Craig D. Atwood

Frank Spencer Mead

Samuel S. Hill

The Handbook of Denominations has been recognized as an accurate, objective, and comprehensive source of information on denominational groupings in the United States for over half a century. This new edition has been thoroughly revised and updated. However, it maintains the accessibility and readability that have been hallmarks of previous editions. The thirteenth edition presents updated entries on the major Christian denominations in the United States---their historical background, their doctrines or main teachings, and their polity or structure of governance. Included are statistics on the number of churches and church members and information about church-related schools and institutions. The Handbook also treats the major branches of Judaism and Islam that are found in the U.S. The Handbook features a reorganized division of denominational "families" intended to help readers find information on and understand relationships between churches more quickly. A new introduction on religion in America, lists of church membership in the main ecumenical organizations, charts depicting the historical development of denominations, a directory of denominational headquarters and Web sites, a list of suggested readings, and an index add to the usefulness of the volume. Clearly the standard in the field, the Handbook of Denominations is an essential resource for seminary students, clergy, laity, librarians, journalists, researchers, teachers---in short, for anyone seeking authoritative information on religious life in America!

Handbook of Denominations in the United States

Provides information on historical background, doctrine, organization, and membership for each of more than two hundred twenty-five religious bodies in the United States

To the full text of his original 1966 warning that southern Protestants must join the fight for racial justice or decline in influence, Hill (religion, U. of Florida) adds an introductory essay. There he reexamines his predictions, describes how the study of religion in the south has become a major scholarly field, engages his critics and revisers, integrates new perspectives, and suggests new areas for exploration. He also updates the bibliographic references. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Southern Churches in Crisis Revisited

Evangelical Protestant groups have dominated religious life in the South since the early nineteenth century. Even as the conservative Protestantism typically associated with the South has risen in social and political prominence throughout the United States in recent decades, however, religious culture in the South itself has grown increasingly diverse. The region has seen a surge of immigration from other parts of the United States as well as from Latin America, Asia, and the Middle East, bringing increased visibility to Catholicism, Islam, and Asian religions in the once solidly Protestant Christian South. In this volume of The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture, contributors have revised entries from the original Encyclopedia on topics ranging from religious broadcasting to snake handling and added new entries on such topics as Asian religions, Latino religion, New Age religion, Islam, Native American religion, and social activism. With the contributions of more than 60 authorities in the field--including Paul Harvey, Loyal Jones, Wayne Flynt, and Samuel F. Weber--this volume is an accessibly written, up-to-date reference to religious culture in the American South.

The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture: Religion

Roger E. Olson

This authoritative guidebook to U.S. religious groups is now available in a brand-new, updated edition.

Charles Reagan Wilson

Charles H. Lippy

The publication of the Encyclopedia of Religion in the South in 1984 signaled the rise in the scholarly interest in the study of Religion in the South. Religion has always been part of the cultural heritage of that region, but scholarly investigation had been sporadic. Since the original publication of the ERS, however, the South has changed significantly in that Christianity is no longer the primary religion observed. Other religions like Judaism, Buddhism, and Hinduism have begun to have very important voices in Southern life. This one-volume reference, the only one of its kind, takes this expansion into consideration by updating older relevant articles and by adding new ones. After more than 20 years, the only reference book in the field of the Religion in the South has been totally revised and updated. Each article has been updated and bibliography has been expanded. The ERS has also been expanded to include more than sixty new articles on Religion in the South. New articles have been added on such topics as Elvis Presley, Appalachian Music, Buddhism, Bill Clinton, Jerry Falwell, Fannie Lou Hamer, Zora Neale Hurston, Stonewall Jackson, Popular Religion, Pat Robertson, the PTL, Sports and Religion in the South, theme parks, and much more. This is an indispensable resource for anyone interested in the South, religion, or cultural history.

Encyclopedia of Religion in the South

Southern Churches in Crisis

Hill’s landmark work in southern religious history returns to print updated and expanded—and compellingly relevant. In 1966, Samuel S. Hill’s Southern Churches in Crisis argued that southern Protestantism, a cornerstone of white southern society and culture, was shirking its moral duty by refusing to join in the fight for racial justice. Hill predicted that the church was risking its standing in southern society and that it would ultimately decline in influence and power. A groundbreaking study at the time, Hill’s book helped establish southern religious history as a field of scholarly inquiry. Three decades later, Southern Churches in Crisis continues to be widely read, quoted, and cited. In Southern Churches in Crisis Revisited, which reprints the 1966 text in full, Hill reexamines his earlier predictions in an introductory essay that also describes how the study of religion in the South has become a major field of scholarly inquiry. Hill skillfully engages his critics by integrating new perspectives and recent scholarship. He suggests new areas for exploration and provides a selected bibliography of key studies in southern religious history published in the three decades subsequent to the original appearance of this groundbreaking work.

Samuel S. Hill

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