A richly variegated selection of short documents illustrative of the history of religion in America. The best source-book available to contemporary students and general readers.

A richly variegated selection of short documents illustrative of the history of religion in America. The best source-book available to contemporary students and general readers.

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 a good two decades teachers and students of American religious history have turned to the two-volume Documentary History of Religion in America for the most significant primary sources from the nation's founding to the present. Both volumes in this landmark work now appear in an updated and expanded third edition. Carefully refurbished by renowned historian of American religion Mark Noll these rich sourcebooks contain original documents - letters, sermons, court records, personal narratives, and more - that chronicle the drama of American religious history. This third edition updates all of the bibliographical essays, brings the second volume up the the present, and incorporates other documents that reflect recent scholarly concerns, such as the religious dimensions of the Civil War and religious developments among women and people of color.

This unique documentary history brings together manifestos, Supreme Court decisions, congressional testimonies, speeches, articles, book excerpts, pastoral letters, interviews, song lyrics, memoirs, and poems reflecting the vitality, diversity, and changing nature of religious belief and practice in America since 1945. Covering both the center and the margins of American religious life, these documents reflect the role of religion and theology in the civil rights, feminist, and gay rights movements as well as in the conservative responses to these. Issues regarding religion and contemporary American culture are explored in documents about the rise of the evangelical movement and the religious right; the impact of "new" (post-1965) immigrant communities on the religious landscape; the popularity of alternative, New Age, and non-Western beliefs; and the relationship between religion and popular culture. The editors conclude with selections exploring major themes of American religious life at the millennium as well as excerpts that speculate on the future of religion in the United States.

Christian Thought in America: A Brief History is a short, accessible overview of the history of Christian thought in America, from the Puritans and other colonials to the beginning of the twenty-first century. Moving chronologically, each chapter addresses a historical segment, focusing on key movements and figures and tracing general trends and developments. The book conveys a sense of the liveliness and creativity of the ongoing theological debates. Each chapter concludes with a short bibliography of recent scholarship for further reading.

The metaphor of a “wall of separation” between church and state obscures the substantial connection that exists between the Christian religion and American liberalism. The central thesis of this work challenges the legitimacy of this metaphor as it appears in Supreme Court decisions and in the thought of the philosopher John Rawls. The Religious Origins of American Freedom and Equality provides a provocative interpretation of the nature of Christian and liberal principles, suggesting that the principles of individual freedom and equality were forged even within the conservative elements of Calvinism and Puritanism. Recognition of this substantial intellectual connection has the potential to help reshape our conception of the separation of church and state by tempering the opposition between religious and political concepts and values. The purpose of The Religious Origins of American Freedom and Equality then, is to contribute to an understanding of public reason that is more open to the contributions of religious perspectives. The work attempts to show how religious doctrines, currently obscured by historical context and hermeneutical dogmatism, have nonetheless played a formative role in the evolution of the freedom and equality that is foundational to contemporary liberalism. Understanding the genesis of the concepts of freedom and equality tempers the conceptual opposition between church and state and allows a clearer more inclusive interpretation of the nature of their separation. The originality of the work is fourfold: (1) the challenge its central thesis poses to dominant constructions of public reason, freedom, and equality; (2) the interdisciplinary method through which it brings the findings of a variety of disciplines to bear on a central issues in political philosophy; (3) the challenge it brings to the analytic and pragmatic approach of contemporary liberalism through its assertion of the importance of historical context to contemporary ideas; and (4) the degree to which it engages theology in its relation to contemporary questions.