Welcome to my website. 

Here you can learn about and find links to my scholarship and public programming, as well as listen to podcasts and watch videos of my public talks.

You can download a copy of my CV here.

I received my BA in History from New York University and my MA and PhD in Religious Studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I am now  Assistant Professor of Religion and Åke and Kristina Bonnier Family Chair in Jewish Studies in the Department of Religion at Gustavus Adolphus College, in Saint Peter, Minnesota. 

My scholarship focuses primarily on the nineteenth-century, and my interest is in religious response to modernity. You'll also find that I also work on topics in postmodern theory (Foucault), Holocaust, and twentieth-century literature (Roth, Malamud, Durrell).

My first monograph, The Formation of a Modern Rabbi: The Life and Times of the Viennese Scholar and Preacher Adolf Jellinek, was just published with Brown Judaic Studies. It examines the history and development of the modern rabbi, the impact of Wissenschaft des Judentums on scholarship and religion, and the importance of urbanization in Jewish communal transformation in nineteenth-century Central Europe.  

With Dr. George Y. Kohler (Bar Ilan), I have completed an edited volume entitled Modern Jewish Theology: The First One Hundred Years, 1835-1935, to appear in the JPS series Anthologies of Jewish Thought in December 2023.

With Dr. Emanuel Fiano (Fordham), I have edited the correspondence of Gershom Scholem to Abraham Joshua Heschel, published in New German Critique (50 [1]: 179–210), and with Dr. Timothy Parrish (UC Davis), a Special Issue of Philip Roth Studies (18.1 Spring 2022) on the theme of "Roth and Judaism."

In addition, I have authored numerous book reviews for the Journal of Austrian Studies and German Studies Review. A response to Thomas A. Lewis's Why Philosophy Matters for the Study of Religion and Vice Versa appeared on Syndicate.  

I am also an Advisory Board member of the Center for Sermon Studies, based at Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia, as well as an Editorial Board member of its referred journal, Sermon Studies. 

You can also find information about my work at: gustavus.academia.edu/SamuelKessler

You can find my profile on Sefaria here: http://www.sefaria.org/profile/samuel-kessler