The Old Religion in a New World: The History of North American Christianity

by Mark Noll

Publisher:

Eerdmans

, 2002

Overview

The Old Religion in a New World: The History of North American Christianity chronicles the arrival of Christianity in the New World, tracing turning points in the development of the immigrant church that led to today’s distinctly American faith.

Taking a unique approach to this fascinating subject, Mark Noll compares the practice of Christianity on the American continent to European Christianity, focusing on what was new about organized Christian religion in the New World. Noll provides a broad outline of the major events in the history of the North American Christian churches and also highlights some of the most important interpretive issues which arose in the transfer of Christianity from Europe to America.

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Key Features

• Analyzes the origins of North American Christianity and the transition from Europe
• Compares American and European Christianity in the early periods
• Explains major events in North American Christianity through different eras

Contents

• From Europe to America
• Colonization, 1492–1730
• The Churches Become American, 1730–1830
• The Separation of Church and State
• The High Tide of Protestantism, 1830–1865
• A New Christian Pluralism, 1865–1906
• Divisions, Renewal, Fragmentation, Acculturation, 1906–1960
• The Recent Past, 1960–2000
• Theology
• In the Shadow of the United States—Canada and Mexico
• The Fate of European Traditions—Lutherans and Roman Catholics
• Day-to-Day Christian Spirituality and the Bible

Top Highlights

“Almost no one in the early United States took this separation of church and state to mean the absence of religious influence on public life. Nevertheless, wide agreement existed that the churches as such should be separated from the government.” (Page 83)

“In one of many such statements about his new country, Campbell proclaimed in an 1830 address that the declaration of American independence on July 4, 1776, was ‘a day to be remembered as was the Jewish Passover.… The American Revolution is … the precursor of a revolution infinitely more important to mankind[,] … the emancipation of the human mind from the shambles of superstition, and the introduction of human beings into the full fruition of the reign of heaven.’⁷ For Campbell, the transplantation of Christianity from Europe to North America meant an opportunity to strip away the corruptions of Europe, to join Christian faith with liberating aspects of American experience, and so to approach the millennium of Christ’s reign on earth.” (Pages 4–5)

“The negative results of this polity were a neglect of tradition and a devaluation of formal learning; the positive result was success in reaching ordinary people with the Christian message.” (Page 84)

“But the most notable development for the African Americans was the ability of countless slaves, freed slaves, and those threatened by slavery to find dignity, purpose, and resolve in a religion passed on so grudgingly by the slaveowners.” (Pages 16–17)

“The ‘denomination’ in America is neither a ‘church’ nor a ‘sect.’ Rather, it is a singular product of an environment defined by great space, the absence of formal church-state ties, and competition among many ecclesiastical bodies.” (Page 23)

Product Details

• Title: The Old Religion in a New World: The History of North American Christianity
• Author: Mark Noll
• Publisher: Eerdmans
• Print Publication Date: 2002
• Logos Release Date: 2014
• Pages: 352
• Era: era:Contemporary
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subjects: United States › Church history; Canada › Church history
• ISBNs: 9780802849489, 9781417723362, 0802849482, 141772336X
• Resource ID: LLS:LDRLGNMCHRSTNTY
• Resource Type: text.monograph.church-history
• Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-30T01:07:49Z

About Mark Noll

Mark A. Noll (PhD, Vanderbilt University) is Francis McAnaney Professor of History at the University of Notre Dame. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Noll’s main academic interests concern the interaction of Christianity and culture in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Anglo-American societies. He has published articles and reviews on a wide variety of subjects involving Christianity in modern history. Some of his many books include The Civil War as a Theological Crisis, Is the Reformation Over?, The Rise of Evangelicalism: The Age of Edwards, Whitefield and the Wesleys, and The Old Religion in a New World.