DESCRIPTION:

This course will provide an introduction to the most important themes and movements in American church history from the Puritans to the present.

This course will enable students to understand better and be able to interpret contemporary events in light of their historical and social contexts. The study of American Church History will also enable students to place a particular denomination in the context of the pluralistic cultural, secular and religious forces that shape contemporary life.

The class will meet twice a week for two-hour sessions for lectures.

Noll, Mark A. A History of Christianity in the United States and Canada. Eerdmans, 1992.

Sernett, Milton, ed. Afro-American Religious History: A Documentary Witness. Duke, 1985.

Tucker, Ruth A., and Walter Liefeld. Daughters of the Church. Zondervan, 1987.

One additional book from the Recommended Reading list.

Blumhofer, Edith L. Aimee Semple McPherson: Everybody's Sister. Eerdmans, 1994.

Fulop, Timothy E. and Albert J. Raboteau, eds. African-American Religion: Interpretative Essays in History and Culture. Routledge, 1997.

Gaustad, Edwin S. A Documentary History of Religion in America. Eerdmans, 1982. 2 volumes.

Hudson, Winthrop S. Religion in America. Scribner's, 1987.

Lindley, Susan Hill. "You have stepped out of your Place": A History of Women and Religion in America. Westminster John Knox Press, 1996.

Lischer, Richard. The Preacher King: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Word that Moved America. Oxford, 1995.

Marsden, George M. Fundamentalism and American Culture: The Shaping of Twentieth Century Evangelicalism. Oxford, 1980.

__________. Reforming Fundamentalism: Fuller Seminary & the New Evangelicalism. Eerdmans, 1987.

Matsuoka, Fukmitaka. Out of Silence: Emerging Themes in Asian American Churches. United Church Press, 1995.

Niebuhr, H. Richard. Christ and Culture. HarperCollins, 1956.

Sweet, Leonard I., ed. The Evangelical Tradition in America. Mercer, 1984.

There will be two examinations over the textbooks and lectures. One short (approximately five page) paper will be required relating one of the books on the required reading list to the student's understanding of American Church History. A notebook will be kept throughout the course that relates the historical development of a denomination of the student's choice to developments in American history and culture.

None.

Meets M. Div. core requirement in Church History "c" (CHC).

Yes.