The Story of Religion in America

An Introduction

James P. Byrd, James Hudnut-Beumler

• Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN:
  9780664264666
• eBook ISBN:
  9781646982226
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: North American History

Written primarily for undergraduate classes in American religious history and organized chronologically, this new textbook presents the broad scope of the story of religion in the American colonies and the United States. While following certain central narratives, including the long shadow of Puritanism, the competition between revival and reason, and the defining role of racial and ethnic diversity, the book tells the story of American religion in all its historical and moral complexity. To appeal to its broad range of readers, this textbook includes charts, timelines, and suggestions for primary source documents that will lead readers into a deeper engagement with the material. Unlike similar history books, The Story of Religion in America pays careful attention to balancing the story of Christianity with the central contributions of other religions.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of Figures
• Introduction
• 1. Catholic Missions, European Conquests
• 2. Puritanism in New England
• 3. Early American Religious Diversity: The Caribbean, the Middle Colonies, and the South
• 4. The Great Awakening
• 5. The Enlightenment in America
• 6. The American Revolution
• 7. The New Nation
• 8. New Revivals and New Faiths
• 9. Slavery and the Civil War
• 10. The Second American Revolution: Emancipation, Immigration, and Reckoning with Life and Death
• 11. The New Science and the Old-Time Religion
• 12. Mass Immigration and the Closing Western Frontier
• 13. A Social Gospel and Black Religious Life in the Nadir
• 14. The Birth of the American Century and the Fundamentalist-Modernist Battles
• 15. A World in Crisis and an American Religious High
• 16. A Catholic President, the Civil Rights Movement, and the Ferment of the 1960s
• 17. The Culture Wars, Pentecostalization, and American Religion after 9/11
• Notes
• Index
• Excerpt from World Religions in America, Fourth Edition, edited by Jacob Neusner