The Handbook of Contemporary Christianity in the United States is a one-volume examination of Christianity in its role, contributions, and embattled engagements with the contemporary culture of the postmodern United States. While Christianity has been a sustaining force and dominant storyline of the historical foundations of America, obvious social, political, and scientific inroads have lessened its influence and altered the issues considered. The handbook explores the strengths and weaknesses of the Christian faith and traditions in the United States and its rich and textured history with a discernable eye toward how the message, strategies, and initiatives of Christianity has adapted to contemporary American life.
Mark A. Lamport is professor at graduate theological schools in Colorado, Arizona, Virginia, Indiana, Belgium, The Netherlands, and Portugal. He is coeditor with George Thomas Kurian of Encyclopedia of Christianity in the Global South, Encyclopedia of Christianity in the United States ("Notable Book of 2016" by Christianity Today) and Encyclopedia of Christian Education (winner, Booklist Editors' Choice: Adult Books); coeditor with Mitri Raheb of The Rowman & Littlefield Handbook of Christianity in the Middle East; and editor of Encyclopedia of Martin Luther and the Reformation.
An indispensable guide for understanding the shifting terrain of Christianity in the United States. With essays written by a range of scholars from multiple disciplines, Mark Lamport has assembled a volume that will prove invaluable to students and specialists alike. Accessible in style and filled with in depth analysis, the handbook's chapters remind us of American Christianity's historical complexities and its adaptability in the past and present. --Christopher Evans, Professor of the History of Christianity and Methodist Studies, Boston University This book not only offers a thoughtful critique of the old "Church History" paradigm, but it leads by example in offering a fruitful alternative. Essays bring together the social history of religion in the United States with Christian ethics on contemporary social and political challenges. The result is greater than the sum of its parts, for it offers readers a new set of answers as to why Christianity remains so powerful, and popular, in the contemporary Western world. --Janine Giordano Drake, Indiana University This superb handbook is the one-stop-shop for a comprehensive analysis of the pressing issues of contemporary Christianity in the United States. Its breadth is remarkable as is the list of top-notch scholar-interpreters anchoring each of its four sections - historical, cultural, theological and ethical. You'll find yourself reaching for this book frequently for reference and orientation, so keep it close at hand. This book is not one that will languish unopened on a top bookshelf! --Priscilla Pope-Levison, Southern Methodist University
