Dr. Scott Culpepper serves as professor of history at Dordt University, where he teaches courses such as Roots of Western Culture and Worldviews, Witch Hunts, Renaissance, and Reformations, and Religion in American Culture.
“I enjoy probing the tough questions of life with students through critical discussion of controversial issues, rigorous engagement with primary sources, and active learning through historical simulations,” says Culpepper.
His classes explore complex ideas through a variety of formats, from lectures to simulations that allow students to live out historical situations.
Before joining Dordt, Culpepper spent 12 years serving in ministry, including eight as a pastor. After completing his PhD, he focuses on early modern European and the Americas. He primarily focuses on the intersections of politics, religion, and popular culture within these settings.
At Dordt, he serves on Dordt’s research and Scholarship Committee. Helping students connect faith and history brings him fulfillment, as they “learn from the good examples in history how we can harness faith to promote human flourishing, and how to avoid the worst human corruptions of faith we see in the bad examples.”
Culpepper has published several books including The Demonologist’s Daughter and Francis Johnson and the English Separatist Influence, and he has contributed to several other publications at the intersection of politics, history, and religion.
Education:
- Ph.D., Baylor University (2006)
- M.Div., New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, 1999
- M.A. in History, Northwestern State University, 2000
- B.A. in History, Louisiana College, 1996