Barnard Religion Professor Randall Balmer featured in The Birmingham News

Contact: Petra Tuomi, Public Affairs, 212-854-7907
Cyndie Pogue, Public Affairs, 212-854-2037

New York, NY, July 31, 2002—The July 29, 2002, issue of The Birmingham News features an article on Professor Randall Balmer and his recently released Encylopedia of Evangelicalism (Westminster John Knox Press, 654 pp.), which covers one of the most significant subcultures in American religious life. Staff writer Greg Garrison notes that Balmer "has become an important chronicler of the American religious scene in its most popular and vital forms, especially the evangelical subculture." Of the nearly six years he spent working on the encyclopedia, Balmer admits that "there are days when I wondered if it was a fool’s errand...(but) the importance of the book is that it signals that evangelicalism is a movement with a maturity and history that can sustain an encyclopedia."

Balmer’s own background is steeped in evangelicalism. "It’s part of who I am," says Balmer. "It’s part of my identity. I spent many years trying to run away from that and found I couldn’t." Balmer chronicles the evolution of his faith in his recent memoir Growing Pains, (Brazos Press, 142 pp.) in which he recalls his conservative evangelical upbringing, and his struggles with it. "Even though I raged against my fundamentalist past...It provided my moral grounding. My evangelical background gave me something to push against." His next book, tentatively titled Ties that Bind: Growing up Evangelical, will explore the lasting influence of an evangelical upbringing. "Even those who profess to have left it behind usually haven’t," Balmer said. "There are ties that bind."