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Academics

Meet the Faculty

Photo of Dyron B. Daughrity

Dyron B. Daughrity
Associate Professor of Religion

Division: Religion Division
Office: Appleby Center (APC) 257
Phone: (310) 506-4354
E-mail: dyron.daughrity@pepperdine.edu

  • Ph.D., University of Calgary, 2005, (History of Religious Movements and Institutions)
  • M.A., Abilene Christian University, 1999, (History and Theology)
  • B.A., Lubbock Christian University, 1995, (Religion and Communication)
Courses:
  • REL 301: Christianity and Culture: World Christianity
  • REL 330: History of Christianity (comprehensive overview)
  • REL 526: The Religions of the World (*Non-Western credit)
  • REL 532: Christian History and Theology II (*equivalent to PHIL 532)
  • REL 539: The History of the Restoration Movement
  • REL 592: The Abrahamic Faiths: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam in Comparative Perspective
Key Awards/Affiliations:
  • Pepperdine University - Academic Year Undergraduate Research Initiative for Fall 2012. Two students were under my supervision, assisting me with research into Armenian Christianity and global Baptist movements.
  • Acadia University Centre for Baptist and Anabaptist Studies - Travel and Research Grant to study early Restoration Christianity in the Canadian Maritime Provinces in July 2012.
  • Pepperdine University - Seaver Research Council Grant. April, 2012. For research into American Restoration Christianity at Abilene Christian University and the Disciples of Christ Historical Society.
  • Pepperdine University - Seaver Research Council Grant. May, 2011. Researching Glasite/Sandemanian Christianity in Nova Scotia.
  • Glazer Institute for Jewish Studies - Full Grant to develop a course on the Abrahamic Faiths at Pepperdine, 2011-2012.
  • Pepperdine University - Summer Undergraduate Research Program, 2011. Researching the effectiveness of American Youth Ministries with undergraduates Jordan Smoak and David Sommers.
  • Pepperdine University - Academic Year Undergraduate Research Initiative. Studying current trends in American Christianity. Spring 2011.
  • Pepperdine University - Prof. Daughrity has been selected as the Visiting Faculty for Pepperdine's Buenos Aires program, 2011-2012.
  • Pepperdine University - Summer Undergraduate Research Program, 2010. Researched early Restorationism and Armenian Christianity.
  • Pepperdine University - Cross-Disciplinary/Interdisciplinary Undergraduate Research Grant, summer, 2009. Expanding and developing Pepperdine's undergraduate research journal Global Tides.
  • Intercultural Dialogue in Turkey, June 2010. Participated in a ten day intercultural dialogue with Turkish Muslims associated with the Pacifica Institute.
  • Pepperdine University - Seaver Research Council Grant. March, 2010. Researching Restoration Christianity in India.
  • Pepperdine University - Dean's Research Grant. Accessed historical archives in Dundee, Scotland, in summer of 2010.
  • Pepperdine University - Seaver Research Council Grant, for travel to Kenya and Ethiopia in summer, 2010. Researching Ethiopian Christianity and researching and lecturing in Nairobi, Kenya.
  • Pepperdine University - Academic Year Undergraduate Research Initiative. Researched Armenian Christianity, 2009-2010.
  • Pepperdine University - Seaver Fellow in Religion for the academic year 2009-2010
  • Pepperdine University - Cross-Discliplinary/Interdisciplinary Undergraduate Research. Researched Armenian Christianity, summer 2009.
  • Pepperdine University - Dean's Research Grant, for travel to Armenia in summer of 2009.
  • Pepperdine University - Seaver Fellow in Religion, 2008-2009
  • Seaver Research Council Grant, 2008-2009
  • Pepperdine University - Dean's Research Grant, January, 2008.
  • Pepperdine University - Harris Manchester Award, Oxford University, UK, July 2007.
  • Pepperdine Univerity - Dean's Research Grant, 2007.
  • University of Calgary - Humanities Teaching Excellence Award, 2006-2007, awarded by the Students' Union to two members of each faculty per year (2007).
  • Yale-Edinburgh Group on the History of the Missionary Movement and World Christianity
  • American Academy of Religion
  • Society for Hindu-Christian Studies
  • North American Association for the Study of Religion
  • International Association for the History of Religions
  • American Society of Church History
  • American Society of Missiology
  • International Association of Missions Studies
  • Society for the Scientific Study of Religion
Academic Interests:
  • Global Christianity
  • Christianity in India
  • History of Christianity
  • Interreligious Dialogue
  • Non-Chalcedonian Christianity: Armenian, Ethiopian, Coptic, Syrian
  • Scottish Origins of the American Restoration Movement
  • World Religions
Selected Works:
  • Book: Church History: Five Approaches to a Global Discipline. New York: Peter Lang Publications, 2012.
  • Book: The Changing World of Christianity: The Global History of a Borderless Religion. New York: Peter Lang Publications, 2010.
  • Book: Bishop Stephen Neill: From Edinburgh to South India. New York: Peter Lang Publications, 2008.
    This book was nominated for the 2009 Gustave O. Arlt Award in the Humanities.
  • Book Chapter: "Finger on the Pulse: Armenians in Los Angeles," in Alexander Agadjanian, ed., Armenian Christianity Today: Identity Politics, Popular Practices and Social Functions (London: Ashgate, in progress).
  • Book Chapter: "Bishop Stephen Neill, the IMC and the State of African Theological Education in 1950," in Dietrich Werner and Isabel Phiri, eds., The Handbook on Theological Education in Africa (jointly published by World Council of Churches and Regnum Books, forthcoming in 2013).
  • Book Chapter: "The Indianness of Christianity: The Task of Re-Imagination," in Michael Hawley and Pashura Singh, eds., Re-Imagining South Asian Religions: Essays in Honor of Professors Harold G. Coward and Ronald W. Neufeldt (Leiden: Brill, 2012).
  • Book Chapter: "Ignoring the East: Correcting a Serious Flaw in World Christianity Scholarship," in Adogame, Afe and Shobana Shankar, eds., Religion on the Move!: New Dynamics of Religious Expansion in a Globalizing World (Leiden: Brill, 2012).
  • Book Chapter: "Under the Influence: Pneumatology in Global, Historical Perspective," in Peter Heltzel, ed., Chalice Introduction to Theology (St. Louis, Missouri: Chalice Press, 2008), pp.116-123.
  • Article: "The King's English in a Tamil Tongue: Missions, Paternalism, and Hybridity in South India," in Missio Dei 4:1 (March 2013).
  • Article: "Bishop Stephen Neill, the IMC and the State of African Theological Education in 1950," in Studies in World Christianity 18:1 (April 2012).
  • Article: "Churches of Christ in India: Two Profiles," in Discipliana: A Journal of Stone-Campbell History (Fall 2011).
  • Article: "From Sect to Secularization: Understanding the History and Future of the Earth's Largest Faith," in Missio Dei 2:2 (August 2011).
  • Article: "Glasite Versus Haldanite: Scottish Divergence on the Question of Missions," in Restoration Quarterly 53:2 (Second Quarter 2011).
  • Article: "Christianity is Moving from North to South - So What about the East?," in International Bulletin of Missionary Research 35:1 (January 2011).
  • Article: "South India: Ecumenism's One Solid Achievement? Reflections on the History of the Ecumenical Movement," in International Review of Mission 99:1 (April 2010).
  • Article: "The Enigma of Bishop Stephen Neill And Why He Was Forced to Leave India," in Mission Studies 26:2 (2009).
  • Article: "A Dissonant Mission: Stephen Neill, Amy Carmichael, and Missionary Conflict in South India," in International Review of Mission 97:384/385 (January/April 2008).
  • Article: "The Literary Legacy of Stephen Neill," in International Bulletin of Missionary Research 32:3 (July 2008).
  • Article: "A Brief History of Missions in Tirunelveli: From the Beginnings to its Creation as a Diocese in 1896," in Indian Journal of Theology 46:1&2 (Published in 2008 but dated 2004 due to publication delay).
  • Article: "Stephen Neill, Missions, and the Ecumenical Movement," in International Review of Mission 94:375 (October 2005).
  • Article: "Hinduisms, Christian Missions, and the Tinnevelly Shanars: A Study of Colonial Missions in Nineteenth Century India," in Axis Mundi (March 2005).
  • Book Review: Daniel A. Rodriguez, A Future for the Latino Church: Models for Multilingual, Multigenerational Hispanic Congregations, in Missio Dei 3:1 (February 2012).
  • Book Review: Dana L. Robert, Christian Mission: How Christianity Became a World Religion, in Missio Dei 2:2 (August 2011).
  • Book Review: Noel Davies and Martin Conway, World Christianity in the 20th Century, in Mission Studies, 27 (2010).
  • Book Review: Judith Herrin, Byzantium: The Surprising Life of a Medieval Empire, in Books and Culture, in Books and Culture 33 (2010).
  • Book Review: Barry Hankins, American Evangelicals: A Contemporary History of a Mainstream Religious Movement, in Journal of Church and State 2009; doi: 10.1093/jcs/csp050.
  • Book Review: Eliza Kent, Converting Woman: Gender and Protestant Christianity in Colonial South India, in Mission Studies 26 (2009).
  • Book Review: Robert Frykenberg, ed., Christians and Missionaries in India: Cross-Cultural Communication since 1500, in Mission Studies 22:2 (2005).
  • Book Review: Eugene Heideman, From Mission to Church: The Reformed Church in America Mission to India, in Mission Studies 22:2 (2005).
  • Book Review: Andrew Porter, ed., The Imperial Horizons of British Protestant Missions, 1880-1914, in Mission Studies 22:1 (2005).
  • Book Review: Stephen V. Sprinkle, Disciples and Theology: Understanding the Faith of a Covenant People, in Restoration Quarterly 47:1 (2005).
  • Book Review: John Wolffe, ed., Global Religious Movements in Regional Context, in Religious Studies and Theology 23:1 (2004).
  • Book Review: Judith Brown and Robert Frykenberg, eds., Christians, Cultural Interactions, and India's Religious Traditions, in Mission Studies 21:2 (2004).
  • Book Review: Colin Wells, The Devil and Doctor Dwight: Satire and Theology in the Early American Republic, in Religious Studies and Theology 22:1 (2003).
  • Book Review: Coleen McDaniel and Bernhard Lang, Heaven: A History, in Religious Studies and Theology 22:1 (2003).
Performances:
  • "The Indianness of Christianity: Historical Flashpoints in an Ongoing Struggle," at the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion Conference, Phoenix, Arizona, November 2012.
  • "Changing the Rules of the Game: How African Christianity Defied Global Religious Understanding . . . And What This Means," at the Center for Studies on New Religions International Conference, El Jadida, Morocco, September 2012.
  • "Alexander Campbell's View of Baptists," presented at the International Conference on Baptist Studies VI, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Wake Forest, North Carolina, July 2012.
  • "What's Right With Churches of Christ?," a two-part series (with Erik Tryggestad) at the Pepperdine Bible Lectures, May 2012.
  • "The King's English in a Tamil Tongue: Missions, Paternalism, and Hybridity in South India," presented at the National Endowment of Humanities-funded "Manifold Greatness" Exhibition at Payson Library, Pepperdine University, Malibu, California, September 2012.
  • "What on Earth is the Church of Christ?" presented to the Pepperdine in Buenos Aires program participants, Buenos Aires, Argentina, April 2012.
  • "The Fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5," eight sermons presented at Union Biblical Seminary's "Spiritual Emphasis Week," in Pune, Maharashtra, India.
  • "Bishop Stephen Neill, the IMC, and the State of African Theological Education in 1950," presented at the Yale-Edinburgh Conference on the History of the Missionary Movement and World Christianity, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, July 2011.
  • "The Indianness of Christianity," presented to post-graduate students at Union Biblical Seminary, Pune, India, July 2011.
  • "The Changing World of Christianity," presented to the faculty and post-graduate students at Union Biblical Seminary, Pune, India, July 2011.
  • "East and West: Difference and Continuity in the Study of Religion," presented to the faculty and students at Focus India Theological College, Kozhikode, Kerala, India, July 2011.
  • Links to Professor Daughrity's recordings on NPR (National Public Radio) and Inside Higher Ed:
    Easter Around the World
    World Christianity
    Coptic Church and Egypt's Uprising
    The Life of St. Patrick
    "The Holy Roots of Halloweeen"
    "The Historical Figure Behind Santa Claus"
    "The Religious and Cultural Origins of Valentine's Day"
  • "The Changing World of Christianity: The Global History of a Borderless Religion," at the Pepperdine Bible Lectures, May 2011.
  • "The King's English in a Tamil Tongue: Missions, Paternalism, and Hybridity in South India," at the conference "The King James Bible and the World it Made," at Baylor University, April 2011.
  • "The Indianness of Christianity: The Task of Re-Imagination," at the Seminar "Re-imagining South Asian Religions: A Conversation on Old World Cultures through the 21st Century," University of California-Riverside, March 2011.
  • "Missions, Interrupted: Scottish Anti-Missions and Propagating the Gospel at Home," at the Yale-Edinburgh Group on the History of the Missionary Movement and World Christianity, University of Edinburgh, UK, July 2010.
  • "Missions, Interrupted: Scottish Anti-Missions and Propagating the Gospel at Home," at the Yale-Edinburgh Group on the History of the Missionary Movement and World Christianity, University of Edinburgh, UK, July 2010.
  • "From Sect to Secularization: How Christianity Became the Largest Faith on Earth," Seaver Faculty Colloquium, Pepperdine University, November 2009.
  • "Religion on Planet Earth: Understanding What 7 Billion People Believe," at the 2010 Pepperdine Bible Lectures, May, 2009.
  • "Response to Ron Numbers, "Creationism Goes Global,'" at the conference "Why Darwin Still Matters: Commemorating the 150th Anniversary of On the Origin of Species," Pepperdine University, Malibu, California, November 2009.
  • "Christianity is Moving from North to South . . . So What about the East," at the Annual Meeting for the American Academy of Religion, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, November 2009.
  • "Against All Odds: The Survival of the Armenian Christians," at the Third Annual Baylor Symposium on Faith and Culture, Secularization and Revival: The Fate of Religion in Modern Intellectual History, Waco, Texas, October 8, 2009.
  • "Why Christianity Went South and What You Can Do About It (Did Christianity Really Move to the Southern Hemisphere?)," at the 2009 Pepperdine Bible Lectures, May, 2009.
  • "On the Border of East and West," at the conference "Buddhism and Christianity: American and Japanese Moralities," Bukkyo University, Los Angeles, California, March 2009.
  • "Bishop Stephen Neill: Heroic, Villainous, and Genuinely Human," at the annual conference of the Yale-Edinburgh Group on the History of the Missionary Movement and Non-Western Christianity, Edinburgh, UK, July 2008.
  • "A Dissonant Mission: Stephen Neill, Amy Carmichael, and Missionary Conflict in South India," at Pepperdine University, Malibu, California, February 20, 2007.
  • "The Most Intriguing Questions of Religion Today," at the Calgary Art Centre for Stonebridge Merchant Capital Corporation, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, February 7, 2007.
  • "The World Council of Churches Today: Perspectives from Brazil," at the 2006 Convention of the Disciples of Christ in Canada, London, Ontario, Canada, August 2006.
  • "International Terrorism and Christian Response," at Union Biblical Seminary in Pune, India, November 2005.
  • "The Life and Legacy of Stephen Neill," at the Bishop Stephen Neill Study and Research Centre, Palayamkottai, Tamil Nadu, India, October 2005. This was a three-part presentation based on my Ph.D. dissertation.
  • "An Overview of Christian Missions with Perspectives for the 21st Century," at the Western Christian Fellowship in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, April 2005.
  • "Hinduisms, Christian Missions, and the Tinnevelly Shanars: A Study of Colonial Missions in 19th Century India," at the American Academy of Religion in San Antonio, Texas, November 2004.
  • "A History of Protestant Missions in South India's Tinnevelly Diocese," at the International Association of Missions Studies, Port Dickson, Malaysia, August 2004.
  • "Bishop Robert Caldwell, India's Tinnevelly Shanars, and Social Mobility," at the American Academy of Religion Conference, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, May 2004.
  • "Researching a Revered Bishop: Reflections on the Doing of Historical Biography," at the American Academy of Religion Conference in Moscow, Idaho, April 2003.
  • "Researching Bishop Stephen Neill: Engaging History, Methods, and the Reconstruction," at the Henry Martyn Centre, Westminster Hall, Cambridge University, UK, March 2003.
  • "Christianity and Secular Societies," at the Faculty of Humanities, University of Derby, UK, March 2003.
  • "Islam: An Introduction with Reflections," Regional meeting of the Christian Church-Disciples of Christ, Red Deer, Alberta, Canada, November 2002.
  • "9/11: An Interreligious Appraisal of History," at the September 11th Remembrance and Interfaith Peace Gathering, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, September 2002.
  • "The Early History of the American Restoration Movement," at the Spring Conference of the Christian Church-Disciples of Christ, Red Deer, Alberta, Canada, May 2002.
Selected Links: