated …
Christian Studies January 27, 2021

The Trauma of Doctrine

New Calvinism, Religious Abuse, and the Experience of God

Paul Maxwell

Hosted by Ryan Shelton
What happens to a trauma survivor who negatively internalizes the doctrines of Reformed theology? What are the paths forward toward psychological and spiritual healing? In a tour de force interdisciplinary …
Christian Studies January 21, 2021

Trump and the Protestant Reaction to Make America Great Again

Matthew Rowley

Hosted by Ryan Shelton
The relationship between American Protestant Evangelicals and the candidacy, presidency, and legacy of Donald Trump arrests the attention of journalists and pundits alike. But few have probed the implication that the rally …
Christian Studies January 19, 2021

Reformed Resurgence

The New Calvinist Movement and the Battle Over American Evangelicalism

Brad Vermurlen

Hosted by Ryan Shelton
Since the turn of the millennium, American Evangelical Protestantism has seen a swell of interest in Calvinist theology. Variously described as the New Calvinism or Neo-Reformed Christianity, the latter half …
American Studies January 19, 2021

As a City on a Hill

The Story of America's Most Famous Lay Sermon

Daniel T. Rodgers

Hosted by Ryan Shelton
Since the presidency of Ronald Reagan, John Winthrop's famous phrase, "We shall be as a city upon a hill," has become political creed and rallying cry for American exceptionalism. But for …
Christian Studies January 7, 2021

Shout to the Lord

Making Worship Music in Evangelical America

Ari Y. Kelman

Hosted by Ryan Shelton
How do songwriters, worship leaders, and music industry professionals collaborate to make music that can become prayer? Ari Y. Kelman explores this question in his excellent study, Shout to the Lord …
Christian Studies December 30, 2020

Ecologies of Resonance in Christian Musicking

Mark James Porter

Hosted by Ryan Shelton
Mark Porter (@mrmarkporter) explores the relationship between music, sound, space, and spirit in his new book Ecologies of Resonance in Christian Musicking (Oxford University Press, 2020). Using the analytical tools …