Table of Contents:
Introduction: Religious Vitality, Conflict, and Liberty in America 1.Early America 2.Awakenings and Empire 3.Religion and the American Founding 4.The Era of the Second Great Awakening 5.Global and Domestic Missions 6.Moral Reform and Slavery 7.The Civil War 8.Immigration, Temperance, and Gilded Age America 9.Evolution, the Bible, and the Fundamentalist-Modernist Controversy 10.The World Wars and the Rise of Neo-Evangelicalism 11.Protest and the Revolutions of the 1960s 12.Immigration and New Religious Diversity Since 1965 13.Church-State Relations, the "Silent Majority," and Jimmy Carter 14.The Reagan Revolution and the Moral Majority 15.Post 9-11 America Conclusion: A Post-Christian America?
In the post-9/11 world, it is not difficult to see how important religion remains in America and around the globe. An older generation of scholars expected that America and the rest of the Western world was headed inexorably toward secularization and the end of religion. America is undoubtedly secular in many ways, and our constitutional order requires a clear distinction between faith communities and government. Yet from the colonial era to the present, American men and women have been, and have remained, a pervasively religious people.
In America's Religious History, leading historian Thomas S. Kidd traces the theological and ethnic diversity and enduring strength of American religion, with special attention to Christianity and evangelical faith. Interweaving religious history and key events from the larger narrative of American history, the book considers how faith commitments and categories have shaped the nation.
Written with the student in mind, America's Religious History offers an up-to-date, narrative introduction useful for undergraduate and graduate-level courses on American religion. General readers wanting to better understand the religious background of American life and politics will also enjoy its engaging and insightful overview.
