In The History of Christianity in the United States, Chris Armstrong provides an introduction to the major movements, ideas, figures, and events in American church history, from colonization to recent decades. See how transplanted European churches took root, and American originals sprang up, over the course of five centuries of challenges and opportunities: early settlements, the expansion of the frontier, wars of independence and unification, slavery, immigration, intellectual challenges to the faith, and the new political and social realities of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Learn how the church reinvented and reaffirmed its central identity in the face of these social changes, and discover the implications of American church history for Christian life and ministry in today’s culture.
Introduction
Introduction
Introducing the Speaker and the Course
4m
European and Reformation Backgrounds
European Roots
6m
Convictions of Early Protestants
4m
The Word and the Reformed Tradition
6m
Key Elements of the Reformed Tradition
6m
The Purity of the Church
3m
The English Reformation and the Roots of Puritanism
Introduction to the English Reformation
6m
Two English Queens
4m
Church Order in the Anglican and Presbyterian Traditions
3m
Church Order in the Congregational Tradition
4m
The Formation of Puritanism
4m
The Failure of Puritanism in England
2m
Introduction to American Puritanism
3m
The Puritan Trajectory
3m
Puritanism in America
The Puritan Dream
7m
Key Themes in Puritan Thought
8m
The Puritans’ Application of Covenant Theology
9m
Reasons for the Puritan Decline
7m
The Salem Witch Trials and the Halfway Covenant
6m
The Puritan Legacy
5m
The First Great Awakening
An Introduction to the Great Awakening
7m
Traits of Evangelicals
5m
The Progress of the Awakening
7m
Heart Religion
4m
Misunderstanding the Movement
5m
The Evangelical Impulse for Social Reform
5m
George Whitefield
6m
Results of the Awakening
3m
The Revolutionary Period
Religious Factors in the Revolution
7m
Thomas Paine and the Language of Revolution
7m
Involvement in the Revolution: Puritans and Anglicans
4m
Involvement in the Revolution: Baptists, Methodists, and Presbyterians
4m
Involvement in the Revolution: Catholics and Pacifists
6m
Deism
An Enlightenment Worldview
6m
Deism and the Founding Fathers: Thomas Paine
5m
Deism and the Founding Fathers: Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson
6m
Deism and the Founding Fathers: Conclusion
3m
Catholicism
American Catholic History
6m
Navigating a Protestant Context
6m
Special Issues of an Immigrant Catholic Church
7m
A History of Anti-Catholicism
8m
Reasons for Anti-Catholicism
10m
An Introduction to Americanism
3m
The Irish Catholic Position on Americanism
6m
The German Catholic Position on Americanism
4m
Evaluating the Irish and German Positions on Americanism
5m
The Church in the Early Republic
The Disestablishment of State Churches
7m
The Rise of Religious Freedom
7m
The First Amendment and the Public Role of Religion
5m
Evangelicalism as a Radical Force
8m
A Profile of Frontier Religious Groups
5m
A Crisis of Authority
7m
New Methods for a New Age
3m
Social Reform
Charles Finney and the Birth of the Benevolent Empire
9m
Aspects of Benevolent Reform
7m
Other Benevolent Causes
7m
The Benevolent Empire through the Civil War
5m
Social Issues in the New Industrial Economy
5m
Examples of Christian Social Action
5m
Key Social Gospel Figures
9m
Theological Dimensions of the Social Gospel
6m
Twentieth-Century Developments
7m
Assessing the Influence of the Social Gospel
3m
Gender in Nineteenth-Century Christianity
Introduction to the Topic
9m
Protestant Women and Ordination
8m
The Changing Fortunes of Women Ministers
5m
Roles of Women in the Church, 1860–1920
6m
The Paradox of Conservative Feminism
4m
Conclusion to the Topic
7m
African-American Christianity
Black Christianity in America
6m
Geographic Contexts of Slavery
2m
The Apostolic Age of Black Christianity
6m
The Slave Mission Period to Emancipation
4m
Black Worship in the Time of Slavery
4m
Black and White Spiritual Mutuality
5m
Resources for Spiritual Mutuality
6m
The Post-Emancipation Period and Historiographical Issues
8m
Summary Thoughts on African-American Christianity
5m
Holiness and Pentecostalism
Those Embarrassing Emotionalists
4m
Pentecostalism’s Role in the History of American Evangelicalism
3m
The History of the White Holiness Movement
5m
The Map of Expected Spiritual Experiences
10m
The Postbellum Holiness Movement
7m
Black Holiness Groups
6m
The Roots of Pentecostalism
7m
The Development of Pentecostalism
5m
Restorationism and the Pentecostal Hermeneutic
10m
Fundamentalism
Introduction to Fundamentalism
7m
Fundamentalist Roots in Protestant Orthodoxy
4m
The Princeton Seminary Dynasty
8m
The Early Decades of Fundamentalism
5m
The Scopes Monkey Trial
7m
Common Features of Fundamentalist Theology
10m
From World War II to the Twenty-First Century
Introduction to Post-World War II Christianity
3m
The Map of Post-War Religious Normalcy
8m
Seekers
6m
Ethnic Religious Communities
5m
Religion in the Public Square
5m
Final Reflections and Questions in American Church History