| Outline of American Thought for Christians (ATC). {A Progress Chart: when the heading of a major study from 1-10 is underlined for a link, the session is available.} Following is an Outline and/or Progress Chart for a series of studies on American Thought for Christians. {This outline itself will in a lively fashion develop and expand with progress in the series, and with dialogue and interest from you!} Note 1: The subheadings are more highlights of that thought period than of an outline of the study session. The top headings of 1-10 identify the major study sessions. Note 2: Of course, after the Colonial Period American didn’t jump to a new period of American thought and history, nor of from the Enlightenment to Romanticism. It was more an integration of thoughts, some of which had been there all along, to make a combined American character. Note 3: It would be foolhardy to eliminate religions and denominations from the history of American thought as it would also be to eliminate science and technology. Science became the magic word after the “Watershed of American Thought”, and as the liberal arts experts jumped on the bandwagon for survival, it came social science, and so on. Note 4: Keep tuned at least monthly as this outline will change in a lively manner, even as the writing of a book where the theme and characters take over for themselves! Note 5: While you will find the Bible advocated as the authority under God for what should be American thought and character, as for any Christian of this shrinking world and expanding universe, intellectual honesty for AMERICAN STUDIES demands allegiance to the greatest in the field: Henry Steele Commager of the American Mind, Vernon Louis Parrington of Main Currents of the American Democratic Faith, also Merle Curti and Gabriel. This series of studies is not an effort to be a revisionists of history like the boomers of today, American studies prime topics are kept intact from these aforementioned authorities in the field; but admittedly is a springboard for having established what American in general think or have thought, then evangelize from the Bible on Christian faith. NOTE 6: My students in Algeria at INTELLEC in Boumerdes, marveled at some of my correlations between democracy and Christianity, primarily I am sure because of the many intolerances of freedom that have come in the name of denominations. Hopefully we can see the differences and the similarities between the Christian Faith and the American Democratic Faith while without apology {unless it is as a Christian apologists} putting above all religious and secular authorities, the authority of God the Father, the father of the Lord Jesus Christ {Jesus, the author and finisher of Christianity}, that comes to us each week objectively through the hearing and reading of the Word, the Bible. This study assumes on good grounds that the Bible is the Word of God: (1) Divine in Origin, from God the Father; (2) Absolute in Authority, what expert, intellectual or otherwise can ever compare to the authority of our Creator and Heavenly Father, who gave us marvelously this Book that we might know His character and His will; (3) sufficient in message, what is not spelled out for the Christian life and living is given as guidelines; (4) dynamic and living in content in a different category from all other books in that it jumps out to you if you meet the proper conditions of hermeneutics; (5) high fidelity in communications; and (6) self-interpretive if you will use the hermeneutics of the Apostle Peter as given in II Peter 1: 20,21. 1. Introduction to American Thought for Christians. “To be an American is of itself almost a moral condition, an education, and a career.” (Santayana) 2. The American Democratic Faith versus Christian Faith. We citizens of America love this nation as the greatest ever as do we the American Democratic Faith; however while there are some similarities to the two kinds of Faith, there are also differences. And if a central theme for American Thought for Christians (ATC) were required, it would be to explore these differences and similarities. Prime Minister Begin of Israel once said, “We Israelis are born Jews just like Americans are born Christians.” Not so; and without apology, even as an ATC is long overdo, so the Bible is maintained in a once Baptist Distinctive manner as the standard for the Christian faith, as interpreted by the ASPI. Once for Baptists, the largest Protestant denomination in the world, the Bible was “the sole criterion for faith and practice”--to some it still is! 3. Early settlements and Beginnings of American Thought. Jamestown, Massachusetts Bay Colony and Cape Fear, SC. Puritanism and Roger Williams Congregationalism, Harvard worthies--Mathers and Cotton, and Baptist History. French and Indian Wars “A Christian gentleman and scholar and statesman whose generation has not yet been born,” Vernon Louis Parrington wrote of Roger Williams.” Scot Irish Immigration, early signs of Turners Frontier Thesis 4. Enlightenment and American Revolution (1775-1784) Benjamin Franklin and “Poor Richards Almanac”. Jonathan Edwards and the Great Awakening. Selected Readings in American Constitutional History 5. Romanticism. Ralph Waldo Emerson and “The American Scholar” and Walden Pond. American Literature before 1861. Science and Religion in American Thought. History of the Southern Baptist Convention, largest Protestant denomination 6. Naturalism. Pragmatism, William James, and “Varieties of Religious Experiences “The Watershed of American Thought”, Henry Steele Commager and The American Mind “An Interpretation of American Thought and Character Since the 1880’s” by Henry Steele Commager, THE AMERICAN MIND. “A Christian View of Science and Scripture” by Bernard Ramm Gilded Age, Robber Barons, and Gospel of Wealth with corollary of success. Great Depression, Dust Bowl, Roosevelt, and the New Deal 7. The Atomic Age and the Expanding Universe “Atomic Age Physics” -- from Classical to Modern Physics. “Evolution in Science and Religion” by Noble Physicist R. A. Millikan “Evidence of God in An Expanding Universe” by Mosma Planet Earth Shrinkage in an Expanding Universe and World War II Skinnerism, Behaviorism, and “Beyond Freedom and Dignity” and Walden Two Billy Graham, fundamentalism, and baptist distinctives 8. The Digital Atomic Age. Electronics: From the vacuum tube to the transistor to the integrated circuit, and to the microprocessor/computer. New Industrial Revolution: Democracy of Technology, computers, and phones “Wonder of the Word” by McLendon Day “Philosophy of Religion” and “Your Other Vocation” by Elton Trueblood Scofieldism and the Split of the Southern Baptist Convention 9. Big Business, Management, and Generational Patterns of American Thought and Character. Moral Majority, Bible Baptists, and fundamentalism Traditionalists In-Betweeners Boomers Millennials The Falling Away from God, Christ, and the Bible--a world-wide grass roots movement away from real Christianity by Jesus 10. END of the Last Days: Second Great Depression, shifting denominations, world collapse to final war, and Christianity. Rising tide of the mystery of sin and lawlessness in the world (2 Thess) Intense series of calamities since 911 Increased signs in the heavens above and earth beneath (Joel and Peter) Final Great Battle, Second Coming, and the New Earth “Last Days” Timeline from the Bible American Liberty in the face of Terrorism |
