Title: Grant us courage : travels along the mainline of American Protestantism /
Authors: Balmer, Randall Herbert
Publisher: Oxford University Press,
Year: 1996
Subjects: Liberalism (Religion) United States History; Liberalism (Religion) Protestant churches) History; Protestant churches United States History; United States Church history
Abstract: In 1950, Christian Century ran a series of articles on twelve churches, some large, some small, each representing a strand of American mainline Protestantism. Now, nearly fifty years later, Randall Balmer--author and host of Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory, the acclaimed book and PBS series on American evangelicism--has revisited each of these twelve churches to take the pulse of Protestantism today. The result is a remarkable narrative, graced with touches of local color and memorable portraits of the people involved, and filled with deft observations and carefully nuanced insights about Protestantism at century's end. Much as he did in Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory, Balmer crisscrosses America to give us a first-hand look at how Christianity has fared in the last half-century. What emerges is a church challenged by diminished influence, but with signs of hope for the future.^
Contents: The sum of its parts : First Community Church -- Against the odds : Washington Prairie Lutheran Church -- By the numbers : First United Methodist Church -- The burden of history : First Church of Christ Congregational -- Urban lighthouse : First Presbyterian Church -- Holding true : Trinity Lutheran Church -- "Creek bank" theology : Bellevue Baptist Church -- Campus life : Collegiate United Methodist Church -- Birthright church : First United Church of Christ -- Coming home : Olive Chapel Baptist Church -- Road to recovery : First Presbyterian Church -- Some kind of magic : Mount Olivet Lutheran Church.