An accomplished scholar of Hindu-Christian encounters and religion in India, Professor Brian Pennington will oversee university support of faculty and undergraduate research projects that seek answers to intellectual questions about religion in today’s world.
Brian Pennington joins the Elon faculty this fall as director of the Center for the Study of Religion, Culture & Society. He succeeds Associate Professor Lynn Huber, who had served as the center’s interim director since its founding in 2012.
The center exists to help the campus and broader community understand the role of religion in society, Pennington said. It will promote scholarly engagement with religion by sponsoring conferences and symposia, bringing speakers to campus, facilitating faculty research, and promoting excellence in undergraduate research on religion, culture, and society
Pennington calls the center the “academic component” to the spiritual formation and multifaith engagement fostered by the university’s Truitt Center for Religious & Spiritual Life.
“One of the things that makes Elon distinctive among universities that take multifaith engagement seriously is the statement the establishment of this center makes,” Pennington said. “True understanding and reconciliation among traditions can only emerge from an informed and intellectually rigorous engagement with one another.”
Pennington comes to Elon from Maryville College in Tennessee where he taught religion and chaired the Division of Humanities. Widely recognized as a master teacher and an accomplished scholar, his first book, “Was Hinduism Invented?: Britons, Indians, and the Colonial Construction of Religion,” was published in 2005, reprinted in paperback in 2007, and is today widely used in undergraduate and graduate courses.
Pennington’s edited collection, “Teaching Religion and Violence,” was published in 2012, and a second co-edited collection, “Ritual Innovation in South Asian Religions,” is nearing completion with SUNY Press. Pennington collaborated with Assistant Professor Amy Allocco in the Department of Religious Studies on that second collection.
He has published more than 14 book chapters and articles, delivered over 25 peer-reviewed professional presentations, and given countless invited talks. Pennington routinely speaks to community organizations of all types, and he has served in consultant roles to law enforcement, business leaders, K-12 public school teachers and broadcast media for religious diversity training.
“Dr. Pennington brings a wealth of experience and depth of knowledge to the work of the center,” said Tim Peeples, associate provost for faculty affairs. “We are thrilled to have him joining us to lead the center and advance our multifaith commitment.”
During his 16-year tenure at Maryville, Pennington served in a number of leadership positions, including chair of the Academic Life Council, chair of the Core Curriculum Task Force, and member multiple times on the presidentially appointed Planning and Budget Advisory Council. He has assumed leadership roles in a number of professional organizations, including two terms on the board of directors of the American Academy of Religion, a two-year term on that organization’s executive committee, and president of the American Academy of Religion, Southeastern Region.
Pennington earned a bachelor’s degree in theology at Georgetown University, a master’s degree in theological studies at Candler School of Theology, and a doctorate in history of religion and theology at Emory University.