Biography
Trained as an historian of Anglo-America, I have become increasingly interested in American religious history and, as both former director of the UW-Madison Religious Studies Program and current director of the Lubar Institute for the Study of the Abrahamic Religions, comparative religion. At this point my projects are eclectic: at the moment, they include editing an English text of the Qur’an.
My research interests include American Religious History, Colonial America, Native Peoples of the Eastern Woodlands, 1500-1800.
Education
Ph.D., University of California – Berkeley
B.A., Yale
Books
-
Charles L. Cohen. The Abrahamic Religions: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press, 2020. -
Charles L. Cohen (Co-editor), Paul F. Knitter (Co-editor), and Ulrich Rosenhagen (Co-editor). The Future of Interreligious Dialogue: A Multireligious Conversation on Nostra Aetate. Orbis Books, 2017. -
Charles L. Cohen (Co-editor). Gods in America: Religious Pluralism in the United States. Oxford University Press, 2013. -
Leonard V. Kaplan, and Charles L. Cohen. Theology and the Soul of the Liberal State. Lexington Books, 2010. -
Paul S. Boyer, and Charles L. Cohen. Religion and the Culture of Print in Modern America. University of Wisconsin Press, 2008. -
Charles L. Cohen. God’s Caress: The Psychology of Puritan Religious Experience. Oxford University Press, 1988.
Selected Publications
- “The Construction of the Mormon People,” Journal of Mormon History 32 (2006): 25-64
- “Religion,” in James Ciment, ed., Colonial America: An Encyclopedia of Social, Political, Cultural, and Economic History, 5 vols. (Armonk, NY, 2006), 1.58-69.
- “No Man Knows My Psychology: Fawn Brodie, Joseph Smith, and Psychoanalysis,” BYU Studies, 44, 1 (2005), 55-78.
- “Max Weber in New England,” in David Libby and Paul Spickard, eds., Affect and Power: Essays on Sex, Slavery, Race, and Religion in Appreciation of Winthrop D. Jordan, (n.p., 2005), 170-82.
- “The Colonization of North America as an Episode in the History of Christianity,” Church History, 72 (September, 2003), 553-68.
- “A Middle Way for Religious Studies,” Bulletin of the Council of Societies for the Study of Religion, 32, 1 (February, 2003), 11-13.
- “Was the Great Awakening a factor leading to the American Revolution? – No,” in Keith Krawczynski, ed., History in Dispute, vol. 12: The American Revolution (Columbia, S.C., 2003), 149-53.
Selected Awards
- Distinguished Lecturer, Organization of American Historians, 2008-2014
- co-recipient, Metanexus Global Societies Initiative Grant, 2008-13
- co-recipient, Metanexus Local Societies Initiative Grant, 2005-08
- Joseph Fielding Smith Institute Research Fellowship, 2004
- Asia-Pacific Study Fund Short-Term Research Fellowship, Japan, 2004
- Osaka University of Foreign Studies International Academic Exchange Fellowship, 2004
- Phi Beta Kappa Distinguished Teaching Award, 2002
- Anonymous Fund, UW-Madison, 2002, 2006
- Emil H. Steiger Distinguished Teaching Award, 1997
- F.F. Johnson Teaching Award, History Department, 1995, 1996
- Elected UW-Madison Teaching Academy, 1996
- Karen F. F. Johnson Award (UW History Dept.), 1995, 1996
- N.E.H. Younger Scholars Award (faculty co-recipient), 1995
- UW Faculty/Student Hilldale Research Award, 1992, 1995
- Romnes Fellowship, UW-Madison, 1990-95
- Vilas Associateship, 1991-93
- Institute for Research in the Humanities, Visiting Fellow, 1986
- Allan Nevins Prize, Society of American Historians.
Advisor To
History Courses
- History 101 – American History to Civil War Era – Syllabus 2015 (pdf)
- History & Religious Studies 230/Jewish Studies 231, “Braided Histories: Judaism, Christianity, Islam” – Syllabus 2015 (pdf)
- History 343 – Colonial British North America – Syllabus 2009 (pdf)
- History 451 – American Religious History to the Mid-Nineteenth Century – Syllabus 2007 (pdf)
- History 500 – Reading Seminar in History
- History 600 – The American Revolutionary Settlement of Religion – Syllabus 2014 (pdf)
- History 910 – Colonial North America – Syllabus 2012 (pdf)
- History 963 – American Religious History to 1860 – Syllabus 2017 (pdf)
- Curriculum and Instruction 675 – The History of Mass Communication in America – Syllabus 2013 (pdf)