Reviews for A History of Christianity in the United States and Canada

The average rating for A History of Christianity in the United States and Canada based on 2 reviews is 5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2015-12-01 00:00:00 Pia Hilton The coverage in this book of North American Christianity in the U.S. and Canada is outstanding. One comes out with a much deeper awareness of it’s expansion and diversity. Religion in the United States, right from the onset of the first landing of the Puritans in the mid-1600's, began to spread. Remarkably religion kept changing by groups splintering, and the original root source was constantly in flux. One reason for this was the abundant geographical space available for expansion and the constant arrival of new-comers – often bringing their religious strains. Protestant groups were never static. They also established several religious institutions of learning which today we know as Harvard, Princeton... With the American Revolution in 1776 no religion was directly associated with government – theoretically. Regionally this was not the case. Different off-shoots began to dominate in various areas. In new territory and adjoining areas there was competition. It was freedom of religion in that sense. What is also noteworthy is how frequently people changed their religious affiliation. The United States has always been a marketplace of religions. Page 163 (my book) 1835, Alexis de Tocqueville In America [the spirit of religion and the spirit of freedom] were intimately united and they reigned in common over the country. Also there were cycles of what the author terms “Great Awakenings” – of charismatic preachers and sermons. They embraced a revivalism – a messianic vision of conversion. What some might call being “born again”, was always in vogue. Many preachers would travel the length and breathe of what then constituted the U.S., speaking to large audiences – and captivating many. The author also discusses the differences and similarities between Canada and the U.S. Religion was important in Canada but was not as unifying as in the U.S. where Protestantism and the Bible was the key. At the time of confederation in 1867 Roman Catholicism was basically a state sponsored religion in the province of Quebec. Protestantism was in the rest of Canada – the Atlantic Provinces and Ontario. But Roman Catholicism was also “protected” throughout Canada. In Ontario to this day there are Roman Catholic schools that are government funded (by the provincial government). Page 248 Canadian self-government resulted from pragmatic calculations, it did not engender fierce antagonisms, and it did not provide the stuff of legends. “Peace, order, and good government” was the slogan used to sell confederation. This phrase, as many Canadian historians have pointed out, is almost entirely lacking in the appeal to idealism implied by the “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” clause in the American Declaration of Independence. Page 250 The persistent fact of French-English multiculturalism, the embrace of Loyalism, the desire for evolutionary as opposed to revolutionary change, the respect for traditions, the knowledge that theirs was a small population in a vast land, a persistent awareness (and wariness) of the United States – these were all aspects of nineteenth-century Canadian history that influenced religion as much as it influenced politics. American politics is imbued with a religious messianism. Speeches from Abraham Lincoln to Barack Obama have a revivalist tone. There are constant Biblical references to their nation and people as being “chosen”. All want to save their country and since the end of World War I – the entire globe. American politicians often invoke Biblical passages, whereas in Canada this is very rare. Page 261 Because of the divided Christian allegiances of Canadians, they were much less tempted than Protestant Americans to conceive of their nation as standing uniquely in covenant with God. Such notions can stimulate good, but they also lead to a great deal of moral posturing and simple hypocrisy that Canadians have mostly been able to avoid. But there are other reasons as well. Canada is a bigger country than the U.S. but with a much smaller population, making it less prone to grandiosity. Also Canadians have forever been struggling with internal issues – use to be Protestant- Catholic, perennially French-English language disputes, provincial versus federal jurisdictions, and for the last 50 years the meaning and challenge of multiculturalism. As the U.S. developed and matured, serious fissures became apparent with its’ Protestant-Biblical view. One was centred on slavery. The Bible was used to justify slavery – and then the racism of the Jim Crow era. The same Bible was used in the North by anti-slavery abolition groups. The same Bible was used by African American slaves and “free” African Americans in their quest for full equality. Page 322 Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address of March 1865 Both [North and South] read the same Bible, and pray to the same God and each invokes His aid against the other...The prayers of both could not be answered; that of neither have been answered fully. This led to a permanent schism in U.S. religion. It was further accentuated by the rise of secularism - of urbanism and of science (Darwinism). Schools and universities (like the above mentioned Harvard and Princeton) became more secular. Religion started to divide into two disparate groupings (and they themselves had sub-genres or styles). There were the evangelical conservatives that emphasized an individualistic and personal redemption interpreting the Bible literally. And somewhat in contradiction to this are liberal theologists and denominations that emphasize a less rigorous interpretation of the Bible. The more conservative groups have many local brands scattered throughout both the U.S. and Canada. They have become much more popular and powerful since the publication of this book in 1992. There is one striking statistic (and in my opinion very concerning) in this book which is that 50% of Americans believe the Bible is God’s literal word. Probably that is still the same today. Canada, by contrast, has become more secular. The province of Quebec now has the lowest church attendance of any province. This statistic of attendance was, I felt, not emphasized enough by the author. There is a distinct difference between statistics for church affiliation and actual church attendance (i.e. one may say that he is of such-and-such a denomination, but I find it carries little significance if this person is not an active church participant). Another factor that has affected the Protestant-Biblical view in the U.S. is immigration. Catholics are now the largest group in the U.S. – due to Irish, Italian, and Hispanic immigration. Protestants are still the majority in total – but none of their denominations (as in Baptists, Methodists, Mormons...) outnumber Catholics. The author does not discuss fringe or isolationist groups (like Jim Jones). He also avoids, for the most part, the entire sexual liberation (whether it be birth control, sexual openness and expressiveness, gay marriage...) that took place in the 20th Century. I do feel that this has contributed to much religious fallout – Christianity equates sex with sin. But overall this book gives us an encompassing history of Christianity in the U.S. and Canada. It is dynamic and constantly mutating. I came out with a deeper understanding of who we are. Sorry for this very extended review!

Review # 2 was written on 2019-11-08 00:00:00 Nelya Niyazova When first published in 1992, Mark A. Noll’s A History of Christianity in the United States and Canada quickly established itself as one of the best, if not the best, treatments of the subject. The second edition of that book revises, updates, and adds to the original text. Its length (592 pages) and price ($55.00) will limit its readership to scholars and students in undergraduate and graduate institutions, who are likely its intended demographic. As a Christian minister in the U.S., however, I heartily recommend it to my North American colleagues who are past their school years because it will enrich their understanding of the development of our faith in these lands. Noll divides his treatment of the subject into five parts: 1. Beginnings (17th century) 2. Americanization (18th-century) 3. The “Protestant Century” (19th century) 4. Tumultuous Times (20th-21st centuries) 5. Reflections As can be seen from these divisions, the book tells the story—or perhaps, stories—of Christianity in the U.S. and Canada chronologically, though he sometimes jumps ahead of the chronology in order to show organic connections across the centuries. The book begins with a nine-page analytical Table of Contents that outlines the topics in each chapter, as well as a Preface that briefly describes the revisions, updates, and additions to the 1992 edition. The chapters do not contain notes, but each one concludes with an up-to-date list of Further Readings for those interested in pursuing the topic in greater detail. The book ends with a Bibliography of General Works and an Index. As a layman to the academic discipline of history, I won’t pretend to offer an academic review of this text. Instead, let me identify several aspects of the book that stood out to me as particularly helpful: First, as Noll himself notes in the Introduction, “The ‘plot’ of this text centers on the rise and decline of Protestant dominance in the United States. Along the way, full consideration is paid to Canadian contrasts, both Catholic and Protestant.” In large part, this is the story of “evangelical America,” which grew in the 18th century, dominated the 19th, and fractured in the 20th. If you’re looking for a historical explanation of why so many U.S. evangelicals believe that America is a “Christian nation” or feel that their worldview should shape American culture, Noll provides one of the best. Second, my favorite chapter of the book, if that’s allowable in a personal review of an academic work, is chapter 11, “The American Civil War.” Noll divides the chapter into two sections: “The Civil War as a Religious War” and “The Civil War as Turning Point.” The war both reflected the “Protestant Century,” as each side was intensely religious, and began the unraveling of “evangelical America,” because though each side “read the same Bible” and “prayed to the same God,” as Lincoln put it, their common faith could not resolve their deepest differences. The title of an earlier book by Noll states the matter well: The Civil War as a Theological Crisis. Third, the comparison to the development of Christianity in Canada, whether in its French Catholic or Anglo Protestant varieties, was informative and humbling. To be honest, I didn’t know much about Canadian history generally, and Noll’s book helped begin to fill that deficiency. In the concluding chapter, Noll writes, apropos of the running comparison of American and Canadian forms of Christianity: “despite a national history without the ideology of special divine blessing, Canada has enjoyed an even better objective argument for having enjoyed the history of a ‘Christian nation’ than does the United States.” That’s a bitter pill to swallow, but a medicine we American Christians might want to consider taking, if only to alleviate our symptoms of nationalist pride. Fourth, and finally, Noll raises the question of where Christians should find meaning in their histories of faith in the U.S. and Canada. He writes: “the history of Christianity in North America, as opposed to the history of North American Christianity, might not be so much about the gain or loss of culture influence as about ‘signs of contradiction,’ moments when the faith offered something unexpected to a person, a problem, a situation, or a region” (emphasis in original). He offers numerous examples of these contradictory signs, but concludes with this one: “They are illustrated supremely by the black acceptance of Christianity, offered as it was with a whip.” There’s much to unpack in these two brief quotes, but for those concerned with the practice of authentic Christianity, they need to be unpacked, for they demonstrate the “theology of the Cross” impinging on how we understand and write our history. A final personal note: I had the privilege of taking two classes from Prof. Noll when he taught at Wheaton College, from which I graduated in 1991. He wouldn’t remember me—I studied philosophy, not history—but I remember him and his excellence as a teacher. I’ve read the majority of books he’s published, and I can honestly recommend each one. Book Reviewed Mark A. Noll, A History of Christianity in the United States and Canada, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2019). P.S. if you liked my review, please click "Helpful" on my Amazon review page.