Robert C. Fuller (born 1952) is the Caterpillar Professor of Religious Studies atBradley University.^[1][2] Specializing in religion and psychology, and contemporary religion in America, Fuller is the author of 13 books, includingMesmerism and the American Cure of Souls (1982);Spiritual, But Not Religious: Understanding Unchurched America (2001); andThe Body of Faith: A Biological History of Religion in America (2013).^[3][4]

After completing his BA inreligious studies atDenison University (a former Baptist school), Fuller was awarded his MA and PhD, also in religious studies, by theUniversity of Chicago.^[4] He joined the faculty at Bradley University in 1978 as assistant professor of religious studies. In 1983 he became an associate professor and in 1988 a full professor.^[5]

Fuller is particularly interested in "unchurched" spirituality in America and metaphysical healing, includingmesmerism andhomeopathy. Despite declining church membership in America, most Americans believe in some form of higher spiritual power.^[6] InAlternative Medicine and American Religious Life (1989), he explores whether the appeal of alternative medicine lies not in addressing ill health but in giving practitioners a sense of this spiritual plane.^[7] He argues inSpiritual, but not Religious: Understanding Unchurched America (2001) that "[a]lternative medicines almost invariably promulgate alternative worldviews." Most of those drawn to such systems—New Thought,spirit guides,Swedenborgianism,Theosophy,Transcendentalism^[8]—are middle class and physically healthy.^[9] In 2018 he wrote that 18–27 percent of Americans could be defined as "Spiritual but not Religious" (SBNR).^[10]

In 1988 Bradley University awarded Fuller the Samuel Rothberg Professional Excellence Award,^[11] for outstanding achievements in research and creativity.^[12] He was awarded the Charles M. Putnam Award for Teaching Excellence in 1995 and the Caterpillar Professorship for Religious Studies in 2000.^[11]

Fuller and his wife, Kathy Fuller, married in 1974 and have two children.^[5][13]

• (2013)The Body of Faith: A Biological History of Religion in America, Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press.
• (2008)Spirituality in the Flesh: Bodily Sources of Religious Experiences, New York:Oxford University Press.
• (2006)Wonder: From Emotion to Spirituality, Chapel Hill:University of North Carolina Press.
• (2004)Religious Revolutionaries: The Rebels Who Reshaped American Religion, New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
• (2001)Spiritual, But Not Religious: Understanding Unchurched America, New York: Oxford University Press.
• (2000)Stairways to Heaven: Drugs in American Religious History, Boulder: Westview Press.
• (1996)Religion and Wine: A Cultural History of Wine Drinking in the United States, Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press.
• (1995)Naming the Antichrist: The History of an American Obsession, New York: Oxford University Press.
• (1992)Ecology of Care: An Interdisciplinary Analysis of the Self and Moral Obligation, Louisville: Westminster/John Knox Press.
• (1989)Alternative Medicine and American Religious Life, New York: Oxford University Press.
• (1988)Religion and the Life Cycle, Philadelphia: Fortress Press.
• (1986)Americans and the Unconscious, New York: Oxford University Press.
• (1982)Mesmerism and the American Cure of Souls, Philadelphia:University of Pennsylvania Press.

• Religion in the United States

• Robert Fuller,"Innovate: Wonder", TedX Grand Rapids.
• "A Faithful Scholar",Bradley Works, 2 March 2009, 12–15.

• 1952 births
• Bradley University faculty
• Denison University alumni
• Religious studies scholars
• Psychologists of religion
• University of Chicago alumni
• Living people