My study program proposal relates directly to my ministry as the Pastor and Protestant Chaplain at an Ivy League university. I am pastor of the on-campus Protestant inter-denominational student church, and my students often express uncertainty about who they are and what they believe, especially in the response to challenges from Catholic and evangelical peers. As Associate Chaplain for Protestant Life, I also coordinate the many campus Christian groups and struggle with what they have in common, if anything. I would like to use the study project to research and write on the relevance of the “Protestant” category, create a study curriculum for students on the topic, and explore connections to recent scholarly work on secularity, religious pluralism, and the apparent cultural backlash against political Christianity.

I would start one-day per week in March and April 2010 and then work full-time for eleven weeks from mid-May until late July. I would use faculty and other resources at the Yale Divinity School to research classic Protestant sources, American Protestantism in its heyday of the ’40’s-‘60’s and identity development in young adults. I would use the grant support to give me focused time away from weekly worship and congregational responsibilities.