num_pages: 208
description: Home and family are key yet relatively unexplored dimensions of religion in the contemporary United States. American cultural lore is replete with images of saintly nineteenth-century American mothers and their children. During the twentieth century however the form and function of the American family have changed radically and religious beliefs have evolved under the challenges of modernity. As these transformations took place how did religion manage to fit into modern family life?In this book Margaret Lamberts Bendroth examines the lives and beliefs of white middle-class mainline Protestants (principally northern Presbyterians Baptists Methodists and Congregationalists) who are theologically moderate or liberal. Mainliners have pursued family issues for most of the twentieth century churning out hundreds of works on Christian childrearing. Bendroths book explores the role of family within a religious tradition that sees itself as Americas cultural center. In this balanced analysis the author traces the evolution of mainliners roles in middle-class American culture and sharpens our awareness of the ways in which the mainline Protestant experience has actually shaped and reflected the American sense of self.
language: English
title: Growing Up Protestant: Parents, Children and Mainline Churches
publisher: Rutgers University Press