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Messiah University
Messiah University

Devin Manzullo-Thomas

Devin C. Manzullo-Thomas

Assistant Professor of American Religious HistoryA white man with glasses wearing a blue sweater and a brown blazer standing in front of a shelf of blue boxes

Director of the E. Morris and Leone Sider Institute for Anabaptist, Pietist, and Wesleyan Studies

Director of Archives

Office: Boyer 101E
Phone: 717-766-2511 ext. 5235
Email: dcthomas@messiah.edu

Curriculum Vitae

Professional Website

Education

PhD, 2020
Temple University

M.A., 2012
Temple University

B.A., 2009
Messiah University

Biography

Devin C. Manzullo-Thomas is associate professor of American religious history at Messiah University, where he also serves as director of the E. Morris and Leone Sider Institute for Anabaptist, Pietist, and Wesleyan studies; director of archives; and director of common-content courses. As a scholar, his interests and expertise focus on the history of Christianity in the United States, public memory and commemoration, and material culture. Dr. Manzullo-Thomas is the author of Exhibiting Evangelicalism: Commemoration and Religion’s Presence of the Past (University of Massachusetts Press, 2022) and Storyteller: The Life and Ministry of E. Morris Sider (Brethren in Christ Historical Society Press, 2025). He has also published journal articles and book reviews in a variety of popular and scholarly venues, including The Christian Century, Church History, Mennonite Quarterly Review, Fides et Historia, and Brethren in Christ History and Life. Currently, Dr. Manzullo-Thomas is researching and writing Open to the Spirit: The Brethren in Christ Church in the Twentieth Century, a social, cultural, and institutional history of the Brethren in Christ in North America between 1900-2000. The book is under contract with the Brethren in Christ Historical Society Press.

Courses Taught (selected)

  • First Year Seminar: Give Peace a Chance
  • Brethren in Christ Life and Thought
  • Theology of Violence and Nonviolence
  • Wesleyan/Holiness Theology
  • Introduction to Christian Theology
  • Senior Seminar in Peace and Conflict Studies 

Publications (recent)

  • Exhibiting Evangelicalism: Commemoration and Religion's Presence of the Past (Amherest, MA: University of Massachusetts Press, 2022).
  • "The American Tradition of Tearing Down Statues." Review of Erin L. Thompson, Smashing Statues: The Rise and Fall of America's Public Monuments, in The Christian Century (September 2022): 82-84.
  • "Billy Graham's Heart Religion: Emotion and the Rise of 'America's Pastor,'" Fides et Historia 52, no. 2 (Summer/Fall 2020): 50-71.
  • "Encounters with the Spirit among the Quiet in the Land: A Case Study of American Mennonites and Charismatic Renewal," in Charismatic Renewal in Europe and the United States Since 1950, eds. Andrew Atherstone, Mark Hutchison, and John Maiden (London: Brill, 2021): 190-214.
  • "From Second Work to Secondary Status: The Shifting Role of Holiness Theology in the Brethren in Christ Church," Wesleyan Theological Journal 52, no. 2 (Fall 2017): 63-91. Reprinted in Brethren in Christ History and Life 42, no. 2 (August 2019): 249-279.

Presentations (recent)

  • "Sacred Subjects: Interpreting Religion and Engaging Religious Publics at U.S. Museums." Presented at the Sixth World Conference of the International Federation of Public History, Berlin, Germany, 19 August 2022.
  • Participant, "The Imaginary Turn in Evangelical Scholarship." Roundtable discussion at the Annual Meeting of the American Society for Church History, New York City, 4 January 2020.
  • "Interpreting 'America's Pastor': Evangelicalism, Public Commemoration, and the Many Meanings of Billy Graham." Presented at the Annual Meeting of the Organization of American History, Philadelphia, Pa., 4 April 2019.
  • Participant, "Radical Activists, Faith Communities, Settlement Houses, and More: The Many Roots of Public History and Why They Matter for the Future of the Field." Roundtable discussion at the Annual Meeting of the National Council on Public History, Hartford, Conn., 28 March 2019.

Current Projects

Devin is currently working on two book projects. The first is Storyteller: The Life and Times of E. Morris Sider, a scholarly biography of E. Morris Sider, the namesake of the Sider Institute and one of the most prolific scholars in the Brethren in Christ Church. The second is Open to the Spirit: The Brethren in Christ Church in the Twentieth Century, a new history of the Brethren in Christ Church in North America between 1900-2000. Both projects are under contract with the Brethren in Christ Historical Society.