Synopses & Reviews
Religious life in early America is often equated with the fire-and-brimstone Puritanism best embodied by the theology of Cotton Mather. Yet, by the nineteenth century, American theology had shifted dramatically away from the severe European traditions directly descended from the Protestant Reformation, of which Puritanism was in the United States the most influential. In its place arose a singularly American set of beliefs. In America's God, Mark Noll has written a biography of this new American ethos. In the 125 years preceding the outbreak of the Civil War, theology played an extraordinarily important role in American public and private life. Its evolution had a profound impact on America's self-definition. The changes taking place in American theology during this period were marked by heightened spiritual inwardness, a new confidence in individual reason, and an attentiveness to the economic and market realities of Western life. Vividly set in the social and political events of the age, America's God is replete with the figures who made up the early American intellectual landscape, from theologians such as Jonathan Edwards, Nathaniel W. Taylor, William Ellery Channing, and Charles Hodge and religiously inspired writers such as Harriet Beecher Stowe and Catherine Stowe to dominant political leaders of the day like Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln. The contributions of these thinkers combined with the religious revival of the 1740s, colonial warfare with France, the consuming struggle for independence, and the rise of evangelical Protestantism to form a common intellectual coinage based on a rising republicanism and commonsense principles. As this Christian republicanism affirmed itself, it imbued in dedicated Christians a conviction that the Bible supported their beliefs over those of all others. Tragically, this sense of religious purpose set the stage for the Civil War, as the conviction of Christians both North and South that God was on their side served to deepen a schism that would soon rend the young nation asunder. Mark Noll has given us the definitive history of Christian theology in America from the time of Jonathan Edwards to the presidency of Abraham Lincoln. It is a story of a flexible and creative theological energy that over time forged a guiding national ideology the legacies of which remain with us to this day.
Review
"Noll has written a tome that is rich in detail and yet broad in scope, covering a wide range of theological voices and placing them in their scope, covering a wide range of theological voices and placing them in their social and political context. America's God is an intellectual and theological feast for the mind." --Presbyterion: Covenant Seminary Review
"A major contribution to our understanding of America's lavish heritage"--laremont Review of Books
"This eminently readable and carefully researched book deserves to stand as the history of antebellum American theology for decades to come.--Religious Studies Review
"The wonderfully prolific Noll--as fine a historian as America now boasts--offers a rich and learned and deeply thoughtful magnum opus that is destined to shape discussions of the history of American religion and politics for a long time. Everyone who pretends to an interest in American history and American politics, to say nothing of American religion, must read this book."--The New Republic
"America's God deserves to be hailed as the most comprehensive treatment of early American religious thought. But it is far more than that, since Mr. Noll is tracking here not only the rise and fall of American theology but also the genesis of American civilization...Mr. Noll laments the passing of Christian republicanism and in the end suggests that a dose of Jonathan Edwards ('the last of the Puritans and the first of the evangelicals') may be just what contemporary America needs. You do not have to agree with that assessment to appreciate this fine book, which brings some of the nation's greatest thinkers very much alive."--Wall Street Journal
Review
"Essential reading for anyone interested in American history, politics and religion."-- Themelios
"America's God deserves to be hailed as the most comprehensive treatment of early American religious thought. But it is far more than that, since Mr. Noll is tracking here not only the rise and fall of American theology but also the genesis of American civilization...Mr. Noll laments the passing of Christian republicanism and in the end suggests that a dose of Jonathan Edwards ('the last of the Puritans and the first of the evangelicals') may be just what contemporary America needs. You do not have to agree with that assessment to appreciate this fine book, which brings some of the nation's greatest thinkers very much alive."--Wall Street Journal
"Noll belongs to a talented group of historians who have transformed our understanding of American evangelicalism Among Noll's many great strengths (all on display in this immense work) is his comparative method, based on wide learning in Protestant sources worldwide."--Times Literary Supplement
"Carefully documented and including an excellent bibliography, this insightful volume makes a useful contribution to the study of religion in America"--Library Journal
"For academics-historians, theologians, and anyone else interested in the history of political thought, religion, philosophy, or theology-this book is essential reading"-- The Cresset Epiphany/Lent
"Mark Noll's America's God delineates the Americanization of an Old World Protestantism with a breadth, learning, and sophistication unmatched by any other historian. Noll uncovers hidden, obscure figures even as he breathes new life into seemingly familiar names. Those who think intellectual history is dead or irrelevant will be jolted by the wondrous vigor of this exceptional, synoptic book. There's nothing else like it."--Jon Butler, author of Awash in a Sea of Faith: Christianizing the American People
"Likely to remain definitive for years to come."--Anglican and Episcopal History
"America's God is a richly rewarding work. Awesomely researched and beautifully written, Mark Noll's magisterial study embeds American religious thought from the late Colonial era through the Civil War in its cultural and political context. Not only historians of religion, but everyone interested in the ideas and beliefs that shaped America's past--and still remain potent today--will profit from this insightful interpretive study."--Paul S. Boyer, Editor-in-Chief, The Oxford Companion to United States History
"Noll's book is the most comprehensive study of religious ideas in America that we have, and a work that makes the most sustained case for the impact of the spiritual on American public life. The book is original and well argued; and the research is impeccable. Some will not agree with Noll's arguments but everyone interested in religious thought will have to consider them."--Bruce Kuklick, author of A History of Philosophy in America: 1720-2000
"This 'social history of theology' in America, from the colonial era through the Civil War, promises to reshape the way we think about American religion, and, indeed, American history...Noll's trademark clarity--both in analysis and in prose--is in evidence here...Equally obvious is Noll's erudite mastery of everything from Puritan ecclesiology to Scottish moral philosophy. This is, finally, the magisterial work that has long been expected from one of our leading historians."--Publishers Weekly
"A broadly based and solid account of the surprising evolution of Christian theology in America during the golden age of Protestant evangelicalism. Mark Noll's magnum opus is a notable achievement of Christian and historical scholarship."--Daniel Walker Howe, Rhodes Professor of American History, Oxford University
Review
and#8220;Corriganand#8217;s latest book turns a surprising themeand#8212;emptinessand#8212;into a fresh way to conceptualize the American religious landscape. Drawing on an impressive range of sources, he argues that emptiness is a ubiquitous feature of American Christianity and is experienced in multiple waysand#8212;emotionally, bodily, spatially, temporally, and doctrinally. Rich, erudite, and thought-provoking, this is a highly original contribution and a work of considerable theoretical importance.and#8221;
Review
andldquo;In this sweeping study of emptiness in American Christianity, Corrigan masterfully navigates difficult terrain, expertly ushering readers through centuries of religious behavior and across many traditions. With depth and creativity, he explores everything from the diaries of conflicted Puritans to Catholic Mel Gibsonandrsquo;s cinematic bloodletting. This is a powerful history.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;This challenging and rewarding study adds an important dimension to the history of emotion and a grasp of the Christian experience in the United States. Impressively varied research combines with nuanced analysis and a clear line of argument. This is a rare kind of work that explores not only intellectual parameters, but also personal meanings.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;A compelling and counter-intuitive compendium of emptiness and the myriad ways in which this curious state of being has generated striving, struggle, and the histories of American Christianity. Corrigan is the first to tackle how emptiness has become Americanized, for better and for worse, over the last few centuries.andrdquo;
Synopsis
For many Christians in America, becoming filled with Christ first requires being empty of themselvesand#151;a quality often overlooked in religious histories. In
Emptiness, John Corrigan highlights for the first time the various ways that American Christianity has systematically promoted the cultivation of this feeling. and#160;
Corrigan examines different kinds of emptiness essential to American Christianity, such as the emptiness of deep longing, the emptying of the body through fasting or weeping, the emptiness of the wilderness, and the emptiness of historical time itself. He argues, furthermore, that emptiness is closely connected to the ways Christian groups differentiate themselves: many groups foster a sense of belonging not through affirmation, but rather avowal of what they and their doctrines are not. Through emptiness, American Christians are able to assert their identities as members of a religious community.
Drawing much-needed attention to a crucial aspect of American Christianity, Emptiness expands our understanding of historical and contemporary Christian practices.and#160;
About the Author
John Corrigan is the Lucius Moody Bristol Distinguished Professor of Religion and professor of history at Florida State University. He is the editor of the Chicago History of American Religion series, also published by the University of Chicago Press, and coeditor, most recently, of
Religion in American History.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Feeling
2. Body
3. Space
4. Time
5. Believers
Notes
Index