Larry Alan Witham is a veteran journalist and author in the Washington D.C. area who has covered current events, history, religion and society, science, and philosophy. After twenty-one years in a newsroom, Witham now writes and edits books full time. He is the author of ten books. In 2007 he served as Editor of the bimonthly magazine Science & Spirit. As a former reporter with The Washington Times, Witham wrote more than four thousand news stories, features, and book reviews and has filed stories from Asia, Africa, Europe, the Soviet Union and Latin America. A native of Los Altos, California (born June 1952), Witham earned a bachelor's degree in fine arts from San Jose State University (1974). He and his wife, Kazui Yamamoto, live in Maryland.
Witham has received several national awards for his articles on religion and society, including from the Religion Communicators Council, the Religion Newswriters Association, the D.C. Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, and the Templeton Foundation. His book on the American clergy, Who Shall Lead Them?, was named Best Book for 2006 by the Academy of Parish Clergy and the Catholic Press Association named his Curran v. Catholic University a best general interest book.
Witham has written for a number of publications, ranging from Christian Century, the Nation and Beliefnet to Nature and Scientific American. He has spoken before the American Academy of Religion, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, National Association of Evangelicals, the Society of Secular Humanists, the Sunstone Association (Mormon scholars), the Southern Book Festival, the Edinburgh Book Festival, the Cambridge Forum, at the Washington National Cathedral, and has appeared on C-SPAN, Fox News, public television, the "700 Club" and dozens of radio programs including affiliates of National Public Radio.
Published Works
(forthcoming) Art Schooled: A Year Among Prodigies, Rebels, and Visionaries at a World-Class Art College (fall 2011)
Marketplace of the Gods: How Economics Explains Religion (May 2010)
The God Biographers: Our Changing Image of God from Job to the Present (2010)
The Proof of God: The Debate that Shaped Modern Belief (2008)
A City Upon a Hill: How Sermons Changed the Course of American History (2007)
The Measure of God: Our Century-Long Struggle to Reconcile Science and Religion (2005)
Who Shall Lead Them? The Future of Ministry in America (2005)
By Design: Science and the Search for God (2003)
Where Darwin Meets the Bible: Creationists and Evolutionists in America (2001)
Dark Blossom: A Novel of East and West (1997)
The Negev Project (a novel) (1994)
Curran v. Catholic University: A Study of Authority and Freedom in Conflict (1991)
Rodzianko: An Orthodox Journey from Revolution to Millennium, 1917-1988 (1991)
Marketplace of the Gods: How Economics Explains Religion
IN BOOKSTORES, on Kindle
(Oxford University Press, 2010)
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A City Upon a Hill: How Sermons Changed the Course of American History (HarperOne)
"Knows when to pick up the narrative pace and when to slow down for delicious detail."—Publishers Weekly
"The sermon is America's characteristic form of speech . . . a brilliant exposition."—Peter Gomes
"An important study worthy of a place in all libraries."—Library Journal
"A first-rate history of religion in America. . . . will reward readers in ways they can hardly foresee."—Edwin Gaustad
"Weaves a history of the theology contained in the American sermon."—Wall Street Journal
"Witham’s highly readable history of the American sermon strongly bolsters the contention that words change minds and alter the course of events."—Booklist
"[The author’s] engaging prose and broad and detailed history of American religious oratory will fuel discussion among students of American Christianity, homiletics, and U.S. history."—Choice
