Religion in America was created by two aspiring scholars in the field; Lincoln Mullen a doctorate student at Brandeis University, and Temple University graduate student Paul Matzko.
July 5, 2009
July 5, 2009
After rummaging through my father’s library, he was willing to part with the following:
Reinhold Nieburhr’s Moral Mand and Immoral Society;
Paul Tillich’s A Complete History of Christian Thought;
George Dollar’s A History of Fundamentalism in America;
and David Hoggan’s The Myth of the ‘New History’: The Techniques and Tactics of the New Mythologists of American History.
I know what to expect from Tillich and Nieburh, and that George Marsden has Dollar sprinkled throughout his footnotes in Fundamentalism and American Culture. But Hoggan’s book raised eyebrows and curiosity with its dedication to Rousas Rushdoony, “an intrepid defender of our American heritage.”
July 5, 2009
I found a stack of old Christianity Today issues and am flipping through them. A story in one issue, March 11, 1991, caught my attention; The New Denominations: Will the new Christian movements live up to an old maxim: “The longer they burn, the smaller their flame”?
The article briefly chronicles the rapid growth of conservative churches and religious movements after the sixties. It discusses the the tripling of attendance in the Assemblies of Gods, and more than double growth in the Mormon church, Jehovah Witnesses, and the Seventh-day Adventists. More specifically, attention is placed on Calvary Chapel, The Vineyard Christian Fellowship, and the Church on the Rock North America and whether these movements were candidates to become denominations. How these congregations grew is also considered with “circulating saints” being a plausible explanation, but recognizing it only tells part of the story. The author could only point to one study that surveyed attendees of the Vineyard Fellowship on the West Coast. The less than scientific study found that 13% could attest that Vineyard was their first church, while 21% of those attending had “switched” over from either liberal Protestant mainline denominations and Catholic churches. A greater number, 40%, said it was their parents who came either from the liberal Protestant mainline or Catholic churches.
Almost twenty years later, it would be interesting to reevaluate the status of Calvary Chapel, The Vineyard Fellowship, and the Church on the Rock North America to see what has become of these churches and whether they have thrived, maintained, or wilted.
July 4, 2009
Oldest BP articles now available online
Baptist Press articles dating to 1948 now are available online in a searchable PDF format following a two-year digitization project by the Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives.
About 8,000 articles on 66,000 pages were scanned and then indexed by Google Search to serve as a valuable source of information on Baptist history.
To access the files, visit sbhla.org and click on Collections to find Baptist Press Releases 1948-1995 at the bottom of the list. The archives can be searched by year and issue date or by specific terms, and stories also can be obtained through a general Google search.
Articles starting in 1996 are accessible in the archives at bpnews.net.
July 3, 2009
July 3, 2009
A recent paper on early 20th century Southern Baptist Edgar Young Mullins.
July 3, 2009
The Teaching Company now has lectures on American Religious History by Patrick N. Allitt of Emory University.
July 3, 2009
July 3, 2009
Need to checkout Erroll Hulse, a key leader within the 20th century Reformed Baptist movement.
and, Association of Reformed Baptist Churches,
and, Al Martin at Trinity Baptist Church at Montville, New Jersey.
July 3, 2009
Notable historian of religion Dr. Philip Jenkins will split time between Penn State University and the Institute for Studies of Religion at Baylor University.
