Holding On to the Faith Confessional Traditions and American Christianity

by Sweeney, Douglas A.; Hambrick-Stowe, Charles; Bratt, James D.; D'Agostino, Peter R.; Greene-McCreight, Kathryn; Juhnke, James C.; Kostarelos, Frances; McArver, Susan Wilds; Moorhead, James H.; Mullin, Robert Bruce; Shannon, Christopher; Sweeney, Douglas A

• ISBN13: 9780761841326
• ISBN10: 0761841326
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-10-03
• Publisher: UPA

Summary

"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."--BOOK JACKET.

Table of Contents

Confessional Traditions in America	p. 1
"Passing Through Many a Hard School and Test": Confessions, Piety, Liberty and the Lutheran Experience in the United States	p. 15
Contesting the Faith: The Internal Struggle of American Lutheranism	p. 29
Presbyterian Confessional Identity and its Dilemmas	p. 47
Eternally True, Variably Useful: How Confessions Worked in Some American Reformed Churches	p. 71
After Establishment, What? The Paradox of the History of the Episcopal Church in America	p. 91
Who's Got the Spirit in the Episcopal Church? A Case Study of the "Connecticut Six"	p. 109
Mennonites and Democracy: Shaped by War and Rumors of War	p. 123
Rome in America: Transnational Allegiances and Adjustments	p. 139
Tammany Catholicism: The Semi-Established Church in the Immigrant City	p. 155
The Eastern Orthodox Christian Church in North America: Continuity and Change in the Twenty First Century	p. 171
Conclusion: Holding Onto the Faith? The Complexity of American Confessionalism	p. 187
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