david a hollinger |
David A. Hollinger is a former President of the Organization of American Historians, and an elected member of the American Philosophical Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His nine books include Postethnic America: Beyond Multiculturalism (1995, 2000, and 2006), Science, Jews, and Secular Culture (1996), After Cloven Tongues of Fire (2013), and Protestants Abroad (2017). He is Preston Hotchkis Profess of History Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley.
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Mar 29, 2023: The Nation: Christianity’s Place in the Left and the Right
A conversation with historian David Hollinger about the rise of evangelicalism, the decline of mainline Protestantism, and if the country has truly become more secular. |
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Tracing the rise of evangelicalism and the decline of mainline Protestantism in American religious and cultural life
How did American Christianity become synonymous with conservative white evangelicalism? This sweeping work by a leading historian of modern America traces the rise of the evangelical movement and the decline of mainline Protestantism’s influence on American life. In Christianity’s American Fate, David Hollinger shows how the Protestant establishment, adopting progressive ideas about race, gender, sexuality, empire, and divinity, liberalized too quickly for some and not quickly enough for others. After 1960, mainline Protestantism lost members from both camps―conservatives to evangelicalism and progressives to secular activism. A Protestant evangelicalism that was comfortable with patriarchy and white supremacy soon became the country’s dominant Christian cultural force.
Hollinger explains the origins of what he calls Protestantism’s “two-party system” in the United States, finding its roots in America’s religious culture of dissent, as established by seventeenth-century colonists who broke away from Europe’s religious traditions; the constitutional separation of church and state, which enabled religious diversity; and the constant influx of immigrants, who found solidarity in churches. Hollinger argues that the United States became not only overwhelmingly Protestant but Protestant on steroids. By the 1960s, Jews and other non-Christians had diversified the nation ethnoreligiously, inspiring more inclusive notions of community. But by embracing a socially diverse and scientifically engaged modernity, Hollinger tells us, ecumenical Protestants also set the terms by which evangelicals became reactionary. (Princeton University Press - October 11, 2022)
How did American Christianity become synonymous with conservative white evangelicalism? This sweeping work by a leading historian of modern America traces the rise of the evangelical movement and the decline of mainline Protestantism’s influence on American life. In Christianity’s American Fate, David Hollinger shows how the Protestant establishment, adopting progressive ideas about race, gender, sexuality, empire, and divinity, liberalized too quickly for some and not quickly enough for others. After 1960, mainline Protestantism lost members from both camps―conservatives to evangelicalism and progressives to secular activism. A Protestant evangelicalism that was comfortable with patriarchy and white supremacy soon became the country’s dominant Christian cultural force.
Hollinger explains the origins of what he calls Protestantism’s “two-party system” in the United States, finding its roots in America’s religious culture of dissent, as established by seventeenth-century colonists who broke away from Europe’s religious traditions; the constitutional separation of church and state, which enabled religious diversity; and the constant influx of immigrants, who found solidarity in churches. Hollinger argues that the United States became not only overwhelmingly Protestant but Protestant on steroids. By the 1960s, Jews and other non-Christians had diversified the nation ethnoreligiously, inspiring more inclusive notions of community. But by embracing a socially diverse and scientifically engaged modernity, Hollinger tells us, ecumenical Protestants also set the terms by which evangelicals became reactionary. (Princeton University Press - October 11, 2022)
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Oct 17, 2022
Christianity’s American Fate: How Religion Became More Conservative and Society More Secular The fate of the Christian project in any time and place depends on who holds the franchise. Evangelical Protestants wrested control from the rival, “mainline” Protestants by providing white Americans with a way to be counted as Christian while avoiding the challenges of an ethnoracially diverse society and a scientifically informed culture. The mainliners insisted Christians must face these challenges, even at the cost of enabling the growth of post-Protestant secularism and thereby diminishing Christianity’s size and public role. |
Mar 5, 2023
Puffin Interview Series with Dr. Joe Chuman: David A. Hollinger The Puffin Cultural Forum continues its monthly author interview series with Dr. Joe Chuman. David A. Hollinger’s “Christianity's American Fate: How Religion Became More Conservative and Society More Secular” traces the rise of evangelicalism and the decline of mainline Protestantism in American religious and cultural life. How did American Christianity become synonymous with conservative white evangelicalism? This sweeping work by a leading historian of modern America traces the rise of the evangelical movement and the decline of mainline Protestantism’s influence on American life. In Christianity’s American Fate, David Hollinger shows how the Protestant establishment, adopting progressive ideas about race, gender, sexuality, empire, and divinity, liberalized too quickly for some and not quickly enough for others. After 1960, mainline Protestantism lost members from both camps—conservatives to evangelicalism and progressives to secular activism. A Protestant evangelicalism that was comfortable with patriarchy and white supremacy soon became the country’s dominant Christian cultural force. |