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.

Crucial themes and issues explored by a premier missiologist Johan Herman Bavinck (1895-1964) was a prominent twentieth-century Dutch Calvinist missiologist who wrestled with the tension between religious absolutism and relativism, as many Christians do in today's pluralistic context. The J. H. Bavinck Reader gathers together a choice selection of Bavinck's significant writings that are essential for understanding his theology of missions, his approach to world religions, and his religious psychology. His treatment of religious consciousness and Christian faith expands on the brief treatment of it in his own work The Church Between Temple and Mosque. The concluding chapters show how Bavinck's theoretical reflection on religious consciousness was rooted in his close observation during his years as a missionary in Indonesia. Offering a constructive way forward, Bavinck affirms both the particularity of salvation in Christ and the universality of the Christian hope. A substantial introduction enhances the book with the most thorough biographical sketch of Bavinck available.

This book samples the rich variety of worship practices in American history to show how worship can be a fruitful subject for historians to study and, alternatively, how past case studies can enrich our understanding of worship today.
By the Vision of Another World gathers highly regarded historians and other scholars who usually are not read together because of the widely different subject areas in which they typically work. Yet their essays all fit together here as they address how worship, work, and worldview converge and reinforce each other no matter what particular place, era, denomination, or ethnic group is under consideration. The variety of methodologies and voices will appeal to a breadth of critical interests, while the consistently high quality of historical narrative will keep readers engaged.
Contributors
Dorothy C. Bass
James D. Bratt
Ruth Alden Doan
Paul Harvey
George M. Marsden
Timothy Matovina
Harry S. Stout
Leslie Woodcock Tentler
Michael Woods
Joyce Ann Zimmerman

Anthology of select articles from a notable Protestant periodical
For forty years, from 1951 to 1990, The Reformed Journal set the standard among both evangelical and mainline Protestants for top-notch, venturesome reflection on a range of issues as diverse as the civil rights movement, the rebirth of feminism, the Vietnam War, South African apartheid, the plight of Palestinian Christians, and the rise of the Christian Right. With a lively, progressive mix of comment, opinion, and reviews it addressed the whole world of public life and expression from a coherent Reformed point of view.
In The Best of The Reformed Journal James Bratt and Ronald Wells have collected and assembled a critical anthology of the periodical?'s best representative writing, selecting pieces that cut across time and content and that exemplify the Journal?'s long-running position at the cutting edge of thoughtful Christian engagement with culture.

The definitive biography of Abraham Kuyper, giant of Dutch Calvinism This is the first full-scale English-language biography of the highly influential and astonishingly multifaceted Abraham Kuyper (1837-1920) -- theologian, minister, politician, newspaper editor, educational innovator, Calvinist reformer, and prime minister of the Netherlands from 1901 to 1905. James Bratt is the ideal scholar to tell the story of Kuyper's remarkable life and work. He expertly traces the origin and development of Kuyper's signature concepts -- common grace, Christian worldview, sphere sovereignty, Christian engagement with contemporary culture -- in the dynamic context of his life's story. Based on voluminous primary and secondary Dutch sources, Bratt's Abraham Kuyper: Modern Calvinist, Christian Democrat will prove to be the go-to biography of this major figure whose ideas and influence extend far beyond his own time and place.

Having grown out of a 2004 consultation sponsored by the John Knox International Reformed Center, the University of Geneva, and the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, the essays in "John Calvin Rediscovered" revive the social and economic thought of John Calvin, first exploring Calvin in his own time and then turning to Calvin's global influence.