Description: For 350 years, Protestantism was the dominant religion in America--and its influence spilled over in many directions into the wider culture. Religious historian Martin E. Marty looks at the factors behind both the long period of Protestant ascendancy in America and the comparatively recent diffusion and diminution of its authority.
Brief description: MARTIN E. MARTY has taught at the University of Chicago in its Divinity School, its Department of History, and its Committee on the History of Culture. He is the author of more than forty books, including the three-volume Modern American Religion; The One and the Many; Politics, Religion, and the Common Good; and Righteous Empire, which won the National Book Award. Marty has long been associated with the Christian Century as an editor and writer, and he is a past president of the American Academy of Religion, the American Society of Church History, and the American Catholic Historical Association.
Review Quotes:
In three delightfully witty and deceptively informal chapters, Martin Marty distills decades of research and reflection on religion in America. All who wish to understand not only the complex trajectory of American Protestantism from 1607 to the present but also the broader contours of American religious history--and indeed the nation itself--will welcome this book.
--Paul S. Boyer "Editor-in-Chief, The Oxford Companion to United States History"