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.
Table of Content
Acknowledgments
Abbreviations
Introduction
Part I
Constructing a Protestant Worldview, 1600-1800
1 American Puritanism Revisited
2 Unintended Diversity: The Growth of Colonial Christianity
3 The Great Awakening
4 The Revolutionary War and Religious Disestablishment
Part II
The Evangelical Empire and Its Critics, 1800-1865
5 Methodism and the Rise of Early Nineteenth-Century Popular Evangelicalism
6 Experimental Christianity
7 Conflicts of Twoness: Catholic and African American Christianities
8 The Perfection of Christian America: From Holiness to Civil War
Part III
American Christianity in Tumult, 1865-1920
9 Defending the Protestant Empire
10 Social Christianities and Social Gospels
11 Dispensationalism, Pentecostalism, and the Origins of Fundamentalism
Part IV
American Christianity and Modernity, 1920-1965
12 Christian Realignments between the World Wars
13 Civil Religion, Popular Religion, and the Renewal of Social Christianity
Part V
The Restructuring of American Christianity, 1965-2009
14 The Parameters of Pluralism
15 Retraditioning–Again
Epilogue: Seeing the Future through the Past
Notes
Select Bibliography
Index of Names
Subject Index
About the author
Christopher H. Evans is Professor of the History of Christianity at Boston University School of Theology and is the author of several books, including Liberalism Without Illusions: Renewing an American Christian Tradition (2010). He lives in the Boston, Massachusetts area.
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