Glory and Burden

As the world’s first brief history of American Christianity in the Chinese language, the two authors have brilliantly collaborated to unfold the history of Christianity in the United States over the past 200 years. Step by step, they cover the Puritan era, the founding of the United States and Christianity, the theological debates leading up to the Civil War, the challenges to Christianity in the age of industrialization, the differences between the fundamentalists and the liberals, the emergence of the evangelicals, the civil rights movement and Christianity, the rise of the religious right, and more. The history is complex and complicated.

Yet behind the complexity of history, the two authors draw out the threads that make it possible to understand the origins of many of the sharp theological and political perspectives in America today. Not only do they reveal how deeply American Christianity has engaged the public and shaped the United States, but they also point out that American Christianity has been tied up in a variety of political and contemporary trends. In this two-way interaction, American Christianity has generated great vitality, but it has also been bound to a multitude of ideologies and prejudices.

As we look back on history, both glory and burden will be our legacy today. The glory is worth remembering only because there are always people who are willing to carry the burden forward.

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