| The Future of Mainline Protestantism in America Contributor(s): Hudnut-Beumler, James (Editor), Silk, Mark (Editor) |
|
 |
ISBN: 0231183615 ISBN-13: 9780231183611 Publisher: Columbia University Press OUR PRICE: $31.68 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: January 2018 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Religion | Christianity - Protestant - Religion | Religion, Politics & State - Social Science | Demography |
| Dewey: 280.409 |
| LCCN: 2017031097 |
| Series: Future of Religion in America |
| Physical Information: 0.9" H x 6" W x 8.9" (0.75 lbs) 248 pages |
| Themes: - Religious Orientation - Christian |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: As recently as the 1960s, more than half of all American adults belonged to just a handful of mainline Protestant denominations--Presbyterian, UCC, Disciples of Christ, Episcopal, Lutheran, Methodist, and American Baptist. Presidents, congressmen, judges, business leaders, and other members of the elite overwhelmingly came from such backgrounds. But by 2010, fewer than 13 percent of adults belonged to a mainline Protestant church. What does the twenty-first century hold for this once-hegemonic religious group? In this volume, experts in American religious history and the sociology of religion examine the extraordinary decline of mainline Protestantism over the past half century and assess its future. Contributors discuss the demographics of mainline Protestants; their beliefs, practices, and modes of worship; their political views and partisan affiliations; and the social and moral questions that unite and divide Protestant communities. Other chapters examine Protestant institutions, including providers of health care and education; analyze churches' public voice; and probe what will come from a diminished role relative to other groups in society, especially the ascendant evangelicals. Far from going extinct, the book argues, the mainline Protestant movement will continue to be a vital remnant in an American religious culture torn between the contending forces of secularism and evangelicalism. |
Contributor Bio(s): Silk, Mark: - Mark Silk (PhD, Medieval History, Harvard) is Professor of Religion in Public Life and Director of the Leonard Greenberg Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life at Trinity College. He is the author of Spiritual Politics: Religion and America Since World War II (Simon & Schuster, 1988), Unseular Media: Making News of Religion in America (Illinois, 1995), and (with Andrew Walsh) One Nation Divisible: How Regional Religious Differences Shape American Politics (Rowman & Littlefield, 2008), among other titles; he has also codited a number of books. He is the coeditor (with Andrew Walsh) of The Future of Religion in America series (Columbia), editor of the newletter Religion in the News, and editor of the blog Spiritual Politics; former positions include editor of The Boston Review and staff writer for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. His interests center on religion and public life in the United States and religion and American politics. |