Joe
The necessary starting framework for the history of American religion after WWII. It recognized the actual turmoil of the period which split culturally univocal Protestant denominations into mainline and conservative patterns.
Evangelical preachers in the southern part of new national America faced the updraft and challenges of disestablishment. Their initial precarity aligned them with complex counter-cultural relationships which ebbed as they gained a lasting toehold into local cultures.
This textbook fits well in a course where American religious history is a subtheme rather than an exclusive focus on the history of Christianity in America (for which you would turn to Noll).
The definitional book that named the American rise of formerly-European struggles over the meaning and direction of a culture.
Powerful text for the therapeutic school termed Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), applied to the detachment of imparted meaning from the experience of chronic pain. However, the author discloses late in the book that it is written as a religious book from his Buddhist priors. That provides context for his call to make commitments based on what he sees as subjective values. Outside the grammar of transcendence, these become flimsy over time because they are based only around a metavalue of rejecting meaning in the face of experience.
Much improved from Noll's original Scandal because here Trueman links the content of what is being thought to the act of thinking together about it.
In a barrage of so much "how to" SWE work, Z Notation is a great way of applying formal methods like set theory and lambda calculus to the "why to" of creating a system.
Pragmatic guide to rejecting the modern fragmented family with an anarchist cookbook vibe.
Would recommend as a richer, more holistic vision for Christians than Noll's Scandal of the Evangelical Mind.
This volume of 35 essays from from contributors looking for points of engagement across denominational lines orbits around a central challenge of testing the fundamentalist-modernist dichotomy that frames most 20th century histories. Lutheran Mark Granquist challenges the grasp of the ecumenical movement in assuming only one legitimate historical course championed by another contributor, his doktorvater Martin Marty. Granquist points out similarities between the confessionalism of Lutherans and that of OPC/Machen in that they sought an internal adjudication of questions of authority, not that framed by ecumenism. He boxes out the Lutheran embrace of language around biblical authority as chiefly the sublimation of their confessional principles. My only critique would be to suggest history shows more of a genuine two-way interaction, not necessarily that Lutherans used evangelical language around biblical theology as a weapon in a deeper internal discussion around a theology of the Word.
Landmark missiology text of the late 20th century. Best enduring contribution is the concept of a "people group." Absolutely descriptive is the "homogenous unit principle," which is the limiting radial span of cultural distance between people groups. Biggest missed insight is that there are people groups who want to expand their span.
This volume (OUP, 2025) finds that the 1st Century document The Testimony of Flavius was likely authored by the period’s most reliable historian, Josephus. Based on textual criticism, Josephus likely drew on the first-hand knowledge of people who participated in Jesus’ trial and the “first men” who participated in his crucifixion. In this document, Josephus upholds the scaffolding of the New Testament witness and disproves theories that the resurrection was bolted on much later beyond the apostolic witness. It finds a Jesus of history aligned with the Christ of early faith.
American toe-dip in the recent river of Scandinavian scholarship on the Hauge movement and pietism's broader impact. Published from a dissertation, does a fine job at surfacing primary sources, but the overall language is a bit clippy. Unfortunate titling.
Wanted to like this more, but felt the core argument could have been boiled down into half as many chapters.
Seeing the priesthood of all believers as the hinge of the Reformation pays too little attention to the writings of the reformers. They saw the priesthood as a consequence of the Reformation's formal (scripture) and material (justification) principles.
Helpful tool for praying vocationally. Profound illustrations. (Elliptical Anglican vibemaxxing)
Got partway through. Couldn't grasp why Bultmann thinks hearers would need to re-mythologize Scripture. Yes, allow the Spirit to present the Word for a specific group of hearers miracles, surprises, and all. But to stand above it to alter or omit its text?
A slip from a ladder ushers a man into the antechamber of death as people he knew gradually take their leave. Excellent starting point for Memento Mori!
Had Russia not chosen to foment revolution within Germany at such a vulnerable moment, several dominoes may have remained standing. No Lenin, no Hitler? Using 1918 as a hinge, Gerwath spins out journalistic reports on future dynamics within Weimar.
Excellent one-volume, engaging history on the Texas Revolution. Great for high school or college syllabus for a course on Texas history.