About this episode

Prof. James Nolan discusses Nagasaki's prayerful response to the atomic bomb in the context of its Christian history.

Prof. James Nolan argues that Nagasaki’s prayerful response to the atomic bomb can only be understood through the city’s long Christian history, especially the witness of the hidden Christians and Takashi Nagai. This lecture was given on January 29th, 2026, at Florida State University. To make a gift this June, visit  https://truth.thomisticinstitute.org/pod . About the Speaker: Professor James L. Nolan, Jr. is the Washington Gladden 1859 Professor of Sociology at Williams College, where he has been teaching since 1996. Professor Nolan’s teaching and research interests fall within the general areas of law and society, culture, technology and social change, and historical comparative sociology. His most recent book, Atomic Doctors: Conscience and Complicity at the Dawn of the Nuclear Age, was published with Harvard University Press in 2020. His previous books include What They Saw in America: Alexis de Tocqueville, Max Weber, G.K. Chesterton, and Sayyid Qutb (2016); Legal Accents, Legal Borrowing: The International Problem-Solving Court Movement (2009); Reinventing Justice: The American Drug Court Movement (2001); and The Therapeutic State: Justifying Government at Century’s…

People in this episode

Guest: Prof. James Nolan

Topics covered

• God's Providence
• Nuclear History
• Christianity
• Suffering
• Cultural Narratives

Keywords

• Nagasaki
• Hiroshima
• atomic bomb
• Christian history
• suffering
• Takashi Nagai
• God's Providence

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Florida State University

Books & works: Atomic Doctors: Conscience and Complicity at the Dawn of the Nuclear Age

Places: Nagasaki, Hiroshima

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