Books in the Religion in America series

This study of religious thought and social life in early America focuses on the career of Joseph Bellamy (1719-1790), a Connecticut minister noted chiefly for his role in the New Divinity - the influental theological movement that evolved from the writings of Jonathan Edwards.

Butler shows that, contrary to common belief, the nineteenth-century Episcopal Church contained a sizable evangelical party that was deeply indebted and closely related to both Anglican and early American interdenominational evangelicalism. Evangelical religion, she shows, actually helped shape the very identity of the Episcopal Church during its first century.

Rubin presents a history of `religious melancholy' among American evangelicals, focusing on the period 1740-1850.

This is an intellectual biography of a neglected figure in the history of theology in America, John Williamson Nevin. Nevin was a central figure in the so-called Mercerberg School of theology, which, during the middle decades of the nineteenth century, ran counter to the mainstream of Protestant thought, and was significantly influenced by German philosophy, theology, and history.

A new analysis and interpretation of the religious views of the nineteenth century American philosopher William James.

Sympathetic Puritans places sympathy at the heart of Puritanism and challenges the literary history of sentimentalism. It argues that a Calvinist theology of fellow feeling shaped the politics, religion, rhetoric, and literature of seventeenth-century New England, influencing the development of American culture.

In this work, the author maintains that theology became boring because the depiction of God as a "character" became boring, fashioned according to theologians' notions of character, derived from contemporary literature. He considers why a romantic characterization of God was problematic.

Findlay examines the relationship between the the mainstream Protestant Churches and the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. His study makes clear the highly significant contribution made by liberal religious groups in this turbulent and historic decade of social change.

This interdisciplinary collection is the first book to address the organizational aspects of religion. Topics include the historical sources and patterns of US religious institutions, contemporary patterns of denominational authority, and the interface between religious and secular institutions.

In this work, the author explores the rapid growth of American Methodism following the Revolutionary War. He argues that Methodism's style, tone and agenda became part of the fabric of American life, influencing all other mass religious movements and areas unconnected to the church as well.

In Conjuring culture, Theophus H. Smith attempts to construct a more adequate analysis of African-American culture by using concepts derived from that culture. He bases his critique on the central concept of "conjure", and contends that Biblically-based themes, stories, and especially typology have crucially formed African-American culture as they have been simultaneously reformed and deployed by African-Americans.

This study offers a new interpretation of the puritan 'Antinomian' controversy and a skilful analysis of its wider and long term social and cultural significance. Breen argues that the controversy both reflected and fostered larger questions of identity that would persist in puritan New England throughout the 17th century.

The Revival of 1857-58 was a widespread religious awakening, most famous for urban prayer meetings in major metropolitan centres across the United States. This is a critical analysis of the revival which has often been overshadowed by earlier "great awakenings".

No American denomination identified itself more closely with the nation's democratic ideals than did the Baptists. Yet paradoxically no denomination wielded religious authority more effectively than they did. Wills traces this dichotomy to two rival strains within the Baptist church - moderates who emphasized personal religious freedom and tolerance, and fundamentalists who preached discipline.