Religion between the World Wars
American Religious History
Mainline Protestantism Adrift
¡ Ecumenical
movement: Federal Council of Churches, 1908 (National Council of Churches,
1950)
¡ Denominational
Unity on Prohibition
¡ Women’s
Christian Temperance Union, 1874
¡ Frances
Willard, 1879–1898
¡ Triumph!
Eighteenth Amendment, 1919
¡ Drinking
declines, but law often ignored
¡ Rise
of organized crime
¡ Churches
lose: Prohibition repealed, 1933
¡ Loss
of prestige, loss of purpose
¡ Mainstream
churches adrift, 1930s
Pentecostalism Spreads
¡ Pentecostals
secede, 1920s
¡ Aimee
Semple McPherson
¡ Four
Square Gospel,
Los Angeles, 1923
Catholicism and America
¡ Thriving
church adapts to American religious freedom
¡ Roman
hierarchy hostile to American ideals
¡ Pius
IX, “Syllabus of Errors,” 1864
¡ Vatican
I, 1869-70: Pope is infallible
¡ Pius
X condemns modernism, 1907
¡ Leo
XIII condemns “Americanism,” 1899
¡ Condemns
individual conscience: follow Church’s teachings
¡ No
ecumenicism; Protestants could not be learned from (heretics)
¡ Freedom
& individualism threatened monasticism & priesthood
¡ Rejects
full freedom of the press
Catholicism 1900–1960: The “Brick & Mortar” Era
¡ Conservative
impact of Americanism controversy
¡ Parallel
society
¡ Schools
¡ Universities
¡ Hospitals
¡ Orphanages
¡ Charities
¡ Political
conservatism
Black Churches & the Great Migration
¡ The
“Great Migration”
¡ Challenge
to Northern churches
¡ Development
of social programs
¡ Congregation
grow; worship & music change
¡ Thomas
A. Dorsey, Mahalia Jackson, and gospel music
¡ “Storefront”
churches
¡ Rise
of Pentecostalism
¡ C.H.
Mason: Church of God in Christ
¡ Black
Islam and Black Jewish (Black Hebrew or Black Israelite) movements