Rating: 
Summary: The best source on the subject
Review: I will have to agree with most of the reviewers who have written before me. Yes, Handbook of Denominations is a wonderful resource, and it is the only book of its kind as far as I am concerned. Therefore, it is quite handy to have in a person's library. However, I dropped a star from its rating because some of the articles are so inadequately short, they just beg for additional information and explanation. There is also a lack of uniformity between many of the articles.What can we expect, though, when the book is trying to be all things to all people? With the book covering such a variety of denominations (as well as nonChristian sects, such as JWs, Mormons, and Christian Science), it would probably be impossible to be too indepth and still have a marketable product that would remain affordable (as the current edition is). What do I know, though, because it made it to its 10th edition? How many books can say the same! Perhaps, though, someone in the future would want to create a more user-friendly edition (with graphs and charts) and eliminate the fringe groups or mere nonChristian world religions (such as Judaism). Leave these faiths to a separate volume or to other authors (yes, numerous books on these groups have already been done). If you then dedicated 3-5 pages to each major denomination (100,000 or more members) and 1-2 pages to denominations 10,000-100,000 in size, making it more user-friendly, you might make us 4-star partial skeptics into 5-star full-on believers.
Rating: 
Summary: Information seems Compressed
Review: I wish I could have given this handbook a higher rating. Reading about a particular sect, one feels that someone other than the authors had a heavy hand in the editing the entry. A little is told about a sect, but not enough to get a good feel about the sect's reasons for being separate from all other denominations. An interesting exercise is to compare entries from the 10th edition with the same entry in the 9th edition. One cannot help but wonder if the 9th edition mobilized what one can only imagined as powerful, sword-wielding, dour, fierce preachers standing over the authors as they produced the 10th edition.
Rating: 
Summary: Just the sort of book I was looking for
Review: It answers many of the questions I have about the various denomintations. I am currently looking for a Church and while it is no substitute for actually visiting the Church, this book helps to pinpoint the one(s) that would work for me. Includes historical background for many differnt denominations. I first checked the book out @ the local library, but after returning it decided it was one I wanted to own for future reference.
Rating:
Summary: Just the sort of book I was looking for
Review: It answers many of the questions I have about the various denomintations. I am currently looking for a Church and while it is no substitute for actually visiting the Church, this book helps to pinpoint the one(s) that would work for me. Includes historical background for many differnt denominations. I first checked the book out @ the local library, but after returning it decided it was one I wanted to own for future reference.
Rating:
Summary: A slightly dry, but exhaustive tome on American religion!
Review: Mead's book is an excellent reference manual on denominations in the United States. Statistical information is included, along with the origins and beliefs of various religious groups. Among the most helpful features were the list of headquarters of denominations, the glossary, and the list of helpful resources. I definitely learned valuable information about denominations I knew little to nothing about.
Rating:
Summary: A slightly dry, but exhaustive tome on American religion!
Review: Mead's book is an excellent reference manual on denominations in the United States. Statistical information is included, along with the origins and beliefs of various religious groups. Among the most helpful features were the list of headquarters of denominations, the glossary, and the list of helpful resources. I definitely learned valuable information about denominations I knew little to nothing about.
Rating:
Summary: A great resource for researching denominations
Review: Our church pulled out of the United Church of Christ last year, and our denomination search committee needed a resource to get more information. We were very happy to find this book. At your finger tips are brief sketches of practically every major religious group in the United States. Some of the essays are very brief in nature, while others are pages long. Still, it is an excellent starting point, and for most people who just want the basic facts, it is all the information a person could want on the religious movements in the country. And one of the other things I like about the book is that as far as it it is possible, the authors take a very objective position. No trace of bias or sectarian coloring mars the book, as far as I can tell. There is no way of discerning which denominational perspective the authors write from, and that's the way I like it.
Rating:
Summary: Handbook of Denominations in the United States
Review: Received book in very good condition and very quickly.
Rating:
Summary: The old Mead was better
Review: Samuel Hill is a respected historian, but he has not kept this work up to the standards that the late Frank Mead set in his editions. Mead was far less politically correct. For example, in the Nation of Islam/Black Muslim entry Mead would not shy away from mentioning the more distinctive features of this group (such as the mythology of white folks being the product of a failed experiment by an ancient black scientist, ideas of the whites as the serpent, etc.) Hill seems to have removed many of the more objectionable features of many groups, which is what often would help the reader understand the distinctives and uniqueness of that denomination. Also, I found Hill's statistics to often be very dated. For example, the stats on the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) were about 6-8 years out of date. The PCA was one of the fastest growing evangelical denominations in America during that time, and as a result Hill's stats are about half of the accurate number (150,000 rather than 300,000). Many smaller Presbyterian denominations (at least 3 I could think of) were not even listed.
Rating:
Summary: Broad, but shallow
Review: This book came highly recommended to me. You see, I wanted to understand why there are so many Christian denominations out there, who they are, and what sets them apart. This book goes some way in that direction. It lists what must be all the denominations and gives a little information on them. There isn't any depth here, which means that you can read it, and never really get what the groups believe. For example, I have talked to people, and found out that Christians often use the same words, but when you get down into it, they mean something completely different when they use those words. Oh well, perhaps I was asking too much. If you want a book that is broad enough to list every denomination, but don't want any depth, then get this book. 3 stars.
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