Resources On Mainline (Liberal) Christianity In North America

The expression “mainline church” is drawn from an old-money neighborhood in Philadelphia known as “the main line.” The mainline churches were what are sometimes called the “tall steeple” church along the mainline. Scholars of American Christianity sometimes speak of the “Seven Sisters of the Mainline” referring to the Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA), the United Methodist Church (UMC), the United Church of Christ (UCC), the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), the American Baptist Churches (ABC), the Disciples of Christ (DoC), and the Episcopal Church USA (ECUSA). Adjunct to the seven sisters would be the Reformed Church in America (RCA). There is another group that we might call the “borderline” churches, e.g., the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC), and the Evangelical Covenant Order (ECO). These denominations are populated largely by congregations that left the mainline PCUSA over issues such as same-sex marriage. We might add to the borderline group the Christian Reformed Church in North America, which seems to be gradually moving toward the RCA. The “sideline” Presbyterian and Reformed churches are mostly those found in the North American Presbyterian and Reformed Council (NAPARC) including the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), Korean Presbyterian Church in America (KPCA), the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC), and Korean-American Presbyterian Church (KAPC), the United Reformed Churches in North America, and the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church (ARP), among others. See the NAPARC site for more information.

Articles

  1. Everett Henes, Schism and the Redeemed Zoomer (series)
  2. R. Scott Clark, Mainline, Sideline, or Borderline?
  3. R. Scott Clark, On Leaving The Mainline: Some Friendly Advice To The Alliance Of Reformed Churches
  4. R. Scott Clark, Is Efficiency A Virtue In The Church?
  5. R. Scott Clark, CRC and RCA: No Reason to Remain Separate?
  6. R. Scott Clark, The Confession Must Not Be A Lost Language For Reformed Pastors
  7. R. Scott Clark, More Thoughts About The PCA: Liberal v Conservative Is The Wrong Paradigm
  8. R. Scott Clark, Machen’s Enemies Then And Now And The Myth Of Influence
  9. R. Sccott Clark, Do Mainlines Renew?
  10. R. Scott Clark, From “Insofar As” To “Good Faith:” The Slope To The Mainline
  11. R. Scott Clark, EPC Moves Toward the Mainline and the Mainline Moves Toward the Drain
  12. R. Scott Clark, More Bad News For The Mainline
  13. R. Scott Clark, Mainline Presbyterians (PCUSA) Continue Decline
  14. R. Scott Clark, Two-Way Traffic on the Presbyterian Mainline
  15. R. Scott Clark, Machen’s Memo to Christians in the Mainline
  16. R. Scott Clark, Mainline Escapades: Union Seminary VA Hosts the You-Know-What Monologues
  17. R. Scott Clark, The Incredible Shrinking Mainline
  18. R. Scott Clark, The PCUSA Continues Its Slide Into Oblivion
  19. R. Scott Clark, The PCUSA: Proudly Dying Since 1936
  20. R. Scott Clark, How Corrupt Is The Mainline?
  21. R. Scott Clark, Whither The PCA?
  22. R. Scott Clark, From “Insofar As” To “Good Faith:” The Slope To The Mainline
  23. Kevin DeYoung, “Lessons From Mainline Decline” | May 2, 2022
  24. R. Scott Clark, When the Borderline and Sideline Converge: Sunday Evenings
  25. R. Scott Clark, Moves in the Borderline Toward Confessionalism or Away?
  26. R. Scott Clark, What Is Your Line In The Sand? (Updated)
  27. R. Scott Clark, The New York Times, Sioux Center, And Calvinism
  28. R. Scott Clark, A Word To The Reconquistadores (Or Why The CRC Is Not The PCUSA) (Part 1)
  29. R. Scott Clark, A Word To The Reconquistadores (Or Why The CRC Is Not The PCUSA) (Part 2)

Quotations

  1. Pervasive Unbelief In The PCUSA
  2. Silencing Dissent In The “Liberal” Mainline
  3. RCA Prof Predicts Demise of the RCA (and the CRC)
  4. RCA Adopts the “Belhar Confession”
  5. The Irony Of The Myth Of Influence
  6. Laura Smit On The Foolishness Of Romantic Dreams About The Mainline

Podcasts

  1. Office Hours: From Mainline to Sideline
  2. Office Hours: Godfrey on the Myth of Influence
  3. Heidelcast: Superfriends Saturday: On Schism & Fidelity: A Reply To Redeemed Zoomer
  4. Heidelminicast: Machen: Are We Schismatics?
  5. Heidelminicast: A Word To The Reconquistadores (Or Why The CRC Is Not The PCUSA) (Part 1)
  6. Heidelminicast: A Word To The Reconquistadores (Or Why The CRC Is Not The PCUSA) (Part 2)

More Resources

  1. Resources On Machen, Christianity, And Liberalism
  2. Resources On The PCA

Select Bibliography

  • Clark, R. Scott. Recovering the Reformed Confession (Phillipsburg: P&R Publishing, 2008).
  • Kelley, Dean M. Why Conservative Churches Are Growing: A Study in Sociology of Religion. [1St ed.]ed. New York: Harper & Row, 1972.
  • Longfield, Bradley J. The Presbyterian Controversy: Fundamentalists, Modernists, and Moderates. Religion in America Series. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991.
  • Finke, Roger, and Rodney Stark. The Churching of America, 1776-1990: Winners and Losers in Our Religious Economy. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 1992.
  • Hart, D. G. The Lost Soul of American Protestantism. American Intellectual Culture. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2002.
  • Marsden, George M. The Twilight of the American Enlightenment: The 1950s and the Crisis of Liberal Belief. New York: Basic Books, 2014.
  • Noll, Mark A. A History of Christianity in the United States and Canada. Grand Rapids, Mich.: W.B. Eerdmans, 1992.

RESOURCES

Heidelberg Reformation Association
1637 E. Valley Parkway #391
Escondido CA 92027
USA
The HRA is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization

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