THEOLOGY IN AMERICA: Christian Thought from the Age of the Puritans to the Civil War

In this majestic achievement, Holifield (Emory University) provides a first-rate, richly evocative and unrivaled history of theology in America. With graceful prose and measured historical analysis, he traces the development of American theology from the 17th century to 1865, examining the major themes that emerged during these crucial years. He examines early American theology's grounding in Calvinism, emphasis on practicality and ethics, denominational setting, ongoing conversation with European theology, and division between academic and populist strands. Holifield contends that the defining mark of theologians in early America was their shared interest in the reasonableness of Christianity. Carefully attentive to the theological movements of these times, he observes the ways that the interest in a rational theology derived from a variety of sources, including English natural philosophy, deism and Scottish Common Sense Realism. In particular, Holifield sketches the disposition toward rational theology from the Puritans through the various denominational movements of the 18th century and on to the resistance to reasonableness in 19th-century theologians such as Orestes Brownson. Throughout this marvelous study, Holifield provides accounts of major and minor theologians, ranging from Cotton Mather and Jonathan Edwards to the Quaker Elias Hicks and the African-American preacher Jupiter Hammon. The sketches of Edwards and Horace Bushnell are alone worth the price of the book. This masterfully narrated, splendid book will become the definitive study of the development of American theology. (Sept.)