THEO 618 - History of Christianity III: American Religious History

3 hours
An examination of the origins and development of Christianity in America from the colonial period to the present. Featured topics include the Continental and English roots of Puritanism and Anabaptism, the formation and history of the Christian commonwealths of New England, the causes and consequences of the Great Awakening, the influence of Jonathan Edwards, the relation between Christianity and the founding of the American republic, the nature of nineteenth century Evangelicalism and the formation of American denominations, the emergence of theological liberalism and the Social Gospel, the rise of the holiness movement into denominations and their understanding of social ministry, the American missionary movement, the course of the fundamentalist/modernist controversy, church-state relations as reflected in Supreme Court decisions, world religions and cults in the United States, and the renewal of evangelical Christianity in the late twentieth century. GR