Tornado God

American Religion and Violent Weather

Peter J. Thuesen

Reveals how the weather has repeatedly confronted Americans with the most difficult problems in theology
Clarifies urgent ethical problems, including climate change and the issue of human complicity in natural disasters
Shows how the weather has complicated Americans' sense of their own destiny-how much is self-determined and how much is beyond their understanding or control

Tornado God

American Religion and Violent Weather

Peter J. Thuesen

Description

One of the earliest sources of humanity's religious impulse was severe weather, which ancient peoples attributed to the wrath of storm gods. Enlightenment thinkers derided such beliefs as superstition and predicted they would pass away as humans became more scientifically and theologically sophisticated. But in America, scientific and theological hubris came face-to-face with the tornado, nature's most violent windstorm. Striking the United States more than any other nation, tornadoes have consistently defied scientists' efforts to unlock their secrets. Meteorologists now acknowledge that even the most powerful computers will likely never be able to predict a tornado's precise path.

Similarly, tornadoes have repeatedly brought Americans to the outer limits of theology, drawing them into the vortex of such mysteries as how to reconcile suffering with a loving God and whether there is underlying purpose or randomness in the universe. In this groundbreaking history, Peter Thuesen captures the harrowing drama of tornadoes, as clergy, theologians, meteorologists, and ordinary citizens struggle to make sense of these death-dealing tempests. He argues that, in the tornado, Americans experience something that is at once culturally peculiar (the indigenous storm of the national imagination) and religiously primal (the sense of awe before an unpredictable and mysterious power). He also shows that, in an era of climate change, the weather raises the issue of society's complicity in natural disasters. In the whirlwind, Americans confront the question of their own destiny-how much is self-determined and how much is beyond human understanding or control.

Tornado God

American Religion and Violent Weather

Peter J. Thuesen

Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. "Whirlwind of the Lord":
The Enduring God(s) of the Storm
2. "The Violence of Winds, and the Reasonings of Men":
Storms and Providence in Colonial America
3. "Stormy Wind Fulfilling His Word":
Meteorology and Theology in the Nineteenth Century
4. "Every Wind of Doctrine":
Explaining the Whirlwind, 1900-1965
5. "As Stubble Before the Wind":
Divine Mystery and Human Responsibility
Conclusion: The Primal Whirlwind
Notes
Bibliography
Index

Tornado God

American Religion and Violent Weather

Peter J. Thuesen

Author Information

Peter J. Thuesen is Professor of Religious Studies at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) and co-editor of Religion and American Culture: A Journal of Interpretation. His previous books include Predestination: The American Career of a Contentious Doctrine, and In Discordance with the Scriptures: American Protestant Battles over Translating the Bible.

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

"A fascinating and beautifully written book...Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals; general readers." -- M. A. Granquist, Luther Seminary, CHOICE

"Thuesen excels at weaving deeper meaning into riveting stories and using them to speak to larger questions of American religious identity.... Tornado God will appeal to scholars interested in both religion and the history and philosophy of science. It will also resonate with a more general readership wondering how religious belief might be brought to bear on our current moment with regard to the challenges of climate change." -- Anna Holdorf, American Catholic Studies Newsletter

"A fascinating and beautifully written book" -- Choice

"[Thuesen's] account of Christian evangelicals' response to Katrina perhaps best illustrates how storms can both challenge and affirm long-held beliefs about social difference." -- Public Books

"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