American Denominational History: Perspectives on the Past, Prospects for the Future
American Denominational History: Perspectives on the Past, Prospects for the Future
edited by Keith Harper contributions by Paul Harvey, Barry Hankins, Sean Michael Lucas, Keith Harper, Randall J Stephens, Jennifer L. Woodruff Tait, Margaret Bendroth, Amy Koehlinger and David J. Whittaker
University of Alabama Press, 2008 eISBN: 978-0-8173-8108-0 | Paper: 978-0-8173-5512-8 | Cloth: 978-0-8173-1632-7 Library of Congress Classification BR516.5.A425 2008
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC
ABOUT THIS BOOK
Brings various important topics and groups in American religious history the rigor of scholarly assessment of the current literature
Fruitful questions that are posed by the positions and experiences of the various groups are carefully examined. American Denominational History points the way for the next decade of scholarly effort.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Keith Harper is Professor of Church History, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is the author of The Quality of Mercy: Southern Baptist and Social Christianity, 1890-1920.
REVIEWS
“This collection of scholarly essays by church historians focuses on the history of Christian denominations within the United States. Inspired to update William Warren Sweet’s Religion on the American Frontier, published between 1931 and 1946, editor Keith Harper expands Sweet’s original coverage of four denominations (Congregationalists, Presbyterians, Baptists, and Methodists) to include essays on Catholic and Mormon historiography and on Black Protestant, Pentecostal, and Evangelical religious movements. Each essay discusses recent research and publications and has extensive bibliographical notes. This is a good starting point for the study of denominational history.” —Congregational Libraries Today
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents
Preface 000
Introduction 000
1. Catholic Distinctiveness and the Challenge of American Denominationalism
Amy Koehlinger 000
2. New Directions on the Congregational Way
Margaret Bendroth 000
3. Presbyterians in America: Denominational History and the Quest for
Identity
Sean Michael Lucas 000
4. From the Margin to the Middle to Somewhere In Between: An Overview of
American Baptist Historiography
Keith Harper 000
5. "Everything Arose Just as the Occasion Offered": Defining Methodist
Identity through the History of Methodist Polity
Jennifer L. Woodruff Tait 000
6. Black Protestantism: A Historiographical Appraisal
Paul Harvey 000
7. Mormon Historiography
David J. Whittaker 000
8. Interpreting American Pentecostal Origins: Retrospect and Prospect
Randall J. Stephens 000
9. "We're All Evangelicals Now": The Existential and Backward Historiography
of Twentieth-Century Evangelicalism
Barry Hankins 000
Contributors 000