Research Catalog

The uneasy center : reformed Christianity in antebellum America

Title: The uneasy center : reformed Christianity in antebellum America / Paul K. Conkin.
Author: Conkin, Paul Keith.
Publication: Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press, ©1995.

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Status	Format	Access	Call Number	Item Location
Request for On-site Use Request Scan How do I pick up this item and when will it be ready?	Text	Use in library	BR520 .C65 1995	Off-site

Details

Description

xvii, 326 pages; 25 cm

Summary

"In The Uneasy Center, distinguished intellectual historian Paul Conkin offers the first comprehensive examination of mainline Protestantism in America, from its emergence in the colonial era to its rise to predominance in the early nineteenth century and the beginnings of its gradual decline in the years preceding the Civil War. He clarifies theological traditions and doctrinal arguments and includes substantive discussions of institutional development and of the order and content of worship."--BOOK JACKET. "Conkin defines Reformed Christianity broadly, to encompass all denominations originating in the work of reformers other than Luther, including Calvin, Zwingli, Cranmer, and Knox. During the colonial period and the first century after independence, these Reformed denominations - most notably Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Congregationalists, Methodists, and Calvinist Baptists - made up by far the largest and most influential segment of Christianity in America."--BOOK JACKET. "Conkin portrays growing unease and conflict within this center of American Protestantism before the Civil War. Scholarly and scientific challenges to evangelical Christianity constituted a threat from without, while disagreements over strictly religious issues or sectional differences related to the issue of slavery weakened the mainstream from within. Doctrine, especially regarding salvation, was the most important basis of denominational identity, Conkin argues, and was therefore a central element in conflict and competition between Reformed denominations. Institutional practices also exacerbated differences, and Conkin examines how various churches governed themselves and how they selected, trained, and ordained clergy."--Jacket

Subject

Genre/Form

Church history.
History.

Bibliography (note)

Includes bibliographical references (p. 299-310) and index.

Contents

Introduction. Pre-Reformation Christianity in the West -- Reformed Christianity in Britain and colonial America -- Methodist origins -- Theological foundations -- The age of evangelical hegemony -- Outside the evangelical consensus -- Reformed worship -- Reformed theology at maturity: Taylor, Hodge, and Bushnell -- Storm clouds on the evangelical horizon.

ISBN

0807821802
9780807821800
0807844926
9780807844922

LCCN

94012292

OCLC

ocm30399361
30399361
SCSB-2046386

Owning Institutions

Princeton University Library