HS610: Syllabus
Spring 2011, Mar 27 – Jun 4
Section 1: Thurs 8:00pm – 10:00pm
Dr. Chris Armstrong
Bethel Seminary
Office: Faculty Hall, A212
E-mail: c-armstrong@bethel.edu
T.A.: John Fournelle john-fournelle@bethel.edu
AMERICAN CHRISTIANITY
Course Description:
An introduction to the major movements, persons, and ideas in American Christian
history from colonization to recent decades. Students will also hone their skills in
reading, interpreting, and applying what they learn from historical documents.
Objectives:
1. Recount the roots and shape of significant American Christian traditions,
including European transplants and “American originals.”
2. Describe significant ways America shaped the European Christian traditions
transplanted to its soil; and ways Christian traditions shaped America.
3. Analyze selected documents in American church history.
4. Write on selected documents in American church history.
Texts:
Noll, Mark A. The Old Religion in the New World. Eerdmans, 2002 (1st edition).
ISBN 0802849482
Gaustad, Edwin S. and Mark A. Noll, eds. A Documentary History of Religion in
America to 1877. Eerdmans, 2003 (3rd edition). ISBN 0802822290
Gaustad, Edwin S. and Mark A. Noll, eds. A Documentary History of Religion in
America since 1877. Eerdmans, 2003 (3rd edition). ISBN 0802822304
www.christianhistory.net. Currently this website is giving access to all articles from all
back issues of Christian History magazine (all 99 of ‘em), for free.
Course Requirements:
1.
Briefs: 1000-1250 words
Throughout the course, you will write brief papers on 5 questions—each one related to a
set of readings in the Gaustad volumes (and a Noll chapter). You will hand in each of
these by clicking on the appropriate link in Moodle.
Nota Bene: I am looking for interaction with Gaustad in these briefs. Use Noll only to
contextualize (briefly) your topic and as occasional reference as you frame your
arguments in answer to the brief question. To get marks for these briefs, and good grades
on your red-line briefs, in the bulk of your brief you must support your answer with
frequent references (whether quoted and cited, paraphrased and cited, or briefly
referenced and cited) from the appropriate Gaustad readings.
However, it is equally important that you keep quotations brief—about 3 lines or shorter
at the very most. Only quote the gem-like stuff that simply must be in the original
writer’s language. For the rest, paraphrase or simply refer to a given reading. When you
do quote, paraphrase, or refer to the Gaustad material, you need to cite the document and
page. For all citations, use footnotes (not endnotes), and follow this format:
John Smith, “Why I came to America,” Gaustad and Noll, vol. I, 76.
Each brief will be 1000-1250 words long. Use the word-count utility in your word
processing program to make sure of length. Papers that are shorter or longer than this
range will be docked. Writing to length is an important and helpful intellectual discipline.
These briefs will not be graded qualitatively (that’s what the red-line briefs are about—
see below), but in order to receive full marks, each brief must meet the following criteria:








Submitted via the assignment link on Moodle, not by email.
Be submitted before class begins on Thursday.
Meet the word length requirement (1000-1250 words; no longer or shorter).
Follow the citation format described above.
Answer the brief question.
Use the Gaustad material in answering the question.
Be written in essay form (not “expanded outline” form, etc.).
Be mechanically sound (without a degree of mechanical problems that would
obscure the clarity of your argument).
Note that we’re talking 5% of the course grade (25% total) just for handing these babies
in. Briefs not meeting one or more of the above criteria will be docked percentage points.
Note: You must print a hard copy of each brief and bring it to class for reference during
our panel discussion; you’ll keep this copy after the class. Make sure you have also kept
an electronic copy.
2.
Red-line Briefs: 1000-1250 words; selected from briefs
Each student will select one brief from the first 3 topics and one from the second 3 topics
(though because you are not required to do a brief during your presentation weeks, there
will be 3 in one set and 2 in the other, for a total of 5) to hand in on the below dates for a
grade. Reworking this brief before handing it in (based on lectures, panels, and further
thought) is acceptable and encouraged.
3.
Exams:
Two exams will be due to Blackboard on May 13 and Jun 3 (both are Fridays, due by
11:59 pm each day). Each exam covers the material in roughly one half of the course,
with questions on the lectures and Noll and Gaustad readings. You will have 90 minutes
to complete each of these exams. Each consists of two parts:
The first part, worth 40% of the exam score, consists of answering 20 multiple-choice
and true-false questions based on the Gaustad readings (choice of 20 out of 23 or 24
questions). You will need to read the Gaustad material carefully and thoroughly to do
well on this part. Attend especially to who says what (the basic argument and any
outstanding statements from each reading, and the authorship of that reading—see the
introductions of the readings and the source footnotes in cases where there is any
question about this).
The second part, worth 60% of the exam score, consists of answering a choice of 2 essay
questions (so, each essay is worth 30% of the exam) based on the lectures and all the
readings. To do well on this part, attend carefully to the major themes of the lectures and
the Noll chapters, and think about how you would make an argument related to each of
those themes, appropriately supported from the historical evidence you find in your
readings (but, to be clear: these are closed-book, closed-notes, closed web pages exams).
Each essay should be at least one double-spaced page in length; you may well need more
space to answer the question adequately, with historical support.
Exam I, May 13: Noll chaps 1-3; Gaustad; lectures from Apr 1 - Apr 22 inclusive
Exam II, Jun 3: Noll chaps 4-7; Gaustad; lectures from Apr 29 - May 27 inclusive
4.
Panel:
At the first class, each student will be assigned to a very small group of two students
(possibly 3 in one case) and given a question to address in a panel presentation. Each
panel will answer its question out of the Noll chapter and Gaustad readings assigned for
the week of their presentation (in other words, the readings supporting that week’s
briefs), plus, if you like, Christian History materials assigned for the week of their
presentation. The primary focus will be the Gaustad readings.
Panels will be 30 minutes long for a two-student presentation, with each student speaking
for roughly 10 minutes (you can certainly use a dialogue format—just make sure each
student gets around 10 minutes of speaking) followed by roughly 10 minutes of Q&A
with the class. If you take longer than 20 minutes for a two-person spoken presentation,
the time-keeper (me!) will let you know and, if necessary, cut you off.
Creative approaches are encouraged, in keeping with the tone of the panel questions;
remember though, the grade is given for how informative the panel is for the class and
how well the panel question is answered. Do limit the amount of actual quotation from
the Gaustad documents. Where you use Gaustad material, I’d like to see you re-work it,
paraphrasing and re-presenting the ideas and arguments found there.
Each participant must hand in at least 2 pages of preparation notes in class on the
day of the panel. These notes need not be finished essays, but they do need to show your
sources, and they will count toward your panel grade.
Grading:
5 briefs handed in on time (5% each) ......25%
2 red line briefs (12% each) .....................24%
2 exams (12% each) .................................24%
Panel presentation ....................................25%
Evaluation………………………………..2%
Pluses and minuses will be given where appropriate. Class discussion may be a factor in
borderline grades.
Evaluation:
Owing to a change in Bethel Seminary policy, I am required to count your completion of
the course evaluation at the end of the course as 2% of the final grade. I won’t be able to
look at the evaluation text itself (have no fear!), but I will be able to tell whether you
completed it or not, so I can add that 2% to your final grade.
Accessibility:
Please contact me as soon as possible if disability-related accommodations are needed.
Accommodations for students with documented disabilities are set up through the Office
of Disability Services. Contact Kathy McGillivray, Director of Disability Services, at
(651) 635-8759.
Week
Topic(s) / Lectures
Assignments*
Week 1:
Mar 27-Apr 2
Introduction
European Roots
Week 2:
Apr 3-9
Calvin
No presentation or brief due this week;
English Reformation Noll chap 1
Puritan Roots
Browse CH Issue 12: John Calvin
Browse CH Issue 89: Baxter, Puritans
Read the two web articles noted below this
schedule grid
Week 3:
Apr 10-16
Puritanism
Cov’t Theology
Legacy of Puritans
Noll chap 2
Gaustad*
Browse CH Issue 89 (again)
Browse CH Issue 41: Amer. Puritans
Brief/Panel 1: “Visions & Challenges
Week 4:
Apr 17-23
The Awakening
Critiques
The Revolution
Noll chap 3, Gaustad
Brief/Panel 2: “Revival & the Voluntary
Principle”
Browse CH Issue 77: J. Edwards
Browse CH Issue 8: JE & GA
Week 5:
24-30
Disestablishment
Catholicism
Noll chap 4, Gaustad
Brief/Panel 3: “Disestablishment—the Case
of the Catholics”
Browse CH Issue 6: The Baptists
Browse CH Issue 50: Am. Revolution
Week 6:
May 1-7
Social Reform (Pt.1)
African American
Christianity
Noll chaps 5 & 6—at least skim Gaustad
Brief/panel 4: “High Tide and Turn for the
Worse: 1830 – 1865”
Browse CH Issue 33: Civil War
Browse CH Issue 62: Africans in Am.
Week 7:
May 8-14
No Class
Noll chap 5 (review thoroughly)
Listen to Civil War& Red-line 1 and Exam 1 both due in
Gender lectures on
Blackboard 11:59 pm Friday May 13
Moodle
Week 8:
May 15-21
Industrialization
Social Reform (Pt.2
& 3)
Noll chap 6 (review thoroughly), Gaustad
Brief/panel 5: “The Social Challenges of a
Swiftly Modernizing World”
Browse CH Issue 82: Phoebe Palmer &
Holiness Movement
Week
Week 9:
May 22-28
Topic(s) / Lectures
Assignments*
Fundamentalism and Noll chap 7, Gaustad
Pentacostalism
Brief/panel 6: “Responses to a Modern
Intellectual Revolution: Science & the Bible”
Browse CH Issue 55: Fundamentalism
Browse CH Issue 58: Pentecostalism
Week 10:
May 29-June 4
20th Century &
Beyond
Wrap-up
Noll chap 8
Browse CH Issue 65: 20th-c. Christians
Browse CH Issue 92: New Evang’ls
No presentations
Red-line 1 and Exam 1 both due in
Blackboard 11:59 pm Friday Jun 3
**Lecture topics may vary from this chart. See below for page numbers for Gaustad
readings, along with questions for briefs and panels.
Additional reading for Week 1 (by first class session, if possible; or at least by second class
session), please complete the following readings on the craft of history and the use of
primary documents:
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/robinson-sources.html
http://academic.bowdoin.edu/WritingGuides/ -- choose "How to read a primary
source" from the left navigation bar.
Gaustad Readings
These readings form the core of this course. If you carefully follow the reading program,
you will get the most out of the course, and your grade will reflect it. If you cut corners,
you will cheat yourself of a complete learning experience, and your grade will reflect it.
I have not included the Gaustad chapter introductions in this reading list. But they are
helpful orienting devices: if you find yourself at sea when reading any of the assigned
Gaustad pages, I recommend you check the table of contents and flip back to the
introduction for that chapter. Note that each chapter is divided into subsections, and each
subsection is summarized in the introduction for that chapter. Cross-referencing with the
Noll book (via the index) and comparing notes with colleagues may help too!
Note that you will be responsible for reading in Gaustad only on weeks when a Brief is
due. Therefore, on the following schedule I have identified each Gaustad reading by
noting which numbered Brief that set of Gaustad pages accompanies.
Finally, note that each numbered Brief (and its associated Gaustad readings) relates to the
material in the Noll chapter that is one number higher: Brief 1 relates to Noll chapter 2;
Brief 2 to Noll chapter 3, etc. [Brief and presentation questions and detailed reading
assignments start on next page]
Brief 1 and Panel 1: “Visions and Challenges”
Brief question: European Protestants came to America from a variety of church
traditions, bearing with them a variety of visions of what “church in America” ought to
look like. But each of them had this much in common: the New World faced them with
strange new challenges as they set up churches and communities on these shores. From
the assigned readings, compare the churchly visions and New-World challenges of at
least two groups of transplanted European Protestants. Remember, you have just 1,000
words to work with (that would be just 4-5 old-fashioned, double-spaced, monotype
typewriter pages). So be concise! And think of yourself as writing this for an intelligent
friend who has not read any of the pertinent Gaustad or Noll material. So be clear, too!
Panel presentation: It is late in the colonial period: let's say around 1700. A Puritan, an
Anglican, a Baptist, a Lutheran (pick as many as members in your panel)—all weary
from a long day's traveling—meet at an inn somewhere in New York. (This sounds like
the set-up for a joke, and perhaps it is!) Each makes his or her case for why their
particular vision of church life is The Future Of American Christianity—and grumbles a
bit at the challenges that face his or her denomination in achieving that vision. “Have at
it,” Fellow Travelers! But remember, you have only 10 minutes between the three of you
to persuade your audience of assorted riff-raff in the inn—that is, your classmates. And
they'll have their say as soon as you're done.
Pages
Subject
Volume I:
54-82
96-99
99-104
104-05
106-09
120-24
127-32
136; 139-44
144-46
146-49
England anew
Puritans keeping order: Hutchinson, Dyer
Puritans and witchcraft
Proposals, Saybrook Platform
Vs. Anglican sheep-stealing
The Anglican desire for American bishops
Salzburger Crossing
Muhlenberg
On Congregationalism
Baptists
Brief 2 and Panel 2: “Revival and the Voluntary Principle”
Brief question: From your readings, describe how—and theorize why—“revivalism”
took off on American soil in the 1700s and 1800s, driving huge church growth, especially
among the Baptists and Methodists. Think of yourself as writing to an intelligent friend
who has never heard of revivalism. So be sure to give your friend a clear idea of what this
phenomenon is. Remember, just 1,000 words!
Panel presentation: It's some time in the 1830s. You are an English counterpart of Alexis
de Tocqueville—a cultured native of England and member of the Church of England who
has traveled for years across America, observing the boundless energy of American
Protestantism for revival and reform. Now you are addressing a gathering of your fellow
Anglicans back home in England, telling them what it is about America and American
religion that has led to its rapid growth and zealous evangelistic and social activity. Think
carefully about how to divide up this topic among the panelists, so each can handle a
different aspect. And be prepared to answer the questions of your curious British brethren
(your classmates) who want to know more about this Strange New World and its wildfire
religion.
Pages
Subject
Volume I:
160-76
176-83
183-90
271-76
280-85
299-327
391-401
Revivalism
Colonial colleges: “Nurseries of piety”
Jonathan Edwards, “A Divine and Supernatural Light”
Methodism, white and black
Susanna Anthony, John Leland
The voluntary principle and revivalism
Voluntarism revisited: Tocqueville, Robert Baird, the 1858 Revival
Brief 3 and Panel 3: “Disestablishment—the Case of the Catholics”
Brief question: Using at least three distinct phases or episodes in American Catholic
history, demonstrate the following claim: “The Roman Catholic Church presents a
striking example of an old European church that faced great challenges—and made
radical changes in itself—as it adjusted itself to the American social and religious
landscape. Ultimately, these American challenges and changes helped to change the
Roman Catholic Church worldwide.”
Panel presentation: It is 1965. A small group of Roman Catholics meet at an outdoor
cafe in Rome as Vatican Council II is winding up its momentous proceedings. At least
one of these is American, and excited about the changes that have been going on in the
Catholic church in that country. At least one is European—and very conservative—and is
worried that the new “wind” that is already blowing through the “windows” Pope John
XXIII has opened in the old church is a wind of a destructive modernism: just the sort of
thing Pius X warned about in his 1907 encyclical Pascendi Dominici. This conservative
European voice blames this “ill wind” on American Catholicism. Again, have at it! And
be prepared to engage with the audience of Protestant onlookers (your classmates) who
have begun gathering curiously to listen in on your conversation.
Pages
Subject
Volume I:
276-80
379-84
437-39
439-44
445-51
451-54
John Carroll's report
Catholic “revivals” and “retreats”
Trusteeism
Brownson
Hecker/Brownson correspondence
England on education & Catholicism's compatibility with religious liberty
Volume II:
13-17
21-23
252-56
263-68
391-96
396-401
535-39
543-46
655-57
498-504
679-82
682-85
Catholic education in America
Anti-Catholic and pro-Catholic positions on Catholicism and democracy
Anti-Catholic immigration rhetoric
Alfred E. Smith: con and pro
“Americanization”: Ireland vs. McQuaid
Pope vs. people on American “modernization”
Vatican II
Vatican II on religious liberty (influenced by American John Courtney
Murray)
U.S. reaction to Humanae Vitae
JFK—a Catholic running for president
Mario Cuomo on Catholicism and politics
Neuhaus
Brief 4 and Panel 4: “High Tide and Turn for the Worse: 1830 - 1865”
Brief question: The period from 1830 to 1865 was, argues Mark Noll, both the “high
tide” of American Protestantism and a turn for the worse. Noll says that white evangelical
Protestants went from shaping the “manners and morals” and public events of America
(1795 to 1835) to being shaped in negative ways by “political circumstances and social
forces” (mid-1830s through the Civil War). You are writing to show an intelligent friend
how the struggle over slavery and the events of the Civil War support this claim of Noll's.
As always, 1,000 words.
Panel presentation: In his introduction to the chapter of Volume I on “Sectional Crisis
and Reconstruction,” Gaustad paints the following picture of the diversity of American
opinions on slavery: “Some were all-out champions of the existing system as directly
ordained by God. Others defended slavery in principle while calling upon slave-holders
to act with greater humanity to the slaves. Still others favored gradual emancipation, and
of that number some wanted to see slave-owners paid for giving up their 'property' while
others considered it just for liberated slaves to be staked with 'forty acres and a mule.'
Still others appealed for the immediate abolition of the system. For all of these views
there were forceful religious arguments to hand, often backed by appeals to the
'spirit' or the 'letter' of the Scriptures.” In a church hall in one of the border states,
Christians holding several of these positions described by Gaustad meet for a fellowship
dinner. Soon the dinner table conversation becomes heated, as each tries to persuade the
others to come over to his or her viewpoint. The other dinner guests (your classmates)
will have their say, too. . . .
Pages
Subject
Volume I:
471-89
489-500
520-43
555-63
568-75
Black religion and slavery
Schism over slavery
Debate over slavery
Theological reflection on the war
Lincoln on Americans under God
Brief 5 and Panel 5: “The Social Challenges of a Swiftly Modernizing World”
Brief question: In the period from the end of the Civil War through 1906, Protestant
Americans found themselves facing a new urban landscape marked by burgeoning
diverse immigrant populations—millions of whom did not share the religious views and
practices of their adopted country's “de facto Protestant establishment”—and ravaged by
human problems related to poverty, overcrowding, economic oppression, and social
vices. Summarize for an intelligent friend some of the most notable solutions Protestants
came up with for these problems (and, if you like, some of the failures of Protestants in
addressing these same issues). 1,000 words!
Panel presentation: The year is 1906. A small, mixed group of Christians (whatever
flavors of Protestant you would like to choose, as panelists; plus, if you like, a Catholic or
two!) meet at an interfaith conference dedicated to addressing the problems of the urban
poor. Over coffee, a few of you begin a friendly competition over the question, “What
Christian programs or initiatives during the past few decades have taken the best
approaches to addressing the problems of the urban, immigrant poor?” Each of you
favors a certain group or denomination, so line up your evidence, folks, and let 'er rip.
You can base your arguments on these approaches' demonstrated success, suitability to
the American situation, philosophical superiority, fidelity to Scripture, or whatever else
works for you. As usual, your conversation attracts a small crowd of fellow conferees
(your classmates), each eager to pitch in with their two cents.
Pages
Subject
Volume II:
6-13
17-20
78-83
93-124
168-73
178-80
183-87
223-36
268-71
272-74
275-77
504-06
Protestant immigration
Ethnic Roman Catholic immigration
Diversity
The social gospel
Salvation Army and YMCA
The Federal Council of Churches
Temperance
Preachers: McConnell and Coffin
Unsure of capitalism
Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker movement
Reinhold Niebuhr and “Christian realism”
Methodists and “the Great Society”
Brief 6 and Panel 6: “Responses to a Modern Intellectual Revolution: Science & the
Bible”
Brief question: In the midst of a period of continued denominational diversification,
many Christians in the last decades of the 1800s and the first decades of the 1900s
believed that the eternal fate of thousands hung in the balance as churches and individual
Christians determined how they would respond to evolutionary science and higher
biblical criticism. Many conservative Christians saw in these two modern developments a
mortal challenge to the foundations of Christian civilization—a challenge that must be
met by reaffirming and defending a list of doctrinal “fundamentals.” Other, “modernist”
believers felt that the church must adapt its theology to the new science and the new
views of the Bible, or the next generation—their children—would be lost to Christ. Using
the readings, outline for an intelligent friend (who has never read this material) first, the
main points of debate on science, faith, and scripture; and second, a profile of the major
“camps” in each part of the debates. NOTE: look for the mediating positions and the
moderate mainstream that Noll insists remained strong through the debates. 1,000 words!
Panel presentation: You have been invited as a panel of experts on Christian history (-:
to address a group of freshmen in a Christian college who are about to launch into four
difficult years of scientific study with a focus on biology and genetics. As a panel, you
have been asked to give these students a sense of the different ways American Christians
interacted with developments in science at the end of the 19th century and the beginning
th
of the 20 . You are then to draw out lessons from this history that will help these young
Christians as they pursue their scientific vocations. You have ten minutes. Go! (And then
brace for the questions from these fresh-faced undergraduate scientists—your
classmates.)
Pages
Subject
Volume II:
278-98
322-352
353-58
360-64
364-69
401-06
419-426
432-35
Revivalism, millennialism, holiness, Pentecostalism
Science and religion
Bible
Fosdick
Church trials
Modernism and fundamentalism
Neo-orthodoxy
Carl F. H. Henry
Two notes on paper-writing:
First, a friend of mine at Westmont has done students everywhere a service with a very
strict (and appropriate) list of suggestions about how to put essays together for his
classes. You can find my friend’s “A Few (Strong) Suggestions on Essay Writing” at the
following web address: http://www.westmont.edu/~work/material/writing.html. Please
don’t let his suggestions paralyze you, as I am not as strict as he is. However, following
his suggestions will result in a near-guaranteed improvement in your papers for this
course—and future courses.
Second, some students will benefit from my favorite web source for writing help; all
should find something useful here. It is a “master list” of helps for writers that I put
together while working as a writing tutor at Duke. You can find this list at the following
web address: http://uwp.aas.duke.edu/wstudio/resources/writing.html. Each subject link
provides a set of helps in that subject area. Especially helpful are the materials under
“Drafting,” “Revising,” and “Editing for Usage and Grammar.” See also the “grammar
and reference” link on the left.