The Business Turn In American Religious History

Author : Amanda Porterfield,Darren Grem,John Corrigan
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 264 pages
File Size : 49,6 Mb
Release : 2017-07-19
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780190694593

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The Business Turn in American Religious History by Amanda Porterfield,Darren Grem,John Corrigan Pdf

Business has received little attention in American religious history, although it has profound implications for understanding the sustained popularity and ongoing transformation of religion in the United States. This volume offers a wide ranging exploration of the business aspects of American religious organizations. The authors analyze the financing, production, marketing, and distribution of religious goods and services and the role of wealth and economic organization in sustaining and even shaping worship, charity, philanthropy, institutional growth, and missionary work. Treating religion and business holistically, their essays show that American religious life has always been informed by business practices. Laying the groundwork for further investigation, the authors show how American business has functioned as a domain for achieving religious goals. Indeed they find that religion has historically been more powerful when interwoven with business. Chapters on Mormon enterprise, Jewish philanthropy, Hindu gurus, Native American casinos, and the wedding of business wealth to conservative Catholic social teaching demonstrate the range of new studies stimulated by the business turn in American religious history. Other chapters show how evangelicals joined neo-liberal economic practice and right-wing politics to religious fundamentalism to consolidate wealth and power, and how they developed marketing campaigns and organizational strategies that transformed the American religious landscape. Included are essays exposing the moral compromises religious organizations have made to succeed as centers of wealth and influence, and the religious beliefs that rationalize and justify these compromises. Still others examine the application of business practices as a means of sustaining religious institutions and expanding their reach, and look at controversies over business practices within religious organizations, and the adjustments such organizations have made in response. Together, the essays collected here offer new ways of conceptualizing the interdependence of religion and business in the United States, establishing multiple paths for further study of their intertwined historical development.

Author : Amanda Porterfield,Darren Grem,John Corrigan
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 352 pages
File Size : 48,5 Mb
Release : 2017-07-19
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780190280215

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The Business Turn in American Religious History by Amanda Porterfield,Darren Grem,John Corrigan Pdf

Business has received little attention in American religious history, although it has profound implications for understanding the sustained popularity and ongoing transformation of religion in the United States. This volume offers a wide ranging exploration of the business aspects of American religious organizations. The authors analyze the financing, production, marketing, and distribution of religious goods and services and the role of wealth and economic organization in sustaining and even shaping worship, charity, philanthropy, institutional growth, and missionary work. Treating religion and business holistically, their essays show that American religious life has always been informed by business practices. Laying the groundwork for further investigation, the authors show how American business has functioned as a domain for achieving religious goals. Indeed they find that religion has historically been more powerful when interwoven with business. Chapters on Mormon enterprise, Jewish philanthropy, Hindu gurus, Native American casinos, and the wedding of business wealth to conservative Catholic social teaching demonstrate the range of new studies stimulated by the business turn in American religious history. Other chapters show how evangelicals joined neo-liberal economic practice and right-wing politics to religious fundamentalism to consolidate wealth and power, and how they developed marketing campaigns and organizational strategies that transformed the American religious landscape. Included are essays exposing the moral compromises religious organizations have made to succeed as centers of wealth and influence, and the religious beliefs that rationalize and justify these compromises. Still others examine the application of business practices as a means of sustaining religious institutions and expanding their reach, and look at controversies over business practices within religious organizations, and the adjustments such organizations have made in response. Together, the essays collected here offer new ways of conceptualizing the interdependence of religion and business in the United States, establishing multiple paths for further study of their intertwined historical development.

Author : Amanda Porterfield
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 240 pages
File Size : 49,7 Mb
Release : 2018-03-01
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780199372669

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Corporate Spirit by Amanda Porterfield Pdf

In this groundbreaking work, Amanda Porterfield explores the long intertwining of religion and commerce in the history of incorporation in the United States. Beginning with the antecedents of that history in western Europe, she focuses on organizations to show how corporate strategies in religion and commerce developed symbiotically, and how religion has influenced the corporate structuring and commercial orientation of American society. Porterfield begins her story in ancient Rome. She traces the development of corporate organization through medieval Europe and Elizabethan England and then to colonial North America, where organizational practices derived from religion infiltrated commerce, and commerce led to political independence. Left more to their own devices than under British law, religious groups in the United States experienced unprecedented autonomy that facilitated new forms of communal governance and new means of broadcasting their messages. As commercial enterprise expanded, religious organizations grew apace, helping many Americans absorb the shocks of economic turbulence, and promoting new conceptions of faith, spirit, and will power that contributed to business. Porterfield highlights the role that American religious institutions played a society increasingly dominated by commercial incorporation and free market ideologies. She also shows how charitable impulses long nurtured by religion continued to stimulate reform and demand for accountability.

Author : Amanda Porterfield
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
Page : 352 pages
File Size : 43,7 Mb
Release : 2008-04-15
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780470692813

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American Religious History by Amanda Porterfield Pdf

In this outstanding historical reader, the editor has gathered nine essays and over thirty primary documents to present a coherent picture of the history of American religion.

Author : Benjamin E. Park
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
Page : 512 pages
File Size : 50,8 Mb
Release : 2021-01-26
Category : History
ISBN : 9781119583677

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A Companion to American Religious History by Benjamin E. Park Pdf

A collection of original essays exploring the history of the various American religious traditions and the meaning of their many expressions The Blackwell Companion to American Religious History explores the key events, significant themes, and important movements in various religious traditions throughout the nation’s history from pre-colonization to the present day. Original essays written by leading scholars and new voices in the field discuss how religion in America has transformed over the years, explore its many expressions and meanings, and consider religion’s central role in American life. Emphasizing the integration of religion into broader cultural and historical themes, this wide-ranging volume explores the operation of religion in eras of historical change, the diversity of religious experiences, and religion’s intersections with American cultural, political, social, racial, gender, and intellectual history. Each chronologically-organized chapter focuses on a specific period or event, such as the interactions between Moravian and Indigenous communities, the origins of African-American religious institutions, Mormon settlement in Utah, social reform movements during the twentieth century, the growth of ethnic religious communities, and the rise of the Religious Right. An innovative historical genealogy of American religious traditions, the Companion: Highlights broader historical themes using clear and compelling narrative Helps teachers expose their students to the significance and variety of America’s religious past Explains new and revisionist interpretations of American religious history Surveys current and emerging historiographical trends Traces historical themes to contemporary issues surrounding civil rights and social justice movements, modern capitalism, and debates over religious liberties Making the lessons of American religious history relevant to a broad range of readers, The Blackwell Companion to American Religious History is the perfect book for advanced undergraduate and graduate students in American history courses, and a valuable resource for graduate students and scholars wanting to keep pace with current historiographical trends and recent developments in the field.

Author : Daniel Vaca
Publisher : Harvard University Press
Page : 337 pages
File Size : 54,7 Mb
Release : 2019-12-03
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780674243972

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Evangelicals Incorporated by Daniel Vaca Pdf

A new history explores the commercial heart of evangelical Christianity. American evangelicalism is big business. For decades, the world’s largest media conglomerates have sought out evangelical consumers, and evangelical books have regularly become international best sellers. In the early 2000s, Rick Warren’s The Purpose Driven Life spent ninety weeks on the New York Times Best Sellers list and sold more than thirty million copies. But why have evangelicals achieved such remarkable commercial success? According to Daniel Vaca, evangelicalism depends upon commercialism. Tracing the once-humble evangelical book industry’s emergence as a lucrative center of the US book trade, Vaca argues that evangelical Christianity became religiously and politically prominent through business activity. Through areas of commerce such as branding, retailing, marketing, and finance, for-profit media companies have capitalized on the expansive potential of evangelicalism for more than a century. Rather than treat evangelicalism as a type of conservative Protestantism that market forces have commodified and corrupted, Vaca argues that evangelicalism is an expressly commercial religion. Although religious traditions seem to incorporate people who embrace distinct theological ideas and beliefs, Vaca shows, members of contemporary consumer society often participate in religious cultures by engaging commercial products and corporations. By examining the history of companies and corporate conglomerates that have produced and distributed best-selling religious books, bibles, and more, Vaca not only illustrates how evangelical ideas, identities, and alliances have developed through commercial activity but also reveals how the production of evangelical identity became a component of modern capitalism.

Author : Benjamin E. Park
Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
Page : 400 pages
File Size : 49,5 Mb
Release : 2021-02-09
Category : History
ISBN : 9781119583660

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A Companion to American Religious History by Benjamin E. Park Pdf

A collection of original essays exploring the history of the various American religious traditions and the meaning of their many expressions The Blackwell Companion to American Religious History explores the key events, significant themes, and important movements in various religious traditions throughout the nation’s history from pre-colonization to the present day. Original essays written by leading scholars and new voices in the field discuss how religion in America has transformed over the years, explore its many expressions and meanings, and consider religion’s central role in American life. Emphasizing the integration of religion into broader cultural and historical themes, this wide-ranging volume explores the operation of religion in eras of historical change, the diversity of religious experiences, and religion’s intersections with American cultural, political, social, racial, gender, and intellectual history. Each chronologically-organized chapter focuses on a specific period or event, such as the interactions between Moravian and Indigenous communities, the origins of African-American religious institutions, Mormon settlement in Utah, social reform movements during the twentieth century, the growth of ethnic religious communities, and the rise of the Religious Right. An innovative historical genealogy of American religious traditions, the Companion: Highlights broader historical themes using clear and compelling narrative Helps teachers expose their students to the significance and variety of America’s religious past Explains new and revisionist interpretations of American religious history Surveys current and emerging historiographical trends Traces historical themes to contemporary issues surrounding civil rights and social justice movements, modern capitalism, and debates over religious liberties Making the lessons of American religious history relevant to a broad range of readers, The Blackwell Companion to American Religious History is the perfect book for advanced undergraduate and graduate students in American history courses, and a valuable resource for graduate students and scholars wanting to keep pace with current historiographical trends and recent developments in the field.

Author : Paul Harvey,Edward J. Blum
Publisher : Columbia University Press
Page : 830 pages
File Size : 41,8 Mb
Release : 2012-02-14
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780231530781

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The Columbia Guide to Religion in American History by Paul Harvey,Edward J. Blum Pdf

The first guide to American religious history from colonial times to the present, this anthology features twenty-two leading scholars speaking on major themes and topics in the development of the diverse religious traditions of the United States. These include the growth and spread of evangelical culture, the mutual influence of religion and politics, the rise of fundamentalism, the role of gender and popular culture, and the problems and possibilities of pluralism. Geared toward general readers, students, researchers, and scholars, The Columbia Guide to Religion in American History provides concise yet broad surveys of specific fields, with an extensive glossary and bibliographies listing relevant books, films, articles, music, and media resources for navigating different streams of religious thought and culture. The collection opens with a thematic exploration of American religious history and culture and follows with twenty topical chapters, each of which illuminates the dominant questions and lines of inquiry that have determined scholarship within that chapter's chosen theme. Contributors also outline areas in need of further, more sophisticated study and identify critical resources for additional research. The glossary, "American Religious History, A–Z," lists crucial people, movements, groups, concepts, and historical events, enhanced by extensive statistical data.

Author : Lynn Bridgers
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
Page : 272 pages
File Size : 44,9 Mb
Release : 2006
Category : History
ISBN : 0742550591

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The American Religious Experience by Lynn Bridgers Pdf

The American Religious Experience offers a short, accessible introduction to American religious history by an award-winning writer. Recognizing the inter-denominational, inter-religious and multi-cultural perspectives that all contribute to the American religious landscape, this book explores the tension between the central, dominant streams of American Christianity and those groups relegated to the periphery. On the edges of the American mainstream we find the histories of groups rooted in visionary traditions, emotionalized forms of religious practice, and ever-expanding ethnic and racial perspectives. The complexity of the religious scene in the United States now, ongoing tensions between identity and diversity, and the many voices that inform American religious practice today grow directly out of the dynamic history that unfolds in these pages.

Author : R. Laurence Moore
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 264 pages
File Size : 49,5 Mb
Release : 1987-12-03
Category : History
ISBN : 9780195363999

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Religious Outsiders and the Making of Americans by R. Laurence Moore Pdf

In light of the curious compulsion to stress Protestant dominance in America's past, this book takes an unorthodox look at religious history in America. Rather than focusing on the usual mainstream Protestant churches--Episcopal, Congregationalist, Methodist, Baptist, and Lutheran--Moore instead turns his attention to the equally important "outsiders" in the American religious experience and tests the realities of American religious pluralism against their history in America. Through separate but interrelated chapters on seven influential groups of "outsiders"--the Mormons, Catholics, Jews, Christian Scientists, Millennialists, 20th-century Protestant Fundamentalists, and the African-American churches--Moore shows that what was going on in mainstream churches may not have been the "normal" religious experience at all, and that many of these "outside" groups embodied values that were, in fact, quintessentially American.

Author : Edwin S. Gaustad,Leigh Schmidt
Publisher : HarperCollins
Page : 357 pages
File Size : 54,9 Mb
Release : 2015-12-15
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780062467812

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The Religious History of America by Edwin S. Gaustad,Leigh Schmidt Pdf

A Dynamic Account of Religion's Central Role in American History

Author : Patrick Allitt
Publisher : Major Problems in American His
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 50,7 Mb
Release : 2013
Category : Education
ISBN : 0495912433

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Major Problems in American Religious History by Patrick Allitt Pdf

"Designed to encourage critical thinking about history, the [book] introduces students to both primary sources and analytical essays on important topics in U.S. history. [The book] presents a ... selected group of readings in a format that asks students to evaluate primary sources, test the interpretations of distinguished historians and others, and draw their own conclusions"--P. [4] of cover.

Author : Randall J. Stephens
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 46,8 Mb
Release : 2009
Category : United States
ISBN : 1570038694

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Recent Themes in American Religious History by Randall J. Stephens Pdf

Groundbreaking scholarship into the role of religion in shaping U.S. history Described as "the New York Review of Books for history," Historically Speaking has emerged as one of the most distinctive historical publications in recent years, actively seeking out contributions from a pantheon of leading voices in historical discourse from both inside and outside academia. Recent Themes in American Religious History represents some of the best writing of recent years on understanding the context and importance of religious thought, movements, and figures in the American historical narrative. This collection of essays and interviews from Historically Speaking address several subjects central to religious history in the Unites States. The first section maps the state of American religious history as a field of study and includes interviews with award-winning senior religious studies scholars Robert Orsi and Stephen Prothero. Subsequent sections explore the challenges of assimilation faced by Jews and Catholics in the United States, the origins and historical significance of American evangelical Christianity, and the phenomenon of millennialism in America. The volume concludes with a discussion of religious experience as an indicator of the limits of historical understanding, and of the tension that exists between the two modes of knowing. Edited by Randall J. Stephens, Recent Themes in American Religious History will appeal to students, scholars, and general readers of American history, American studies, and religious studies. The contributors are Kathleen Garces-Foley, Nicholas Guyatt, Thomas S. Kidd, Thomas Kselman, Bruce Kuklick, George Marsden, Wilfred M. McClay, John McGreevy, Robert A. Orsi, James M. O'Toole, Stephen Prothero, Leo P. Ribuffo, Jonathan D. Sarna, Christopher Shannon, Jane Shaw, Stephen J. Stein, and John G. Turner.

Author : Gary Scott Smith
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 128 pages
File Size : 48,8 Mb
Release : 2021
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 1440861625

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American Religious History by Gary Scott Smith Pdf

Author : Uta A. Balbier
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 241 pages
File Size : 49,7 Mb
Release : 2021-12-17
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780197502259

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Altar Call in Europe by Uta A. Balbier Pdf

"This book provides a transnational history of Billy Graham's revival work in the 1950s, zooming in on his revival meetings in London (1954), Berlin (1954/1960), and New York (1957). It shows how Graham's international ministry took shape in the context of trans-Atlantic debates about the place and future of religion in public life after the experiences of war and at the onset of the Cold War, and through a constant exchange of people, ideas, and practices. It explores the transnational nature of debates about the religious underpinnings of the "Free World" and sheds new light on the contested relationship between business, consumerism, and religion. In the context of Graham's revival meetings, ordinary Christians, theologians, ministers and Church leaders in the United States, Germany, and the UK discussed, experienced, and came to terms with religious modernization and secular anxieties, Cold War culture and the rise of consumerism. The transnational connectedness of their political, economic, and spiritual hopes and fears brings a narrative to life that complicates our understanding of the different secularization paths the United States, the UK, and Germany embarked on in the 1950s. During Graham's altar call in Europe, the contours of a trans-Atlantic revival become visible, even if in the long run it was unable to develop a dynamism that could have sustained this moment in these different national and religious contexts"--