João Chaves, Ph.D.

Education

Ph.D., Baylor University, 2017

M.T.S., Truett Theological Seminary, 2012

B.A., Baptist University of the Américas, 2010

B.Th., Centro Batista de Educação, Serviço, e Pesquisa, 2009

Biography

João B. Chaves is originally from Recife, Brazil, and joined the Department of Religion at Baylor University in the fall of 2023 after having worked at Princeton Theological Seminary (HTI) and Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary. His research focuses on the history of religion in the Américas, the influence of U.S. Protestantism in Latin America, World Christianity, and the development of Latin American/Latinx religious networks in the United States. Dr. Chaves is an award-winning author of several books, including Migrational Religion: Context and Creativity in the Latinx Diaspora (Baylor University Press, 2021, winner of the HTI Book Prize), The Global Mission of the Jim Crow South: Southern Baptist Missionaries and the Shaping of Latin American Evangelicalism (Mercer University Press, 2022), and Remembering Antônia Teixeira: A Story of Missions, Violence, and Institutional Hypocrisy (Eerdmans, 2023, with Mikeal C. Parsons; a finalist for the 2023 Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Award in Biography). His peer-reviewed articles appear in several academic journals, and he has written opinion pieces for outlets such as The Washington Post and The Christian Century. Dr. Chaves serves in several national and international editorial, guild-related, and non-profit boards and committees. Throughout his career, he helped raise and oversee over $9M in grants and gifts. 

Academic Interests and Research

The History of Religion in the Américas, Influence of U.S. Protestantism in Latin America, Missions History, World Christianity, Latin American/Latinx Religious Networks, Baptist History, Race in the Américas, Immigration History, History of Latin American Theologies, Protestantism in Brazil.

Books

With Lloyd Barba and Silvia Pedraza (eds.), A Place of Their Own: Religion and Immigration among Latinos in the United States (Oxford University Press, forthcoming)

With T. Laine Scales (eds.), Baptist Missions Worldwide: History, Music, and Theopolitics (Baylor University Press, forthcoming)

Missões, Raça e Poder: Uma Nova História dos Batista no Brasil (Editora Recriar, 2026),

With T. Laine Scales (eds.), Baptists and the Kingdom of God: Global Perspectives (Baylor University Press, 2023).

With Mikeal C. Parsons, Remembering Antônia Teixeira: A Story of Missions, Violence, and Institutional Hypocrisy (Wm.B. Eerdmans, 2023).

The Global Mission of the Jim Crow South: Southern Baptist Missions and the Shaping of Latin American Evangelicalism (Mercer University Press, 2022).

Migrational Religion: Context and Creativity in the Latinx Diaspora (Baylor University Press, 2021).

O Racismo na História Batista Brasileira: Uma Memória Inconveniente do Legado Missionário (Novos Diálogos, 2020).         

Evangelicals and Liberation Revisited: An Inquiry into the Possibility of an Evangelical-Liberationist Theology (Wipf & Stock, 2013).

Select Articles and Book Chapters

“Baptists in Latin America,” in the Oxford Handbook of Baptist Studies, edited by Paul Fiddes, Elizabeth Flowers, Steve Harmon, and David Bebbington (Oxford University Press, 2026), 140-154.

“Christianity on the Move: Migratory Christianity in and From Latin America,” in Engaging Coloniality: The Liberative Story of Christianity in Latin America, edited by Raimundo C. Barreto and Mark A. Lamport (Cascade, 2025), 216-231.

“Dominion in Bagbyland: A Theopolitical Genealogy of 21st Century Bapticostals,” in Perspectives in Religious Studies 52.4 (Winter 2025), 307-317.

With Álvaro Ramon Ramos Oliveira, “Souza Marques e os Batistas Brasileiros: A Ascensão de um Porta-Voz (não) Adequado Entre 1910-1930,” in Revista Brasileira de História das Religiões, 18.53 (2025), 1-20. 

“Three Stories from the Mission Field: Southern Baptists and White Supremacy Abroad” in Perspectives in Religious Studies 52.1 (Spring 2025), 59-72.

“Brazilian Migrational Christianity in North America” in Latin American and US Latino Religions in North America, edited by Lloyd Barba (Bloomsbury, 2024), 247-262.

With Rodrigo Serrão, “Are Brazilians Latinx? Historical and Sociological Considerations” in The Latinx Experiences: Interdisciplinary Perspectives edited by M. J. Villaseñor & H. Jimenez (Sage, 2023), 39-46.

With Mikeal C. Parsons, “The Rape of Antonia Teixeira: Racism, Sexism, and Xenophobia at Baylor and Beyond” in Baptists and Gender edited by Melody Maxwell and T. Laine Scales (Mercer University Press, 2023), 114-123.

With Godfrey Harold, “Constructing Afro-Descendant Christianties: Towards Hemispheric Histories for Racial and Ethnic Solidarity” in The South African Baptist Journal of Theology, 30 (2021), 172-181.

With Rodrigo Serrão, "Immigrant Evangelicalism in the COVID-19 Crisis: Reactions and Responses from Brazilian Evangelical Churches in Florida" in The International Journal of Latin American Religions 4 (September 2020): 235-249.

“Exporting Holy Fire: Southern Baptist Missions, Pentecostalism, and Baptist Identity in Latin America” in Perspectives in Religious Studies 47.2 (Summer 2020): 203-214.

“Expanding the Fear of the Mongrel: Baptist Missions in Latin America and Transnational Racist Cross-Pollination” in Baptist History and Heritage Journal LIV.2 (Summer 2019): 81-91.

With Douglas Weaver, “Baptists and Their Polarizing Ways: Transnational Polarization Between Southern Baptist Missionaries and Brazilian Baptists” in Review and Expositor 116.2 (2019): 160-174.

“The Servetus Challenge: Eisegesis and the Problematic of Differing Chronologies of Ecclesiastical Corruption,” in Journal of Reformed Theology X (Fall 2016): 195-214.

Courses Taught at Baylor, Fall 2023

• REL 1350 The Christian Heritage
• REL 3330 Introduction to Church History
• REL 4340 Christian Missions
• REL 5383 Migration, Ethnicity, & Religious History
• REL 5374 Religion & Politics in the Américas
• REL 1350 Christian Heritage

View Dr. Chaves' Books