Introduction
Prelude: Catholic Bibles in the New World
1) Protestant Beginnings
2) From William Tyndale to King James
3) England in the Era of Colonization
4) Colonial Christendom
5) Beyond Christendom
6) Empire
7) Revival
8) Deepened
9) Thinned, Absorbed
10) Revolution
Conclusion/Afterword
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Mark A. Noll is the Francis A. McAnaney Professor of History at the University of Notre Dame and author of numerous books, including America's God: From Jonathan Edwards to Abraham Lincoln (OUP 2002) and Protestantism: A Very Short Introduction (OUP 2011).
"This is a superb book. In his lucid prose, Noll clarifies a
complex topic and weaves an astounding number of sources into an
engaging narrative. The result is an authoritative history of the
Bible in early America that refocuses our view of the nation and
its most influential book."--James P. Byrd, Journal of Church and
State
"This work will likely be read by anyone interested in the widely
read Bible, Protestant history in America, and early American
history."--The Journal of American Studies
"In the Beginning Was the Word offers genuinely fresh insights into
the roots of American ideology."--Times Literary Supplement
"Monumental . . . The story told by Noll brims with ironies and
complexities. The first installment of a projected two-volume
history of the Bible in American public life, In the Beginning Was
the Word is the fruit of Noll's many years of deep reflection
combined with his proven talent for synthesis." --Peter Thuesen,
Books & Culture, selected as a Favorite Book of 2015
"[A] rich and deep examination of the place of the bible, both as
an object and a source of ideas, in the public life of early
America . . . Noll has demonstrated that it is virtually impossible
to understand the colonial society without understanding the place,
significance, and prominence of scripture in private and public
life." --New Books in History
"[A] thoughtful book."--William and Mary Quarterly
"Noll shows how 17th-century Americans received conflicting models
of scriptural authority from Europe: the Bible under Christendom
(high Anglicanism), the Bible over Christendom (moderate
Puritanism), and the Bible against Christendom (Anabaptists,
enthusiasts, Quakers). In the 18th century, the colonists turned
increasingly to the Bible against Christendom, fueling the
Revolution against Britain and preparing the way for a new country
founded on the
separation of church and state." --Wichita Eagle, New & Notable
"A superb study of Early America's most widely read book by one of
the nation's leading historians of religion. No one has ever before
described and analyzed the role of the Bible in colonial America as
thoroughly as Mark Noll has in this important book. In the
Beginning Was the Word is a landmark work of history." -- Gordon S.
Wood, Professor of History Emeritus, Brown University
"In the Beginning Was the Word documents the Bible's ubiquity in
the nation's formative years. With massive research and lapidary
prose, Noll shows how Scripture provided solace for individuals,
authority for Protestants, and warrants for Christendom. Lest there
be any doubt, the volume secures the author's rank as the dean of
active American religious historians." -- Grant Wacker, Gilbert T.
Rowe Professor of Christian History, Duke Divinity School
"Mark Noll has written a learned and wise treatment of the power of
the Bible in early American history, sensitive to the ways
Scripture was invoked on different sides of many disputes. Noll
appropriately roots his account in the Old World background and
restores the importance of Puritanism to the course of American
History." -- Daniel Walker Howe, Pulitzer-Prize-winning author of
What Hath God Wrought: The Transformation of America, 1815-1848
"This book is a must-read for all pastors and students of
scripture." -Ministry
"Noll's work is a significant contribution to literature on
colonial American intellectual history in demonstrating how the
Bible was often both shaping and being shaped by intellectual
currents." --Religious Studies Review
"During the last 50 years, Noll has been one of the principal
leaders, along with other evangelical Protestant scholars, who have
continued the tradition of superb, critical analysis of the history
of Christianity that was begun by the 'church historians' of an
earlier generation (Martin Marty, Syndney Ahlstrom and others).
This book stands as a monument to his scholarly career, in which he
has drawn on the insights of American 'historians of American
religion'
and many other disciplines, but still adhering to his commitment to
write history for the edification of the church. May his work
continue, and may his tribe increase."--The Presbyterian Outlook
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