Joseph Loconte

Joseph Loconte, Ph.D., is Senior Fellow in Christianity and Culture at The King’s College and the Director of the Simon Center for American Studies at the Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C. From 2009 to 2020, he served as an Associate Professor of History at King’s, where he taught courses on Western Civilization, U.S. Foreign Policy, and International Human Rights. He also served as a Senior Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C. In 2008, Mr. Loconte was named a Distinguished Visiting Professor at the School of Public Policy at Pepperdine University. From 1999 to 2006, Mr. Loconte held the first chair in religion and civil society as the William E. Simon Fellow at the Heritage Foundation.

Mr. Loconte has been a frequent contributor to print and broadcast media. For 10 years he was a regular commentator on religion and the public square for National Public Radio’s “All Things Considered.” His other media appearances include the BBC, CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News. His commentary has appeared in the New York Times, the Times of London, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the Weekly Standard, the New Republic, the American Interest, the National Interest,National Review, and Books and Culture. He is a regular contributor to the Huffington Post and the London-based Standpoint, and serves as a contributing editor at Providence: A Journal of Christianity and American Foreign Policy.

Mr. Loconte is the author of several books, including: the New York Times bestseller A Hobbit, a Wardrobe, and a Great War: How J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis Rediscovered Faith, Friendship, and Heroism in the Cataclysm of 1914-1918 (HarperCollins 2015); God, Locke, and Liberty: The Struggle for Religious Freedom in the West (Lexington Press, 2014); The Searchers: A Quest for Faith in the Valley of Doubt (Thomas Nelson, 2012); and The End of Illusions: Religious Leaders Confront Hitler’s Gathering Storm (Rowman & Littlefield, 2004). He is currently at work on a documentary film based on his book A Hobbit, a Wardrobe, and a Great War.

A native of Brooklyn, N.Y., Mr. Loconte has a master’s degree from Wheaton College and earned his PhD in history at King’s College London, University of London.

Time at King's: January 2009 to Present