Religion in America: An Historical Account of the Development of American Religious Life

by Winthrop Still Hudson and John Corrigan

Book Overview

This comprehensive narrative account of religion in America from 1607 through the present depicts the religious life of the American people within the context of American society. It addresses topics spanning from the European/Puritan origins of American religious thought, encompassing the ramifications of the "Great Awakening" and the effect of nationhood on religious practice, and extending through to the shifting religious configuration of the...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0023578203
• ISBN13: 9780023578205
• Release Date: January 1987
• Publisher: MacMillan Publishing Company
• Length: 427 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.

Customer Reviews

A good narrative history

For an undergraduate course in American Religious history and experience I am teaching, I use a derivative of this book (the publishers, Pearson, will customise texts for particular schools). However, the basic shell remains the same, as well as the vast majority of the content with the text one would purchase here. According to authors Corrigan and Hudson, `the story of religion in America is the story of many religions, some claiming large memberships, some numbering only a few followers.' It involves issues of geography, ethnography, and pluralism both comfortable and conflicting. This continues into the present time, as issues of nationalism and globalism enter into relationship with the continuing diversity of religious identity and expression in the United States. The text begins with colonial times, not simply with the various settlements in the thirteen colonies, but also in the Spanish and French arrivals dating back to 1492. It also discusses in the opening chapter the worldview of the native peoples, which is not a monolithic or unitary thing, but rather a wide range of viewpoints, practices and organisational elements perhaps outnumbering the variety within Christianity today. The authors draw in brief discussions of the situation in European Catholicism and Protestantism as they introduce the various peoples who arrive in the Americas, as their understanding and reaction to the European versions play a pivotal role in how they attempt to constitute themselves in the Western hemisphere. The various elements within English-speaking and Continental Protestantism are covered with good definition for an introductory survey. The text continues with a discussion of the Great Awakening and its influence on the increasingly independent colonies of North America, and how it contributed to the sense of communal identity and separateness that led to distinct denominationalism. The authors also look at the role of religion in politics at the time of the American Revolution as well as the attitudes of different churches toward independence. Included here is a brief discussion of the situation with regard to the unwilling immigrants who brought aspects of their own religious traditions from Africa. The second section surveys the new nation as it grows and spreads from east to west, including a strengthening and realignment of denominations, with Protestant Christian dominance more or less solidified by the Second Awakening. The authors also discuss the situation of Jewish communities now forming in America, various Utopian movements, social movements such as Abolitionism, and various new developments in the American religious landscape (Mormonism, Spiritualism, etc.). The period from the Civil War to the first world war is covered in the third section. This looks at issues dealing with north/south splits and reunifications due to the Civil War, the impact of freedom for African Americans on religious life in America, the impact