DESCRIPTION: This course will trace the development of Christianity in America from the Puritan beginnings to the church of the present day. Emphasis will be given to key personalities, ideas, and movements that have shaped Christian belief and practice in North America, including covenant theology, revivalism, liberalism, modernism, fundamentalism, and ecumenism, and of how these were interpreted in their own time and by later Christian writers. The church planted in the colonial period was powerfully shaped by Reformation and Puritan influences and developed rapidly. Another key area of emphasis will be on the rapid development of distinctly American approaches to doctrine and Christian practice, including Christian cults.

COURSE OBJECTIVES/LEARNING OUTCOMES: Students can expect

1. to gain a general working knowledge of the history of the church in America;

2. to come to understand the nature of American revival, theological diversity, liberalism, denominationalism, Fundamentalism, etc.;

3. to be equipped to think critically about the key issues, theological ideas, major movements, and influential personalities that shaped the church in America;

4. as the end result of this study, to gain a deeper appreciation of the breadth, unity, and diversity of the church.

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

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

Sernett, Milton C., ed. Afro-American Religious History: A Documentary Witness. Duke University Press, 2000.

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

Gaustad, Edwin S. A Documentary History of Religion in America since 1865. Eerdmans, 1983.

Smith, H., R. Handy, and L. Loetscher, eds. American Christianity. 2 vols. Scribner, 1960, 1963.