headshot photo of Dr. Christopher Bader

Dr. Christopher Bader

Professor
Wilkinson College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences; Department of Sociology
The George L. Argyros School of Business and Economics
Expertise: Religion; Paranormal; Fear
Office Location: 338 N. Glassell - RM 102
Office Hours: By Appointment
Phone: 714-516-4682
Scholarly Works:
Digital Commons
Education:
Evergreen State College, Bachelor of Arts
Bowling Green State University, Master of Arts
University of Washington, Ph.D.

Biography

Christopher Bader is a Professor of Sociology at Chapman University and affiliated with the Institute for Religion, Economics and Society (IRES).  He was principal investigator of the first two waves of the Baylor Religion Survey, a nationwide survey of US religious beliefs and the principal investigator of the the first three waves of the Chapman Survey of American Fears.  He is associate director of the Association of Religion Data Archives (www.theArda.com), the world's largest archive of religion survey data funded by the Templeton Foundation and Lilly Foundation and supported by Penn State University and Chapman. 

Christopher is the author two books, America's Four Gods and Paranormal America, and has published, to date, 35 articles and chapters in the fields of sociology, deviance, criminology, the sociology of religion and education.  He has four books in progress including Faithful Measures: Applications in the Art and Science of Measuring Religion, Paranormal America (2nd Edition), Fear Itself: The Nature and Consequences of Fear in America and The Insiders: Studies in the Normalization of Deviance.

Christopher has been studying paranormal beliefs for over twenty years.  He has been on several ghost hunts, observed support groups for UFO abductees, joined Bigfoot investigations and attended numerous psychic fairs and UFO and Bigfoot conventions.  He is in the midst of developing a second edition of Paranormal America.

Recent Creative, Scholarly Work and Publications

Bader, Christopher. (2020). "UFO Cults." The Sage Encyclopedia of the Sociology of Religion. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Baker, Joseph, Andrea Molle and Christopher D. Bader. (2020). "The Flesh and The Devil: Belief in Religious Evil and Views of Sexual Morality." Review of Religious Research. 62: 133-151.
Bader, Christopher, Joseph O. Baker and F. Carson Mencken. Paranormal America (2nd Edition). New York: NYU Press.
Finke, Roger and Christopher Bader. Faithful Measures: The Art and Science of Measuring Religion. New York: NYU Press.
Bader, Christopher, Andrea Molle, James Coyle and Benjamin Gurrentz. 2017. "For the Wrath of God: Fatalism and Images of God in Violent Regions of the World." Sociology of Religion 78(2): 173-191.
Fox, Jonathan, Christopher Bader, & Jennifer McClure “Don’t Get Mad: The Disconnect between Religious Discrimination and Individual Perceptions of Government” Conflict Management & Peace Science, 2017, DOI: 10.1177/0738894217723160.
Baker, Joseph O., Christopher D. Bader and F. Carson Mencken. 2016. "A Bounded Affinity Theory of Religion and the Paranormal." Sociology of Religion 77(4): 334-358.
Froese, Paul and Christopher D. Bader. (2015). American's Four Gods (2nd Edition). New York: Oxford University Press.
Baker, Joseph O. and Christopher D. Bader. (2014). "A Social Anthropology of Ghosts in 21st Century America." Social Compass. 61:4.
Baker, Joseph O., Christopher D. Bader and Kittye Hirsch. (2014) "Desecration, Moral Boundaries, and the Movement of Law: The Case of Westboro Baptist Church." Deviant Behavior 36(1): 42-67.
Bader, Christopher and Roger Finke. (2014) "Toward Assessing and Improving Survey Measures on Religion: The ARDA's Measurement Wizard." Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 53(3): 652-661.
Molle, Andrea and Christopher D. Bader. The Birth of "Paranormal Science" in Italy. (2013). In Paranormal Cultures, edited by Olu Jenzen and Sally R. Munt. London: Ashgate.
Desmond, Scott, Jeffrey Ulmer and Christopher D. Bader. (2013). "Religion, Self Control and Substance Use." Deviant Behavior. 34:5, 384-406.
Bader, Christopher, Joseph O. Baker and Andrea Molle. (2012). "Countervailing Forces: Religiosity and Paranormal Belief in Italy." Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. 51(4): 705-720.
Bader, Christopher and Ashley Palmer. 2011. "Scared into Church? Conceptions of God, Exclusivity, and Religious Practice in the United States." Religion, Spirituality and Everyday Practice, edited by Giuseppe Giordan and William H. Swatos, Jr. New York: Springer.
Finke, Roger, Christopher D. Bader and Andrew Whitehead. (2011). "Innovations in the Development and Use of Social Science Data Archives." Leadership in Science and Technology: A Reference Handbook, edited by William Sims Bainbridge.
Finke, Roger and Christopher D. Bader. (2011). “Data and Directions for Research in the Economics of Religion.” The Oxford Handbook of the Economics of Religion, edited by Rachel McCleary. Oxford University Press.
Bader, Christopher D., F. Carson Mencken and Joseph Baker. (October, 2010) Paranormal America: Ghost encounters, UFO sightings, Bigfoot hunts and other Curiosities in Religion and Culture. NYU Press.
Paul Froese and Christopher D. Bader. (October, 2010) America's Four Gods: What we say about God and what that says about us. Oxford University Press.
Bader, Christopher D. and Roger Finke. (2010). “Religion and Moral Attitudes.” Handbook on the Sociology of Morality, edited by Steven Hitlin and Steven Vaisey. Springer.
Bader, Christopher, Scott Desmond, F. Carson Mencken and Byron Johnson. (2010) "Divine Justice: How Images of God Impact Attitudes Toward Criminal Punishment." Criminal Justice Review 35(1): 90-106.

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