Traditional ways of living the Christian faith-shaped and guided by confessional norms-exhibit remarkable staying power in American religious life. Holding On to the Faith addresses issues related to the persistence of confessional forms of Christianity in the face of utilitarian, democratic, evangelical American popular religious culture.

Edited by Douglas A. Sweeney and Charles Hambrick-Stowe - Contributions by James D. Bratt; Peter R. D'Agostino; Kathryn Greene-McCreight; James C. Juhnke; Frances Kostarelos; Susan Wilds McArver; James H. Moorhead; Robert Bruce Mullin; Christopher Shannon

Chapter 1 Introduction: Confessional Traditions in America Chapter 2 "Passing Through Many a Hard School and Test": Confessions, Piety, Liberty and the Lutheran Experiences in the United States Chapter 3 Contesting the Faith: The Internal Struggle of American Lutheranism Chapter 4 Presbyterian Confessional Identity and its Dilemmas Chapter 5 Eternally True, Variably Useful: How Confessions Worked in Some American Reformed Churches Chapter 6 After Establishment, What? The Paradox of the History of the Episcopal Church in America Chapter 7 Who's Got the Spirit in the Episcopal Church? A Case Study of the "Connecticut Six" Chapter 8 Mennonites and Democracy: Shaped by War and Rumors of War Chapter 9 Rome in America: Transnational Allegiances and Adjustments Chapter 10 Tammany Catholicism: The Semi-Established Church in the Immigrant City Chapter 11 The Eastern Orthodox Christian Church in North America: Continuity and Change in the Twenty-First Century Chapter 12 Conclusion: Holding Onto the Faith? The Complexity of American Confessionalism