W. Jason Wallace

Richard Stockham Jr. Chair of Western Intellectual History

Howard College of Arts and Sciences

History

305 Burns Hall

Jason Wallace specializes in religious and intellectual history and directs Samford's Core Texts Program. In addition to teaching in the interdisciplinary core curriculum and University Fellows honors program, he teaches History courses on medieval, modern, and American intellectual history as well as methods of historical research and writing. In 2014 he was named the inaugural chair holder of the Stockham Chair of Western Intellectual History.

Wallace's current research concerns the relationship between citizenship and religion in Western thought. A student of Western religion and politics, he is the author of Catholics, Slaveholders, and the Dilemma of American Evangelicalism, 1835-1860 (Notre Dame, 2010) which examines religious conflict surrounding slavery, Catholicism, and nationalism in the nineteenth century. In addition, he has published journal articles and chapters in larger volumes covering an array of thinkers including Edmund Burke, James Madison, Wendell Berry, Walker Percy, and Aleksandr Solzehnitsyn. Wallace is an advocate of utilizing the “great books” as the foundation of general education, and serves on the board of the Association of Core Texts and Curriculum. He served as founding coordinator of the Great Ideas Summer Institute for high school students held on the Samford campus each summer, as well as the co-founder of the London Core Texts Program. As Stockham Chair he currently oversees Howard College’s Stockham Scholars Program and Colloquium on American Citizenship.

Degrees and Certifications

BA, Auburn University
MDiv, Westminster Theological Seminary
PhD, University of Virginia

Expertise

European and American Religious History
Intellectual History

Awards and Honors

John L. Buchanan Award for Excellence in Classroom Teaching at Samford University, 2020.
Named Stockham Chair of Western Intellectual History by Samford University Board of Trustees, 2014
Howard College College of Arts and Sciences Outstanding Teacher, 2011
University Fellows Faculty Member of the Year, 2006-2007

Publications

“Sacred Syllabus: The Case for Authentic Christian Higher Education,” Touchstone, September 2021.
“James Madison, Justice, and the Summer of 2020,” VoegelinView, November, 2020.
“The Rage of Freedom: Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s 1983 Templeton Prize Address,” in Beyond the Soul and Barbed Wire (University of Notre Dame Press, 2020)
“The Long Protest 500 Years On,” The Advent. Fall, 2017.
“Answering Dystopia: An Augustinian Reading of Wendell Berry, Walker Percy, and Aleksandr Solzehnitsyn” Perspectives in Religious Studies, vol. 43, no. 1, Spring, 2016.
Editor, Samford University Core Texts Reader Volumes I and II, Copley, 2014.
“Civility, What Does It Mean in the Twenty-First Century Debate?” The Alabama Humanities Review, issue no. 1, 2011
Catholics, Slaveholders, and the Dilemma of American Evangelicalism, 1835-1860 (University of Notre Dame Press, 2010)
“Public Expressions of Faith by Political Leaders,” in Praeger Press’ three volume series on Church and State studies, December, 2007.
"Civility, What Does It Mean in the Twenty-First Century Debate?" The Alabama Humanities Review, issue no. 1, 2011.
Catholics, Slaveholders, and the Dilemma of American Evangelicalism, 1835-1860 (Notre Dame, 2010)

Involvement