Exploring Top Books of Shelfari

In this pathbreaking study, Patricia Bonomi argues that religion was as instrumental as either politics or the economy in shaping early American life and values. Looking at the middle and southern colonies as well as at Puritan New England, Bonomi finds an abundance of religious vitality through the colonial years among clergy and churchgoers of diverse religious background. The book also explores the tightening... (more)

The Civil War as a Theological Crisis (The Steven and Janice Brose Lectures in the Civil War Era)

The Civil War as a Theological Crisis (The Steven and Janice Brose Lectures in the Civil War Era)

by Mark A. Noll

The Civil War was a major turning point in American religious thought, argues Mark A. Noll. Although Christian believers agreed with one another that the Bible was authoritative and that it should be interpreted through commonsense principles, there was rampant disagreement about what Scripture taught about slavery. Furthermore, most Americans continued to believe that God ruled over the affairs of people and... (more)

Charles G. Finney and the Spirit of American Evangelicalism (Library of Religious Biography Series)

Charles G. Finney and the Spirit of American Evangelicalism (Library of Religious Biography Series)

by Charles E. Hambrick-Stowe

This biography of the great nineteenth-century American evangelist Charles G. Finney is part of the Library of Religious Biography, a growing series of original, highly acclaimed biographies on important religious figures throughout American and British history. Though scholarly, the books in this series are well-written narratives meant to be read and enjoyed.

The Ghost Dance

by Alice McLerran

"McLerran"s elegant, spare text begins by describing the result of white settlers" relentless westward movement in the U.S. The scenario is one often related in books sympathetic to Native Americans: buffalo, their hides stripped, left to rot on the prairie; streams stripped of fish; and herds of elk and buffalo depleted. In poetic prose, she talks about a Paiute visionary, Tavibo, and his son who each dreamed... (more)

Perfectionist Politics: Abolitionism and the Religious Tensions of American Democracy (Religion and Politics)

Perfectionist Politics: Abolitionism and the Religious Tensions of American Democracy (Religion and Politics)

by Douglas M. Strong

This work covers the story of an important antebellum reform movement: ecclesiastical abolitionism. It covers the struggle among the most radical religions to purge their churches and society of sin, especially slavery, and their uncompromising efforts to force morality into political discourse.

The Sermons of Jonathan Edwards: A Reader

The Sermons of Jonathan Edwards: A Reader

by Jonathan Edwards

A selection of Jonathan Edward's sermons, which seeks to recognise their crucial role in his life and art. The 15 sermons reflect a life dedicated to experiencing and understanding spiritual truth, and address a wide range of occasions, situations and states.

Autobiography of Charles G. Finney, The (American Biography Series)

Autobiography of Charles G. Finney, The (American Biography Series)

by Charles Grandison Finney

Here is a new compact edition of the life story of America's foremost evangelist. Helen Wessel has done several things to make this classic more readable: Omitted the repetitious accounts of virtually identical revivals Updated many of the antiquated terms used in the original narrative Shortened the sentences Modernized the punctuation Retained the core of the amazing narrative Made the principles of... (more)

They gathered at the river;: The story of the great revivalists and their impact upon religion in America,Bernard A Weisberger

They gathered at the river;: The story of the great revivalists and their impact upon religion in America,

by Bernard A. Weisberger

Jonathan Edwards and the American Experience

Jonathan Edwards and the American Experience

Universally recognized as a seminal figure in American intellectual history, Jonathan Edwards has been the focus of considerable scholarly attention in a variety of academic disciplines, including religion, history, literature, and philosophy. Because these disciplines discuss him in relation to different intellectual traditions, Edwards scholarship remains segmented. This volume represents the first attempt to... (more)

The Legacy of Jonathan Edwards: American Religion and the Evangelical Tradition

The Legacy of Jonathan Edwards: American Religion and the Evangelical Tradition

Three hundred years after Edwards' birth, experts on Edwards examine the vision, theology, and legacy of this theological giant. Scholars contributing essays include Harry S. Stout, George M. Marsden, Gerald McDermott, and Douglas Sweeney. The first part of the book focuses on the vision of Jonathan Edwards, discussing how Edwards understood Native American mission, preaching, and Christian spirituality. A... (more)

The Burned-Over District - The Social and Intellectual History of Enthusiastic Religion in Western New York, 1800-1850Whitney R. Cross

The Burned-Over District - The Social and Intellectual History of Enthusiastic Religion in Western New York, 1800-1850

by Whitney R. Cross

A Godly Hero: The Life of William Jennings Bryan

A Godly Hero: The Life of William Jennings Bryan

by Michael Kazin

An illuminating and dramatic biography of William Jennings Bryan that restores him to his place of importance in American history – as a hero and leader of the Christian left. Bryan is remembered today mostly as the fundamentalist voice in the 1925 Scopes trial. But as Michael Kazin makes clear, he was a man of exceptional accomplishment. The most popular speaker of his time, he gained a vast and passionate... (more)

The Second Great Awakening and the Transcendentalists (Greenwood Guides to Historic Events 1500-1900)

The Second Great Awakening and the Transcendentalists (Greenwood Guides to Historic Events 1500-1900)

by Barry Hankins

Beginning with overviews of the Second Great Awakening and Transcendentalism, Hankins details the wider impact these spiritual revolutions had on antebellum America's social, political, racial, and gender matters. Twenty-four concise and informative biographical sketches follow, along with a dozen annotated primary documents, a glossary, a bibliography, and an index.

Revivalism in America,: Its origin, growth, and declineWilliam Warren Sweet

Revivalism in America,: Its origin, growth, and decline

by William Warren Sweet

Discovering an Evangelical Heritage

by Donald W. Dayton

When it first appeared, Discovering an Evangelical Heritage was widely regarded as a groundbreaking historical work. The continued relevance of the issues with which this book deals justifies its reappearance twelve years after its first advent challenged countless people to rethink their Evangelical heritage. If anything, the challenge is even greater now to follow the example set by the forebears of twentieth... (more)

Wisdom of Daughters

Between 1975 and 1994, the Christian feminist magazine Daughters of Sarah published women's poetry, articles on feminist theology, personal essays and art. In The Wisdom of Daughters: Two Decades of the Voice of Christian Feminism, Reta Halteman Finger and Kari Sandhaas offer what they consider to be the best contributions from the magazine's two decades in print. The collection's "best of" format and relatively... (more)

The Cambridge Companion to Jonathan Edwards (Cambridge Companions to Religion)

The Cambridge Companion to Jonathan Edwards (Cambridge Companions to Religion)

by George M. Marsden, Kenneth P. Minkema, David D. Hall, Avihu Zakai, Wilson H. Kimnach, Harry S. Stout, E. Brooks Holifield, Stephen H. Daniel, Rachel M. Wheeler

Long recognized as 'America's theologian', Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) is seen as instrumental in the Great Awakening of the 1740s that gripped much of New England and that laid the groundwork for an American Protestant religious identity. This Cambridge Companion offers a general, comprehensive introduction to Jonathan Edwards and examines his life and works from various disciplinary perspectives including... (more)

The Life and Times of Cotton Mather

by Kenneth Silverman

Reintroducing Kenneth Silverman's Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of the most celebrated of all New England Puritans, at once a sophisticated work which succeeds admirably in presenting a complete portrait of a complex man and a groundbreaking study that accurately portrays Mather and his contemporaries as the first true American rather than European expatriates.

Jonathan Edwards-A New Biography (Paperback)

Jonathan Edwards-A New Biography (Paperback)

by Iain H. Murray

Iain Murray believes that Edwards cannot be understood apart from his faith. Only when seen first and foremost as a Christian do his life and writings make sense. The integrity of this interpretation is confirmed in this study as Edwards is allowed on point after point to speak for himself. The result is a biography which is both factually and theologically reliable. Edwards' theology is set in the context of his... (more)

Jonathan Edwards

by Perry Miller

Jonathan Edwards (1703-58) was preeminent as a theologian in the eighteenth century American colonies, deeply involved in the religious revival known as the Great Awakening. He was also the first American Puritan, or Calvinist, to recognize the challenges to traditional views of the world posed by figures like John Locke and Isaac Newton. Thus he is a pivotal figure as American thought evolved from heavily... (more)

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Tags: revivalism and great awakenings

Under the Cope of Heaven

by Patricia U. Bonomi