The Lively Experiment: A Review ArticleThe Lively Experiment: The Shaping of Christianity in America. Sidney E. Mead

Abstract

HE publication of this book of essays is an important event in the historiography of the church in America. The significant and stimulating work here presented has previously been available only in journals. The book's appearance is an encouraging sign that Professor Mead has entered a new period of creativity. His first book (on Nathaniel W. Taylor) appeared in 1942. About a decade later, he entered a fresh phase of historical productivity which included at least twelve scholarly articles and many lengthy book reviews. (As many readers will appreciate, Mead reviews books very thoroughly.) In 1956 Mead was named President of Meadville Theological School-at that time one of the schools of the Federated Theological Faculty at the University of Chicago. Administrative tasks and the exhausting but fruitless attempt to preserve the FTF left little time for research and writing, and Mead himself felt that-like so many others-he might never be able to return from administrative limbo. Fortunately those fears appear to have been groundless; Mead, now at the Southern California School of Theology in Claremont, has again turned to historical concerns and is working on a number of publications of which this is the first fruit. In this book, Mead has collected and edited eight of his