The American Church History Series (13 vols.)

by Leonard Woolsey Bacon; J. M. Buckley; Henry Eyster Jacobs; Williston Walker

and

19 more

Publishers:

Christian Literature Company; Charles Scribner’s Sons; Pilgrim Press

and

1 more

, 1893–1899

Overview

Since the earliest explorers set foot on North American soil, myriad cultures and movements have shaped American Christianity. From sixteenth-century Spanish Catholics to New England Puritans and Wesleyan revivalists, the history of these diverse groups is the history of the American church.

Edited by acclaimed scholars Phillip Schaff, John Hurst and other world-class historians and clergy, The American Church History Series tells the stories of denominations and Christian movements that have molded the national religious landscape. Each writer recounts the history of his own tradition—without resorting to hagiography or glossing over scandals and controversies. Get an inside look at the influential figures, ecclesiastical polity, and theological distinctives of Presbyterian, Baptist, Roman Catholic, Quaker, Lutheran, Disciples of Christ, Universalist, and other churches. Plus, Leonard Woolsey Bacon’s A History of American Christianity paints the broad strokes of American Christian history, and H.K. Carroll’s The Religious Forces of the United States provides a portrait of American religious life at the end of the nineteenth century.

In the Logos edition, these volumes are enhanced by amazing functionality. Important terms link to dictionaries, encyclopedias, and a wealth of other resources in your digital library. Perform powerful searches to find exactly what you’re looking for. Take the discussion with you using tablet and mobile apps. With Logos Bible Software, the most efficient and comprehensive research tools are in one place, so you get the most out of your study.

Key Features

• Tells the stories of denominations and Christian movements that have molded the national religious landscape
• Recounts the history of diverse Christian traditions
• Provides an inside look at the influential figures, ecclesiastical polity, and theological distinctives of various denominations
• Surveys American church history and religious demographics at the end of nineteenth century

Product Details

• Title: The American Church History Series
• Series: American Church History
• Editors: Phillip Schaff, John Hurst, H.C. Potter, E.J. Wolf, G.P. Fisher, Henry C. Vedder, Samuel M. Jackson
• Publisher: The Christian Literature Company
• Volumes: 13
• Pages: 7,112
• Christian Group: Evangelicals
• Resource Type: Histories
• Topic: Church in North America

A History of American Christianity

• Author: Leonard Woolsey Bacon
• Series: American Church History
• Publisher: The Christian Literature Company
• Publication Date: 1897
• Pages: 456

Sample Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

In this reverent survey, Leonard Woolsey Bacon traces the progress of American Christianity from the fits and starts of early Christian colonization, through crucial eras of revival and turmoil such as the Great Awakening, up to his own time near the beginning of the twentieth century. His sweeping summary highlights how, in spite of disparate Christian expressions, the nation maintained a remarkable religious unity through the late nineteenth century. In an impassioned conclusion, he imparts a hopeful vision of continued ecumenical cooperation.

Leonard Woolsey Bacon (1830–1907) was a Presbyterian minister and social critic. His controversial views included opposition to temperance, Sabbath, and divorce laws, as well as a firm belief in racial equality. He is the author of An Inside View of the Vatican Council in the Speech of the Most Reverend Archbishop Kenrisk of St. Louis and The Congregationalists.

A History of the Baptist Churches in the United States

• Author: A.H. Newman
• Series: American Church History
• Publisher: The Christian Literature Company
• Publication Date: 1894
• Pages: 540

Sample Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

By the end of the nineteenth century, Baptists had transformed from a persecuted religious minority in Reformation Europe to a dominant spiritual and social force in the United States. A.H. Newman’s sympathetic Baptist history documents this metamorphosis, describing the early drift of Christianity toward infant baptism, the recovery of baptistic theology in the Reformation, Roger Williams’ struggle for freedom of conscience in Massachusetts, the establishment of the first Baptist churches in the United States, and their astounding proliferation throughout the nation. His extensive account of the formation of the Southern Baptist Convention—written mere decades after its inception—gives unique insight into a denomination whose origins are mired in the scandal of slavery.

A.H. Newman was professor of church history at Baylor University and later at McMaster University. He wrote extensively on Baptist history, including Baptist Churches Apostolical and the article on baptism in Encyclopedia Britannica.

Congregational Churches in the United States

• Author: Williston Walker
• Series: American Church History
• Publisher: The Christian Literature Company
• Publication Date: 1894
• Pages: 476

Sample Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

Seeking freedom from religious oppression and the corrupting influence of foreign cities, William Brewster led a fledgling group of 18 religious dissenters up the gangplank of the Mayflower and sailed for Plymouth. Called Separatists in their native England, they became known as Congregationalists in the New World—and their churches dominated the landscape of New England for three centuries. Williston Walker details these inauspicious origins and tracks the growth of Congregationalism in colonial America and beyond, accenting the social influence and theological ingenuity that made the movement a galvanizing force in American history.

Williston Walker (1860–1922) was the Titus Street Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Yale University. He is the author of A History of the Christian Church and John Calvin: The Organizer of the Protestant Reformation.

A History of the Disciples of Christ, the Society of Friends, the United Brethren in Christ, and the Evangelical Association

• Authors: B.B. Tyler, A.C. Thomas, R.H. Thomas, D. Berger, and S.P. Spreng
• Series: American Church History
• Publisher: The Christian Literature Company
• Publication Date: 1894
• Pages: 544

Sample Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

Since the colonial era, the United States has proved fertile soil for the growth of new theological ideas and religious movements. In this volume, five authors survey some of the Christian denominations that have developed or thrived in the United States. D. Berger details the history of the United Brethren of Christ, the first denomination to be birthed on American soil. B.B. Tyler surveys the Disciples of Christ—the predecessor to the Restoration movement led by Thomas Campbell and Barton Stone. In their treatment of Quaker history, Allen C. Thomas and Richard H. Thomas highlight the persecution faced by the Society of Friends and their progressive views on slavery, war, and other social issues. Finally, Samuel P. Spreng tells the story of the Evangelical Association, a movement with roots in Methodism.

B.B. Tyler was pastor of the Church of Disciples in New York City.

A.C. Thomas was a professor of history at Haverford College in Haverford, Pennsylvania. He is the author of A History of the United States.

R.H. Thomas was a medical doctor and poet from Baltimore, Maryland. He was the author of Echoes and Pictures from the Life of Christ.

D. Berger was a United Brethren minister.

S.P. Spreng was an Evangelical Association minister. He was editor of Evangelical Messenger and is the author of Life of Bishop John Sevbert.

A History of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in the United States

• Author: Henry Eyster Jacobs
• Series: American Church History
• Publisher: The Christian Literature Company
• Publication Date: 1893
• Pages: 570

Sample Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

American Lutheranism represents a confluence of ecclesiastical and national streams flowing from the headwaters of Luther’s Germany. Since the time of early Dutch settlers along the Delaware River and German immigrants to William Penn’s Pennsylvania, the church has formed its identity from disparate branches of Lutheran tradition. Henry Eyster Jacobs explores these tributaries and documents their unique contributions to Lutheranism in the United States.

Henry Eyster Jacobs was an American educator and a Lutheran theologian born in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. He is the author of A Summary of the Christian Faith, The Lutheran Cyclopedia, and A Chronicle of the Augsburg Confession and a Question of Latinity.

A History of the Methodist Church, South; The United Presbyterian Church; the Cumberland Presbyterian Church; and the Presbyterian Church, South in the United States

• Authors: Gross Alexander, James B. Scrouller, R.V. Foster, and T.C. Johnston
• Series: American Church History
• Publisher: The Christian Literature Company
• Publication Date: 1894
• Pages: 512

Sample Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

The American South is one of the most religious regions of the United States. This volume in the American Church History series surveys the history of three churches birthed in the South’s spiritual milieu—the southern branch of the Methodist Episcopal church, the Cumberland Presbyterian church, and the Southern Presbyterians. This volume also includes the history of the United Presbyterians, a denomination with close ties to the Scottish “seceders” of the mid-nineteenth century.

Gross Alexander (1852–1915) was a Methodist minister and writer. He was the editor of the Methodist Quarterly Review for 11 years and the author or translator of numerous works including The Son of Man: Studies of His Life and Teaching and The Epistles to the Colossians and to the Ephesians.

James B. Scouller (1820–1899) was a scholar of Presbyterian Church history. He is the author of History of the Big Spring Presbytery of the United Presbyterian Church and A Manual of the United Presbyterian Church of North America.

R.V. Foster was professor of biblical exegesis at the Theological School of Cumberland University in Lebanon, Tennessee.

T.C. Johnston was professor of ecclesiastical history and polity at Union Theological Seminary in Hampden Sidney, Virginia.

History of Methodists in the United States

• Author: J.M. Buckley
• Series: American Church History
• Publisher: The Christian Literature Company
• Publication Date: 1893
• Pages: 744

Sample Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

Intent on living a life of true holiness, John and Charles Wesley formed the “Holy Club” at Oxford—and found themselves derided by their fellow classmates. Laughing at the strict rules and methods they applied to the Christian life, other students called them Methodists. The Wesleys reappropriated the term, and soon launched a revival movement that would spawn denominations across the world. Thanks largely to the itinerant preaching ministry of fellow Holy Club member George Whitefield and his benefactress the Countess of Huntingdon, Methodism swept across colonial America. J.M. Buckley traces the Methodist heritage, from John Wesley’s ancestry and childhood, through the theological controversies that solidified Methodism into an influential Arminian denomination, to their prolific missionary efforts in the late-nineteenth century.

J.M. Buckley (1836–1920) was a Methodist writer and church historian. He is the author of Christians and the Theater and Two Weeks in Yosemetie and Vicinity.

A History of the Presbyterian Churches in the United States

• Author: Robert Ellis Thompson
• Series: American Church History
• Publisher: The Christian Literature Company
• Publication Date: 1895
• Pages: 472

Sample Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

John Knox brought Reformed theology and Presbyterianism to Scotland by way of John Calvin’s Geneva. Carried to Pennsylvania by Scottish immigrants, it soon fanned across the United States, taking firm root in the Southern United States. Robert Ellis Thompson traces the history of Presbyterianism in the United States, highlighting the complex political and theological struggles that defined the movement up to the end of the nineteenth century.

Robert Ellis Thompson (1844–1924) was a Presbyterian minister and clergyman. He was a regular lecturer at Princeton Theological Seminary.

A History of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America

• Author: Charles C. Tiffany
• Series: American Church History
• Publisher: The Christian Literature Company
• Publication Date: 1895
• Pages: 630

Sample Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

The history of the Episcopal Church in America is as old as English colonization. Arriving with the Jamestown settlers, Episcopalianism is really transplanted Anglicanism, and historian Charles C. Tiffany underscores the historic ties to its parent denomination. In his survey, Tiffany dissects the differences between high- and low-church Episcopalians, the expansion of the denomination throughout the colonies, the development of ecclesiastical structures and documents, and theological diversity within the denomination.

Charles C. Tiffany (1829–1907) was an Episcopal minister. He is the author of The Prayer Book and the Christian Life.

A History of the Reformed Church, Dutch; the Reformed Church, German; and the Moravian Church in the United States

• Authors: E.T. Corwin, J.H. Dubbs, and J.T. Hamilton
• Series: American Church History
• Publisher: The Christian Literature Company
• Publication Date: 1894
• Pages: 552

Sample Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

When missionary statesman and Moravian Church leader Count Nicolaus Zinzendorf arrived in colonial Pennsylvania, he was suspicious of plans to combine the diverse bands of Christians there into a unified church. Soon won over to the cause by passionate local ministers, he worked tirelessly with leaders of the Dutch Reformed and German Reformed churches to form a confederated “Church of God in the Spirit.” This book collects the histories of those three churches, and includes the story of how this bold plan fell apart in the midst of doctrinal and political controversy.

E.T. Corwin was a Dutch Reformed pastor and church historian from New Brunswick, New Jersey. He is the author of Manual of the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church in North America, Millstone Centennial, and Ecclesiastical Records of New York.

J.H. Dubbs was a minister and church historian from Whitchall, Pennsylvania. He is the author of Home Ballads and Metrical Versions.

J.T. Hamilton was professor of church history at the Moravian Theological Seminary in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. He is the author of The Beginnings of the Moravian Mission in Alaska.

A History of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States

• Author: Thomas O’Gorman
• Series: American Church History
• Publisher: The Christian Literature Company
• Publication Date: 1895
• Pages: 546

Sample Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

Though they were among the earliest explorers and settlers in North America, Roman Catholics faced persecution and fear throughout the colonial era. At times forbidden from settling or practicing their faith in the colonies, Roman Catholicism nevertheless took strong root in regions such as Florida, New Mexico, and Louisiana. In this survey, Thomas O’Gorman describes how the Roman church eventually came to flourish in a land dominated by Protestantism.

Thomas O’Gorman (1843–1921) was a Roman Catholic writer and priest. From 1896–1921, he was the bishop of Sioux Falls.

A History of the Unitarians and the Universalists in the United States

• Authors: Joseph Henry Allen and Richard Eddy
• Series: American Church History
• Publisher: The Christian Literature Company
• Publication Date: 1894/li>
• Pages: 510

Sample Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

Though its theological ancestry can be traced to the Ebionite sect of the early church, Unitarianism didn’t develop as a movement in the United States until the eighteenth century. Promoted by influential preachers such as Jonathan Mayhew, Unitarianism gained increased acceptance among the Harvard intelligentsia with its insistence—in contrast to Trinitarianism—that God is one person. Universalism, the close cousin of Unitarianism, became a theological movement when eighteenth-century minister John Murray preached the ultimate salvation of all mankind. In this volume, Joseph Henry Allen and Richard Eddy follow the development of these twin theological ideas that would coalesce in the Unitarian Universalist denomination of the twentieth century.

Joseph Henry Allen (1820–1928) was a Unitarian scholar and minister.

Richard Eddy (1828–1906) was a Universalist minister. He was a chaplain for the Union army during the Civil War and is the author of Alcohol in History, Universalism in Gloucester, Massachusetts, and Life of Thomas J. Sawyer, D.D., and Caroline M. Sawyer.

The Religious Forces of the United States: Enumerated, Classified, and Described on the Basis of the Government Census of 1890

• Author: H.K. Carroll
• Series: American Church History
• Publisher: The Christian Literature Company
• Publication Date: 1893
• Pages: 560

Sample Pages: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7

Based on his findings from the 1890 census, H.K. Carrol undertook a study of the religious makeup of the United States. Not only does Carrol detail statistical information regarding membership, giving, and growth, he includes the theological distinctives of each group, providing a snapshot of American church life at the end of the nineteenth century.

H.K. Carroll was the superintendent of the United States census of the churches. He was the editor of The Independent.