A richly variegated selection of short documents illustrative of the history of religion in America. The best source-book available to contemporary students and general readers.
A richly variegated selection of short documents illustrative of the history of religion in America. The best source-book available to contemporary students and general readers.
At lasta resource for librarians who wish to build or develop their nonfiction collection and use it to better serve the needs of adult Christian readers. Covering the three major branches of Christianity (Roman Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox), the author organizes more than 600 titles into subject categories ranging from biography, the arts, and education, to theology, devotion, and spiritual warfare. Award-winning classics are noted. Introductory narrative frames the literature, and helps librarians better understand Christian literature; and learn how to establish selection criteria for building a Christian nonfiction collection.
Christian Thought in America: A Brief History is a short, accessible overview of the history of Christian thought in America, from the Puritans and other colonials to the beginning of the twenty-first century. Moving chronologically, each chapter addresses a historical segment, focusing on key movements and figures and tracing general trends and developments. The book conveys a sense of the liveliness and creativity of the ongoing theological debates. Each chapter concludes with a short bibliography of recent scholarship for further reading.
A remarkable history of the powerful and influential social gospel movement. The global crises of child labor, alcoholism and poverty were all brought to our attention through the social gospel movement. Its impact on American society makes it one of the most influential developments in American religious history. Christopher H. Evans traces the development of the social gospel in American Protestantism, and illustrates how the religious idealism of the movement also rose up within Judaism and Catholicism. Contrary to the works of previous historians, Evans demonstrates how the presence of the social gospel continued in American culture long after its alleged demise following World War I. Evans reveals the many aspects of the social gospel and their influence on a range of social movements during the twentieth century, culminating with the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s. It also explores the relationship between the liberal social gospel of the early twentieth century and later iterations of social reform in late twentieth century evangelicalism. The Social Gospel in American Religion considers an impressive array of historical figures including Washington Gladden, Emil Hirsch, Frances Willard, Reverdy Ransom, Walter Rauschenbusch, Stephen Wise, John Ryan, Harry Emerson Fosdick, A.J. Muste, Georgia Harkness, and Benjamin Mays. It demonstrates how these figures contributed to the shape of the social gospel in America, while arguing that the movement’s legacy lies in its profound influence on broader traditions of liberal-progressive political reform in American history.
This volume looks at how, as America went through the 1960s, its achievement of superpower status invited both deep “Progressive” political changes at home (Johnson’s Great Society) and aggressive “Democratic” involvement abroad (Vietnam)—in both instances resulting in social catastrophe. The narrative continues, describing the battle to hold America’s traditional Christian political-moral foundations (based on the American family and local community) against the urge of Congressional Progressivists, a Liberal media, idealistic academics, a Boomer generation, and federal judges to rewrite those same standards along more Secular lines. It covers Nixon’s diplomatic successes abroad—yet his humiliation at home (Watergate); the resultant collapse of all social order in Indochina with the retreat of America from the region; Carter’s discovery that diplomatic “niceness” is not a good substitute for real power; the restoration of American national pride during the Reagan, Bush Sr., and Clinton years (thanks to strong but carefully measured policies); the disaster that hit when Bush Jr. decided to “democratize” Afghanistan and Iraq; the deep “Change” that Obama attempted to bring to a centuries-old traditional America; and finally the arrival of Trump, deeply contested by political adversaries. It looks at the moral-spiritual character (rather universally Christian) of America’s national leadership since 1960 and how that had its own impact on the country, even during this distinctly “post-Christian” period. The narrative concludes with a review of the various political-moral lessons we should draw from America’s own national narrative—particularly the necessity of getting back into an all-important Covenant relationship with God.
This book examines the historical development of the American Catholic Charismatic Renewal from the early influences of the Spanish Cursillo movement, through the initial 'baptism in the spirit' event at Duquesne University in 1967, and the Renewal's subsequent development through the end of the 20th century.
As its name implies, the Reformed tradition grew out of the 16th century Protestant Reformation. The Reformed churches consider themselves to be the Catholic Church reformed. The movement originated in the reform efforts of Huldrych Zwingli (1484-1531) of Zurich and John Calvin (1509-1564) of Geneva. Although the Reformed movement was dependent upon many Protestant leaders, it was Calvin's tireless work as a writer, preacher, teacher, and social and ecclesiastical reformer that provided a substantial body of literature and an ethos from which the Reformed tradition grew. Today, the Reformed churches are a multicultural, multiethnic, and multinational phenomenon. The second edition of the Historical Dictionary of the Reformed Churches contains information on the major personalities, events, facts, movements, and beliefs of the Reformed churches. This is done through a list of acronyms and abbreviations, a chronology, an introductory essay, appendixes, a bibliography, and over 800 cross-referenced dictionary entries on leaders, personalities, events, facts, movements, and beliefs of the Reformed churches.
"Jewish-Christianity" is a contested category in current research. But for precisely this reason, it may offer a powerful lens through which to rethink the history of Jewish/Christian relations. Traditionally, Jewish-Christianity has been studied as part of the origins and early diversity of Christianity. Collecting revised versions of previously published articles together with new materials, Annette Yoshiko Reed reconsiders Jewish-Christianity in the context of Late Antiquity and in conversation with Jewish studies. She brings further attention to understudied texts and traditions from Late Antiquity that do not fit neatly into present day notions of Christianity as distinct from Judaism. In the process, she uses these materials to probe the power and limits of our modern assumptions about religion and identity.