Religion in American Life

Jon Butler is Howard R. Lamar Professor of American Studies, History, and Religious Studies at Yale University. He is the author of Power, Authority, and the Origins of American Denominational Authority; The Huguenots in America: A Refugee People in New World Society; Awash in a Sea of Faith: Christianizing the American People; and Becoming America: The Revolution Before 1776, and, with Harry S. Stout, editor of Religion in American History: A Reader.Grant Wacker is Professor of Christian History at Duke Divinity School and Director of the Graduate Program in Religion at Duke University. He received his B.A. from Stanford University and Ph.D. from Harvard University. His publications include Augustus H. Strong and the Dilemma of Historical Consciousness and Heaven Below: Pentecostals and American Culture. From 1997 to 2002 was a senior editor of the quarterly journal Church History: Studies in Christianity and Culture. In 2008 he served as president of the American Society of Church History.Randall Balmer is Professor of American Religious History at Barnard College, Columbia University. He is the author of a dozen books, including A Perfect Babel of Confusion: Dutch Religion and English Culture in the Middle Colonies; Protestantism in America; and God in the White House: How Faith Shaped the Presidency from John F. Kennedy to George W. Bush. His second book, Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory: A Journey into the Evangelical Subculture in America, now in its fourth edition, was made into an award-winning three-part documentary for PBS.

• Preface ; RELIGION IN COLONIAL AMERICA ; Jon Butler ; Chapter 1: Worlds Old and New ; Chapter 2: Religion and Missions in New Spain and New France ; Chapter 3: Religion in England's First Colonies ; Chapter 4: The Flowering of Religious Diversity ; Chapter 5: African and American Indian Religion ; Chapter 6: Reviving Colonial Religion ; Chapter 7: Religion and the American Revolution ; RELIGION IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY AMERICA ; Grant Wacker ; Chapter 8: Prophets for a New Nation ; Chapter 9: Awakeners of the Heart ; Chapter 10: Reformers and Visionaries ; Chapter 11: Restorers of Ancient Ways ; Chapter 12: Sojourners at Home ; Chapter 13: Warriors for God and Religion ; Chapter 14: Fashioners of Immigrant Faiths ; Chapter 15: Innovators in a World of New Ideas ; Chapter 16: Conservers of Tradition ; Chapter 17: Adventurers of the Spirit ; RELIGION IN TWENTIETH- AND TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY AMERICA ; Randall Balmer ; Chapter 18: A New Century ; Chapter 19: The Age of Militancy ; Chapter 20: In God We Trust ; Chapter 21: Religion in the New Frontier ; Chapter 22: Religion in an Age of Upheaval ; Chapter 23: Preachers, Politicians, and Prodigals ; Chapter 24: Coming to Terms with Pluralism ; Chapter 25: Religion in the New Millennium ; Epilogue ; Chronology ; Further Reading ; Text Credits ; Picture Credits ; Index

This 'short history' of American religion is actually quite ambitious, tracing religion in the United States from European colonization up to the 21st century. The three authors, esteemed historians at Yale, Duke and Columbia, respectively, each tackle a century or two: Butler takes on the colonial period and the 18th century, Wacker continues the tale with the 19th century, and Balmer explores the flowering of religious diversity in the 20th. If the prose sounds familiar, it's because these three sections were originally issued as three separate books for the young adult nonfiction market; they have been gathered together here as one survey. Each chapter closes with a primary source, as in the original books, and the survey boasts tip-ins of the same facsimiles, photographs and illustrations that made the YA books so special.The writing is strong throughout, and will be accessible to undergraduates.