Examines the ways in which religion was constructed as a category and region of experience in nineteenth-century literature and culture.

Following in the very successful tradition of Critical Terms for Literary Studies and Critical Terms for Art History, this book attempts to provide a revitalized, self-aware vocabulary with which this bewildering religious diversity can be accurately described and responsibly discussed. Leading scholars working in a variety of traditions demonstrate through their incisive discussions that even our most basic terms for understanding religion are not neutral but carry specific historical and conceptual freight.

Since the 1972 publication of Dean M. Kelley's Why Conservative Churches Are Growing, discussion of the Protestant mainline has focused on the tradition's decline. Elesha J. Coffman's The Christian Century and the Rise of Mainline Protestantism tells a different story, using the lens of the influential periodical The Christian Century to examine the rise of the mainline to a position of cultural prominence in the first half of the twentieth century.

"[This book] charts the transformation of one of the world's great religions during an age marked by world wars, genocide, nationalism, decolonization, and powerful ideological currents, many of them hostile to Christianity"--Amazon.com.

Introducing Religion, 4/e explores the different ways of looking at religion in the twenty-first century. A broad overview to religious studies as a discipline introduces students to the various subjects of religion. Introducing Religion teaches readers how to think in academic religious studies and its main areas, including: sociology of religion, psychology of religion, history of religion, religion and art, ethics, and more. The fourth edition has been expanded with new chapters exploring topics of contemporary interest: myth, spiritual paths, religion and popular culture, religion in the computer age, religion and war. Contemporary topics engage today’s students, relating the topics to the changing world around them.

This 2005 book asks: how will theology and the religions be studied in higher education in the coming century?

Gayraud S. Wilmore is Professor of Church History and Afro-American Religious Studies at The Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta, Georgia. He has published numerous articles and booksl including Black Witness to the Apostolic Faith, David Shannon, co-ed.; Black and Presbyterian: The Heritage and the Hope; and Last Things First. Professor Wilmore is the recpicient of the Bruce Klunder Award of the Presbyterian Interracial Councils (1969), the Sward of the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance of Harlem (1971), and various honorary degrees.