Romanticism in American Theology - Paperback

by James Hastings Nichols (Author)

This is a study of religious thought and life in America in the generation before the Civil War. It focuses on Nevin and Schaff, who pioneered in America the theological reinterpretations stimulated by German idealism in philosophy and the new theories of historical development. They were also spokesmen of the romantic interest in Christian traditions, community, and sacraments and in this interest opposed the antihistorical individualism predominant in American religion. Charles Hodge, Orestes Brownson, Horace Bushnell, R. J. Wilberforce, and the American Lutherans all debated with them. Nevin and Schaff were the chief nineteenth-century American prophets of the contemporary ecumenical movement.

Author Biography

James H. Nichols was Professor of the History of Christianity at the University of Chicago Divinity School. He authored several books on church history and religious topics including 'Primer for Protestants' (1947), 'Democracy and the Churches' (1951), and 'The History of Christianity, 1650-1950' (1956).