In The Churching of America, 1776-2005 Roger Finke and Rodney Stark once again revolutionize the way we think
about religion in America. Extending the argument that the nation's religious environment acts as a free market
economy, this extensively revised and expanded edition offers new research, statistics, and stories that document
increased participation in religious groups in the twenty-first century. Adding to the thorough coverage of "mainline"
religious groups, new chapters chart the remarkable development and growth of African American churches from the
early nineteenth century forward. Finke and Stark show how, like other "upstart sects," these churches
openly competed for adherents and demonstrate how American norms of religious freedom allowed African American
churches to construct organizational havens with little outside intervention. This edition also includes new sections
on the ethnic religious communities of recent immigrants-stories that echo those told of ethnic religious enclaves
in the nineteenth century.
Bringing together timely new information and evidence, this provocative book insists, more than ever, on a major
reevaluation of established ideas about American religious institutions. Written with lively prose, it will stir
debate within church and academic communities, as well as among laypersons interested in the history of religion
in America.
Table of Contents
1. A new approach to American religious history
2. The Colonial era revisited
3. The upstart sects win America, 1776-1850
4. The coming of the Catholics, 1850-1926
5. Methodists transformed, Baptists triumphant
6. Why unification efforts fail
7. Why "mainline" denominations decline
Appendix : profile tables, 1776 and 1850