New Wine in Old Wineskins: Evangelicals and Liberals in a Small-Town Church [Paperback]

R. Stephen Warner (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 10, 1990 | ISBN-10: 0520072049 | ISBN-13: 978-0520072046

Exploring the roots of resurgent evangelicalism in the United States, Stephen Warner tells the story of one small-town church from 1959 to 1982, the Presbyterian Church of Mendocino, California. This book chronicles the actions of the men and women who struggled with and against one another to shape their church.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Congregations are not transformed mysteriously; change comes about as moods shift, as leaders and groups mobilize and contend with one another for power and influence. . . . Few studies in American religion have described how such changes come about with as much insight and sensitivity as this study does. Sociologists interested in how institutions generally adapt to changing circumstances can learn from it." -- Wade Clark Roof, Contemporary Sociology

"The conduct of this study, its analysis, and the way it is described make it an exemplary sociological work." -- Nancy T. Ammerman, American Journal of Sociology

"This is an important contribution, demonstrating the rapidly improving quality of responsible scholarship studying American religious life. . . . The author's personal feelings show through vividly alongside his demonstration of the mastery of the scholarship of sociology of religion." -- Erling Jorstad, Journal of American History

"Warner's book is a major achievement, and it deserves a wide readership." -- Joel Carpenter, Christianity Today

About the Author

R. Stephen Warner is Professor of Sociology at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Product Details

• Paperback: 367 pages
• Publisher: University of California Press (September 10, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0520072049
• ISBN-13: 978-0520072046
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,573,718 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars classic on change in small town churches., July 5, 2011

By 

suburban dissident - See all my reviews

This review is from: New Wine in Old Wineskins: Evangelicals and Liberals in a Small-Town Church (Paperback)

Warner's ethnographic account of change in a small town church is a classic of religious social scientific scholarship. With extensive data drawn from archives and years of interviews and participant observation, Warner chronicles the unlikely transformation of a small church from conservative to liberal and back again. Warner's grassroots view of social changes captures, as well as any, how structural change and the actions of individuals work together to create certain social outcomes. More specifically, Warner engages with and explicates how it is that religion not only did not die off in the 1960s and 1970s, but rather experienced resurgence in a number of places and ways.

Warner's description is both thick and thoughtful, providing rich analysis and an exemplary model for similar research into religious change at the local level.

And of course, Wineskins is a reminder that if you get too close to your work you might end up marrying the organist.