Kirjahaku

A revelatory new biography of Thomas Jefferson, focusing on his ethical and spiritual life “Kidd’s biography may well be the best treatment of Jefferson’s religious and moral life available, and certainly it is among the few to take those two subjects seriously while carefully avoiding hagiography or anachronism. It deserves a wide readership.”—Miles Smith, National Review “Set aside everything you think you know about Thomas Jefferson and religion, and read this book. This is the definitive account. It is well written, well researched, judicious, and entirely convincing.”—Timothy Larsen, Wheaton College Thomas Jefferson was arguably the most brilliant and inspiring political writer in American history. But the ethical realities of his personal life and political career did not live up to his soaring rhetoric. Indeed, three tensions defined Jefferson’s moral life: democracy versus slavery, republican virtue versus dissolute consumption, and veneration for Jesus versus skepticism about Christianity. In this book Thomas S. Kidd tells the story of Jefferson’s ethical life through the lens of these tensions, including an unapologetic focus on the issue where Jefferson’s idealistic philosophy and lived reality clashed most obviously: his sexual relationship with his enslaved woman Sally Hemings. In doing so, he offers a unique perspective on one of American history’s most studied figures.

Religion, race, and American history.America's Religious History is an up-to-date, narrative-based introduction to the unique role of faith in American history. Moving beyond present-day polemics to understand the challenges and nuances of our religious past, leading historian Thomas S. Kidd interweaves religious history and key events from the larger story of American history, including:The Great AwakeningThe American RevolutionSlavery and the Civil WarCivil rights and church-state controversyImmigration, religious diversity, and the culture warsUseful for both classroom and personal study, America's Religious History provides a balanced, authoritative assessment of how faith has shaped American life and politics.

Thomas Kidd, a widely respected scholar of colonial history, deftly offers both depth and breadth in this accessible, introductory text on the American Colonial era. Interweaving primary documents and new scholarship with a vivid narrative reconstructing the lives of European colonists, Africans, and Native Americans and their encounters in colonial North America, Kidd offers fresh perspectives on these events and the period as a whole. This compelling volume is organized around themes of religion and conflict, and distinguished by its incorporation of an expanded geographic frame.

During the early eighteenth century, colonial New England witnessed the end of Puritanism and the emergence of a revivalist religious movement that culminated in the evangelical awakenings of the 1740s. This engrossing book explores the religious history of New England during the period and offers new reasons for this change in cultural identity.After England’s Glorious Revolution, says Thomas Kidd, New Englanders abandoned their previous hostility toward Britain, viewing it as the chosen leader in the Protestant fight against world Catholicism. They also imagined themselves part of an international Protestant community and replaced their Puritan beliefs with a revival-centered pan-Protestantism. Kidd discusses the rise of “the Protestant interest” and provides a compelling argument about the origins of both eighteenth-century revivalism and the global evangelical movement.

Winner of Christianity Today's 2016 Book Award for History/Biography: an engaging, balanced, and penetrating narrative biography of the charismatic eighteenth-century American evangelist George Whitefield"The most authoritative yet readable book on the eighteenth century’s greatest preacher."—Marvin Olasky, World Magazine"Kidd’s theologically sympathetic approach gives the book a depth that a more detached treatment might not: He misses none of the biblical allusions that peppered Whitefield’s utterances, and he is an excellent guide through the tangled doctrinal controversies that dogged Whitefield’s career."—Barton Swaim, Wall Street Journal In the years prior to the American Revolution, George Whitefield was the most famous man in the colonies. Thomas Kidd’s fascinating biography explores the extraordinary career of the most influential figure in the first generation of Anglo-American evangelical Christianity, examining his sometimes troubling stands on the pressing issues of the day, both secular and spiritual, and his relationships with such famous contemporaries as Benjamin Franklin, Jonathan Edwards, and John Wesley. Based on the author’s comprehensive studies of Whitefield’s original sermons, journals, and letters, this excellent history chronicles the phenomenal rise of the trailblazer of the Great Awakening. Whitefield’s leadership role among the new evangelicals of the eighteenth century and his many religious disputes are meticulously covered, as are his major legacies and the permanent marks he left on evangelical Christian faith. It is arguably the most balanced biography to date of a controversial religious leader who, though relatively unknown three hundred years after his birth, was a true giant in his day and remains an important figure in America’s history.

In the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks, many of America's Christian evangelicals have denounced Islam as a "demonic" and inherently violent religion, provoking frustration among other Christian conservatives who wish to present a more appealing message to the world's Muslims. Yet as Thomas Kidd reveals in this sobering book, the conflicted views expressed by today's evangelicals have deep roots in American history. Tracing Islam's role in the popular imagination of American Christians from the colonial period to today, Kidd demonstrates that Protestant evangelicals have viewed Islam as a global threat--while also actively seeking to convert Muslims to the Christian faith--since the nation's founding. He shows how accounts of "Mahometan" despotism and lurid stories of European enslavement by Barbary pirates fueled early evangelicals' fears concerning Islam, and describes the growing conservatism of American missions to Muslim lands up through the post-World War II era. Kidd exposes American Christians' anxieties about an internal Islamic threat from groups like the Nation of Islam in the 1960s and America's immigrant Muslim population today, and he demonstrates why Islam has become central to evangelical "end-times" narratives. Pointing to many evangelicals' unwillingness to acknowledge Islam's theological commonalities with Christianity and their continued portrayal of Islam as an "evil" and false religion, Kidd explains why Christians themselves are ironically to blame for the failure of evangelism in the Muslim world. American Christians and Islam is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the causes of the mounting tensions between Christians and Muslims today.

Thomas S. Kidd presents a global history of the Christian church in the modern age.Christian History, Volume 2: From the Reformation to the Present provides a composite picture of important, influential, and representative Christian beliefs, thinkers, activists, trends, and practices from about 1500 to the present day. In a highly readable style, Kidd covers the events and figures from the Reformation, the Great Awakenings, higher criticism, and the culture wars of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. This volume also covers the global nature of God's church by examining historical global traditions as well as the recent the demographic shift of active Christian communities to the global South. In addition to the major theologians, movements, and events of the period, Kidd highlights the everyday Christian experience through the centuries, including accounts of ordinary men and women who experience conversion, live sacrificially for the gospel, or endure persecution. A lively, engaging, and readable text, Christian History, Volume 2: From the Reformation to the Present will become a staple text for students and professors alike.

American History volume 1 surveys the broad sweep of American history from the first Native American societies to the end of the Reconstruction period, following the Civil War. Drawing on a deep range of research and years of classroom teaching experience, Thomas S. Kidd offers students an engaging overview of the first half of American history. The volume features illuminating stories of people from well-known presidents and generals, to lesser-known men and women who struggled under slavery and other forms of oppression to make their place in American life. The role of Christianity in America is central in this book. Americans' faith sometimes inspired awakenings and the search for an equitable society, but at other times it justified violence and inequality. Students will come away from American History v olume 1 better prepared to grapple with the challenges presented by the history of America's founding, the problem of slavery, and our nation's political tradition.

American History volume 2 gives a wide overview of America's history from the end of the Civil War era, to the political and cultural struggles of contemporary times. Thomas S. Kidd employs lessons learned from his own scholarly expertise and history classes to weave together a compelling narrative of the defeats and triumphs that have defined the American national experience. Unlike many textbooks of modern American history, religion and faith remain central aspects of the book's coverage, through present-day America. It gives detailed treatment of episodes such as America's military conflicts, the Civil Rights movement, and the culture wars of the past half-century. Professor Kidd also considers the development of America's obsession with entertainment, from the rise of the first movies, to the social media age. American History v olume 2 will help students wrestle with the political and cultural changes that have dramatically transformed contemporary American life

In this combined edition, the full content of volumes 1 and 2 of Thomas Kidd's American History are brought together in a single, accessible textbook. This sweeping narrative spans the full scope of American history from the first Native American societies to the political and cultural struggles of contemporary times. In clear, readable prose, and with attention to well-known and more obscure figures from American history, Kidd gives a robust account of the events, people, and ideas that gave shape to our nation. Students will come away from American History well-informed, and better prepared to wrestle with the political and cultural changes that have dramatically transformed contemporary American life. Praise for American History "Thomas Kidd has succeeded well in providing a high quality American history text that integrates the usual political and social history with its religious dimensions." --George Marsden, professor of history emeritus, University of Notre Dame "Thomas Kidd explores the entirety of American history in this carefully researched and clearly written text. It is an ideal book for students new to American history as well as for older readers who would like a sprightly, objective, and discerning refresher." --Mark Noll, professor of history emeritus, University of Notre Dame, and research professor of history, Regent College