History of religion Books

Book Synopsis From its inception in the early 1900s, The United Church of Canada set out to become the national church of Canada. This book recounts and analyzes the history of the church of Canada's largest Protestant denomination and its engagement with issues of social and private morality, evangelistic campaigns, and its response to the restructuring of religion in the 1960s. A chronological history is followed by chapters on the United Church's worship, theology, understanding of ministry, relationships with the Canadian Jewish community, Israel, and Palestinians, changing mission goals in relation to First Nations peoples, and changing social imaginary. The result is an original, accessible, and engaging account of The United Church of Canada's pilgrimage that will be useful for students, historians, and general readers. From this account there emerges a complex portrait of the United Church as a distinctly Canadian Protestant church shaped by both its Christian faith and its engagement with the changing society of which it is a part. Trade Review``This is a highly useful and much needed account of the history of the United Church of Canada. A collection of essays contributed by a variety of authors, this volume nevertheless seems like a single-authored book.... I found this anthology to be highly readable, well-researched and thoughtful. The book provides a useful introduction to the ecclesiastical and, indeed, social, history of twentieth-century Canada.'' -- Valerie Wallace, Victoria University of Wellington -- Ecclesiastical History, Volume 64/3, July 2013, 201307``The publication of The United Church of Canada should be noted as one of the most significant milestones in the documentation and exploration of the history of Christianity in Canada. This volume not only explores the origins of the unique ecumenical project that is the UCC but, perhaps more importantly, bravely confronts its key movements, conversations, and contributions in the story of Canadian political and religious history. The contributing authors provide the reader with a rich dialectic in perspective, tone, and interpretation that significantly enhances the impact of the volume. Given the importance of The United Church to the discourse of Canadian nation-making, this work is a must-read for those who seek not only to understand the history of Christianity in North America but to engage the conversation of religion and culture, politics and power, meaning-making and societal well-becoming as we reorder our discourse of selfhood in a transnational environment.'' -- Wendy Fletcher, Vancouver School of Theology, author of Like Water on Rock:Gender Integration in Canadian Anglicanism (2002) -- 201109``A book like this only appears once in a generation. Don Schweitzer has masterfully marshalled a cadre of very fine authors to produce an outstanding collection of essays, and it is rightfully being snapped up by scholars, students, ministers, libraries, and lay leaders. This is a vitally important book and succeeds in being both scholarly and accessible to a wide readership.'' -- Mac Watts -- Touchstone, Vol. 32, No. 1, February 2014, 201406``Engaged with the present and looking to the future, The United Church of Canada has paid scant attention to its past, as have most academic historians. But the church, Canada, and the church's role within Canadian society have altered drastically since church union in 1925. Now Don Schweitzer has assembled an excellent group of scholars to tell the story. Readers within the denomination can learn from the past and find resources to develop a vision for the future, while all readers will gain deeper understanding of Canada during the past century. A perceptive and readable study.'' -- Marilyn Färdig Whiteley, author of[http://www.wlupress.wlu.ca/Catalog/whiteley-methodist.shtml Canadian Methodist Women, 1766-1925: Marys, Marthas, Mothers in Israel] (WLU Press, 2005) -- 201109Table of Contents The United Church of Canada: A History edited by Don Schweitzer Acknowledgments Introduction Abbreviations Genealogical Chart of Church Union in Canada William T. Gunn Part One: Chronology 1. Unity Among Many: The Formation of The United Church of Canada, 1899-1930 C.T. McIntire 2. The 1930s Eleanor J. Stebner 3. The United Church and the Second World War Ian McKay Manson 4. A Golden Age: The United Church of Canada, 1946-1960 John H. Young 5. ""And Whether Pigs Have Wings"": The United Church in the 1960s Sandra Beardsall 6. The 1970s: Voices from the Margins Joan Wyatt 7. 1980s: What Does it Mean to Be The United Church of Canada? Emergent Voices, Self-Critique, and Dissent Tracy J. Trothen 8. 1990-2003: The Church into the New Millennium Ross Bartlett Part II: Thematic Issues 9. Worship on the Way: The Dialectic of United Church Worship William S. Kervin 10. A Look at Ministry: Diversity and Ambiguity Charlotte Caron 11. United Church Mission Goals and First Nations Peoples Alf Dumont and Roger Hutchinson 12. Jews and Palestinians: An Unresolved Conflict in The United Church Mind Alan Davies 13. Awash in Theology: Issues in Theology in The United Church of Canada Michael Bourgeois 14. The Changing Social Imaginary of The United Church of Canada Don Schweitzer List of Contributors Index Contributors' Bios Ross Bartlett is an ordained United Church minister and instructor at the Atlantic School of Theology and lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Sandra Beardsall is Professor of Church History and Ecumenics at St. Andrew's College, Saskatoon. Michael Bourgeois is Vice-principal and Associate Professor of Theology at Emmanuel College, Toronto, and served as Chair of The United Church of Canada's Committee on Theology and Faith from 2000 to 2006 during the development of ""A Song of Faith."" Charlotte Caron, a diaconal minister in the United Church, is currently Acting Principal at the Centre for Christian Studies in Winnipeg, and a volunteer with the Stephen Lewis Grandmother-to-Grandmother campaign. Alan Davies is Emeritus Professor of Religion, Victoria University and University of Toronto. Alf Dumont was the minister at St. John's United Church in Alliston (1992-2011) and adjunct staff at Emmanuel College (2005-10). He was the first Director of the Dr. Jessie Saulteaux Resource Centre (1984-88) and the First Speaker (Executive Secretary) of the All Native Circle Conference (1988-92). Roger Hutchinson is Emeritus Professor of Church and Society at Emmanuel College of Victoria University and the Toronto School of Theology at the University of Toronto. William S. Kervin is Associate Professor of Public Worship at Emmanuel College of Victoria University and the Toronto School of Theology in the University of Toronto. Ian McKay Manson is an ordained United Church minister currently working in Toronto. He holds a Th.D. in the History of Christianity from Emmanuel College, Toronto School of Theology, University of Toronto. C.T. McIntire teaches history and religion at the University of Toronto, and is a fellow of Victoria College, Toronto. Don Schweitzer is McDougald Professor of Theology at St. Andrew's College, Saskatoon. Eleanor J. Stebner holds the J.S. Woodsworth Chair in the Humanities at Simon Fraser University. Tracy J. Trothen is Associate Professor of Theology and Ethics at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. Joan Wyatt is an independent scholar and Th.D. candidate at Emmanuel College, Toronto School of Theology, University of Toronto. John H. Young is Assistant Professor of Practical Studies at Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario.

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Book SynopsisReligion has long been a source of identity for many Southerners, and the Appalachian areas in particular have proven to be a virtual fortress protecting faith and culture. Yet, in a region popularly thought to be religiously homogeneous, congregations reflect a wide range of doctrinal differences over such issues as conversion, ministerial leadership, and the authority on which a church bases its core beliefs.Profiling the prominent Christian traditions in southern Appalachia, this book brings together contributions by twenty scholars who have long studied the religious practices found in the region’s cities, small towns, and rural communities. These authors provide insights into not only the independent mountain churches that are strongly linked to local customs but also the mainline and other religious bodies that have a significant presence in Appalachia but are not strictly associated with it. The essays explore the nature of ministry within these various churches, show the impact of broader culture on religion in the region, and consider the question of whether previously isolated, tradition-based churches can retain their distinctiveness in a changing world.One group of chapters focuses on elements of mountain religion as seen in the beliefs and practices of mountain Holiness folk, serpent handlers, and various Baptist traditions. Later chapters review the history and activities of other denominations, including Southern Baptist, Presbyterian, Wesleyan/Holiness, Church of God, and Roman Catholic. Also considered are the economic history of the region, popular religiosity, and the role of church-affiliated colleges. Taken together, these essays offer a richly nuanced understanding of Christianity in Appalachia.The Editor: Bill J. Leonard is dean of the Divinity School at Wake Forest University. His other books include Out of One, Many: American Religion and American Pluralism and God's Last and Only Hope: The Fragmentation of the Southern Baptist Convention.The Contributors: Monica Kelly Appleby, Donald N. Bowdle, Mary Lee Daugherty, Melvin E. Dieter, Howard Dorgan, Anthony Dunnavant, Gary Farley, Samuel S. Hill, Loyal Jones, Helen Lewis, Charles H. Lippy, Bill J. Leonard, Deborah Vansau McCauley, Lou F. McNeil, Marcia Clark Myers, Bennett Poage, Ira Read, James Sessions, Barbara Ellen Smith, H. Davis Yeuell.

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Book SynopsisNow in an updated second edition, African American Religion remains an invaluable overview of the great diversity of religious groups within the modern African American community. This plethora of forms reflects a tension that has characterized African American religion since its beginnings—a tension between accommodation to and protest against white society's domination.Viewing African American sectarianism as a response to racism and social stratification in the larger society, the authors trace the history, beliefs, social organization, and ritual content of religious groups in four types of sects. These include the Black mainline churches; messianic-nationalist sects, such as the Nation of Islam; conversionist sects, such as the Holiness-Pentecostal groups and Primitive Baptists; and thaumaturgical sects, including the Spiritual churches.For this new edition, the authors have incorporated research that has appeared since the book’s original appearance in 1992 and have added two new chapters—“African Religious Healing and Folk Medicine” and “African American Sacred Music”—because of these topics’ enormous significance to the African American religious experience.

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Book SynopsisOne of America's most enduring forms of public worship, the camp meeting had its beginnings at the dawn of the nineteenth century during the 'Great Revival' that swept the newly settled regions of the young republic. Camping out at religious gatherings brought people from diverse backgrounds into close and sustained contact, creating a small society governed by religious harmony. The culmination of this phenonenon came in 1801 at Cane Ridge Presbyterian meetinghouse in Kentucky, where more than ten thousand people gathered for a week of worship and fellowship.To trace the origins of the camp meeting, Ellen Eslinger follows Kentucky's development from its initial settlement in 1775 to the eve of the Great Revival. She describes how a region first characterized by border warfare during the Revolution quickly cast off its frontier beginnings. Even so, she demonstrates, settlers found it difficult to cope with challenges posed by economic competition, political partisanship, and cultural conflict. In this time of uncertainty, camp meetings brought a restored sense of community attachment, merging Christian and republican ideals to create a new model of American society.Citizens of Zion does more than explain a particular instance of religious revivalism; it explores the creation of a new form of worship that enabled people to relate more comfortably to a changing society through an intense collective experience. It explains how early camp meeting revivalism - as exemplified by the Cane Ridge gathering - differed significantly from both earlier evangelical forms and later manifestations. Camp meeting revivalism, Eslinger shows, eventually came to reflect the emerging liberal culture, but its early years reveal it as an important mechanism for reintegration into a rapidly transforming world.

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Book Synopsis"By focusing on the forms of religious expression which the sixth-century prophets condemn, we can begin to apprehend the diversity which characterized exilic religion. Moreover, by recognizing the polemical nature of the prophetic critiques and by resolving to read these critiques without prophetic prejudice and instead with a non-judgmental eye, we can place ourselves in a position to re-evaluate the traditional descriptions of the sixth-century cult. Our task, then, is to read anew; our aim is to judge afresh. With this goal in mind, we turn our attention to the major prophetic texts which will comprise our study: Jeremiah 7 and 44, Ezekiel 8, Isaiah 57, and Isaiah 65." - From the Introduction

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