Rodney W. Stark (1934–2022) was Distinguished University Professor of the Social Sciences and Co-Director of the Institute for Studies of Religion at Baylor University and a member of the Board of Advisors for the Independent Institute and its Center on Culture and Civil Society and quarterly journal, The Independent Review. He received his Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley, and he is Founding Editor of the Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion, Honorary Professor of Sociology at Peking University in Beijing, China, and former Professor of Sociology and Professor of Comparative Religion at the University of Washington. His book The Rise of Christianity was a Pulitzer Prize Finalist and three other of his books have received Distinguished Book Awards.