Author: Jason S Lantzer
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 0814753337
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 200
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Book Description
Since the Revolutionary War, Mainline Christianity has been comprised of the Seven Sisters of American Protestantism—the Congregational Church, the Episcopal Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church, the Presbyterian Church, the United Methodist Church, the American Baptist Convention, and the Disciples of Christ. These denominations have been the dominant cultural representatives since the nineteenth century of how and where the majority of American Christians worship. Today, however, the Seven Sisters no longer represent most American Christians. The Mainline has been shrinking while evangelical and fundamentalist churches, as well as non denominational congregations and mega churches, have been attracting more and more members. In this comprehensive and accessible book, Jason S. Lantzer chronicles the rise and fall of the Seven Sisters, documenting the ways in which they stopped shaping American culture and began to be shaped by it. After reviewing and critiquing the standard decline narrative of the Mainline he argues for a reconceptualization of the Mainline for the twenty-first century, a new grouping of Seven Sisters that seeks to recognize the vibrancy of American Christianity.
Author: Reverend Thomas F O'Donnell
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
ISBN: 1462833039
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 290
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Book Description
Moderate and liberal Christians, Unite! Reclaim Jesus from the evangelical Christian right. Imagine a faith tradition divided up into literally thousands of denominations based on such silly things as organizational structure (how many bishops can you fit on the head of a needle?), or theological differences such as whether baptism is to be done by "dunking" or by ""sprinkling" or whether or not the bread and the cup are actually transformed into the "body and blood of Christ" during the Lords Supper (the "doctrine of transubstantiation"). Imagine that, even within a single denomination of this faith tradition, those who profess to share the same faith have diametrically opposed views on the nature of God, the source of salvation, the nature of sin, the meaning of scripture, the relationship of Science and Religion, of Reason and Faith, of Truth, Certainty, and Doubt. Imagine further that they cannot even agree on the nature and/or message of the man upon whom their religion is founded. Finally, imagine that a vocal minority of these diametrically opposed views is dominating the public airwaves, while the "silent majority" remains hunkered down in the hallowed halls of their sanctuaries. While the message of this vocal minority is embraced by a few in search of simple answers, imagine that the masses of un-churched, de-churched, under-churched, never-been-churched, fed-up-with-church are turned off and are walking away in droves. Unfortunately, there is no need to imagine any of this. It is happening right here, right now in the United States of America. The faith tradition is called Christianity. The vocal minority that is dominating the bully pulpit of public opinion is the "evangelical Christian right," and the "silent majority" are moderate and liberal Christians everywhere. Mainlining Christianity is a call to Christianitys "silent majority" to stand up and speak out and to join in a New Reformation. Through the vehicle of "95 Theses for the 21st Century," the book is divided into eight separate sections: Religion, Christianity, and Worldviews Truth/Certainty/Doubt/Fear/Faith Physical Truths: In Search of a Theory of Everything (T.O.E.) Spiritual, Scriptural, Literal, and Mythical Truths In Search of the Logos: From Jesus the Man to Jesus the Christ In Search of the Logos: Jesus and the Love Ethic Interfaith Interconnectedness and the Logos The Logos Intersects with the T.O.E.: God Is LOVE Within each section is a series of messages designed to offer a practical/theological roadmap to just such a Reformation. Moderate and Liberal Christians, Unite! Reclaim Jesus from the evangelical Christian right. http://www.reclaimjesus.net
Author: Wade Clark Roof
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
ISBN: 9780813512167
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 304
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Book Description
Wade Clark Roof and William McKinney argue that a new voluntarism is slowly eroding the old social and economic boundaries that once defined and separated religious groups and is opening new cleavages along moral and life-style lines. Nowhere has the impact of these changes been more profoundly felt than by the often-overlooked religious communities of the American center, or mainline--Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish. "American Mainline Religion" provides a new "mapping" of the families of American religion and the underlying social, cultural, and demographic forces that will reshape American religion in the century to come. Going beyond the headlines in daily newspapers, Roof and McKinney document the decline of the Protestant establishment, the rise of a more assimilated and public-minded Roman Catholicism, the place of black Protestantism and Judaism, and the resurgence of conservative Protestantism as a religious and cultural force.
Author: Elesha J. Coffman
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199938598
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 282
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Book Description
Since the 1972 publication of Dean M. Kelley's Why Conservative Churches Are Growing, discussion of the Protestant mainline has focused on the tradition's decline. Elesha J. Coffman's The Christian Century and the Rise of Mainline Protestantism tells a different story, using the lens of the influential periodical The Christian Century to examine the rise of the mainline to a position of cultural prominence in the first half of the twentieth century.
Author: Stephen Ellingson
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226204928
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 261
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Book Description
Religious traditions provide the stories and rituals that define the core values of church members. Yet modern life in America can make those customs seem undesirable, even impractical. As a result, many congregations refashion church traditions so they may remain powerful and salient. How do these transformations occur? How do clergy and worshipers negotiate which aspects should be preserved or discarded? Focusing on the innovations of several mainline Protestant churches in the San Francisco Bay Area, Stephen Ellingson’s The Megachurch and the Mainline provides new understandings of the transformation of spiritual traditions. For Ellingson, these particular congregations typify a new type of Lutheranism—one which combines the evangelical approaches that are embodied in the growing legion of megachurches with American society’s emphasis on pragmatism and consumerism. Here Ellingson provides vivid descriptions of congregations as they sacrifice hymns in favor of rock music and scrap traditional white robes and stoles for Hawaiian shirts, while also making readers aware of the long history of similar attempts to Americanize the Lutheran tradition. This is an important examination of a religion in flux—one that speaks to the growing popularity of evangelicalism in America.
Author: James Hudnut-Beumler
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231545037
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 163
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Book Description
As recently as the 1960s, more than half of all American adults belonged to just a handful of mainline Protestant denominations—Presbyterian, UCC, Disciples of Christ, Episcopal, Lutheran, Methodist, and American Baptist. Presidents, congressmen, judges, business leaders, and other members of the elite overwhelmingly came from such backgrounds. But by 2010, fewer than 13 percent of adults belonged to a mainline Protestant church. What does the twenty-first century hold for this once-hegemonic religious group? In this volume, experts in American religious history and the sociology of religion examine the extraordinary decline of mainline Protestantism over the past half century and assess its future. Contributors discuss the demographics of mainline Protestants; their beliefs, practices, and modes of worship; their political views and partisan affiliations; and the social and moral questions that unite and divide Protestant communities. Other chapters examine Protestant institutions, including providers of health care and education; analyze churches’ public voice; and probe what will come from a diminished role relative to other groups in society, especially the ascendant evangelicals. Far from going extinct, the book argues, the mainline Protestant movement will continue to be a vital remnant in an American religious culture torn between the contending forces of secularism and evangelicalism.
Author: William Murchison
Publisher: Encounter Books
ISBN: 1594033552
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 226
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Book Description
It's not that the dignified and rarefied old Episcopal Church quit believing in God. It's that the God you increasingly hear spoken of in Episcopal circles is infinitely tolerant and given to sudden changes of mind--not quite the divinity you thought you were reading about in the scriptures. Episcopalians of the twenty-first century, like their counterparts in other churches of the so-called American mainline--such as Methodists and Presbyterians--seem to prefer a God that the culture would be proud of, as against a culture that God would be proud of. While they work to rebrand and reshelve orthodox Christianity for the modern market, exponents of the new thinking are busy reducing mainstream Christian witness to a shadow of its former self. Mortal Follies is the story of the Episcopal Church's mad dash to catch up with a secular culture fond of self-expression and blissfully relaxed as to norms and truths. An Episcopal layman, William Murchison details how leaders of his church, starting in the late 1960s, looked over the culture of liberation, liked what they saw, and went skipping along with the shifting cultural mood--especially when the culture demanded that the church account for its sins of "heterosexism" and "racism." Episcopalians have blended so deeply into the cultural woodwork that it's hard sometimes to remember that it all began as a divine calling to the normative and the eternal.
Author: Dean R. Hoge
Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
ISBN: 9780664254926
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 268
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Book Description
This in-depth survey provides a vivid overview of the religious world of the Baby Boomers. The authors examine their religious faith and explores the reasons they give for leaving or staying in the church. Their findings provide some unexpected results.
Author: Bolz-Weber Nadia
Publisher: Canterbury Press
ISBN: 1848258259
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 224
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Book Description
What if the annoying person you try to avoid is actually an accidental saint in your life? What if, even in our failings, holy moments are waiting to happen? Nadia Bolz-Weber demonstrates what happens when ordinary people meet to explore the Christian faith. Their faltering steps towards wholeness will ring true for believer and sceptic alike.
Author: Dean Inserra
Publisher: Moody Publishers
ISBN: 0802497527
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 224
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Book Description
What to do when they say they’re Christian but don’t know Jesus Whether it’s the Christmas and Easter Christians or the faithful church attenders whose hearts are cold toward the Lord, we’ve all encountered cultural Christians. They’d check the Christian box on a survey, they’re fine with church, but the truth is, they’re far from God. So how do we bring Jesus to this overlooked mission field? The Unsaved Christian equips you to confront cultural Christianity with honesty, compassion, and grace, whether you’re doing it from the pulpit or the pews. This practical guide will: show you how to recognize cultural Christianity teach you how to overcome the barriers that get in the way give you easy-to-understand advice about VBS, holiday services, reaching “good people,” and more! If you’ve ever felt stuck or unsure how to minister to someone who identifies as Christian but still needs Jesus, this book is for you.
