Devin Singh

Devin Singh studies religious thought in the modern West and in sites of colonial encounter, with attention to the Christian tradition and its interaction with economy and politics. In addition to the history of Christian thought, his research engages the philosophy of religion and social ethics. Singh explores questions of religion and politics, religion and economics, secularization, sociology of markets and money, and race & coloniality in relation to religion. His first book, Divine Currency: The Theological Power of Money in the West (Stanford 2018) examines the ways early Christian thinkers made use of monetary and economic concepts as they created Christian doctrine, and how this close relationship between theology and money has lent a sacred aura to economics as it developed in the West. He is also the author of Economy and Modern Christian Thought (Brill 2022) which provides an introduction to scholarship on the relation between Christian thought and economy, exploring various conceptual and ethical challenges raised by the encounter. Singh also co-edited Reimagining Leadership on the Commons: Shifting the Paradigm for a More Ethical, Equitable, and Just World (Emerald 2021), which examines models of commons-based leadership and shared governance structures in the public and private sector. Singh is completing a book titled Sacred Debt, which explores the power of debt in society and its longstanding uses in religion. Singh was guest editor for an issue of Political Theology on "Love in a Time of Capital," and guest co-editor for an issue of Journal of Religious Ethics on debt. Singh's work has been supported by the Lilly Endowment and the Mellon and Luce Foundations, and has received national recognition by Mellon, Whiting, and Davis Fellowships, the Louisville Institute, and the Forum for Theological Exploration, as well as international recognition by the Lautenschlaeger Award from the University of Heidelberg. His work has appeared in Time, Washington Post, Huffington Post, Journal of Religious Ethics, Harvard Theological Review, Political Theology, Religions, and Implicit Religion. Prior to joining the faculty at Dartmouth, Singh was a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in the Integrated Humanities and Lecturer in Religious Studies at Yale University. He has served more recently as a visiting scholar at Harvard Divinity School's Center for the Study of World Religions (2017-18), and as a visiting scholar at Princeton University's Center for the Study of Religion (2019-20).