MEDIA COVERAGE & EveNTS
John Longhurst, “Storms Prompt Theological Reflection about the Nature of God,” Winnipeg Free Press
“Climate Change and American Religion,” Spirit & Place Festival (including handout)
“Take and Read: American Religious History,” Christian Century
Interview by John Turner at the Anxious Bench on Patheos.com
Christianity Today 2021 Book Awards
Randall J. Stephens, “In Storms, Americans Have Long Seen the Hand of God,” Washington Post
Barton Swaim, “Whirlwinds, Old and New,” Wall Street Journal
Rebecca Onion, “The Thrill of the Chase,” PBS American Experience
Patrick Allitt, “He Comes Upon the Funnel Clouds,” Christianity Today
Elizabeth Palmer, “Books Worth Reading,” Christian Century
John Wilson, “Coming Attractions for 2020,” First Things
President Barack Obama hugs Amy Simpson, principal of Plaza Towers Elementary School in Moore, Oklahoma, after seven students at the school died in a tornado in May 2013. White House photograph by Pete Souza.
Ruins of Mt. Calvary Episcopal Church, St. Louis, after a tornado devastated much of the city in May 1896. Photograph courtesy of the Missouri Historical Society.
Tornado God: American Religion and Violent Weather
Winner of the 2021 christianity today book award for history/Biography
Read the Table of Contents
“Though tornadoes seem to exist outside of history, Peter Thuesen shows, in this first serious historical study of U.S. tornadoes, that these storms have deeply challenged everyone from theologians to scientists to confront their vulnerability in the face of violent natural forces. The perfect book to curl up with in a world increasingly wracked by extreme weather.”
—Ted Steinberg, author of Acts of God: The Unnatural History of Natural Disaster in America
“Peter Thuesen’s mastery of meteorology, religion, and local history has produced a terrific book. Scholars should appreciate the book’s detailed information about weather, religious responses to weather, and the devastating impact of weather on individual towns and cities. Readers of all sorts will definitely appreciate this lucid account of dramatic weather catastrophes. It is an altogether captivating study.”
—Mark Noll, author of A History of Christianity in the United States and Canada
“Peter J. Thuesen’s insightful and deeply researched Tornado God: American Religion and Violent Weather reveals the many ways severe weather has prompted theological and moral reflection as well as action.”
—Randall J. Stephens, Washington Post
“Tornado God is an admirably ambitious work, which has so much new to tell us about changing ideas of religion and concepts of Providence, not to mention the emergence of modern science. The author has researched widely, and the resulting work is lucid, evocative, and well-written. This is a fine achievement.”
—Philip Jenkins, author of The Lost History of Christianity
“[A] superb work of scholarship, distilling a vast array of work on meteorology, theology, and American history. Mr. Thuesen … has a special interest in violent storms, especially tornadoes, and writes about them with narrative skill.”
—Barton Swaim, Wall Street Journal
“[E]xceptionally sophisticated, deeply researched, and highly readable. . . . Tornado God is an innovative, engaging, and important contribution to American cultural, intellectual, and religious history as well as the history of science. Thuesen conveys incredibly complex theological debates, scientific discoveries, and human experiences in lucid prose. Much more than yet another academic book, this is a brilliant, carefully conceived meditation on the varying ways Americans have come to terms with the awe-inspiring, sometimes terrifying world around them.”
—T. J. Tomlin, Fides et Historia
“In this captivating study, Peter J. Thuesen assesses the mysteries of the tornado, its defiance of even the latest meteorological techniques for fully explaining it, and the sense of awe, terror, and reverence that it provokes. . . . [A] wide-ranging narrative that is delightful to read.”
—James Byrd, Vanderbilt University
“Tornado God offers a masterful and extensively researched history of American theology pragmatically juxtaposed against the specific question of how religious thinkers deal with tragic weather disasters.”
—Melissa Jones, National Catholic Reporter
“Tornado God offers no easy answers. Nor does it prescribe an ‘appropriate’ way to think about violent weather. But Thuesen should be commended for illuminating a challenging area of American history in an unusually striking way.”
—Patrick Allitt, Christianity Today
“A fascinating and beautifully written book.”
—Mark A. Granquist, Choice
“[A] stimulating exploration of religious responses to deadly weather.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Thuesen excels at weaving deeper meaning into riveting stories and using them to speak to larger questions of American religious identity. . . . Tornado God will appeal to scholars interested in both religion and the history and philosophy of science. It will also resonate with a more general readership wondering how religious belief might be brought to bear on our current moment with regard to the challenges of climate change.”
—Anna Holdorf, American Catholic Studies Newsletter
“Tornado God is well written and thorough. It would be appropriate for undergraduate or graduate courses on American religious history, or on the history of natural disasters.”
—Mark Stoll, Journal of American History
“One of the greatest strengths of Tornado God is just how well Thuesen has interwoven a variety of materials to construct a portrait of American religiosity in the face of violent weather. . . . Thuesen’s writing is lively and engaging.”
—Forrest Clingerman, Church History
DESCRIPTION
One of the earliest sources of humanity’s religious impulse was severe weather, which ancient peoples attributed to the wrath of storm gods. Enlightenment thinkers derided such beliefs as superstition and predicted they would pass away as humans became more scientifically and theologically sophisticated. But in America, scientific and theological hubris came face-to-face with the tornado, nature’s most violent windstorm. Striking the United States more than any other nation, tornadoes have consistently defied scientists’ efforts to unlock their secrets. Meteorologists now acknowledge that even the most powerful computers will likely never be able to predict a tornado’s precise path.
Similarly, tornadoes have repeatedly brought Americans to the outer limits of theology, drawing them into the vortex of such mysteries as how to reconcile suffering with a loving God and whether there is underlying purpose or randomness in the universe. In this groundbreaking history, Peter Thuesen captures the harrowing drama of tornadoes, as clergy, theologians, meteorologists, and ordinary citizens struggle to make sense of these death-dealing tempests. He argues that in the tornado, Americans experience something that is at once culturally peculiar (the indigenous storm of the national imagination) and religiously primal (the sense of awe before an unpredictable and mysterious power). He also shows that in an era of climate change, the weather raises the issue of society’s complicity in natural disasters. In the whirlwind, Americans confront the question of their own destiny—how much is self-determined and how much is beyond human understanding or control.