Overview

Traditional ways of living the Christian faith—shaped and guided by confessional norms—exhibit remarkable staying power in American religious life. Holding On to the Faith addresses issues related to the persistence of confessional forms of Christianity in the face of utilitarian, democratic, evangelical American popular religious culture. Whereas historians in the twentieth century typically used terms like ""countervailing"", ""alternative"", or ""immigrant faith"" to describe confessional Christianity, it is now clear that groups which have maintained roots in doctrinal, liturgical, and institutional traditions are an integral part of American life. In Holding On to the Faith ten scholars of American religion contribute chapters analyzing the American experience of ecclesial groups ranging from Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism to the Lutheran, Reformed, Anglican/Episcopal, and even Mennonite traditions. Editors Douglas A. Sweeney and Charles Hambrick-Stowe discuss common themes and pose questions for further discussion.

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9780761841326

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Reviews

This important book explains the ongoing importance of the old, European-based churches that define themselves by written confessions of faith. Its treatment of major Christian movements is particularly useful for gauging what has been lost and gained as these confessional churches interact with distinctly American patterns of life. The editing, the insights, the scholarship, the discernment--all are simply superb.--Mark Noll

This important book explains the ongoing importance of the old, European-based churches that define themselves by written confessions of faith. Its treatment of major Christian movements is particularly useful for gauging what has been lost and gained as these confessional churches interact with distinctly American patterns of life. The editing, the insights, the scholarship, the discernment--all are simply superb.--Noll, Mark

Author Information

Douglas A. Sweeney is Professor of Church History and the History of Christian Thought and Director of the Carl F. H. Henry Center for Theological Understanding at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. A specialist in American Christian history and theology, he has published books on the eighteenth-century minister Jonathan Edwards, the New England Theology, and evangelicalism. Charles Hambrick-Stowe, Academic Dean and Professor of Christian History at Northern Seminary, is the author of several books and numerous articles on American religious history from the colonial period through the nineteenth century.

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