tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37589721331585843.post6220584999771211488..comments2024-03-26T11:33:59.219-06:00Comments on Religion in American History: Who Wants to be a Church Historian? Paul Harveyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13881964303772343114noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37589721331585843.post-66814524112189659652013-01-08T12:32:34.337-07:002013-01-08T12:32:34.337-07:00Thanks, Elesha,
I gleaned from the live ASCH blog...Thanks, Elesha,<br /><br />I gleaned from the live ASCH blog archives (thanks for these, Shaun!! that you enjoyed a great turnout and discussion. As we discussed, it's amazing that contemporary conversations about church history are still being framed by books written in the 1960s and 1970s (great books, yet hardly exhaustive). We need institutional histories such as yours (Christian Century), Curtis Evans (FCC), Kevin Schultz (NCCJ), Matt Hedstrom (religious presses), and others, just because there's so much we still don't know about those institutions--their composition, function, and impact.Mark T. Edwardshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13687874101232569510noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37589721331585843.post-79094085338758419722013-01-08T12:10:25.835-07:002013-01-08T12:10:25.835-07:00In response to your question, Mark, here are the a...In response to your question, Mark, here are the answers I gleaned from people at my panel.<br /><br />Mark Silk: The mainline is such a shadow of its former self, demographically, that it makes no sense to approach it as an establishment--but to approach it as one "brand" of religion among many will yield interesting results.<br /><br />Grant Wacker: You can learn some general characteristics about religious establishments by comparing the old liberal establishment with what we have now, established evangelicalism. In both cases, establishment involves wanting, and securing, a seat at the table where national conversation takes place. Only the old establishment meant, in Sam Hill's definition, knowing when to wear a necktie.<br /><br />James Hudnut-Beumler: The mainline was (and in many ways, still is) an example of a liberal approach to being religious in the world. The mainline has also always included a lot of conservatives, and that influence is growing--a sort of evangelicalization of the establishment.<br /><br />I asserted that the Protestant mainline and religious liberalism are two different categories with some overlap, and neither is "beyond" the other in terms of being significant, interesting, or worthy of study. I also, like Laurie Maffly-Kipp, argued that there's still life in institutional history.<br /><br />Not exactly an answer to your question, I suppose, but it was a great conversation.Eleshahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03764991021577652939noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37589721331585843.post-21877211899242687942013-01-08T11:04:24.390-07:002013-01-08T11:04:24.390-07:00Thanks, Elesha, for a helpful dispatch from a meet...Thanks, Elesha, for a helpful dispatch from a meeting I was sorry to miss. To my ear, the phrase "church history" (like "denominational history") has the unfortunate trait of implying a preceding "the" or "our"; that is, it's harder to hear the term as "religious history that takes as its starting point communities whose institutional expression has been as churches" than as "the providentially inflected story of our own [usually Protestant] community." I do wish that we could find a syntax (for church history and denominational history, both) that communicated specificity without parochialism.Aaron Sizernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37589721331585843.post-29378156463454772462013-01-07T21:33:08.799-07:002013-01-07T21:33:08.799-07:00So many Religion in American History writers were ...So many Religion in American History writers were in the room for this talk--how did I not meet ANY of them?John Feahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17856498511226523417noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37589721331585843.post-29402041242614707612013-01-07T19:17:15.548-07:002013-01-07T19:17:15.548-07:00Fantastic. I'm sorry to have missed Professor ...Fantastic. I'm sorry to have missed Professor Maffly-Kipp's address and appreciate you posting this report!Christopherhttp://juvenileinstructor.orgnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37589721331585843.post-48966202928867922472013-01-07T18:58:08.157-07:002013-01-07T18:58:08.157-07:00stay tuned for an AHA/ASCH report by Emily Clark t...stay tuned for an AHA/ASCH report by Emily Clark that will post tomorrow I think!Paul Harveyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13881964303772343114noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37589721331585843.post-3788868424568261932013-01-07T18:25:36.669-07:002013-01-07T18:25:36.669-07:00Thanks so much for this report, Elesha! I know of...Thanks so much for this report, Elesha! I know of at least two other panels in which the "Catholic question" came up--why, in "tri-faith Americs," do we still have such a hard time writing narratives that incorporate Protestants AND Catholics (Eugene McCarraher's Christian Critics a notable exception)?<br /><br />Many of us are also waiting for your panels' answer to the question--are we "beyond the mainline?"Mark T. Edwardshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13687874101232569510noreply@blogger.com