Read more
Reclaiming Our Roots, the most inclusive church history textbook on the market today, pays special attention to such matters as Christianity in the southern hemisphere, Eastern Orthodoxy, the church among minority cultures in North America, and the role of women in church history. It includes not just names, dates, and events in church history, but also sophisticated theological analyses of the issues that have made history, making it useable as a text for both history of Christian thought as well as introduction to church history courses.
Readers are exposed to a variety of credible, scholarly interpretations of issues, events, and major figures, and encouraged to make their own judgments based upon the evidence and with the help of suggested primary source readings. Leading questions that open doors for group discussion and individual reflection on the core issues follow each section.
About the author
Mark Ellingsen is a recently retired professor at the largest historic Black seminary in the nation, the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta. With a Yale Ph.D., he has taught there for over 3 decades after extensive international experience as a theological and social-ethical researcher and as a liaison for interdenominational relations. The son of Norwegian immigrants, Ellingsen is the author of 28 books and hundreds of articles, many dealing with political and social issues on topics like how the Christian view of Original Sin is crucial to our Constitutional system, how the various religious bodies address social issues, and how white Christianity came to be associated with Republican politics. He has also written on abortion as well as gay rights and faith. Most recently, he co-authored a book on racism with a young Civil Rights leader who knows the political ropes (a former student) titled "Wired For Racism? How Evolution and Faith Move Us to Challenge Racial Idolatry," showing us how the combination of faith, insights drawn from the Theory of Evolution, and best practices in dealing with racism advocated by the leading Civil Rights organizations might challenge white hegemony. This book establishes his expertise in dealing with Civil Rights issues. With his rich background, radio and TV channels have called on Ellingsen often over the years to comment on topics related to this book and other subjects. In view of his background and years of study and teaching on the subjects of this book along with his immersion in Black realities, who else but a scholar of Ellingsen's breadth and rich inter-cultural experience could write an effective volume like this one to clarify for the public a lot of the myths about Critical Race Theory? Ellingsen recently relocated to South Carolina in retirement, but during his years in Metro Atlanta he resided in Cobb County, the district served by Newt Gingrich and the bastion of the State's resistance to Critical Race Theory, he lives and works with both sides on this explosive issue, knows how to communicate and be fair to both Right and Left.
