Mark A. Noll

Although Christian believers agreed that the Bible was authoritative and that it should be interpreted through commonsense principles, there was rampant disagreement about what Scripture taught about slavery. This book tells how most Americans were radically divided in their interpretations of what God was doing in and through the Civil War.

The Civil War as a Theological Crisis

Mark Noll has written a major indictment of American evangelicalism. Reading this book, one wonders if the evangelical movement has pandered so much to American culture and tried to be so popular only to lose not only it's mind but it's soul as well. For evangelical pastors and parishoners alike, this is a must read! --Robert Wuthnow.

The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind

Jesus Christ and the life of the mind

Author Mark Noll presents the unfolding drama of American Christianity with accuracy and skill, from the first European settlements to ecumenism in the late 20th Century. This work has become a standard in the field of North American religious history.

A History of Christianity in the United States and Canada

Decisive Moments in the History of Christianity

Turning Points,

George M. Marsden

Nathan O. Hatch

Through careful historical and contemporary analysis, the authors address such issues as how much Christian action is required to make a whole society Christian; incorrect views of America's history for effective Christian involvement in critical public issues; and more. (Christian)

The Search for Christian America

decisive moments in the history of Christianity

Turning points

a very short introduction

Protestantism

On September 15, 1959, Georges Vanier, Canada's Governor-General soon-to-be, began his acceptance speech with the following invocation: "Mr. Prime Minister, my first words are a prayer. May Almighty God in his infinite wisdom and mercy bless the sacred mission which has been entrusted to me by Her Majesty the Queen and help me to fulfill it in all humility. In exchange for his strength, I offer him my weakness." Fifty-six years later, on September 27, 2005, Michaelle Jean became Canada's 27th Governor-General. In her acceptance speech, by contrast, Jean referred to how Canadian history "speaks powerfully about the freedom to invent a new world," and made no reference to the deity. What happened to the Canadian religious conscience, as illustrated by the speeches of these two luminaries, in the approximately fifty years between then and now? Why might have church and synagogue attendance fallen from 67 percent after World War II to less than 20 percent in 2000? In What Happened to Christian Canada?, renowned church historian Mark Noll investigates these and other related questions, and makes timely observations about one of the more prominent sociological shifts in modern North American history."

What Happened to Christian Canada?

Now organized around 14 key moments in church history, this well-received text provides contemporary Christians with a fuller understanding of God as He has revealed his purpose through the centuries and around the world. Original.

Turning Points

Mark Noll charts the rise of a singularly American Christian theology characterized by spiritual inwardness, confidence in individual reason, and attentiveness to economic realities. This is the story of a flexible and creative theological energy that over time forged a guiding national ideology, the legacy of which remains with us to this day.

From Jonathan Edwards to Abraham Lincoln

America's God

Roger Lundin

Includes diaries, letters, sermons, poems, stories, novels, political treatises, and autobiographies. Authors include Jonathan Edwards, John Winthrop, Anne Bradstreet, Martin Luther King, Jr., Charles Finney, Walter Rauschenbusch, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Abraham Lincoln, John Updike, Thomas Merton, Flannery O'Connor, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Frederick Douglass, William Faulkner, Reinhold Niebuhr, Emily Dickinson, Woodrow Wilson, among others.

Four Centuries of American Piety

Voices from the Heart

Timothy Larsen

Michael Ledger-Lomas

The five-volume Oxford History of Dissenting Protestant Traditions series is governed by a motif of migration ('out-of-England'). It first traces organized church traditions that arose in England as Dissenters distanced themselves from a state church defined by diocesan episcopacy, the Book of Common Prayer, the Thirty-Nine Articles, and royal supremacy, but then follows those traditions as they spread beyond England -and also traces newer traditions that emerged downstream in other parts of the world from earlier forms of Dissent. Secondly, it does the same for the doctrines, church practices, stances toward state and society, attitudes toward Scripture, and characteristic patterns of organization that also originated in earlier English Dissent, but that have often defined a trajectory of influence independent ecclesiastical organizations. The Oxford History of Protestant Dissenting Traditions, Volume III considers the Dissenting traditions of the United Kingdom, the British Empire, and the United States in the nineteenth century. It provides an overview of the historiography on Dissent while making the case for seeing Dissenters in different Anglophone connections as interconnected and conscious of their genealogical connections. The nineteenth century saw the creation of a vast Anglo-world which also brought Anglophone Dissent to its apogee. Featuring contributions from a team of leading scholars, the volume illustrates that in most parts of the world the later nineteenth century was marked by a growing enthusiasm for the moral and educational activism of the state which plays against the idea of Dissent as a static, purely negative identity. This collection shows that Dissent was a political and constitutional identity, which was often only strong where a dominant Church of England existed to dissent against.

The Oxford History of Protestant Dissenting Traditions

Winner of the Christianity Today Book of the Year Award (1995) “The scandal of the evangelical mind is that there is not much of an evangelical mind.” So begins this award-winning intellectual history and critique of the evangelical movement by one of evangelicalism’s most respected historians. Unsparing in his indictment, Mark Noll asks why the largest single group of religious Americans—who enjoy increasing wealth, status, and political influence—have contributed so little to rigorous intellectual scholarship. While nourishing believers in the simple truths of the gospel, why have so many evangelicals failed to sustain a serious intellectual life and abandoned the universities, the arts, and other realms of “high” culture? Over twenty-five years since its original publication, The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind has turned out to be prescient and perennially relevant. In a new preface, Noll lays out his ongoing personal frustrations with this situation, and in a new afterword he assesses the state of the scandal—showing how white evangelicals’ embrace of Trumpism, their deepening distrust of science, and their frequent forays into conspiratorial thinking have coexisted with surprisingly robust scholarship from many with strong evangelical connections.

A best-selling text thoroughly updated, including new chapters on the last 30 years "An excellent study that will help historians appreciate the importance of Christianity in the history of the United States and Canada." – The Journal of American History “Scholars and general readers alike will gain unique insights into the multifaceted character of Christianity in its New World environment. Nothing short of brilliant.” – Harry S. Stout, Yale University “A new standard for textbooks on the history of North American Christianity.” – James Turner, University of Notre Dame Mark Noll’s A History of Christianity in the United States and Canada has been firmly established as the standard text on the Christian experience in North America. Now Noll has thoroughly revised, updated, and expanded his classic text to incorporate new materials and important themes, events, leaders, and changes of the last thirty years. Once again readers will benefit from his insights on the United States and Canada in this superb narrative survey of Christian churches, institutions, and cultural engagements from the colonial period through 2018.

Luke E. Harlow

How do religion and politics interact in America? How has that relationship changed over time? Why have American religious and political thought sometimes developed along a parallell course while at other times they have moved in opposite directions? These are among the many important and fascinating questions addressed in this volume. Originally published in 1990 as Religion and American Politics: From The Colonial Period to the 1980s (4921 paperback copies sold), this book offers the first comprehensive survey of the relationship between religion and politics in America. It features a stellar lineup of scholars, including Richard Carwardine, Nathan Hatch, Daniel Walker Howe, George Marsden, Martin Marty, Harry Stout, John Wilson, Robert Wuthnow, and Bertram Wyatt-Brown. Since its publication, the influence of religion on American politics--and, therefore, interest in the topic--has grown exponentially. For this new edition, Mark Noll and new co-editor Luke Harlow offer a completely new introduction, and also commission several new pieces and eliminate several that are now out of date. The resulting book offers a historically-grounded approach to one of the most divisive issues of our time, and serves a wide variety of courses in religious studies, history, and politics.

From the Colonial Period to the Present

Religion and American Politics

Mark A. Noll's history of Christian theology in America, from the time of Jonathan Edwards, to the presidency of Abraham Lincoln, tells the story of a flexible and creative theological energy that, over time, forged a guiding national ideology that continues to exert its influence.

Carolyn Nystrom

Features an evangelical assessment of contemporary Roman Catholicism.

An Evangelical Assessment of Contemporary Roman Catholicism

Is the Reformation Over?

"This book shows how the Bible decisively shaped American national history even as that history decisively influenced the use of Scripture. It explores the rise of a strongly Protestant Bible civilization in the early United States that was then fractured by debates over slavery, contested by growing numbers of non-Protestant Americans (Catholics, Jews, agnostics), and torn apart by the Civil War. Scripture survived as a significant, though fragmented, force in the more religiously plural period from Reconstruction to the early twentieth century. Throughout, the book pays special attention to how the same Bible shone as hope for black Americans while supporting other Americans who justified white supremacy"--

The Rise and Decline of a Bible Civilization, 1794-1911

America's Book

Ronald F. Thiemann

Beginning with Jonathan Edwards's powerful preaching and Charles Wesley's graceful hymnody, modern evangelicalism has emerged as an important expression of the Christian faith. This volume celebrates evangelicalism at its best. Produced in conjunction with the establishment of a new professorship in evangelical theological studies at Harvard Divinity School, Where Shall My Wond'ring Soul Begin? explores evangelicalism's shared religious features, its intellectual agenda, and the impact of its deeply felt religious commitments on contemporary culture.

Mark A. Noll

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