Northern Baptist Theological Seminary CH 407-SYN HISTORY OF AMERICAN RELIGION Fall 2015 - Thursdays, 1:00 3:40 pm Dr. Sam Hamstra Jr. shamstra@faculty.seminary.edu 630-705-8367 (office) Course Description - This course is introduces the panorama of people, movements, issues, groups, events, and institutional developments which have characterized religious experience in the United States from the Colonial period to the dawn of the twenty-first century. Course Objectives Demonstrate a basic understanding of the spectrum of religious movements emerging over the last four centuries in the territory that became the United States. Reflect critically on the way faith communities address historical issues today. Pray for the church s witness in today s context while living in intellectual and spiritual fellowship with believers from previous generations. Identify one or more exemplary Christians from previous generations as role models: explain their struggles, interpret their achievements and failures, and uphold their contribution to American spiritual and cultural life. Develop skills in research, critical and faithful analysis, and clear writing. Required Texts Noll, Mark A. A History of Christianity in the United States and Canada. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1992. ISBN: 0-8028-0651-1; 592 pages; $50. Gaustad, Edwin S. and Mark A. Noll. A Documentary History of Religion in America to 1877. 3rd ed. Grand Rapids Eerdmans, 2003. ISBN 0-8028-2229-0; 600 pages; $45. (Be sure to order the volume which covers America to 1877. ) Course Assignments and Evaluation for Masters Students Class Attendance & Participation (20% of grade) Reading Quizzes (20%) - Before the beginning of each class session (except for the first), students will be required to take a quiz on the reading assignment for that session. These quizzes will be administered by Moodle. They are timed and designed solely for the purpose of encouraging students to complete a thorough reading of their assignments before the beginning of class. Movies & Small Group Discussion (20%) Salem Witch Trials The Shakers 1
Lincoln I Have A Dream Writing Assignments (40%) - Students shall prepare four 800-1200 word documents on four different persons, movements, or events in the history of American Christianity. The subject selected for each paper shall correspond with the reading required the week the paper is due. The papers shall be written as blogs or as an article for your church newsletter or as information for your church web site. Each assignment is weighted at 10% of your course grade. They must be submitted by the beginning of class on the day the paper is due. Grading Policy on Late Work - Assignments submitted after posted due dates will be reduced by one full letter grade. Grading Scale A = 100-95 A- = 94-90 B+ = 89-87 B = 86-83 B- = 82-80 C+ = 79-77 C = 76-73 C- = 72-70 D+ = 69-67 D = 66-63 D- = 62-60 F = 59 and below Course Sessions (Students shall read selections from Gaustad which correspond to their readings in Noll. For example, let s take Session 1. Before the class meets, students shall read Noll, pages 1-21. Then, they shall read only those pages from Gaustad 1-42 which address issues covered by Noll. In other words, students need not necessarily read all 42 pages. The same pattern holds true for the other sessions. ) Session 1 Session 2 Session 3 Session 4 Session 5 A New World Noll 1-21 & Gaustad I:1-42 Colonial Roots: Mission, Diversity, Dissent Noll 30-82 & Gaustad I:43-124 Movie: The Salem Witch Trials (History Channel) Great Awakening Noll 83-113 & Gaustad I:160-193 Paper #1 Religion and Revolution Noll 114-162 & Gaustad I:195-294 Paper #2 Revival, Reform, New Religions Landscapes Noll 163-244 & Gaustad I:295-327 2
Movie: The Shakers (PBS Home Video, Ken Burns) Session 6 Session 7 Session 8 Religious Crisis of the Civil War Noll 286-334 & Gaustad I:517-599 Movie: Lincoln, featuring Daniel Day-Lewis Christian America? Noll 335-422 The Ironic Twentieth-Century Noll 423-500 Paper #3 Session 9 Noll 501-553 Movie: Martin Luther King, Jr. - I Have a Dream Read Letters from a Birmingham Jail Session 10 The Dawn of the Twenty-First Century Paper #4 Supplemental Reading List Ahlstrom, Sydney E. A Religious History of the American People. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1972. Eck, Diana L. A New Religious America: How a Christian Country Has Become the World s Most Religiously Diverse Nation. New York: Harper San Francisco, 2001. Gaustad, Edwin S. A Religious History of America. New Revised Edition. New York: Harper & Row, 1990. Gaustad, Edwin S. and Mark A. Noll, A Documentary History of Religion in America. Third Edition. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2003. Gaustad, Edwin and Leigh Schmidt. The Religious History of America. New York: Harper San Francisco, 2002. Handy, Robert T. A Christian America: Protestant Hopes and Historical Realities. Second Edition. New York: Oxford University Press, 1984. Hatch, Nathan O. The Democratization of American Christianity. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1989. 3
Hennesey, James. American Catholics: A History of the Roman Catholic Community in the United States. New York: Oxford University Press, 1981. Holifield, E. Brooks. Theology in America: Christian Thought from the Age of the Puritans to the Civil War. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003. Hudson, Winthrop S. Religion in America: An Historical Account of the Development of American Religious Life. Fourth Edition. New York: Macmillan Publishing, 1987. Lincoln, C. Eric and Lawrence H. Mamiya. The Black Church in the African American Experience. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1990. Lindley, Susan Hill. You Have Stept Out of Your Place : A History of Women and Religion in America. Louisville, KY: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1996. Lippy, Charles H. and Peter Williams, editors. Encyclopedia of the American Religious Experience. Three Volumes. New York: Scribners, 1988. Marini, Stephen A. Sacred Song in America; Religion, Music and Public Culture. Chicago: The University of Illinois Press, 2003 Marsden, George M. Fundamentalism and American Culture: The Shaping of Twentieth Century Evangelicalism, 1870-1925. New York: Oxford University Press, 1980. Marty, Martin E. Pilgrims in Their Own Land: 500 Years of Religion in America. New York: Penguin Books, 1984 Neusner, Jacob, editor. World Religions in America. Louisville, KY: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1994. Noll, Mark A. A History of Christianity in the United States and Canada. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1992.. The Old Religion in a New World: The History of North American Christianity. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing, 2002.. The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing, 1994. Reid, Daniel G, editor. Dictionary of Christianity in America. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsityPress, 1990. Raboteau, Albert J. Canaan Land: A Religious History of American Americans. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001. Sernett, Milton C., editor. African American Religious History: A Documentary Witness. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1999. 4
Sweeney, Douglas A. The American Evangelical Story: A History of the Movement. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2005 Toulouse, Mark and James Duke, editors. Makers of Christian Theology in America. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1997. Tucker, Ruth A. and Walter Liefeld. Daughters of the Church: Women and ministry from New Testament times to the present. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1987. Tweed, Thomas A. and Stephen Prothero, editors. Asian Religions in America. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. Wills, Garry; Head and Heart: American Christianities. New York: Penguin Press, 2007. POLICIES FOR ALL MASTERS CLASSES NOTE: All communications from the seminary will go to your seminary email account. Contact ithelpdesk@seminary.edu if you need help forwarding your seminary email address to your personal email address. As a seminary community we hold integrity/hospitality as core values. Individuals are able to do their best work and thinking when their peers are fully present and engaged. We expect each person to both participate in class and carefully listen to others with the belief that everyone s contribution is equally important. Therefore, the following policies have been established in order to provide clarity in regard to attendance expectations and relationships in the classroom. Class Attendance Policy It is expected that students will attend and participate in all class sessions. Failure to attend at least 80% of class sessions is grounds for automatic failure. A professor may set other attendance expectations. Students are always expected to communicate with a professor in advance if they will be absent. Attendance expectations are higher for online and intensive courses (see syllabus for specific requirements). Class Tardiness Policy The third time a student is late to the start of class, it will be counted as a class absence. It is also expected that students will return from a break by the time specified by the professor. Late Work Policy If a student cannot complete the work for a course by the due date listed on the syllabus, they must submit a Request for a Grade of Incomplete form to the Registrar by 4:30 of the last day of the term. The form must be signed by the instructor and Dean of Students. The professor may set stipulations and grade reductions. In the absence of a formal request form, the student will receive a grade based upon work completed by the last day of the term. Plagiarism Plagiarism is the act of passing off as one s own the words or ideas of someone else without 5
providing proper acknowledgement or documentation. See the Academic Honesty Policy in the Seminary Catalog for more information on plagiarism and how to avoid it. Electronic Format Unless otherwise specified by the professor, all work submitted electronically must be in a Word document format (.doc,.docx). Technology Use in the Classroom Unless it is directly tied to note-taking or research for the class, students are expected to refrain from using cell phones, laptops, or other electronic devices during class. Course Evaluation in Moodle Students must complete an online course evaluation using the seminary Moodle system at http://moodle.seminary.edu. The evaluation will be open at the end of the course. If you need assistance connecting to Moodle or accessing the evaluation, please send an email to moodlehelp@seminary.edu. 6