Overview
Volume One of this two-volume study chronicles the founding, growth and development of 12 congregations that represent the diverse reality of local religious cultures in America. Some, like Center Church in New Haven, Connecticut, trace their stories back to colonial times. Others, like the Swaminarayan Hindu temple in suburban Chicago, are recent attempts to create local religious worlds. Ranging from congregations of Lebanese Muslims in Northern Canada to Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City, the essays convey the distinctive character of each congregation and provide evidence of the importance of congregations in daily life. The essays use the particular experience of local religious communities to explore a wide range of issues from the fate of mainline American Protestantism to the rise of charismatic revivalism. In addition to discussing the larger themes of American religious life, the essays portray a variety of notable men and women.
Full Product Details
Author: James P. Wind ,
James W. Lewis
Publisher: The University of Chicago Press
Imprint: University of Chicago Press
Dimensions:
Width: 15.40cm
, Height: 4.90cm
, Length: 27.80cm
Weight: 1.103kg
ISBN: 9780226901862
ISBN 10: 0226901866
Pages: 712
Publication Date: 15 January 1995
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Professional and scholarly
,
Undergraduate
,
Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Awaiting stock
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Reviews
Well-presented and engaging essays, by some of the foremost religious scholars working today, examining the histories of 12 diverse religious institutions. An outgrowth of the University of Chicago Divinity School's Congregational History Project, the lengthy first volume looks at what the editors view as the basic unit of religious association: the congregation. Though this term is often thought of as having distinctly Jewish or Christian connotations, it is used here more broadly to encompass any religious community that gathers together on a regular basis in a specific place to carry out its principle function, worship. Having opened up the definition in this manner, the volume is free to look at a variety of religious expressions. Though some of the communities examined are Jewish (Rockdale Temple in Cincinnati) or Christian (St. Peter's Parish, a Roman Catholic church in San Francisco; Fourth Presbyterian in Chicago; and others), the authors also examine Lac La Biche Muslim Community in Alberta, Canada; Swaminarayan, a Hindu temple in Chicago; and Sugar House, a Mormon ward in Utah. In their essay on Center Church (founded in 1638) in New Haven, Conn., Harry Stout (American Christianity/Yale Univ.) and Catherine Brekus (History of Christianity/Univ. of Chicago) describe an aging mainstream denomination experiencing such typical difficulties as declining attendance and preoccupation with the institution's past more than its present. One of the most interesting essays, by Lawrence Mamiya (Religion and Africana Studies/Vassar), covers Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Baltimore, one of the black neo-Pentecostal churches that emphasize progressive politics and community outreach. All congregations raise the same issues, the editors maintain: changing American religious attitudes, generational transition, race, ethnicity. Essays in the short second volume, by the same editors ($22.50; ISBN 0-22690188-2), address these themes, building on the data gathered in the first. A fascinating and important social history of religion. (Kirkus Reviews)
Author Information
James P. Wind is president of the Alban Institute. James W. Lewis is executive director of the Louisville Institute. Together they directed the Congregational History Project, which was based at the University of Chicago's Divinity School from 1987 to 1990.
