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Review
"Mark Noll's excellent book, The Work We Have to Do, explores the rich history of Protestants and their influence in nearly every aspect of American life....An honest assessment....The chapter on Modern America is particularly compelling for the light it casts on the incredible diversity of practices and beliefs among Protestants today. This book is perfect for those without much prior knowledge of the subject and for pastors wishing for a quick refresher in this chapter of church history." --Pastor Charles Trittin, All Saints Lutheran Church, Eagan, MN, Libraries Alive!
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The day was August 28, 1963. Read the first page
Concordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
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Customer Reviews
Noll breaks up the book into time periods, beginning with a bit about the Protestant Reformation before continuing with pre-1776 American Protestantism; he discusses the Civil War, the rise of so-called Fundamentalism, and ends with discussing secularization and other recent developments. The book is easy reading - one can read it in a few hours - and well worth taking the time to do so, especially in light of the continued presence of religion in American public life.
What I found most fascinating in this book was how American Protestantism groups so quickly divided into more groups because of a lack of government involvement. Whereas in Europe different churches came to be allied with the government of their region, this did not happen in the United States. Instead, a type of individualistic turn took place when Protestantism/s reached America's shores: if you didn't like how your church did it, you simply went off and started another one. Hence, in America there are tens of thousands of Protestant denominations that never existed in Europe.
If you have read Noll's work _The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind_, you will hear echoes of it in his analysis of what exactly Evangelicalism is (and, for that matter, isn't). He writes that Evangelicals have, for most of their history, been fairly skeptical of higher education and taking a more thoughtful approach to the faith; a type of American pragmatism exists within American Evangelicalism. Yet, Noll is also sympathetic (he himself is an Evangelical) and desires to correct various misperceptions about Evangelicalism that are widespread in the larger culture. Noll's corrective lenses are both helpful and informative.
Although it is short, I think this book is a really fantastic introduction into a subject with widespread influence: religious, cultural and political. For those that are interested, Noll includes a fairly substantial bibliography in the back of the book with a number of recommendations for futher reading. And, given the 60% discount that Amazon.com is currently offering, this is probably the most informative $5.00 that you can spend right now.
Read how Noll pulls this off admirably in this fine text. He sweeps through using main emphases and figures that moved the history along.
His focus is fair from this reviewer's perspective, treating all areas with enthusiasm and interest as they play out their role in this unfolding history.
This is done in four main timeframes: 1607-1789, 1790-1865, 1866-1918, and 1918-. To supplement this there is an chronology, as well as bibiliography with reading suggestions.
Well done! A great resource to start one out on this topic.
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