Blessed Assurance CL: A History of Evangelicalism in America

A nice short (115 text pages!) history of Evangelicalism in America, from the First Great Awakening to the present day. Barnard professor Balmer gives an historian's perspective on different aspects of the Evangelical movement in our national life without placing undue emphasis on the personalities behind the scenes. At the heart of his discussion is the exploration of several key ironies. First, he marvels at the fact that Americans take their religion so seriously (compared to people from other industrialized societies). It is ironic that it is in the United States, with its Constitutional imperative to keep church and state separate, that religious expression is so vibrant, various, and abiding. He attributes the freedom of religion (and the absence of direct governmental support though taxation) as being key to the ability of native-born religions to prosper and grow exponentially. He also finds it ironic that the Fundamentalists who decry scientific modernism in every form have so willingly embraced the new technologies: radio, technology, and the Internet. Another irony he looks at is the current-day Evangelical rejection of feminism. Women are sidelined within Evangelicalism and assigned the sentimentalized role of guardians of morality. This is ironic in light of the important leadership roles women held in the nineteenth century and early twentieth century church-based reform movements.This book is more handy than it is comprehensive (the endnotes direct the reader to some promising articles and books, but Balmer does not provide even a short bibliography). This book probably won't be very satisfying to serious students of American religion looking for a good introduction to the subject; but the average reader who is curious about religion and public life will find it informative. Don't skip the last chapter, "Vocabulary of Evangelicalism", in which Balmer defines the Evangelical subcategories: Fundamentalism, the Holiness Movement, Pentecostalism, and the Charismatic Movement.