The old religion in a new world: The History of North American Christianity. (Religion).(Review)(Brief Article)

MARK A. NOLL. Eerdmans, $24 (344p) ISBN 0-8028-4948-2 (Christianity/History)

Award-winning church historian Noll (The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind) offers a serviceable and workmanlike introduction to the history of Christianity in North America, primarily the United States. Like other books of this kind (e.g., Sydney Ahlstrom's A Religious History of the American People), Noll's traces the chronological development--from the colonial years up until the last year of the 20th century--of Christianity after it moved into North America. He provides sketches of events such as the First and Second Great Awakenings, the rise of denominationalism and the beginnings of the …