DESCRIPTION: An introduction to the most important themes and movements in American church history from the Puritans to the present.

SIGNIFICANCE FOR LIFE AND MINISTRY: The study of the American church places the student's particular denomination in the context of the pluralistic cultural, scientific, and religious forces that continue to shape contemporary life, including the Catholic Church, the ecumenical movement, and the new sects and cults. The modern missionary movement arose among the English-speaking people of Britain and North America, and as a result, American movements as diverse as Fundamentalism and Neo-orthodoxy reached far afield and profoundly influenced Protestants in such distant lands as Korea and Indonesia. The study of one's own tradition and family of denominations will supply the knowledge necessary for leadership, and it will enable students to discern both the threats and the opportunities that face the church today. The course strives to inculcate understanding and empathy for all Christian traditions at the same time that it fosters loyalty to one's own denomination.

LEARNING OUTCOMES: First, this course should enable students to acquire a basic knowledge of their own denomination and its contribution to American history. Second, it should help them understand the ways in which the American churches were shaped by American culture, and hence enable them to become appreciative but critical interpreters of their denomination to others. Third, students will discover the riches of Christian denominations other than their own and learn something about how those denominations contributed to world Christianity. Finally, students will increase their critical skills in reading and writing through the study of primary source materials and by writing a term paper.

COURSE FORMAT: The class will meet twice weekly for two-hour sessions for lectures.

REQUIRED READING:

Noll, Mark A. A History of Christianity in the United States and Canada. Eerdmans, 1992. ISBN: 978-0802806512, $50.00.

_________. The New Shape of World Christianity: How American Experience Reflects Global Faith. InterVarsity Press, 2009. ISBN: 978-0830828470, $25.00.

Sernett, Milton C., ed. African American Religious History: A Documentary Witness. 2nd ed. Duke University Press, 1999. ISBN: 978-0822324492, $27.95.

Tucker, Ruth A., and Walter Liefeld. Daughters of the Church. Zondervan, 1987. ISBN: 978-0310457411, $39.99.

Course reader containing three selected documents of American church history.