Randall Herbert Balmer (born October 22, 1954) is an American author and a historian of American religion. He taught at Barnard College and Columbia University for twenty-seven years before moving to Dartmouth College in 2012, where he was named the Mandel Family Professor in the Arts & Sciences. He is also an Episcopal priest. He earned his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1985. He has been a visiting professor at Dartmouth College and at Rutgers, Princeton, Drew University, Emory University, Yale and Northwestern universities and at Union Theological Seminary, where he was also adjunct professor of church history. He has also taught in the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He was visiting professor at Yale Divinity School from 2004 until 2008.Following his ordination in 2006 and concurrent with his academic responsibilities, Balmer served as part-time rector of two Episcopal parishes in Connecticut: St. John's Episcopal Church in Washington (2008-2009) and Christ Episcopal Church in Middle Haddam (2010-2012). In addition to his academic writing, Balmer has published commentaries in newspapers across the country, including the Des Moines Register, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Dallas Morning News, the Omaha World Herald, the Los Angeles Times, the Anchorage Daily News, the Hartford Courant, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, New York Newsday, the Minneapolis Star Tribune, and the New York Times, among others. His work has also appeared in the Nation, the New Republic, the Washington Post Book World, and the New York Times Book Review.Balmer was nominated for an Emmy for script-writing and hosting the three-part PBS documentary "Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory," based on his book with the same title. He also wrote and hosted two other PBS documentaries: "Crusade: The Life of Billy Graham" and "In the Beginning: The Creationist Controversy."
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Informational Programming
Movies
Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory
Star Sign
Libra
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Ann Whitney Olin Professor of American Religion at Barnard College. Editor-at-large for Christianity Today. Books: Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory: Travels Through the Evangelical Subculture" and "Thy Kingdom Come: How the Religious Right Distorts the Faith and Threatens America".
Miscellaneous
Title
Year
Status
Character
Independent Lens
2010
TV Series documentary advisor - 2 episodes
Prayer in America
2007
TV Movie documentary advisor
Writer
Title
Year
Status
Character
Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory
1989
TV Series episode "America's Folk Religion"
Producer
Title
Year
Status
Character
Crusade: The Life of Billy Graham
1993
TV Movie documentary producer
Self
Title
Year
Status
Character
Let's Talk About Sex
2009
Documentary
Himself - Episcopal Priest, Professor of Religious Studies, Barnard College