Study Questions

Randall Balmer
"Religion in Twentieth-Century America"
Religion in American Life: A Short History

  1. What was the mood in American Protestantism, Catholicism, and Judaism at the beginning of the twentieth century? Identify Pentecostalism and dispensationalism. Identify the Azusa Street Revival, the World's Parliament of Religions, and Leo Frank and their significance.

  2. Describe the hardening divisions between liberal and conservative Protestants in the early twentieth century. Identify the Scopes Trial and its significance. What major trends manifested themselves in Catholicism? Identify the Knights of Columbus and the Catholic Youth Organization (CYO). Identify Mordecai M. Kaplan and the "reconstruction" Jewish movement. Describe changes in African American religion in this era. What is "Neo-Orthodoxy"? How did the Depression affect American religion?

  3. Postwar America struggled with the implications of religious pluralism. What was the controversy over missions caused by the Hocking Commission report? Identify the National Council of Churches. What was the effect of the Holocaust? Explain the significance of the term "Judeo-Christian tradition." What explains the increasing comfort Catholics felt in living in America? Identify Thomas Merton and Billy Graham. What role did African American churches play in the civil rights struggle?

  4. How did John F. Kennedy address the religious issue? What was the impact of Vatican II? Identify the "Charismatic Renewal" movement. What was Humanae Vitae and its significance? Describe the black church's involvement in the Civil Rights movement. Identify the Nation of Islam movement, and identify Elijah Muhammed and Malcolm X.

  5. How did the upheaval of the late 1960s and early 1970s affect religion? Who were the "Jesus People"? How did feminism affect Christianity and Judaism? What was the religious significance of Jimmy Carter's Presidency? What factors prompted the rise of the Religious Right in the 1970s? Identify Jerry Falwell and the Moral Majority and their significance. What was the significance of the election of John Paul II to the papacy?

  6. Identify Jim Jones, the People's Temple, and Jonestown, and their significance. What accounted for the rise of television evangelism in the 1970s? Identify Pat Robertson, Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, Oral Roberts, and Jimmy Swaggert. How did religious groups challenge the materialist mood of the 1980s? Identify Ralph Reed and the Christian Coalition.

  7. How did immigration reform help change the American religious scene? What is "New Age" spirituality? What issues did Native Americans face in the latter part of the 20th century? What signs of religious hatred appeared in the 1990s? Identify the "Promise Keepers" movement, and explain how it is an example of "muscular Christianity." Describe the millennial enthusiasm at the end of the twentieth century.

Borrowed with permission from Dr. Mark Stoll, Texas Tech University