Synopses & Reviews
Evangelicalism retains the doctrine of biblical authority that developed during the Protestant Reformation as well as the sense that each individual stands in need of a life-transforming experience of forgiveness of sins that can only come through faith in Christ.
With the rise of the Christian Right in American politics over the past quarter-century, there has been renewed interest in Protestant evangelicalism and fundamentalism and their roles in American culture. Evangelicalism and Fundamentalism is a collection of key primary readings tracing the history and development of this religious movement and its intersections with American life and politics, spanning the late nineteenth century to the early twenty-first century.
The documents deal with issues such as biblical criticism, theology, revivalist preaching, religion and science, religion and politics, and social concerns such as gender and race. Countering notions among some that evangelicalism is monolithic, the diversity of the movement is made evident in texts from the evangelical Left as well as the Christian Right.
Each section and many individual texts are prefaced by a brief editor's introduction explaining their background and context. During the period the book covers, evangelicalism went from being the dominant form of religion in America, then to the fringes, then back into the mainstream. These texts provide the reader with a sense of the central core as well as the range of evangelical thinking in the past century.
Review
"A great service for all of us who teach undergraduate and graduate courses in U.S. religious history. This fine historian has provided us with a representative collection of primary texts, in the process allowing our students the opportunity to encounter the diversity of evangelicals and evangelical ideas in twentieth-century America."
"Scholars, students and the general reading public have long needed a book like this one. Its judicious selections, helpful introductions, and intelligent arrangement open up a history that has been too often obscured by partisanship and sloppy reporting."
"Succinctly highlights issues that Christian Evangelicals and Fundamentalists are historically known for."
Review
"Scholars, students and the general reading public have long needed a book like this one. Its judicious selections, helpful introductions, and intelligent arrangement open up a history that has been too often obscured by partisanship and sloppy reporting." - Mark Noll, University of Notre Dame
Review
"Barry Hankins has assembled an accessible, well-organized volume of primary documents that will help the student of American religion interpret the core tenets of American fundamentalist Christianity."-Louisiana History,
Synopsis
American Rabbi provides a comprehensive and insightful assessment of Rabbi Jacob Agus' standing as a notable Jewish thinker. The volume brings together original writings by a range of distinguished contributors to consider the main aspects of Agus' life and work in detail and to flesh out the broad and repercussive themes of his corpus. Taken as a whole, they present a broad and substantial picture of a remarkable American Rabbi and scholar, illuminating Agus' committment to Jewish people everywhere, his profound and unwavering spirituality, his continual reminders of the very real dangers of pseudo-messianism and misplaced romantic zeal, and his willingness to take politically and religiously unpopular stands.
Formulated as a companion volume to The Essential Agus, which presents selections of Agus' own writings, the contributors' analyses are based on specific selections of Agus' work which appear in The Essential Agus. Though each volume stands on its own, they are closely interconnected and readers will benefit from consulting both works.
About the Author
Barry Hankins is Professor of History at Baylor University. He is the author of American Evangelicals; Uneasy in Babylon; God's Rascal; The Second Great Awakening and the Transcendentalists; and the forthcoming biography Francis Schaeffer.