Henry Ford built cars, but author and scholar Kati Curts will highlight in an upcoming Kalamazoo College event how religion often drove him. 

Curts, an assistant professor of religious studies at the University of the South, will deliver the 2025 Armstrong Lecture, titled How Ford Transformed Religion in America, at 4:15 p.m. Tuesday, November 4, in the Olmsted Room in Mandelle Hall. This event, presented by the Department of Religion, is free and open to the public. 

In her book Assembling Religion: The Ford Motor Company and the Transformation of Religion in America, Curts explores Ford’s life as a devout Episcopalian, reader of New Thought philosophies, and fervent believer in efficiency as a moral duty with his business functioning as a kind of ministry. Her public talk will provide a religious history of Ford and the Ford Motor Company, repositioning them within critical studies of religion and examining how Ford helped transform American religious life in the 20th century. 

The Armstrong Lecture series at K is made possible by the Homer J. Armstrong Endowment in Religion, established in 1969 through generous donations honoring Armstrong, an eminent pastor and longtime trustee of the College. 

For more information, contact Academic Office Coordinator Sarah Bryans in the Department of Religion at Sarah.Bryans@kzoo.edu.