How Jonathan Edwards's theology of equality laid foundations for early American abolitionismIn this groundbreaking book, John T. Lowe reexamines Jonathan Edwards's legacy by focusing on the intersections among slavery, race, and theology. Connecting seemingly disparate aspects of Edwards's life and thought, Lowe offers a powerful new interpretation of one of America's most influential theologians.Although Edwards was an enslaver, his theological writings—es...

Founder of the largest indigenous Christian church in American history, Joseph Smith published the 584-page Book of Mormon when he was twenty-three and went on to organize a church, found cities, and attract thousands of followers before his violent death at age thirty-eight. Richard Bushman, an esteemed cultural historian and a practicing Mormon, moves beyond the popular stereotype of Smith as a colorful fraud to explore his personality, his relationships with others, and how he received ...

Jonathan Edwards (17031758) is a towering figure in American history. A controversial theologian and the author of the famous sermon Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, he ignited the momentous Great Awakening of the eighteenth century.In this definitive and long-awaited biography, Jonathan Edwards emerges as both a great American and a brilliant Christian. George Marsden evokes the world of colonial New England in which Edwards was reared-a frontier civilization a...

Viewing the Civil War as a major turning point in American religious thought, Mark A. Noll examines writings about slavery and race from Americans both white and black, northern and southern, and includes commentary from Protestants and Catholics in Europe and Canada. Though the Christians on all sides agreed that the Bible was authoritative, their interpretations of slavery in Scripture led to a full-blown theological crisis.

Religious life in early America is often equated with the fire-and-brimstone Puritanism best embodied by the theology of Cotton Mather. Yet, by the nineteenth century, American theology had shifted dramatically away from the severe European traditions directly descended from the Protestant Reformation, of which Puritanism was in the United States the most influential. In its place arose a singularly American set of beliefs. In America's God, Mark Noll has written a biography of this new Am...

"Useful men are some of the greatest blessings of a people. To have many such is more for a people's happiness than almost anything, unless it be God's own gracious, spiritual presence amongst them; they are precious gifts of heaven." Certainly one of the most useful men in evangelical history was the man who preached those words, pastor and theologian Jonathan Edwards. Commemorating his 300th birthday, general editors John Piper and Justin Taylor chose ten essays that highlight different as...

In their own words, the Supreme Court has become “a national theology board,” “a super board of education,” and amateur psychologists on a “psycho-journey.” The result has been a virtual rewriting of the liberties enumerated in the Constitution. A direct victim of this judicial micromanagement has been the religious aspect of the First Amendment. For example, the Court now interprets that Amendment under: • a “Lemon Test” absurdly requiring religious expression to be secular, • an “Endorse...

"America's Godly Heritage clearly sets forth the beliefs of many famous Founding Fathers concerning the proper role of Christian principles in education, government, and the public affairs of the nation. The beliefs of Founders such as Patrick Henry, John Quincy Adams, John Jay, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, George Mason, and many others are clearly presented. America's Godly Heritage also provides excerpts from court cases showing that for 160 years under the Constituti...

Freedom's Prophet is a biography of Richard Allen, founder of the first major African American church and leading black activist of America's early nation.Gold Winner of the Foreword Magazine Book of the Year Award, Biography CategoryA tireless minister, abolitionist, and reformer, Richard Allen inaugurated some of the most important institutions in African American history, influencing nearly every black leader of the nin...

A history of the churches of Christ in America with emphasis on who they are and why. Fourteen chapters with pictures of Restoration leaders from both the 19th and 20th centuries.

"An important new interpretation of how religious change shaped American cultural identity in the early republic." — Journal of American HistoryNorthern New England, a rugged landscape dotted with transient settlements, posed challenges to the traditional town church in the wake of the American Revolution. Using the methods of spatial geography, Shelby M. Balik examines how migrants adapted their understanding of religious community and spiritual space to ...

"A welcome contribution to the growing literature on religion during the Civil War era." — Civil War NewsNorthern evangelicals' love of the Union arguably contributed to its preservation and the slaves' emancipation—but in subsuming the ex-slaves to their vision for a Christian America, northern evangelicals contributed to a Reconstruction that failed to ensure the ex-slaves' full freedom and equality as Americans.By examining Civil War-era Protest...