A Documentary History of Religion in America

A Documentary History of Religion in America
Author: Edwin S. Gaustad
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
Total Pages: 800
Release: 2018-07-31
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1467450480

Up-to-date one-volume edition of a standard text For decades students and scholars have turned to the two-volume Documentary History of Religion in America for access to the most significant primary sources relating to American religious history from the sixteenth century to the present. This fourth edition—published in a single volume for the first time—has been updated and condensed, allowing instructors to more easily cover the material in a single semester. With more than a hundred illustrations and a rich array of primary documents ranging from the letters and accounts of early colonists to tweets and transcripts from the 2016 presidential election, this volume remains an essential text for readers who want to encounter firsthand the astonishing scope of religious belief and practice in American history.

For All Peoples and All Nations

For All Peoples and All Nations
Author: John Nurser
Publisher: Georgetown University Press
Total Pages: 248
Release: 2005
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9781589010598

In this new century, born in hope but soon thereafter cloaked in terror, many see religion and politics as a volatile, if not deadly, mixture. For All Peoples and All Nations uncovers a remarkable time when that was not so; when together, those two entities gave rise to a new ideal: universal human rights. John Nurser has given life to a history almost sadly forgotten, and introduces the reader to the brilliant and heroic people of many faiths who, out of the aftermath of World War II and in the face of cynicism, dismissive animosity, and even ridicule, forged one of the world's most important secular documents, the United Nations's Universal Declaration of Human Rights. These courageous, persistent, visionary individuals--notable among them an American Lutheran Seminary professor from Philadelphia, O. Frederick Nolde--created the Commission on Human Rights. Eventually headed by one of the world's greatest humanitarians, Eleanor Roosevelt, the Universal Declaration has become the touchstone for political legitimacy. As David Little says in the foreword to this remarkable chronicle, "Both because of the large gap it fills in the story of the founding of the United Nations and the events surrounding the adoption of human rights, and because of the wider message it conveys about religion and peacebuilding, For All Peoples and All Nations is an immensely important contribution. We are all mightily in John Nurser's debt." If religion and politics could once find common ground in the interest of our shared humanity, there is hope that it may yet be found again.

The Council of Bishops in Historical Perspective

The Council of Bishops in Historical Perspective
Author: William B. Oden
Publisher: Abingdon Press
Total Pages: 325
Release: 2014-11-14
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1501801015

Behind the scenes with the Council of Bishops Two authors who have served as a United Methodist bishop (William B. Oden) and as General Secretary of the General Commission on Archives and History (Robert J. Williams) collaborate on a history of the Council. They set the context for the development of what became the Council of Bishops in 1939 and recount the evolution of that body in recognition of its 75th anniversary. Includes photographs, a complete listing of all bishops of The United Methodist Church and predecessor bodies, the names of Council officers and bishops who delivered the Episcopal Address at General Conference, and an index.

Decline and Fall of the Catholic Church in America

Decline and Fall of the Catholic Church in America
Author: David Carlin
Publisher: Sophia Institute Press
Total Pages: 423
Release: 2013-06
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1622821696

Behind the lurid headlines: why the Church in America declined. Forty years ago, three powerful forces capsized the Catholic Church in America. These pages detail those forces, and map the path that you and I - and our priests and bishops - must walk if we are to make the Church in America vigorous again.

'Intimately Associated for Many Years'

'Intimately Associated for Many Years'
Author: Gerhard Besier
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Total Pages: 595
Release: 2016-08-17
Genre: History
ISBN: 1443898295

The Anglican Bishop George Bell (of Chichester) and the General Secretary of the World Council of Churches, Willem A. Visser’t Hooft (of Geneva) exchanged hundreds of letters between 1938 and 1958. The correspondence, reproduced and commented upon here, mirrors the efforts made across the ecumenical movement to unite the Christian churches and also to come to terms with an age of international crisis and conflict. In these first decades of the World Council, it was widely felt that the Church could make a noteworthy contribution to the mitigation of political tensions all over the world. That’s why Bell and Visser’t Hooft talked not only to bishops and the clergy, but also to the prime ministers and presidents of many countries. They raised their voices in memoranda and published their public letters in important newspapers. This was the World Council’s most successful period.

Near-Insurmountable Challenges and Persistent Hope

Near-Insurmountable Challenges and Persistent Hope
Author: Paul F. McCleary
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
Total Pages: 264
Release: 2018-07-24
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 198453789X

Methodism did not function in a void. It was carrying out its mission in an environment charged with dynamic change. To fully understand the history of Methodism in Southern California, one has to find a way to allow one’s mind to alter as far as possible into the conditions and events of the period. As we are so keenly aware today, these circumstances determine the success or failure of the church to carry out its mission. While Methodism was an early arrival in California, within fifty years, the environment was changing to one that was highly competitive. In addition, the political environment was changing to a more conservative one while Methodism’s leadership and ministerial training of its clergy were more liberal. Added to these external complexities, there were internal difficulties unique to Methodism that needed to be resolved. The task ahead is to examine the challenges and accomplishments of California-Pacific Conference from 1945 to the present.

Merchants and Ministers

Merchants and Ministers
Author: Kevin Schmiesing
Publisher: Lexington Books
Total Pages: 261
Release: 2016-12-14
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1498539254

Two of the most influential forces in American history are business and religion. Merchants and Ministers weaves the two together in a history of the relationship between businesspeople and Christian clergy. From fur traders and missionaries who explored the interior of the continent to Gilded-Age corporate titans and their clerical confidants to black businessmen and their ministerial collaborators in the Civil Rights movement, Merchants and Ministers tells stories of interactions between businesspeople and clergy from the colonial period to the present. It presents a complex picture of this relationship, highlighting both conflict and cooperation between the two groups. By placing anecdotal detail in the context of general developments in commerce and Christianity, Merchants and Ministers traces the contours of American history and illuminates those contours with the personal stories of businesspeople and clergy.