America's Religious History Video Lectures: Faith, Politics, and the Shaping of a Nation

Even while parts of America are becoming more secular, the nation as a whole remains deeply religious. In America’s Religious History Video Lectures, historian Thomas S. Kidd traces the roots and development of American religion from colonial times to the 21st century.

In the post-9/11 world, it is not difficult to see how important religion remains in America and around the globe. An older generation of scholars expected that America and the rest of the Western world was headed toward secularization and the end of religion. America is undoubtedly secular in many ways, and our constitutional order requires a clear distinction between faith communities and government. Yet from the colonial era to the present, American men and women have been, and have remained, a pervasively religious people.

In America's Religious History Video Lectures, leading historian Thomas S. Kidd traces the theological and ethnic diversity and enduring strength of American religion, with special attention to Christianity and evangelical faith. Interweaving religious history and key events from the larger narrative of American history, the video lectures consider how faith commitments and categories have shaped the nation.

America's Religious History Video Lectures offers an up-to-date, narrative introduction to the religious background of American life.

Session Titles and Runtimes:

1 - Introduction (3 min)

2 - Religion in Early America (25 min)

3 - Reviving American Faith (26 min)

4 - Religion and the American Revolution (26 min)

5 - The Era of the Second Great Awakening (24 min)

6 - Global and Domestic Missions (26 min)

7 - Slave Religion and Manifest Destiny (24 min)

8 - The Slavery Controversy and the Civil War (24 min)

9 - Immigration and Religious Diversity (24 min)

10 - Evolution, Biblical Criticism, and Fundamentalism (24 min)

11 - Catholics in America (25 min)

12 - Civil Religion: The Neo-Evangelical Movement after World War II (24 min)

13 - African-American Religion, Civil Rights, and Cultural Backlash (22 min)

14 - The Christian Right and the Changing Face of American Religion (26 min)

15 - Immigration, Religious Diversity, and the Culture Wars (24 min)

16 - American Religion in the Twenty-First Century (13 min)