Andrew Mark Henry

Andrew Mark Henry
Henry in 2018
Occupations
  • Scholar
  • YouTuber
Academic background
Alma materBoston University
ThesisThe Magic of Crowd Acclamations and the Cult of Amulets in Late Antiquity (2020)
Academic work
DisciplineReligious studies
Sub-disciplineEarly Christianity
YouTube information
Channel
Years active2014–present
Subscribers874 thousand[‡ 1]
Total views95.9 million[‡ 1]
Associated acts
100,000 subscribers2019
Last updated: September 13, 2024
Websitewww.religionforbreakfast.com

Andrew Mark Henry is an American scholar of religion who hosts the YouTube channel Religion for Breakfast, which provides videos explaining religion from an academic perspective. Henry started the channel in 2014 while studying for a PhD in religious studies at Boston University, which he completed in 2020. The channel covers a diverse array of topics relating to religion, with the intent of providing non-confessional educational content to the general public. Henry has also worked at The Atlantic as a manager of a forum and its YouTube channel.

Education

Prior to 2012, Andrew Mark Henry was a graduate of history from Messiah College (now Messiah University) and attended a postbaccalaureate program in classical languages of University of Pennsylvania.[1][2] In 2012, he began studying for a PhD in religious studies at Boston University (BU), specializing in early Christianity.[3] While at BU, he was a teaching assistant for Stephen Prothero, a professor of religion and popular author,[4] and studied abroad in Jerusalem as a research fellow at the Albright Institute of Archaeological Research.[2][5] He completed his PhD program in August 2020.[3]

Religion for Breakfast

Religion for Breakfast is a YouTube channel which provides videos of Henry explaining religious topics from an academic perspective, without the intent to proselytize for any particular faith.[5][2] The channel seeks to improve religious literacy among the general public, with a wide area of topics including Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Shinto, and other religions.[4][6] His videos often feature Henry traveling to locations and interviews with experts relating to the subject at hand.[5]

Originally a blog,[4] Henry later started the YouTube channel in 2014 due to a perceived lack of informative content on the video platform.[7][5] He said in 2021 that the name of the channel was inspired by a band name generator.[‡ 2] Beginning in 2016 he began uploading videos in earnest,[1] and reached 110,000 subscribers by February 2020.[5] In 2024, he collaborated with the YouTube channel of UsefulCharts on a video relating to Biblical archeology.[8]

Reception

Commenting on the channel, Prothero said that Henry had done a "great job."[4] In the 2022 book Religious Diversity in Europe, Religion for Breakfast was stated to "provide interesting content on questions of religion and religious coexistence."[9] David Callaway of the Freedom Forum said the channel may serve as an example to public schools in the United States on how to cover religious topics "in an academic and constitutional way."[10] Henry himself has said that he often receives backlash in YouTube comments either accusing him of apologetics or criticism of religion.[5][6]

Other careers

Henry has worked at The Atlantic as a manager of its associated YouTube channel and an online forum on the website.[2]

Personal life

Henry hails from Boston, Massachusetts, in the United States.[6]

Selected works

  • Henry, Andrew Mark (2016-12-01). "Apotropaic Autographs: Orality and Materiality in the Abgar-Jesus Inscriptions". Archiv für Religionsgeschichte. 17 (1): 165–186. doi:10.1515/arege-2015-0010. ISSN 1868-8888.
  • Henry, Andrew (2017-10-02). "Magic in the Ancient World". Material Religion. 13 (4): 549–551. doi:10.1080/17432200.2017.1377449. ISSN 1743-2200.
  • Henry, Andrew Mark (2020). The Magic of Crowd Acclamations and the Cult of Amulets in Late Antiquity (PhD thesis). Boston University.
  • Henry, Andrew M. (2021-01-02). "Religious Literacy in Social Media: A Need for Strategic Amplification". Religion & Education. 48 (1): 89–101. doi:10.1080/15507394.2021.1876507. ISSN 1550-7394.

References

Secondary sources

  1. ^ a b "Andrew M. Henry". bu.edu. Archived from the original on 2016-05-16. Retrieved 2024-09-12.
  2. ^ a b c d Stubbe, Sarah; Miaczynski, Jake (2020). "Finding religion on YouTube". The Bridge. Vol. 111, no. 3. ISSN 0279-3938. Archived from the original on 2024-09-12. Retrieved 2024-09-12.
  3. ^ a b Ochoa, Cristina (2020-10-26). "Enriching the Landscape: How Religion for Breakfast Has Reached New Corners of the Religious Studies Audience". American Theological Library Association. Archived from the original on 2023-04-01. Retrieved 2024-09-12.
  4. ^ a b c d Barlow, Rick (2018-10-11). "Religion for Breakfast on YouTube". bu.edu. Archived from the original on 2021-09-28. Retrieved 2024-09-12.
  5. ^ a b c d e f Röther, Christian (2020-02-17). "Auf der Suche nach einer neutralen Stimme". Deutschlandfunk (in German). Archived from the original on 2023-04-01. Retrieved 2024-09-12.
  6. ^ a b c Tenhage, Bernd (2020-03-02). ""La religion au petit déjeuner", création originale sur YouTube". Cath.ch (in French). Translated by Bernard Litzler. Archived from the original on 2023-09-14. Retrieved 2024-09-12.
  7. ^ "Religion for breakfast". Index Theologicus. Archived from the original on 2024-09-12. Retrieved 2024-09-12.
  8. ^ Matt, Baker [@usefulcharts] (2024-07-19). "In today's video, I'm joined by @andrewmarkhenry @Tablets_Temples @digitwithraven @AlMuqaddimahYT & @DJHammurabi1 to discuss whether or not there are archaeological finds from the Bronze Age that relate to the Bible: https://youtube.com/watch?v=VaiQiOGrx98" (Tweet). Archived from the original on 2024-09-13. Retrieved 2024-09-13 – via Twitter.
  9. ^ Altnurme, Riho; Arigita, Elena; Pasture, Patrick (2022-03-10). Religious Diversity in Europe: Mediating the Past to the Young. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 108. ISBN 978-1-350-19859-3.
  10. ^ Benevento, Maria (2023-06-30). "'The devil is going to be in the details' of public school Bible courses in Missouri". The Beacon. Archived from the original on 2024-11-28. Retrieved 2024-11-28.

Primary sources

In the text these references are preceded by a double dagger (‡):

  1. ^ a b "About ReligionForBreakfast". YouTube.
  2. ^ Henry, Andrew Mark (2021-12-03). Dr. Andrew Mark Henry – From PhD to YouTuber: Scholars as Content Creators (Video). Event occurs at 3 minutes and 20 seconds. Archived from the original on 2024-09-13. Retrieved 2024-09-13.