DE 5580  The Church in America

Lecturer: John D Hannah

Course Description

A study of the church in America from its Colonial beginnings to the current day with emphasis on the numerous influences that have forged the current religious scene. Three hours.

Course Objectives

• To trace the history of Christianity in the United States beginning with its roots in British colonialism.
• To think critically about the nature and meaning of the American political experiment.
• To gain spiritual enrichment through an understanding of one's own evangelical heritage, particularly through the lives and ministries of select leaders.
• To trace the shift in American religious thought from Calvinistic puritanism to evangelicalism, then onto liberalism.
• To gain insight and understanding into Christendom today.
• To see the sovereign, merciful workings of God throughout the history of the nation.
• To understand how and why movements started and to trace their effect on history.
• To explain the causes, developments in, reactions to, and criticisms of nondenominational evangelicalism since 1858.
• To gain insight into present-day issues in the American church.
• To obtain a basic bibliography for further study.

Course Materials

All required course materials can be purchased through the TEDS bookstore (800.456.7323 | 847.317.6800).

1. Hannah, John D. The History of Christianity in America, Audio Lecture Tapes and study Guide. Institute of Theological Studies, a division of OUTREACH, INC., 1994.
2. Standard Textbooks: Please choose any one of the following textbooks. The textbook is to be read as listed in the course schedule below. The DE office recommends the student read Mark A. Noll, A History of Christianity in the United States and Canada.

   Abbreviation	Book
   Ahlstrom	Ahlstrom, Sydney E. A Religious History of the American People. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1972.
   Gaustad	Gaustad, Edwin Scott. A Religious History of America. Revised edition. San Francisco, CA: Harper and Row, 1990.
   Hudson	Hudson, Winthrop S. Religion in America. Fourth edition. New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1987.
   Marty	Marty, Martin E. Pilgrims in their Own Land: 500 Years of Religion in America. Boston, MA: Little, Brown, and Co., 1984.
   Noll	Noll, Mark A. A History of Christianity in the United States and Canada. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1992.

3. Recent Area or Theme Texts
   Choose three of the following works; one from group A, one from group B, and one from group C.
• GROUP A. Biography: the lives of American Christians. Choose one of the following books.
1. Robert Middlekauff, The Mathers: Three Generations of Puritan Intellectuals, 1596-1728. New York: Oxford, 1971. Traces the history of the church in colonial New England through the biographies of three well-known Puritan ministers: Richard, Increase and Cotton Mather (a Father, Son and Grandson trio).
2. Iain Murray, Jonathan Edwards: A New Biography. Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1987. This book details the life of Edwards, Congregationalist minister, theologian and leader of the Great Awakening, from a sympathetic and devotional perspective.
3. Charles Hambrick-Stowe, Charles G. Finney and the Spirit of American Evangelicalism. Library of Religious Biography. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1996. As America's first well-known itinerant evangelist and revivalist before the Civil War, this book examines the life of Finney and the permanent impact he had on American Evangelicalism.
4. Lyle Dorsett, A Passion for Souls: The Life of D. L. Moody. Chicago, IL: Moody Press, 1997. Moody was America's most famous international evangelist in the later half of the 19th century.
5. Lyle Dorsett, Billy Sunday and the Redemption of Urban America. Library of Religious Biography. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1991. Known as the "baseball evangelist," and spanning the turn of the 20th century, Sunday delivered the message of the gospel to Urban America in his characteristicly flamboyant style.
6. Edith Blumhofer, Aimee Semple McPherson: Everybody's Sister. Library of Religious Biography. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1993. McPhereson was a prominent Pentecostal evangelist in the first half of the 20th century, who founded the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel.
7. Billy Graham, Just As I Am: The Autobiography of Billy Graham. San Francisco, CA: Harper/Zondervan, 1997. Simply put: Graham's life in Graham's words. A rather lengthy book, but rewarding.
• GROUP B. Movements in American Christianity: the story of Christian subgroups in American Church History. Choose one of the following books.
1. Horton Davies, The Worship of the American Puritans. Reprint, Soli Deo Gloria, 1999. This book narrates the practice and theology of worship of the colonial American Puritans.
2. Albert Raboteau, Slave Religion: The "Invisible Institution" in the Antebellum South. New York: Oxford, 1978. A classic study of American slave religion and their Christianity prior to the Civil War.
3. Nathan Hatch, The Democratization of American Christianity. New Haven, CT: Yale, 1989. Analyzes the extensive growth of Baptist, Methodist and other revivalist movements in 1st half of 19th century America.
4. Timothy P. Weber, Living in the Shadow of the Second Coming: American Premillennialism, 1875-1982, enlarged edition. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago, 1987. Traces the historical and theological developments of Premillennial Dispensationalism in American Evangelicalism and Fundamentalism for over a century.
5. Grant Wacker, Heaven Below: Early Pentecostals and American Culture. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 2001. A detailed analysis of Pentecostal history in the early decades of the 20th century.
6. George Marsden, Understanding Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1991. Narrates the history and distinctives of American Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism.
7. Joel Carpenter, Revive Us Again: The Reawakening of American Fundamentalism. New York: Oxford, 1997. A detailed look at the often neglected history of American Fundamentalism in the 1930s-40s.
• GROUP C. The History of Theology in America: Historical Theology and Intellectual History in American Church History. Choose one of the following books.
1. Janice Knight, Orthodoxies in Massachusetts: Rereading American Puritanism. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1994. Knight's work explores the spectrum of theologies within colonial Puritanism.
2. Mark Noll, America's God: Theology in America from Jonathan Edwards to Abraham Lincoln. Oxford, 2002. The title tells all: the history of theology spanning the period from Edwards (1730s) to Lincoln (1860s).
3. Henry F. May, The Enlightenment in America. New York: Oxford, 1976. This book is a classic study on the impact of the Enlightenment on America during the 18th century.
4. Douglas Sweeney, Nathaniel William Taylor, New Haven Theology and the Legacy of Jonathan Edwards. Oxford, 2003. Taylor was the most influential, and most controversial, theologian in pre-Civil War New England. An excellent study in historical theology set in the narrative of Taylor's life.
5. Gary Dorrien, The Making of American Liberal Theology: Imagining Progressive Religion, 1805-1900. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2001. Written by a liberal theologian and historian, this book analyzes the thought and growth of Protestant liberalism in American theology during the 19th century.
6. David B. Calhoun, Princeton Seminary: Volume 1, Faith and Learning, 1812-1868. Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1994. A superb history of the most influential Presbyterian and Reformed seminary in 19th century America.
7. Mark Noll, Between Faith and Criticism: Evangelicals, Scholarship and the Bible in America, revised edition. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1991. Traces the history of the Bible in American Evangelicalism and their interaction with critical scholarship from the late 19th century through today.

Resources 

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