Protestant Mainstream Research Articles

Sundays in New York: Pulpit Theology at the Crest of the Protestant Mainstream, 1930–1955. By William T. Lawrence. American Theological Library Association Monograph Series 41. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow, 1996. x + 411 pp. $49.50 cloth.

Sundays in New York: Pulpit Theology at the Crest of the Protestant Mainstream, 1930–1955. By William T. Lawrence. American Theological Library Association Monograph Series 41. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow, 1996. x + 411 pp. $49.50 cloth.

The Ecumenical Movement in its Early Years

The year 1998 sees the fiftieth anniversary of the formation of the World Council of Churches. Great, but subsequently largely disappointed hopes, greeted it. The movement that led directly to its formation had its genesis in the International Missionary Conference of 1910, an event often cited in popular surveys as marking the beginning of the Ecumenical Movement. This paper will, however, argue that modern ecumenism has a complex series of roots. Some of them predate that conference, significant though it was in leading to the ‘Faith and Order’ movement that was, in its turn, such an important contributor to the genesis of the World Council.Archbishop William Temple, who played a key role in both the ‘Faith and Order’ and ‘Life and Work’ movements, referred to the Ecumenical Movement as the ‘great fact of our times’. This was a gross exaggeration. It is true that the movement engaged, from about 1920 onwards, a very considerable amount of the energy of the most talented and forward-looking leaders and thinkers of the Churches in the Anglican and Protestant traditions. It remained, however, marginal in the life of the Roman Catholic Church until Vatican II, despite the pioneering commitment of some extremely able people amidst official disapproval. Some leaders of the Orthodox Church took a considerable interest in the movement. However, both the official ecclesiology and the popular stance of most Orthodox precluded any real rapprochement with other Churches on terms that bore any resemblance to practicality. Even in the Anglican and mainstream Protestant Churches, the movement remained largely one of a section of the leadership. It attained little genuine popularity, a fact that was frequently admitted even by its most ardent partisans. One could well say that the Ecumenical Movement had only one really solid achievement to celebrate in 1948. This was the formation, in the previous year, of the Church of South India, the first Church to represent a union across the episcopal–non-episcopal divide. This type of union has yet to be emulated outside the Indian sub-continent.One of the aims of this article will be to try to explain why success in India went unmatched elsewhere. The emphasis will be on the English dimension of the problem, though many of the factors that affected the English situation also obtained in other countries in the Anglo-Saxon cultural tradition. This assessment must be balanced, however, by an appreciation of the real progress made in terms of improved and even amicable church relationships.

Minority faiths and the American Protestant mainstream

Minority faiths and the American Protestant mainstream

Book Review: Sundays in New York: Pulpit Theology at the Crest of the Protestant Mainstream, 1930-1955

Book Review: Sundays in New York: Pulpit Theology at the Crest of the Protestant Mainstream, 1930-1955

Miracles and the Modern Religious Imagination by Robert Bruce Mullin

BOOK REVIEWS309 founding spirit. It provides a key resource for those who wish to focus on the Vincentian FamUy Tree Ui the forest of God's faithful foUowers. Miriam D. Ukeritis, CSJ. Sisters ofSt.Joseph ofCarondelet, Albany (New York) Province Miracles and the Modern Religious Imagination. By Robert Bruce MuLUn. (New Haven, Connecticut:Yale University Press. 1996. Pp. xi, 322. $30.00.) Robert Bruce Mullin has crafted a very smart study of the idea of miracles in the English-speaking world in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; his book, in fact, should contribute in important ways to reshaping the scholarly conversation about the theological fault Lines that defined GUded Age religion. On one level, MulUn's study is about the coUapse of the revered Protestant idea of a "limited age of miracles." For 300 years, English-speaking Protestants had agreed that miracles—direct divine intervention in the course of nature and history in response to personal, petitionary prayer—had been limited to the apostolic church, and were granted then for only two reasons: to highUght bibUcal revelation and to aid in the establishment of Christianity. This idea had achieved something close to doctrinal status in the centuries after the Reformation in the Anglo-American world because it performed three essential functions : it helped to define the crucial dividing line between sober, Bible-beUeving Protestants and the magical, pagan world of CathoUcs; it anchored the unique authority of the New Testament in "mighty acts" different from aU subsequent, post-apostolic "wonders"; and—especially after the rise of the"New Science"— it aUowed Protestants to combine a belief in the biblical miracles ofJesus with the Enlightenment vision of regular, orderly "Nature." By the mid-nineteenth century, this pan-Protestant belief was under attack from a number of positions: from Protestant exponents of higher criticism like Charles Briggs; from agnostic practitioners of evolutionary science like Aldous Huxley; from Christian advocates of faith healing like John Alexander Dowie; and from "romantic" religious thinkers like Horace Bushnell. MuULn argues that by the final period of his study (1850-1930) the belief in the "limited age" had lost it hegemonic role in defining the beUefs of Protestants, and was limited to outposts of the older orthodoxy like Princeton Seminary. But MuUin's story is a nuanced and sophisticated tale eschewing the heavyhanded traditional interpretation pressed by some inteUectuaI historians—that the assault on the miraculous was part of an inevitable evolution of naturaUstic principles of "modern science" after Darwin. MuLUn convincingly shows that the GUded Age debate over the miraculous witnessed the rise of a large and vocal countervaUing movement within the North Atlantic Protestant community that saw miracles as increasingly important in the modern world, and wit- 310BOOK REVIEWS nessed as weU a dramatic reaUgnment of debate partners in the discussion, as many devout Protestants found more succor from Catholics than from feUow Protestants in the culture-wide fracas. MuUin demonstrates that by 1915 the belief in the "limited age" was simply no longer accepted by many Englishspeaking beUevers, and that an emergent interest in the "ministry of healing" had led to three distinctive positions on the miraculous that stiU define, to a large extent, contemporary religious discourse about the miraculous: a "therapeutic " model of miracles, that sees the divine working in natural categories; a "sacramental/Uturgical" model, that emphasizes the role of grace operating through formaUy ordained ecclesiastical channels; and a "thaumaturgical" model, that argues that God intervenes directly in the Uves of the faithful. This is an extremely important and well-written study, and contributes in three significant ways to reshaping the discussion of religion in the North Atlantic world in the GUded Age: first, Mullin demonstrates that debates focused on the miraculous may very weU be at least as important as the discussions about the authority and inspiration of scripture in understanding the splintering and realignment of the Protestant mainstream in the hatf-century after 1875; secondly, MuUin shows that this debate appears to have replaced the traditional Catholic-Protestant division in defining the "parties" of theological discussion by the early years of the twentieth century, and thus posits an "ecumenical " sentiment across Reformation Lines earUer than usually recognized by religious historians...

The Church in America: From Immigration Through Assimilation to Confusion/Opportunity

ISS Robert B. Wellisch The Church in America: From ImmigrationThrough Assimilation to Confusion/Opportunity Charles R. Morris has given us a readable, interesting, illuminating, and at times infuriating book, but it is difficult to say to what genre his long essay belongs. As Morris himself makes clear in his preface and table of contents, the book is divided into three parts ofroughly equal length: "Rise," a history ofthe Catholic Church in America from the Irish Potato Famine (1 846+) to about the end of the 19th century; "Triumph," a descriptive and anecdotal reminiscence about the American Church from the turn of the century till Vatican II (1962-65); and "Crisis," an analysis of the changes since the Council and the state ofthe Church in the United States today. To a certain extent, Morris' essay is thesis-driven, and in the next five paragraphs I will try to summarize his thesis. According to Morris, the Church in the United States developed the way it did A review-essay of Charles R. Morris, American Catholic, The Saints and Sinners who Built Americas Most Powerful Church. NewYork: Random House (Times Books). 1997. 431 pages + 80 pages of notes and index. $27.50. Logos 1:3 1997 156 Logos because ofthe massive immigration ofIrish Catholics following the potato famine. The post-famine Irish influence on the American Church was greater than that of any other group partly because of four factors : 1)before the 1840s no Catiiolic immigrant group, not even the Irish, was large or strong enough to influence Ae rest ofthe nation, even the Catiiolic part; 2)also before the 1840s the U.S. was a mostly agricultural country, but in the 1 840s enough urban industries were springing up in the Nortiieast for die new Irish immigrants to remain in that part of the country, and mostly in cities; this made their cultural cohesiveness stronger and quickly led to considerable political influence; 3)under die leadership of Cardinal Cullen, the Church in Ireland went dirough a tough shaping-up during die 18SOs and later; Cullen turned Ireland into a priest-factory for die whole anglophone world, and most of these late-nineteenth-century Irish priests were of a certain mold: tough, a bit narrow, but forceful—just what was needed to strengthen die Catholic Church in America and help it to grow; 4)when die Germans, Poles, Italians, and odier European Catiiolic immigrants arrived in tiiis country a little later, they had the disadvantage of a foreign language, they were slower to assimilate to American ways, and diey were never as numerous, nationally speaking, as the Irish. This last point was especially true of the clergy, and most especially of the hierarchy. The Irish-Americans created a massive, fortress-like state-within -a-state in the United States, duplicating the services offered by the United States government with parallel services oftheir own: a separate school system, separate hospitals, various fraternal and professional associations. One accident that may have stabilized this development is that some of the leaders of some of the most important archdioceses enjoyed extraordinarily long reigns, such as The Church in America Archbishop Hughes in NewYork (1839-64), Archbishop Ireland in St. Paul (1884-1918), Cardinal O'Connell in Boston (1907-44) and Cardinal Dougherty in Philadelphia (1918-51). This separate Catholic culture dominated the lives not only of American Catholics of non-Irish background, but also the lives of non-Catholic Americans, especially during the middle decades of the twentieth century, when most of the old-fashioned anti-Irish, anti-Catholic biases were in abeyance and when Catholic culture and the culture of conservative, Cold-War America seemed to coincide as never before. Moreover, ever since World War I, the mainstream Protestants had been in full retreat, and only the Catholics and the fundamentalists were growing, but the fundamentalist growth was mostly in the rural South, whereas the Catholic growth was in the urban Northeast, which continued to dominateAmerican culture. The Catholic censorship (and self-censorship ) ofthe movie industry during the 1940s and '50s is a good example ofthis Catholic-American cultural synthesis. But then, in the 1960s, the synthesis rapidly fell apart. Perhaps it already was a...

The Pluralistic Vision: Presbyterians and Mainstream Protestant Education and Leadership. Edited by Milton J. Coalter, John M. Mulder, and Louis B. Weeks. Louisville, Ky.: Westminster/John Knox, 1992. 417 pp.

The Pluralistic Vision: Presbyterians and Mainstream Protestant Education and Leadership. Edited by Milton J. Coalter, John M. Mulder, and Louis B. Weeks. Louisville, Ky.: Westminster/John Knox, 1992. 417 pp. - Volume 66 Issue 1

The Mainstream Protestant “Decline”: The Presbyterian Pattern. Edited by Milton J. Coalter, John M. Mulder, and Louis B. Weeks. The Presbyterian Presence: The Twentieth-Century Experience. Louisville, Ky.: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1990. 263 pp.

The Mainstream Protestant “Decline”: The Presbyterian Pattern. Edited by Milton J. Coalter, John M. Mulder, and Louis B. Weeks. The Presbyterian Presence: The Twentieth-Century Experience. Louisville, Ky.: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1990. 263 pp. - Volume 64 Issue 2

The Dawn of Religious Pluralism: Voices from the World's Parliament of Religions, 1893

On September 11th, 1893, the Columbian Liberty Bell at the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago sounded ten times - symbolising what were then considered the ten great religious traditions: Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Zoroastrianism, Taoism, Confucianism, Shintoism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. As the bell tolled, more than 60 religious leaders from around the globe proceded into the Hall of Columbus to gather in solemn assembly. The ochre robes of Buddhist ascetics, the vermilion cloaks and turbans of Hindu swamis, the silk vestments of Confucians, Taoists, and Shinto priests, the sombre garb of Protestant ministers, all gathered together in the platform around a Catholic cardinal dressed in scarlet and seated in a high chair of state. The near-ecstatic crowd repeatedly burst into tumultuous applause, waving handkerchiefs and mingling tears with smiles. The World's Parliament of Religions was the first event of its kind in the history of the world: a gathering of representatives of numerous world religions for an exchange of views. It was also a turning point in American religious and cultural life, presaging the multiculturalism of a century later. This volume contains a selection of 60 representative and revealing addresses given to the Parliament, with introductions and notes by Professor Seager. The addresses include contributions by Protestant mainstream ministers, African Americans, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, and other Asian religions. Also included are various points of contact and contention, in which religious leaders attempted to analyse or reach out to their counterparts in other traditions.

"The Newer Catholic Races": Ethnic Catholicism in Boston, 1900-1940

IN winter of 1921, Father Michael Scanlan spent some time on docks of South Boston. Scanlan, whose own parents had come from Ireland barely fifty years before, was eager to see for himself immigrants arriving at theport and to assess the religious welfare of same. In just two days, he met about three thousand newcomers, and he witnessed all noise and confusion attending a mass migration. He saw too sharpers and scoundrels who took advantage of naive who had no to greet them. Even more alarming, this Catholic priest saw Protestant ministers passing among immigrants, conveying messagesometimes subtly, sometimes in so many words-that to be true Americans, newcomers had to reject their old religion and join Protestant mainstream of United States. Scanlan, who was director of Catholic Charitable Bureau of Archdiocese of Boston, quickly concluded that need of hour was for one responsible agency under Catholic auspices with workers representing dominant elements among immigrants.' Within a matter of weeks, an immigrant welfare department had taken shape within Scanlan's bureau. Miss Mary A. Cotter, a trained worker of large experience in organizing charitable and social agencies, was hired to oversee work on docks, and she was soon joined by a corps of assistants, each fluent in a different language. By end of

The Mainstream Protestant "Decline": The Presbyterian Pattern

The meaning of the declining membership in mainline Protestant denominations has been hotly contested since the 1960s. Drawing on statistical analysis of membership trends, congregational surveys, individual interviews, research on disaffiliation, and case studies of congregations and presbyteries, this volume examines patterns and causes of congregational growth and decline in the Presbyterian church. Through its examination of American Presbyterianism, the Presbyterian Presence series illuminates patterns of change in mainstream Protestantism and American religious and cultural life in the twentieth century.

Influence of religion and culture on drinking behaviours: a test of hypotheses between Canada and the USA★

American Roman Catholic and mainstream Protestant students consume more alcohol and have more alcohol abuse problem compared to Canadian students within the same religious groups. Among abstinent oriented Protestants there was no difference in regards to alcohol consumption or problems related to drinking between the countries. For Jews there were mixed results with Americans exhibiting similar consumption rates but reporting more problems related to drinking compared to the Canadians. Among this sample it was concluded that religious norms have a greater influence in cohesive religious groups while cultural norms are more influential among less cohesive groups. The results also support the Canadian 'Mosaic' and American 'Melting Pot' assumption.

Religious Orientations & Political Attitudes among Blacks in Washington, DC

In recent years, scholars have rediscovered the importance of religious variables in explaining political attitudes and behavior. The rise of the New Christian Right focused attention on the beliefs and behaviors of white evangelical, fundamentalist, and charismatic Christians.1 A consensus has emerged from these studies that religious factors are important determinants of political orientations. These recent studies have employed new measures of religious variables which improve on the simple Protestant-Catholic-Jew distinctions of early studies. Denominational differences, including distinctions between evangelical, fundamentalist, charismatic, and mainstream Protestants,' doctrinal differences,3 religious identification,4 affect for televangelists,5 the role of a politicized

Dimensionality of Belief Among Mainstream Protestant Clergy

In this analysis of 7,443 parish clergy from six mainstream Protestant denominations, we have examined the clustering of religious beliefs. The survey provides a substantially more sophisticated array of theological belief than previous research, and covers sixteen theological content areas. Underlying these belief statements are a small number of factors which are, with minor exceptions, similar across denominations. The key factor which represents the major dimension of belief among Protestant clergy forms a continuum from a relatively literal to a relatively demythologized interpretation of the faith. We have conluded, therefore, that the structure of belief among mainstream Protestant clergy is unidimensional. We would further speculate that the most significant concomitants of belief would stem from this fact. The history of any academic discipline or subdiscipline can be viewed as the history of conceptual development and refinement. Such work in the sociology of has focused strongly on the concept of religiosity. That which at one time seemed easily measured in terms of affiliation and church attendance is no longer seen as so simple. One school of definition-makers has chosen the device of distinguishing between the truly and the nominally religious. They have tended to bifurcate religious commitment into two categories variously called committed and consensual religion (Allen and Spilka), primary and secondary religion (Clark), moral commitment and calculative involvement (Ashbrook), and, of course, interiorized and institutionalized or intrinsic and extrinsic (Allport, a, b, c, d, e). The principal criterion in each case is commitment to religion; whether, as Allport puts it, one uses or lives it. Such a distinction may be useful in moving one step beyond affiliation and attendance in coaxing out the influence of on attitudes and behavior, but it begs the question of the nature of the religious variable. As the 1960s began, a new set of typologies was introduced, and the dimensionality debate escalated. Perhaps the most influential contribution was made by Glock (a, b) who proposed five dimensions of religion: beliefs, practice, experience (or feelings), knowledge, and effects (or consequences). Fukuyama (3a, b), working along similar lines, proposed four dimensions which he named credal, cultic, devotional and cognitive orientations. Laboring independently, but within similar patterns, Lenski proposed that religious commitment be broadened to include informal social interaction within religious groupings. This communal dimension was shown to powerfully supplement the traditional associational dimension, *We are indebted to Edwin E. Erickson for his technical advice during our data analysis as well as that of Gary Maranell during the write-up.

Dimensionality of Belief among Mainstream Protestant Clergy

Dimensionality of Belief among Mainstream Protestant Clergy