Alumni Spotlight | Robert P. Jones

From examining the tensions within America’s founding traditions to documenting the evolving relationship among religion, culture, and politics, Robert P. Jones, who earned his PhD from Emory’s Graduate Division of Religion in 2002, has built a career dedicated to bringing rigorous scholarship into the public sphere. 

In this alumni profile, Robert, who is the founder and president of the Public Religion Research Institute, reflects on the mentors who influenced him, his unconventional path beyond the traditional academy and the importance of bringing rigorous research to public life.  

The newly elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and author of the New York Times bestselling The Hidden Roots of White Supremacy, also discusses his latest book, Backslide: Reclaiming a Faith and a Nation after the Christian Turn Against Democracy. 

Q: Tell us about your dissertation and its impact. 

A: My dissertation became my first monograph, which was published by the University of Notre Dame under the title Liberalism’s Troubled Search for Equality. In that early work, I was wrestling with the tensions and outright contractions embedded in America’s founding political, moral, and religious traditions—and the ways these competing impulses provide resources for both undermining and strengthening pluralistic democracy. That basic concern has been at the center of my work over the last two decades. 

Q: During your time at Emory, did anyone give you advice that you continue to apply to your personal/professional life? If so, what advice did they give you?   

A: My dissertation advisor was Jon Gunnemann, PhD, professor emeritus of social ethics, who helped me shape rough hunches and anger over injustice into scholarship. He also taught me the essential skill of being a generous reader and modeled the academic virtues of curiosity, rigor, and respectful debate. Steve Tipton, PhD, C.H. Candler professor emeritus of sociology of religion, also gave me a critical insight: that even (and perhaps especially) the most elegant theology and philosophy never float free of the messy world of power embedded in human culture and institutions. 

Q: What attracted you to the doctoral program at Laney Graduate School? What was your favorite part of the program?  

A: The thing I valued most about Laney’s doctoral program in the Graduate Division of Religion was its interdisciplinary nature. I was a student in the Ethics and Society program, but the coursework encouraged me to read widely in sociology, theology, political theory, and medical ethics. At the coursework and dissertation stages, conversations and writing were never siloed and naturally ranged across disciplines and methodologies. I was also encouraged to take courses in human rights with Charles Howard Candler Professor of Law Emeritus at Emory Law School, Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'im, which gave me a global perspective on issues I had only considered through an American lens.  

Q: What’s your current career and how did your time at Laney impact your career path?  

A: The interdisciplinary nature of Laney’s Ph.D. program, along with its support for socially engaged scholarship, prepared me well for an unexpectedly unorthodox academic career path. After completing my Ph.D., I landed a tenure-track position in the religious studies department at Missouri State University. But after three years, life intervened, and I found myself needing to reconfigure my professional life. I also recognized that I wanted to find a way to bring my research into spaces where it could have a public impact more quickly.  

After moving to Washington, D.C., and working in the think tank world, I realized there was a need for an independent, nonpartisan organization that could produce rigorous public-facing research at the intersection of religion, culture, and politics. In 2009, with the generosity of an innovation grant from the Nathan Cummings Foundation, I founded Public Religion Research Institute to fill this role.  

Today, PRRI interviews more than 50,000 Americans annually in 5-6 major public opinion surveys—including our flagship American Values Survey conducted in partnership with the Brookings Institution—and our work is cited in more than 3,000 media stories in the U.S. and across Europe. We’ve also developed initiatives to support the work of nearly 100 socially engaged scholars and knowledge makers through our mid-career Public Fellows program and our Senior Democracy Fellows program. 

Q: Let’s talk about your newest book, Backslide: Reclaiming a Faith and a Nation after the Christian Turn Against Democracy. Tell us more about what inspired you to write it and about the research and publishing process behind the scenes.  

A: Backslide is the most personal, unflinching, and urgent book I’ve written. This book is my effort to speak into this perilous moment in American history; to reckon with the moral collapse among white Christians—two-thirds of whom supported Donald Trump for a third consecutive time at the ballot box in 2024; and to issue an urgent call to protect American democracy.  

As we’ve witnessed the indefensible willingness of conservative white Christians to shed their core values like inconvenient loads along the road to supporting Trump, I’ve been brought back to two words from my evangelical upbringing: backslide and apostasy. It’s notable that political scientists are now also using the term “democratic backsliding” to describe the process by which a democracy— including democracy in the U.S.—slips into authoritarianism. These powerful terms help us describe our situation succinctly: We are now living in a democratically backslidden nation, abetted by an apostate white Christianity. 

 This book is for all who are unwilling to surrender the soul of religion or the promise of democracy. And it is a reminder that the time is short for deciding which Christianity, and which America, will prevail. 

Q: What does it mean to you to be elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (AAAS)? 

A: The AAAS mission to “advance the interest, honor, dignity, and happiness of a free, independent, and virtuous people” has never been more important. As a religion scholar whose career has mostly taken shape outside the structures of the formal university system, I did not imagine such recognition would be in my future. I am deeply honored and grateful to join the ranks of such an august scholarly organization during this critical time in our history. 

Q: What do you find most rewarding about the work you are currently doing? 

A: The most rewarding part of my work is the privilege of listening to our fellow Americans and the challenge of interpreting that complexity for the public. Over the last two decades at PRRI, I’ve overseen more than 80 public opinion surveys based on interviews with hundreds of thousands of Americans. Part of our mission has been consistent with the civic vision the founders of the field of public opinion research cast in the early 20th century: to be democracy’s “auxiliary ballot box.” Done well, public opinion surveys can be an ongoing source of information for elected leaders, policy makers, and journalists about the opinions of the American public at large. But the other part of our mission has been a cultural one: to understand and publish portraits of the attitudes and behaviors of religious subgroups. This cultural mission involves understanding the role, for good or ill, that religious groups are playing in the life of the country. 

Q: Do you have any useful advice for current or prospective graduate students? 

A: I’m well aware that the successes I’ve had have been not just the result of hard work but also because of the generosity of others and not a small amount of serendipity. But a few things come to mind: Nurture curiosity, find mentors and gather fellow travelers. Pay attention to what angers and inspires you—that’s a clue to where your unique interests and skills meet a need in the world.