Has American Christianity Failed?

Has American Christianity Failed?
Author: Bryan Wolfmueller
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2016
Genre: Evangelicalism
ISBN: 9780758649416

"Wolfmueller sounds the alarm against the false teaching and dangerous practices of Christianity in America. He offers a beautiful alternative: the sweet savor of the Gospel, which brings us to to the real comfort, joy, peace, freedom, and sure hope of Christ." -- Back cover

The Democratization of American Christianity

The Democratization of American Christianity
Author: Nathan O. Hatch
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 332
Release: 1991-01-23
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0300159560

A provocative reassessment of religion and culture in the early days of the American republic "The so-called Second Great Awakening was the shaping epoch of American Protestantism, and this book is the most important study of it ever published."—James Turner, Journal of Interdisciplinary History Winner of the John Hope Franklin Publication Prize, the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic book prize, and the Albert C. Outler Prize In this provocative reassessment of religion and culture in the early days of the American republic, Nathan O. Hatch argues that during this period American Christianity was democratized and common people became powerful actors on the religious scene. Hatch examines five distinct traditions or mass movements that emerged early in the nineteenth century—the Christian movement, Methodism, the Baptist movement, the black churches, and the Mormons—showing how all offered compelling visions of individual potential and collective aspiration to the unschooled and unsophisticated.

The Juvenilization of American Christianity

The Juvenilization of American Christianity
Author: Thomas Bergler
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
Total Pages: 292
Release: 2012-04-20
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0802866840

Pop worship music. Falling in love with Jesus. Mission trips. Wearing jeans and T-shirts to church. Spiritual searching and church hopping. Faith-based political activism. Seeker-sensitive outreach. These now-commonplace elements of American church life all began as innovative ways to reach young people, yet they have gradually become accepted as important parts of a spiritual ideal for all ages. What on earth has happened? In The Juvenilization of American Christianity Thomas Bergler traces the way in which, over seventy-five years, youth ministries have breathed new vitality into four major American church traditions -- African American, Evangelical, Mainline Protestant, and Roman Catholic. Bergler shows too how this "juvenilization" of churches has led to widespread spiritual immaturity, consumerism, and self-centeredness, popularizing a feel-good faith with neither intergenerational community nor theological literacy. Bergler s critique further offers constructive suggestions for taming juvenilization. Watch the trailer:

African-American Christianity

African-American Christianity
Author: Paul E. Johnson
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 214
Release: 1994-07-06
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780520075948

Eight leading scholars have joined forces to give us the most comprehensive book to date on the history of African-American religion from the slavery period to the present. Beginning with Albert Raboteau's essay on the importance of the story of Exodus among African-American Christians and concluding with Clayborne Carson's work on Martin Luther King, Jr.'s religious development, this volume illuminates the fusion of African and Christian traditions that has so uniquely contributed to American religious development. Several common themes emerge: the critical importance of African roots, the traumatic discontinuities of slavery, the struggle for freedom within slavery and the subsequent experience of discrimination, and the remarkable creativity of African-American religious faith and practice. Together, these essays enrich our understanding of both African-American life and its part in the history of religion in America.

White Too Long

White Too Long
Author: Robert P. Jones
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 336
Release: 2021-07-13
Genre: History
ISBN: 1982122870

"WHITE TOO LONG draws on history, statistics, and memoir to urge that white Christians reckon with the racism of the past and the amnesia of the present to restore a Christian identity free of the taint of white supremacy"--

American Christianity

American Christianity
Author: Stephen Cox
Publisher: Univ of TX + ORM
Total Pages: 257
Release: 2014-04-15
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 029275860X

This wide-ranging study examines the ever-evolving forms of Christianity in the US, and why this constant reinvention is a vital part of American faith. Christianity takes an astonishing variety of forms in America: from traditional chapels to modern megachurches, from evangelical fellowships to social-action groups, and from Pentecostal faith to apocalyptic movements. Stephen Cox argues that radical and unpredictable change is one of the few dependable features of Christianity in America. It is in a necessary and ongoing state of revolution and has been throughout our history. Cox explores how both Catholic and Protestant churches have evolved in ways that would make them seem alien to their past adherents. He traces the rise of uniquely American movements, from the Mormons to the Seventh-day Adventists and Jehovah’s Witnesses, and brings to life the vivid personalities—Aimee Semple McPherson, Billy Sunday, and many others—who have taken the gospel to the masses. Cox also sheds new light on such issues as American Christians’ constantly changing political involvements, their controversial revisions in the style and substance of worship, and their chronic expectation that God is about to intervene conclusively in human life. Asserting that “a church that doesn’t promise new beginnings can never prosper in America,” Cox demonstrates that American Christianity must be seen not as a sociological phenomenon but as the ever-changing story of individual seekers.

Native Americans, Christianity, and the Reshaping of the American Religious Landscape

Native Americans, Christianity, and the Reshaping of the American Religious Landscape
Author: Joel W. Martin
Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Press
Total Pages: 344
Release: 2010-10-11
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0807899666

In this interdisciplinary collection of essays, Joel W. Martin and Mark A. Nicholas gather emerging and leading voices in the study of Native American religion to reconsider the complex and often misunderstood history of Native peoples' engagement with Christianity and with Euro-American missionaries. Surveying mission encounters from contact through the mid-nineteenth century, the volume alters and enriches our understanding of both American Christianity and indigenous religion. The essays here explore a variety of postcontact identities, including indigenous Christians, "mission friendly" non-Christians, and ex-Christians, thereby exploring the shifting world of Native-white cultural and religious exchange. Rather than questioning the authenticity of Native Christian experiences, these scholars reveal how indigenous peoples negotiated change with regard to missions, missionaries, and Christianity. This collection challenges the pervasive stereotype of Native Americans as culturally static and ill-equipped to navigate the roiling currents associated with colonialism and missionization. The contributors are Emma Anderson, Joanna Brooks, Steven W. Hackel, Tracy Neal Leavelle, Daniel Mandell, Joel W. Martin, Michael D. McNally, Mark A. Nicholas, Michelene Pesantubbee, David J. Silverman, Laura M. Stevens, Rachel Wheeler, Douglas L. Winiarski, and Hilary E. Wyss.

Christianity, Social Justice, and the Japanese American Incarceration during World War II

Christianity, Social Justice, and the Japanese American Incarceration during World War II
Author: Anne M. Blankenship
Publisher: UNC Press Books
Total Pages: 297
Release: 2016-10-07
Genre: History
ISBN: 1469629216

Anne M. Blankenship's study of Christianity in the infamous camps where Japanese Americans were incarcerated during World War II yields insights both far-reaching and timely. While most Japanese Americans maintained their traditional identities as Buddhists, a sizeable minority identified as Christian, and a number of church leaders sought to minister to them in the camps. Blankenship shows how church leaders were forced to assess the ethics and pragmatism of fighting against or acquiescing to what they clearly perceived, even in the midst of a national crisis, as an unjust social system. These religious activists became acutely aware of the impact of government, as well as church, policies that targeted ordinary Americans of diverse ethnicities. Going through the doors of the camp churches and delving deeply into the religious experiences of the incarcerated and the faithful who aided them, Blankenship argues that the incarceration period introduced new social and legal approaches for Christians of all stripes to challenge the constitutionality of government policies on race and civil rights. She also shows how the camp experience nourished the roots of an Asian American liberation theology that sprouted in the sixties and seventies.

Oneness Embraced

Oneness Embraced
Author: Tony Evans
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2015-10-06
Genre: African Americans
ISBN: 9780802412669

With the Bible as a guide and heaven as the goal, Oneness Embraced calls God's people to kingdom-focused unity. It tells us why we don't have it, what we need to get it, and what it will look like when we do. Mr. Evans weaves his own story into this word to the church.

Histories of American Christianity

Histories of American Christianity
Author: Christopher Hodge Evans
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2013
Genre: United States
ISBN: 9781602585454

To tell the story of America is, in many ways, to tell the story of religion in America. At every point in its history, America was, and still is, religious--and diversely so. To understand how religion shaped America's history is to trace the influence of America's dominant faith tradition, Christianity. But American Christianity, like religion in America, is a wonderfully varied movement. In this comprehensive, eminently readable introduction, Christopher Evans maps the pluralism of American Christianity around its historic center, demonstrating the enduring role of Protestantism despite the wide assortment of distinctly American religious innovation. In Histories of American Christianity, Evans thus narrates the intellectual history, chronicles the story of sectarian divisions, and explores how Christianity became so intertwined with and pervasive in public life. But Evans also shines fresh light on what has been omitted. Through the use of individual stories focusing on the traditionally marginalized--e.g., women, African Americans, and Latino/a descendants--Evans weaves together a tapestry of American-Christian orthodoxy and tradition over the centuries. What results is a readable and teachable volume, grounded in research and packed with critical reflection that chronicles America's rich Christian history.