American denominational history : perspectives on the past, prospects for the future / edited by Keith Harper.

Includes bibliographical references.

Catholic distinctiveness and the challenge of American denominationalism / Amy Koehlinger -- New directions on the congregational way / Margaret Bendroth -- Presbyterians in America : denominational history and the quest for identity / Sean Michael Lucas -- From the margin to the middle to somewhere in between : an overview of American Baptist historiography / Keith Harper -- "Everything arose just as the occasion offered" : defining Methodist identity through the history of Methodist polity / Jennifer L. Woodruff Tait -- Black Protestantism : a historiographical appraisal / Paul Harvey -- Mormon historiography / David J. Whittaker -- Interpreting American Pentecostal origins : retrospect and prospect / Randall J. Stephens -- "We're all evangelicals now" : the existential and backward historiography of twentieth-century evangelicalism / Barry Hankins.

This work brings various important topics and groups in American religious history the rigor of scholarly assessment of the current literature. The fruitful questions that are posed by the positions and experiences of the various groups are carefully examined. American Denominational History points the way for the next decade of scholarly effort.