David Edwin Harrell Jr. (1930–2021) was an American historian and the Daniel F. Breeden Eminent Scholar at Auburn University. He published several books on American religious history, including the two-volume Social History of the Disciples of Christ and such pioneering studies of the Pentecostal and charismatic movements as All Things Are Possible: The Healing and Charismatic Revivals in Modern America and Oral Roberts: An American Life. He also coedited a series entitled Religion and American Culture by the University of Alabama Press. A respected authority on American history, religion, and politics, Harrell appeared on such TV news programs as Good Morning America, Nightline, and CNN News, and he was quoted in Time, Newsweek, US News & World Report, The Economist, and The Nation.
Edwin S. Gaustad (1923–2011) was Professor Emeritus of History and Religious Studies at the University of California, Riverside. He also taught at Shorter College, the University of Redlands, Baylor University, and Auburn University. He received a B.A. from Baylor University and a M.A. and a Ph.D. from Brown University. He is the author of, among other works, Sworn on the Altar of God: A Religious Biography of Thomas Jefferson, Liberty of Conscience: Roger Williams in America, Historical Atlas of Religion in America, The Religious History of America: The Heart of the American Story from Colonial Times to Today (with Leigh Schmidt), and Proclaim Liberty Throughout the Land: A History of Church and State in America."