Leah Payne

Leah Payne (PhD, Vanderbilt University) is Associate Professor of American religious history at Portland Seminary. Her first book, Gender and Pentecostal Revivalism: Making a Female Ministry in the Early Twentieth Century (Palgrave, 2015), won the 2016 Pneuma: The Journal of the Society for Pentecostal Studies Book Award. Payne's second book, God Gave Rock and Roll to You: a History of Contemporary Christian Music (Oxford University Press, 2024), explores how Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) shaped American evangelical theology and politics. Payne's analysis of the intersection of American Charismatics and Pentecostals, politics, and popular culture has appeared in op-eds in The Washington Post, NBC News, Religion News Service, and Christianity Today.