Rady Roldán-Figueroa

Dr. Roldán-Figueroa (he, him, his) is a Puerto Rican scholar whose research, publications, and teaching engage the history of Christianity from the 15^th to the 20^th century. He specializes in early modern global Christianity, Christianity in colonial Latin America, the intersectionality of Catholicism, race, and colonialism as well as the history of Christian spirituality. He is the author of The Ascetic Spirituality of Juan de Avila (1499-1569) (Brill, 2010), and The Martyrs of Japan: Publication History and Catholic Missions in the Spanish World (Spain, New Spain, and the Philippines, 1597–1700) (Brill, 2021). He is also co-editor of several collaborative projects, including: Collected Works of Hanserd Knollys: Pamphlets on Religion (Macon: Mercer University Press, 2017); Exploring Christian Heritage – A Reader in History and Theology (Baylor University Press, 3rd rev. ed. 2024); Bartolomé de las Casas, O.P.: History, Philosophy, and Theology in the Age of European Expansion (December 2018, Brill); The Transatlantic Las Casas: Historical Trajectories, Indigenous Cultures, Scholastic Thought, and Reception in History (Brill, 2023); and The Dominicans in the Americas and the Philippines (c. 1500-c. 1820): Devotional Life, Catholic Literary Culture, and Models of Holiness (Routledge, 2024). He has published forty-four articles and book chapters. His articles have appeared in Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte/Archive for Reformation History, Church History and Religious Culture, Critical Research on Religion, European History Quarterly, History of European Ideas, Journal of Early Modern Christianity, Quaker Studies, Sixteenth Century Journal, Social Sciences and Missions, and The Seventeenth Century. He has been the recipient of several awards including a Lilly Theological Scholar Grant, a Lilly Teaching Fellowship in Religion and Philosophy, numerous awards from the Hispanic Theological Initiative and a Greenleaf Visiting Scholar award from the Latin American and Iberian Institute of the University of New Mexico. He is the holder of the 2023-24, Rev. Robert Randall Distinguished Professorship in Christian Culture at Providence College and has the distinction of becoming the first Hispanic and Latinx full professor at Boston University School of Theology. His courses and seminars include, Christianity in Colonial Latin America, Mystical Theology and Modernity, Christianity Beyond Early Modern Europe, and Spirituality in Historical Perspective.