Molly Worthen

Molly Worthen (born 1981) is a journalist and historian of American religion. She is a contributing opinion writer for The New York Times and a tenured professor at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Early life and education

Raised in Glen Ellyn, Illinois, she graduated from Yale University in 2003 and earned a Ph.D. in American religious history in 2011.{{Cite web |last1=Worthen |first1=Molly |last2=Hansen |first2=Colin |title=What Happened to Historian Molly Worthen? |url=https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/podcasts/gospelbound/happened-molly-worthen/ |access-date=2023-05-09 |website=The Gospel Coalition |date=9 May 2023 |language=en-US}} She self-described as growing up in a secular household, and was generally an agnostic theist.{{Cite web |last=Worthen |first=Collin Hansen • Molly |date=2023-05-09 |title=What Happened to Historian Molly Worthen? |url=https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/podcasts/gospelbound/happened-molly-worthen/ |access-date=2024-12-03 |website=The Gospel Coalition |language=en-US}}

Career

Her first book, The Man on Whom Nothing Was Lost, a biography of American diplomat and Yale professor Charles Hill, was published in 2006 and reviewed by The Boston Globe and Michiko Kakutani in The New York Times. Her most recent book, Apostles of Reason, examines the history of American evangelicalism since 1945.

Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Slate, Time, The Boston Globe, The New Republic, The Dallas Morning News, and the Toledo Blade. She is an associate professor of history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Her forthcoming book, slated for release on May 27, 2025 is entitled Spellbound: How Charisma Shaped American History.

Personal life

Influenced by J.D. Greear and Tim Keller, she converted to evangelical Christianity in 2022.{{cite news |last=Lupfer |first=Jacob |date=June 3, 2023 |title=Molly Worthen's conversion represents a truce in evangelical infighting. Will it last? |url=https://religionnews.com/2023/06/05/molly-worthens-conversion-represents-a-truce-in-evangelical-infighting-will-it-last/ |work=Religion News Service |access-date=August 7, 2023}}

Select works

=Books=

{{cite book |last=Worthen |first=Molly |title=The Man On Whom Nothing Was Lost: The Grand Strategy of Charles Hill |location=New York, NY |publisher= Houghton Mifflin Company |date=2005 |isbn=0-618-57467-0 }}
{{cite book |last=Worthen |first=Molly |author-mask=3 |title=Apostles of Reason: The Crisis of Authority in American Evangelicalism |location=New York, NY |publisher= Oxford University Press |date=2014 |isbn=978-0-19-989646-2 }}
{{cite book |last=Worthen |first=Molly |author-mask=3 |title=Spellbound: How Charisma Shaped American History |location=New York, NY |publisher= Convergent Books |date=2025 |isbn=978-0593729007 }}

=Articles=

{{cite journal |last=Worthen |first= Molly |author-mask=3 |title=The Chalcedon Problem: Rousas John Rushdoony and the Origins of Christian Reconstructionism |journal= Church History |volume= 77 |issue=2 |date=June 2008 |pages = 399–437|doi= 10.1017/S0009640708000590 }}