David R. Bains on Jason E. Vickers and Jennifer L. Woodruff Tait’s *The Cambridge Companion to American Protestantism*

This multi-authored volume provides an excellent introduction to the many aspects of American Protestant life. It will be helpful to both beginning students and seasoned scholars. It is one of the ever growing number of scholarly “handbooks” or “companions,” but unlike many in such series, this book is priced so that it may be assigned in the classroom. Editors Jason E. Vickers and Jennifer Woodruff Tait have succeeded in providing a very comprehensive collection of essays organized into three parts: an historical overview consisting of four chapters, twelve chapters exploring themes ranging from theology to mental illness, and a final section of eight chapters on the various “theological traditions” or denominational families that make up American Protestantism. Within their length constraints, individual authors have provided wise and accessible surveys of their topics. They attend not only to the intellectual history but to the practices and institutions of Protestants.

The historical section leads readers from the sixteenth-century Protestant Reformation to the twenty-first century War on Terror. There are many familiar events, movements, and individuals here, as well as some less well known such as a Presbyterian minister on Long Island, Abraham Keteltas whom Jeffery Webb describes as best exemplifying the persuasive way that Protestant clergy framed the revolution as a righteous sacred cause (31–32). A notable omission from the historical overview is the period between the end of World War II to the 1960s which falls between chapter 3 by Andrea Turpin and chapter 4 by Skylar Ray and Elesha J. Coffman. Ray and Coffman successfully make the case that the 1960s set the stage for much of the later history American Protestantism with its debates over “race, sexuality, and war” (83). They also do discuss the later history of key players that came to prominence in the omitted period such as the National Council of Churches and Billy Graham.

In their brief introduction, the editors explain that part II, “The Religious Culture of American Protestantism,” can be thought of consisting of three subsections: themes internal to the life of churches (theology, worship, preaching, and education); themes focusing on churches’ engagement with society (education, work, politics, and temperance); and issues that have often divided Protestants such as race (gender, sexuality, race, faith healing, mental illness, ecumenism, and missions). This wide-ranging thematic section is the heart of the book and one of its strengths. It should be noted however, that the discussion of race by Dennis C. Dickerson addresses only the African American experience; other racialized groups are mentioned briefly elsewhere, but are not discussed in a sustained way. Similarly, Jonathan A. Powers’s chapter on “worship and preaching” insightfully explains the influence of the Enlightenment on evangelical Protestant sacramental thought and practice and discusses the history of revival preaching, but this volume does not include a discussion of music despite its major role throughout the history of American Protestant worship and devotion. Most of the chapters are historically organized. One exception is Vickers’s on “Bible, Doctrine, and Theology” which works thematically to describe both the unity and diversity of American Protestantism. Another is theologian Joshua R. Sweeden’s chapter on “Work and Vocation” which does chart some changes over time, but emphasizes more the commonalities in a Protestant theology of work. Particularly interesting in this section are the chapters on subjects that have begun to garner significant scholarly attention in recent decades such as Heather Hartung Vacek’s on “Mental Illness” Candy Gunther Brown’s on “Faith Healing and Modern Medicine.”

The book’s last section comprehensively surveys the variety of American Protestantism through eight “theological traditions,” or one might say denominational families: Anglican, Reformed, Lutheran, Brethren and Mennonite, Baptist, the Stone-Campbell Movement, Wesleyan-Methodist and Holiness, and Pentecostal. Collectively they serve as an excellent introduction to the theology, practice, and organizational history of the breadth of American Protestantism. Each brings the history up to the present century, including noting schisms that have occurred over issues such as human sexuality.

The editorial framing of this excellent resource is brief. In their introduction, the editors note that since about thirty years ago the tendency in scholarship has been to move away from a focus on denominational histories and elite theologians to works that focus on a more dynamic relationship between Protestantism and American culture. This is demonstrated throughout the book, particularly in the first two sections. It is left to individual chapters to suggest emerging trends in Protestantism and its study, and this they do. This very useful volume succeeds in revealing Protestantism “to be a multifaceted, living tradition” (2) and is highly recommended for all interested in the subject.