The Bible Cause

A History of the American Bible Society

John Fea

Presents the first complete history of the American Bible Society since 1977
John Fea has written and co-edited several books on the intersection of American history, Christianity, and politics and has strong connections in the history, religion, and American religious history community
Draws heavily from previously untapped ABS archival materials

The Bible Cause

A History of the American Bible Society

John Fea

Description

Founded in 1816, the American Bible Society (ABS) exists to disseminate free copies of the Bible in local languages throughout the world, based on the belief that healthy republics require a moral citizenry and that the best way of promoting virtue throughout the nations is through the publication and dissemination of the Bible. Today, the ABS is a Christian ministry based in Philadelphia with a $300 million endowment and a mission to engage 100 million Americans with the Bible by 2025. Released just in time for the ABS's Bicentennial year, this book will demonstrate how the ABS's primary mission—to place the Bible in the hands of as many people as possible—has led the history of the ABS to intersect at nearly every point with the history of the United States.

However and wherever the United States developed, the ABS was there, fusing American imperialism with the biblical mandate to preach the gospel throughout the entire world. Over the years ABS Bibles could be found in hotel rooms, bookstores, and airports, on steam boats, college and university campuses, and the Internet, and even behind the Iron Curtain. Its agents, Bibles in hand, could be found on the front lines of every American military conflict from the Mexican-American War to the Iraq War.

Over the last two hundred years, the ABS has steadily increased its influence both at home and abroad, working with all Christian denominations in the US and internationally, aligning itself whenever possible with the gatekeepers of American religious culture, and has been on the cutting edge of technological innovation. However, despite the changes that the organization has undergone, The Bible Cause demonstrates that the ABS's primary mission and its commitment to positioning itself as the guardian of a Christian civilization have remained constant throughout the last two centuries.

The Bible Cause

A History of the American Bible Society

John Fea

Introduction
1. The Bible Cause in America
2. The American Bible Society
3. Towards a Christian Nation
4. A Bible For Every American Family
5. The Business of Benevolence
6. The Bible is the Religion of Protestants
7. A Bible House Divided
8. Rebuilding a Christian Nation
9. The Bible Cause in an Age of Immigration and Expansion
10. ABS in the Levant
11. The ABS in Mexico
12. China
13. The ABS and African Americans in the Wake of Reconstruction
14. The American Bible Society and the War to End All Wars
15. The Bible in Times of Plenty and Want
16. Perfect Love Casteth Out Fear
17. Bibles, Not Bombs
18. Asia
19. The Bible and One World
20. The Bible Cause at Home in a Post-War World
21. God's Word for a New Age
22. Catholics
23. Good News
24. More Good News
25. The Bible Cause in the "Worst of Times"
26. God and Country
27. Engaging the Age of Evangelicalism
Epilogue: The Bible Cause in the Twenty-First Century

The Bible Cause

A History of the American Bible Society

John Fea

Author Information

John Fea, Professor of American History and Chair of the Department of History, Messiah College

John Fea is Professor of American History and Chair of the Department of History at Messiah College.

The Bible Cause

A History of the American Bible Society

John Fea

Reviews and Awards

"the topic of the ABS and the evidence that Fea assembles are vivid and illuminating on a number of fronts. Fea's work is comprehensive and insightful, and his study will complement ... an array of recent historical scholarship on American Christian print culture and biblicism." - Shari Rabin, Journal of Religion

"The Bible Cause is a sagacious telling of history; Fea turned what I had anticipated to be a rather pedestrian and insignificant story into a poetically strong historical narrative with rich sociological lessons." - Joseph T. Cochran, American Theological Library Association

"Fea is at his best when interweaving this story of a new nation with one of that country's most important religious organisations as both struggled to establish the boundaries of faith and public life. This struggle continues through to the book's skilfully written last pages. The Bible cause is required reading for scholars interested in American religious nationalism, evangelicalism, mission history and history of the book." - Joseph S. Moore, Gardner-Webb University, Journal of Ecclesiastical History

"Fea's work is comprehensive and insightful, and his study will complement...an array of recent historical scholarship on American Christian print culture and biblicism." - Shari Rabin, Journal of Religion

"For two hundred years, supporters have opened their wallets to fund the [American Bible Society], trekked into unknown lands on its behalf, and distributed Bibles with its name stamped inside the cover. Fea tells this story perceptively and with care. He ably sets the ABS in the context of US history in a way that makes The Bible Cause especially helpful for those interested in the history of missions, US imperialism, the Bible (both in the United States and globally), and biblical translation. Ultimately, Fea's work offers a well-researched and thoughtfully argued account of the institution and people who dedicated themselves to the Bible cause." - Andrew Klumpp, Reading Religion