The New York Times recently published a graphic charting American denominations and religions by college graduation percentage and average income. The most evocative line from the accompanying article: “Overall, Protestants, who together are the country’s largest religious group, are poorer than average and poorer than Catholics.”
NPR is running a very smart (and very fascinating) story on the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia, a Catholic convent in Nashville, Tenn. Here’s a taste:
For the most part, these are grim days for Catholic nuns. Convents are closing, nuns are aging and there are relatively few new recruits. But something startling is happening in Nashville, Tenn. The Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia are seeing a boom in new young sisters: Twenty-seven joined this year and 90 entered over the past five years.
The average of new entrants here is 23. And overall, the average age of the Nashville Dominicans is 36 — four decades younger than the average nun nationwide.
Unlike many older sisters in previous generations, who wear street clothes and live alone, the Nashville Dominicans wear traditional habits and adhere to a strict life of prayer, teaching and silence. Read the rest of this entry »
Balmer, Randall. The Making of Evangelicalism: From Revivalism to Politics and Beyond. Waco, Texas: Baylor University Press, 2010. 89 pages. ISBN 1602582432
In his previous work, Randall Balmer—professor of American religious history at Barnard College, Columbia University—has expertly woven highly readable historical chronicle with thoughtful, provocative critique. His latest book, The Making of Evangelicalism: From Revivalism to Politics and Beyond, is no exception; in it, Balmer offers a concise survey of the relationship between evangelicalism and American culture since the 18th century that, while not without flaw, demonstrates his expertise as a historian and his insight as a critic.
Balmer structures The Making of Evangelicalism around four “turning points” in the history of the movement: (1) the transition from a Calvinist to an Arminian theology; (2) the turn from postmillennialism to premillennialism; (3) the construction of an isolationist evangelical subculture at the beginning of the twentieth century; and (4) the rise of the Religious Right. At each of these critical junctures, he argues, evangelicals dramatically re-aligned (either consciously or unconsciously) their beliefs and attitudes. Balmer peppers the study with what he calls “counterfactual speculation”—what-if questions that provide “ample opportunity to imagine a different course” for the evangelical movement (p. 2). Read the rest of this entry »
Religion in America is a collaborative blog about the history of American religion. It is written primarily by a few graduate students, but other authors are welcome to contribute. The topic of the blog includes all aspects of American religion. Most of the posts are likely about Christianity in America, ... Continue reading »
