Protestantism in America

Rating:
Summary: Protestantism in America
Review: This is the fourth publication in the Columbia Contemporary American Religion Series, following books on Roman Catholicism, Islam, and Buddhism. The text itself is divided into three sections: the first focuses on the history of Protestantism; the second consists of three contemporary congregational case studies (mainline, African American, and charismatic); and the last discusses the "challenges" of feminism, homosexuality, and social justice. The volume's portrait of Protestantism is somewhat selective, so much so that the book might more appropriately be entitled "American Evangelicalism," since "mainline Protestantism" (which the authors call both an "aberration" and a "mirage") and other Protestant groups are dealt with sparingly. Thus Pat Robertson receives the longest entry in an appendix that profiles important historic Protestant leaders, while Horace Bushnell is not even mentioned. Balmer (Barnard College) and Winner (doctoral candidate, history, Columbia Univ.) have produced a book that is quite readable, but their rhetoric (regarding non-Evangelicals) becomes at times almost snide, e.g., when they caricature ecospirituality as a movement "to liberate kelp beds." Suitable for general readers and above.