American Religion

A kaleidoscopic history that shows how the quest to worship freely became one of the nation’s most vexing tensions, shaping life for believers and nonbelievers alike. It seemed providential: a vast, bountiful continent appeared to Europeans just as religious turmoil was reaching a fever pitch...

A "riveting" and touching memoir about the understanding one's cultural identity from pastor, business leader, and innovator Dave Gibbons (Makoto Fujimura). A surprising diagnosis of PTSD led Dave Gibbons to look to his past for clues to explain the unexpected result. Born to an American soldier...

This magisterial work (winner of the National Jewish Book Award and other honors) chronicles the 350-year history of the Jewish religion in America. Tracing American Judaism from its origins in the colonial era through the present day, Jonathan Sarna explores the ways in which Judaism adapted in this new context. How did American culture - predominantly Protestant and overwhelmingly capitalist - affect Jewish religion and culture?

American Methodism Revised and Updated begins with the explosion of evangelical Pietism and revolutionary Methodism, the First Great Awakening, as an independent nation was formed. It then highlights key nineteenth century themes and Methodist contributions, such as spreading scriptural holiness through missions and literature, planting tens of thousands of Sunday schools and churches by Circuit Riders, the pivotal Methodist schism between abolitionists and enslavers, the innovative building of schools and hospitals into the next century, and the revivalism of the Second Great Awakening.

Missionary Diplomacy illuminates the crucial place of religion in nineteenth-century American diplomacy. From the 1810s through the 1920s, Protestant missionaries positioned themselves as key experts in the development of American relations in Asia, Africa, the Pacific, and the Middle East. Missionaries served as consuls, translators, and occasional trouble-makers who forced the State Department to take actions it otherwise would have avoided. Yet as decades passed, more Americans began to question the propriety of missionaries' power.

This comprehensive survey of Catholic history in what became the United States spans nearly 500 years, from the arrival of the first Spanish missionaries to the present. Distinguished historian Leslie Tentler explores lay religious practice and the impact of clergy on Catholic life and culture as she seeks to answer the question, What did it mean to be a "good Catholic" at particular times and in particular places?

America is facing its greatest challenges since its inception and the reason for this is that we no longer acknowledge our Creator or His righteous laws. In our arrogance, He has given us over to foolishness and our worst passions. To turn us back to Him, He has allowed us to experience political divisiveness, increasing poverty, the growing threat of natural disasters, while also allowing our enemies to gain strength while we become weaker.

This is a story of power, set against Puritan America and the English Civil War. Williams's interactions with King James, Francis Bacon, Oliver Cromwell, and his mentor Edward Coke set his course, but his fundamental ideas came to fruition in America, as Williams, though a Puritan, collided with John Winthrop's vision of his "City upon a Hill."

Exactly what has public education been trying to accomplish? Before the 1830s and Horace Mann, no schools in the US were state-supported or state-controlled. They were local, parent-teacher enterprises, supported without taxes, and taking care of all children. They were remarkably high in standard and were Christian. From Mann to the present, the state has used education to socialize the child. Public education became the means of creating a social order of the educators' design. Such men saw themselves and the school in messianic terms.

A series of short stories that illustrate the life and work for an American Bush Pilot flying for a Humanitarian organization in remote and rustic Southern Guyana. Plenty of humor. Some gritty reality.

Sincere religious reflection was a hallmark of soldiers in both armies in the Civil War, and it was generally an authentic religiosity rather than a battlefield conversion to spirituality. This is not surprising, as these characteristics had been common in the general population since the founding of the United States. Americans, despite their politics and prejudices, had always been and continued to be a strongly religious and highly moral people throughout the Antebellum Period (c. 1820-1860). Although there may have been a large number of battlefield conversions, in the average community, a person's attitude toward devotion was strongly shaped by the dominant religious beliefs of his neighbors or the local population as a whole.

In this best-selling memoir, Marla Frees reveals her extraordinary life journey from a small-town girl in a troubled family to a stage and TV actress and ultimately one of the country’s most respected transformational psychic mediums. Her tales of a harrowing childhood, burgeoning career in Hollywood, and astounding psychic and spiritual adventures along the way reveal the resilience and heights of the human spirit. U.S. military psychic spies, homicide cases, messages from the other side, spiritual healing.

Mania surrounding messianic prophets has defined the national consciousness since the American Revolution. From Civil War veteran and virulent anticapitalist Cyrus Teed, to the dapper and overlooked civil rights pioneer Father Divine, to even the megalomaniacal Jim Jones, these figures have routinely been dismissed as dangerous and hysterical outliers. After years of studying these emblematic figures, Adam Morris demonstrates that messiahs are not just a classic trope of our national culture; their visions are essential for understanding American history.

America has traversed the road of transforming Jesus in light of the American culture. This Western mindset has led Americans astray. Biblical hermeneutics has fallen by the wayside as the prosperity gospel has replaced the foundations of the Holy Scriptures. From the Enlightenment to our postmodern day, the deconstruction of the Gospel has changed the American mindset on the truths of God. Take a journey through the thought process of the flawed mindset and misinterpretation of the misconceptions that America has undergone.. Unfortunately, this Western mindset has led Americans astray.

The Gospel According to Luke is Volume 24 from Gospel & Acts, the New Testament, from the Unabridged Contemporary English Version translation of the Holy Bible.

All Americans know we are in a state of cultural crisis, but how did we get to this point? It has been said, if we seek an actual legal date for the fall of Judeo-Christian culture in America, it would be June 26, 2015, the day the Supreme Court ruled that homosexual marriage was a constitutionally protected right. But according to William D. Howard, the destruction of our country started well before that when states began changing laws and incorporating changes that had lasting repercussions on the culture as a whole.

From seances to shiny graveyards, take a ghostly journey across the United States. Visit the highways and byways of the supernatural across the country and in each state in the union. American Ghost Stories: True Tales from All 50 States tours possessed houses, unearthly burial sites, forbidding farms, sinister forests, school bathrooms, and all manner of places haunted by spectral visitors. More than merely a collection of fifty true ghost stories, American Ghost Stories puts you in the middle of the eerie action with captivating stories that would be at home at any midnight campfire.

The purpose of this book is to provide a practical, biblical and spiritual strategy for historical churches ensnared by the comfort zone of their past accomplishments and achievements. Its content is primarily designed to help provide the leadership and guidance necessary to identify and empower such churches to make bold, purpose-driven decisions in abandoning the status quo, so that Christ will be exalted above their past and self-interests.

Told as a conversation between David and his two sons, American Familia is David’s story of growing up in rural poverty in Puerto Rico and urban poverty in the United States, detailing hopeful and transformative life-lessons along the way. This book encourages youth with a vision of hope that they, too, can transcend their environment and situation—and achieve more, be more, and become more. David’s story provides guidance on how to overcome challenges and gives direction on how to develop purpose and embrace opportunities with courage and personal responsibility.

American Zion is the story of the Bundy family, famous for their armed conflicts in the West. With an antagonism that goes back to the very first Mormons who fled the Midwest for the Great Basin, they hold a sense of entitlement that confronts both law and democracy. Today their cowboy confrontations threaten public lands, wild species, and American heritage.