In this lucid and learned book one of America's outstanding historians shows the development of the thought and institutional life which characterize Christianity in America. He explains this religious development in terms of the emergence of religious freedom and the physical fact of the frontier. As he enlarges upon many aspects of his main theme, Dr. Mead traces the parallel growth and creative tension of Christianity and democracy.Dr. Mead discusses:The American PeopleFrom Coercion to PersuasionAmerican Protestantism during the Revolutionary EpochThomas Jefferson's Fair ExperimentAbraham Lincoln's Last, Best Hope of EarthWhen Wise Men HopedDenominationalismAmerican Protestantism Since the Civil War I. From Denominationalism to AmericanismAmerican Protestantism Since the Civil War II. From Americanism to ChristianityThe Lively Experiment is an unusually interesting and timely study that will appeal to every reader concerned with the religious, social, intellectual, and cultural history of America.

Beginning with the legacy of Roger Williams, who in 1633 founded the first colony not restricted to people of one faith, The Lively Experiment chronicles how Americans have continually demolished traditional prejudices while at the same time erecting new walls between belief systems. The chapters gathered here reveal how Americans are sensitively attuned to irony and contradiction, to unanticipated eruptions of bigotry and unheralded acts of decency, and to the disruption caused by new movements and the reassurance supplied by old divisions. The authors examine the way ethnicity, race, and imperialism have been woven into the fabric of interreligious relations and highlight how currents of tolerance and intolerance have rippled in multiple directions. Nearly four hundred years after Roger Williams' Rhode Island colony, the "lively experiment" of religious tolerance remains a core tenet of the American way of life. This volume honors this boisterous tradition by offering the first comprehensive account of America’s vibrant and often tumultuous history of interreligious relations.

The ideal introduction to what many historians consider the most innovative and successful religion to emerge during the spiritual ferment of antebellum America.

Denominations are one of the primary ways in which Christians attempt to live in a community based around God. Yet there is very little careful theological analysis of denomination available today. Between Congregation and Church offers a constructive theological understanding of denomination, showing its role as an intermediary structure between congregation and church. It places denomination and other intermediary structures within the doctrine of the church. Barry Ensign-George reviews work by theologians and church historians that can contribute to a constructive theological understanding of denomination. The book highlights particular developments in the history of the church that established preconditions for the emergence of denomination. Exploration of unity and diversity is central to this analysis, and individual chapters offer theological analyses of the unity and the diversity to which the Christians are called. Finally, denomination has often been a vehicle for sin, and the relationship between denomination and sin is considered. Between Congregation and Church addresses a major gap in contemporary theology: the failure to offer substantive theological analysis of denomination, a major way Christians together live their faith today.

This work first examines the theological streams of influence that constitute Brethren theology—Anabaptism and Radical Pietism—with particular focus given to key thinkers and leaders. It then explores the nuances of what came to be American Fundamentalism and Protestant Liberalism of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, which provide important context to the thought of J. Allen Miller (1866–1935), a central Ashland Brethren theologian of that period. Miller’s theology demonstrates sympathy with both poles of the theological spectrum but remains distinct as a thoughtful mediation between these two extremes. Miller’s theological approach, termed “Word-Spirit Communal Revelationalism,” consists in his particular theological epistemology and biblical hermeneutics. When Miller’s theological witness moves into conversation with American evangelicalism, it proves helpful for the Ashland Brethren as they engage with the contemporary American evangelical landscape. His witness assists Brethren and other American evangelicals in offering a corrective to several pathologies or distortions identified within American evangelicalism. His theological method assists the larger American evangelical movement with tools for mediation over against polarization.

By focusing on law, this book offers new insights into the history of religious liberty in colonial America.