Holding On The Faith

Introduction: Confessional Traditions In America
Charles Hambrick-Stowe
“Passing Through Many A Hard School And Test”: Confessions, Piety, Liberty And The Lutheran Experiences In The United States
Susan Wilds McArver
Contesting The Faith: The Internal Struggle Of American Lutheranism
Mary Todd
Presbyterian Confessional Identity And Its Dilemmas
James H. Moorhead
Eternally True, Variably Useful: How Confessions Worked In Some American Reformed Churches
James D. Bratt
After Establishment, What? The Paradox Of The History Of The Episcopal Church In America
Robert Bruce Mullin
Who’s Got The Spirit In The Episcopal Church? A Case Study Of The “Connecticut Six”
Kathryn Greene-McCreight
Mennonites And Democracy: Shaped By War And Rumors Of War
James C. Juhnke
Rome In America: Transnational Allegiances And Adjustments
Peter R. D’Agostino
Tammany Catholicism: The Semi-Established Church In The Immigrant City
Christopher Shannon
The Eastern Orthodox Christian Church In North America: Continuity And Change In The Twenty-First Century
Frances Kostarelos
Conclusion: Holding Onto The Faith? The Complexity Of American Confessionalism
Douglas A. Sweeney

Additional Info
Traditional ways of living the Christian faith–shaped and guided by confessional norms–exhibit remarkable staying power in American religious life. Holding On to the Faith addresses issues related to the persistence of confessional forms of Christianity in the face of utilitarian, democratic, evangelical American popular religious culture. Whereas historians in the twentieth century typically used terms like “countervailing”, “alternative”, or “immigrant faith” to describe confessional Christianity, it is now clear that groups which have maintained roots in doctrinal, liturgical, and institutional traditions are an integral part of American life.

In Holding On to the Faith ten scholars of American religion contribute chapters analyzing the American experience of ecclesial groups ranging from Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism to the Lutheran, Reformed, Anglican/Episcopal, and even Mennonite traditions. Editors Douglas A. Sweeney and Charles Hambrick-Stowe discuss common themes and pose questions for further discussion.