American Christianities: A History of Dominance and Diversity by Catherine A. Brekus and W. Clark Gilpin (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: American Christianities: A History of Dominance and Diversity by Catherine A. Brekus and W. Clark Gilpin Michael Pasquier American Christianities: A History of Dominance and Diversity. Edited by Catherine A. Brekus and W. Clark Gilpin. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2011. 544544 pp. Cloth $75.00. Paper $34.95. "Christianity – like electricity – is simultaneously omnipresent and invisible in the modern United States" (1). So begins Catherine Brekus and W. Clark Gilpin's 544 page edited volume American Christianities: A History of Dominance and Diversity. True to the title, Brekus and Gilpin have enrolled twenty scholars to examine the "power struggles over Christian and American identity" (18) from the colonial period to the present and from a variety of Christian perspectives. The book pivots around the dual thesis that Christianity is both incredibly influential and diverse, as both a dominating factor in American life and a complicated web of theological, denominational, cultural, racial, ethnic, and gendered identities. The result is a one-stop-shop for a topical survey of the manyness and oneness of Christianity in American history. The first of four parts of American Christianities develops the idea of Christian diversity in America. Catherine Albanese sets the stage for a rich discussion of "the branches and sub-branches of this Christian tree" (41), followed by essays by Michael McNally on Native American Christianities, Timothy Lee on Asian and Latino immigrants, and Curtis Evans on African American Christians. Jonathan Sarna situates these and other groups within America's confrontational public square and demonstrates how Christians and non-Christians have competed for legitimacy in the marketplace of [End Page 87] American religion. James Bennett, on the other hand, describes how conflicts within particular Christian communities have also led to the diversification of Christianity in the United States. W. Clark Gilpin opens Part 2 ("Practicing Christianity in America") with a masterful survey of how Protestant and Catholic theologians responded to the intellectual and social changes of modernity in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Building on Gilpin's ideas, the remaining essays in Part 2 explore the relationship between Christian theology and Christian practice: Sally Promey on material culture, David Kling on biblical interpretation, Jeanne Halgren Kilde on worship, and Edith Blumhofer on evangelization. Part 3 ("Christianity and American Culture") sheds light on how Christians have interacted with different cultural institutions in American society, including capitalism (Catherine Brekus), literature (Kristina Bross), science (Jon Roberts), sexuality (Rebecca Davis), and media (Stewart Hoover). Mark Noll concludes Part 3 by scrutinizing Christian attitudes toward modernity in light of questions about American exceptionalism and distinctiveness. Part 4 ("Christianity and the American Nation") considers the extent to which Christianity has influenced what it means to be American. Tracy Fessenden describes how "the fusing of religious and national identity" appears in the Protestant origins and motivations behind "the American ideals of religious freedom, pluralism, and tolerance" (401). In light of Fessenden's framework, Dan McKanan examines Christian movements for social reform, Jon Pahl charts Christian involvement in war and peace, and Ann Braude identifies the gendered contours of American citizenship. Kathleen Flake concludes the volume with an evaluation of the tension between establishmentarian and disestablishmentarian trends throughout American religious history. For those particularly interested in American Catholic studies, American Christianities is essential reading. Rarely do scholars from so many disciplinary backgrounds (history, religious studies, theology, English, American studies, and journalism) weave Catholicism into the larger story of American Christianity in such a critical way. Seventeen of the twenty-two essays take seriously Catholicism's crucial role in the diversity and dominance of Christianity in the United States. Taken together, they remind students of American Catholicism to consider the diversity within the Catholic Church, the influence of Catholicism on American culture, and the lasting impact of Protestantism on American Catholic identity. Teachers and graduate students will find American Christianities to be a treasure of insights and sources related to the contextualization of Catholicism [End Page 88] within America's religious past and present. Indeed, given Brekus and Gilpin's convincing argument to conceive of "Christianity" in the plural, the study of "Catholicisms" seems an appropriate approach for some in the field of American Catholic studies to take...