Reimagining Denominationalism

Denominationalism—that ''free market'' mode of organizing religious life which, some say, manages to combine traditional religious claims with a free society in a peculiarly American way—is the subject of the previously unpublished papers in this collection. No institution, the editors argue, is as crucial for the understanding of American religious life, yet so much in need of reassessment as the denomination. In a wide-ranging collection of articles, adistinguished set of commentators on American religion examine the denomination's past and present roles, its definable nature, and its evolution over time. The study of denominations, the authors show, sheds light on broader understandings of American religious and cultural life. The contributors—scholars ofthe Roman Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Mormon, and African-American traditions—explore the state and history of denominational studies in America, suggesting new models and approaches drawn from anthropology, sociology, theology, history, and history of religions. They offer provocative case studies that reimagine denominational studies.

The interpretive essays gathered here constitute a significant contribution to the study of denominations....The present volume lays an indispensable groundwork from which to survey the changing landscape of Religion in America

Robert Bruce Mullin is Society for the Promotion of Religion and Learning Professor of History and World Mission and Professor of Modern Anglican Studies in the General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church. Russell E. Richey is William R. Cannon Distinguished Professor of Church History in the Candler School of Theology at Emory University.