Tornado God
American Religion and Violent Weather
Peter J. Thuesen
Reviews and Awards
Winner of the 2021 Book Award in History/Biography from Christianity Today
"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
"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
"[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
"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] stimulating exploration of religious responses to deadly weather." -- Publisher's Weekly
"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
"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
"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