Edwin Scott Gaustad (November 14, 1923 – March 25, 2011) was a professor of history at the University of California, Riverside.
[5] In 1951, he went on to complete a PhD in religious studies at Brown University, concentrating on the history of religions.
In it he argued that the Great Awakening of Jonathan Edwards and George Whitfield was more than a religious phenomenon, impacting politics and intellectual life in America.
Touching on this subject, Gaustad wrote several biographies on significant figures including Roger Williams, George Berkeley, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin.
In the late 1980s, Gaustad joined expert witnesses from the landmark libel case Lee v. Duddy in publishing their testimonies.
Gaustad himself was not asked to testify at the trial, but wrote the essay that concluded compilation, to which John Gordon Melton, John Albert Saliba, Eugene Van Ness Goetchius, Rodney Stark, and H. Newton Malony contributed.
[10] In his concluding essay, Gaustad defended the American tradition of the local church, remarking thatThe history of Christianity is replete with examples of those groups who, especially in their early years, manifest a zealous assurance and unique strength that seems strikingly different from the casual or inherited religious affiliation all around them.
[11]In 1998, he publicly opposed Rep. Ernest Istook's proposed constitutional amendment to permit forms of government-sponsored prayer and tax-financed religious activities.
[12] Gaustad also served as an expert witness in 2002 for the Federal court case Glassroth v. Moore,[13] which concerned the placement of a stone Ten Commandments monument in the rotunda of the Heflin-Torbert Judicial Building in Montgomery, Alabama.
In his testimony, Gaustad referenced Thomas Jefferson's "undying anxiety of anything that would bring church and state together."
Gaustad concluded that moving the monument from the courthouse to private property According to Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, his testimony was significant for their case against Moore.
"[5] Gaustad is remembered as one of the foremost historians of religion in America, but his friends and colleagues noted that he was also "a gracious scholar, always taking time to help others —which is the mark of a truly great man.”[9] Gaustad held a lifelong love for Baylor University and often taught there as a visiting professor.