Church History in an Age of Uncertainty: Historiographical Patterns in the United States, 1906 - 1990

by Henry W. Bowden

Essential to Catholic, Protestant, and even secular scholars of American religious history this is the first historiographical analysis of the work of Henry K. Rowe, James H. Nichols, Leonard J. Trinterud, H. Shelton Smith, John T. McNeill, Herbert W. Schneider, Robert T. Handy, John T. Ellis, and Jaroslav Pelikan. Aware that every generation rewrites history, Bowden bases his investigation of major twentieth-century church historians on two Why are young historians dissatisfied with earlier treatments? What leads them to believe their version is better? Henry Warner Bowden’s extensive bibliography includes A Century of Church The Legacy of Philip Schaff.

296 pages, Hardcover

First published April 9, 1991

Reviews

[Zach Hedges · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent survey of major trends and representative figures in the development of historiography, from the end of the era of "scientific objectivity" (covered primarily in Bowden's first volume), through the turn toward relativism in the 1930s, and progressing (without reaching any real resolution) toward the time of writing (1991). Consistent with his portrayal of "modern" historiography as a whole, Bowden's project is far more descriptive than prescriptive, the moderate approach subtly endorsed in his final analysis reflecting modernity's lingering desire for some measure of neutrality, to be achieved through the use of commonly-accepted historical procedures, but coexisting, uncomfortably, alongside the now-inescapable realization that individual preconceptions crucially inform, shape, and govern one's reasons for engaging with history in the first place (as historiography in the three subsequent decades has relentlessly emphasized).