Lippy, Charles H. 1943-

(Charles Howard Lippy)

PERSONAL: Born December 2, 1943, in Binghamton, NY; son of Charles Augustus (an engineer) and Natalie (a homemaker) Lippy. Education: Dickinson College, B.A. (magna cum laude), 1965; Union Theological Seminary, M.Div. (magna cum laude), 1968; Princeton University, M.A., 1970, Ph.D., 1972. Politics: Democrat. Religion: United Methodist.

ADDRESSES: Home—Chattanooga, TN. Office—Department of Philosophy and Religion, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, 615 McCallie Ave., Chattanooga, TN 37403.

CAREER: Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH, assistant professor of religion, 1972-74; Miami University, Oxford, OH, visiting assistant professor of religion and American studies, 1974-75; West Virginia Wesleyan College, Buckhannon, assistant professor of Bible, religion, and humanities, 1975-76; Clemson University, Clemson, SC, assistant professor, 1976-80, associate professor, 1980-85, professor of religion, 1985-94, professor of history, 1985-88, acting head of department, 1988-89, director of Program in Philosophy and Religion, 1987-88; University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, Chattanooga, LeRoy A. Martin Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies, 1994-2008. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, visiting scholar 1984; Emory University, visiting professor, 1990-91, visiting research scholar, 2000-01; Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary, member of advisory council of Center for Religion in the South, 1990-95. Southeastern Commission for the Study of Religion, member of executive board, 1988-92, chair, 1991-92. Clemson School of Continuing Education for Clergy, director, 1981-86; Clemson Congregations in Touch, president, 1986-87, member of executive committee, 1989-90, director of Lay Academy, 1990; AID Upstate, member of board of directors, 1988-90, 1991-94, president, 1989; Anderson-Pickens-Oconee AIDS Task Force, convenor, 1990-94; Southeast Tennessee Ryan White AIDS Care Consortium, member, 1996-2007, vice chair, 2001-02, cochair, 2002-07; Alpha Chi Rho Educational Foundation, member of board of trustees, 1987-2000; Chattanooga Cares, member 2001-08, chair, 2005-07.

MEMBER: American Academy of Religion (vice president of Southeastern Region, 1989-90; regional president, 1990-91), American Society of Church History, American Studies Association, Organization of American Historians, College Fraternity Editors Association (member of board of directors, 1981-87; vice president, 1984-85; president, 1985-86), South Carolina Academy of Religion (vice president, 1980-81; president, 1981-82), Chattanooga Regional Historical Association, Phi Beta Kappa, Omicron Delta Kappa, Pi Gamma Mu, Pi Delta Epsilon, Alpha Psi Omega, Phi Mu Alpha, Alpha Chi Rho (national editor, 1975-87; national chaplain, 1976-87; national vice president, 1985-87; national president, 1987-89), Clemson Faculty Forum Club (vice president, 1986-87; president, 1987-88, 1993-94), Clemson Bridge Club (president, 1980, 1988), Chattanooga Duplicate Bridge Club.

AWARDS, HONORS: Grants from National Endowment for the Humanities, 1975, 1978, 1983, and 1986; A Bibliography of Religion in the South was cited as an outstanding academic book of 1987 by Choice; Fulbright fellow in India, 1988; Encyclopedia of the American Religious Experience was cited as an outstanding reference work for 1988 by American Library Association; Twentieth-Century Shapers of American Popular Religion was named an outstanding academic book of 1989 by Choice; Louisville Institute Summer Stipend, 1998.

WRITINGS:

Seasonable Revolutionary: The Mind of Charles Chauncy, Nelson-Hall (Chicago, IL), 1981.

A Bibliography of Religion in the South, Mercer University Press (Macon, GA), 1985.

(Editor and contributor) Religious Periodicals of the United States: Academic and Scholarly Journals, Greenwood Press (Westport, CT), 1986.

(Editor, with Peter W. Williams, and contributor) Encyclopedia of the American Religious Experience, three volumes, Scribner (New York, NY), 1988.

(Editor and contributor) Twentieth-Century Shapers of American Popular Religion, Greenwood Press (Westport, CT), 1989.

The Christadelphians in North America, Edwin Mellen (Lewiston, NY), 1989.

(With Robert Choquette and Stafford Poole) Christianity Comes to the Americas, 1492-1776, Paragon House (New York, NY), 1992.

Religion in South Carolina, University of South Carolina Press (Columbia, SC), 1993.

Being Religious, American Style: A History of Popular Religion in the United States, Greenwood Press (Westport, CT), 1994.

(Editor, with P. Mark Fackler) Popular Religious Magazines of the United States, Greenwood Press (Westport, CT), 1995.

Modern American Popular Religion: A Critical Assessment and Annotated Bibliography, Greenwood Press (Westport, CT), 1996.

(With Robert H. Krapohl) The Evangelicals: A Historical, Thematic, and Biographical Guide, Greenwood Press (Westport, CT), 1999.

Pluralism Comes of Age: American Religious Culture in the Twentieth Century, M.E. Sharpe (Armonk, NY), 2000.

(Editor, with John L. Topolewski and Nancy E. To-polewski) Where Rivers Run and Mountains Rise: Essays in Celebration of the Sesquicentennial of the Wyoming Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church, M.A. Publishing (Mobile, AL), 2002.

(Editor, with Samuel S. Hill) Encyclopedia of Religion in the South, 2nd edition, Mercer University Press (Macon, GA), 2005.

Do Real Men Pray? Images of the Christian Man and Male Spirituality in White Protestant America, University of Tennessee Press (Knoxville, TN), 2005.

(Editor and contributor) Faith in America: Changes, Challenges, New Directions, Volume 1: Organized Religion Today, Volume 2: Religious Issues Today, Volume 3: Personal Spirituality Today, Praeger (Westport, CT), 2006.

Work represented in anthologies, including The Apocalyptic Vision in America: Interdisciplinary Essays in Myth and Culture, edited by Louis P. Zamora, Bowling Green University (Bowling Green, OH), 1982; and Notes and Sketches from along the Susquehanna, edited by John Goodell and John L. Topolewski, Academy Books (Rutland, VT), 1984. Contributor to periodicals, including Magazine of History, Journal of Church and State, Eighteenth-Century Life, Theology Today, Religion in Life, and Journal of Popular Culture.

SIDELIGHTS: Charles H. Lippy has won critical praise for his work on the history and contemporary status of religion in the United States. In Being Religious, American Style: A History of Popular Religion in the United States, he uses religious periodicals, novels, diaries, tracts, and other materials to illustrate how ordinary American people have approached religion, principally in the twentieth century. His focus is on private life rather than institutions and public worship. In Modern American Popular Religion: A Critical Assessment and Annotated Bibliography, he provides sources for the study of popular religion and modern religious life. Included are sections on evangelicalism and fundamentalism, media ministries, and the religious aspects of self-help and recovery programs.

With The Evangelicals: A Historical, Thematic, and Biographical Guide, Lippy and coauthor Robert H. Krapohl illuminate various aspects of American religious life by heightening awareness of the country’s evangelical heritage. Pentecostalism, Revivalism, Charismatics, and Fundamentalism are all explored, with an analysis of the people, instructions, and culture of each.

Lippy demonstrates the enriching qualities of religious diversity in Pluralism Comes of Age: American Religious Culture in the Twentieth Century. With a historical account of American religious life in all its forms, he “displays the wide and wild diversity of American religious expression,” commented Steve Young in a Library Journal review. While observing that more personal accounts would have been beneficial to the text, Young nevertheless deemed the book “useful as a general overview and guide to the literature of the field,” and wished it were “twice as long.” Booklist reviewer Steven Schroeder advised that Pluralism Comes of Age is “an accessible introduction to religious diversity in the U.S.”

In Faith in America: Changes, Challenges, New Directions, Lippy collects more than 900 pages of essays on the influence of religion in daily life. The collection covers a broad range of topics related to many varieties of Christianity as it has been practiced in the United States over recent decades. The first volume looks at the ways in which organized religion has changed in response to changes in population demographics, social and political trends, and increased tolerance among some groups for alternative outlooks on traditional subjects. The second volume addresses the issues that have prompted many of these changes, ranging from the effect of tourism and leisure activities on religious practices to the threat (or promise) of scientific exploration and alternative lifestyles on people’s beliefs. Contributors to the third volume discuss how some people have turned away from traditional organized religion in a personal journey toward spirituality that is unique to the individual, using alternative tools such as novels, films, and the Internet, among others. L. Kriz wrote in Library Journal that Lippy and his colleagues “certainly make readers aware of the enormous role religion plays in our society,” presenting their vision of the unfolding drama that is religion in America.”

Lippy once told CA: “I hope my work has increased awareness of the subtle and delicate interaction of religion and other cultural forces.”

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Reference Books Annual, 1997, review of Modern American Popular Religion: A Critical Assessment and Annotated Bibliography, p. 533.

American Studies International, October, 1996, review of Encyclopedia of the American Religious Experience, p. 9.

Americas: Quarterly Review of Inter-American Cultural History, July, 1993, review of Christianity Comes to the Americas, 1492-1776, p. 124.

Booklist, September 1, 1995, review of Popular Religious Magazines of the United States, p. 109; June 1, 2000, Steven Schroeder, review of Pluralism Comes of Age: American Religious Culture in the Twentieth Century, p. 1804.

Catholic Historical Review, July, 1998, review of Being Religious, American Style: A History of Popular Religion in the United States, p. 575.

Choice, March, 1995, review of Being Religious, American Style, p. 1140; September, 1996, review of Modern American Popular Religion, p. 102.

Church History, September, 1995, review of Religion in South Carolina, p. 529; review of Being Religious, American Style, p. 548; September, 1997, review of Modern American Popular Religion, p. 680.

Historian, winter, 1993, review of Christianity Comes to the Americas, 1492-1776, p. 394.

Internet Bookwatch, May, 2006, review of Encyclopedia of Religion in the South.

Interpretation: Journal of Bible History, July, 1996, review of Being Religious, American Style, p. 333.

Journal of American History, March, 1993, review of Christianity Comes to the Americas, 1492-1776, p. 1573.

Journal of Popular Culture, fall, 1994, review of Being Religious, American Style, p. 223.

Journal of Southern History, February, 1995, review of Religion in South Carolina, p. 190.

Library Journal, August, 1994, review of Being Religious, American Style, p. 92; August, 2000, Steve Young, review of Pluralism Comes of Age, p. 112; December 1, 2006, L. Kriz, review of Faith in America: Changes, Challenges, New Directions, p. 130.

Reference and Research Book News, June, 1996, review of Modern American Popular Religion, p. 5; February, 2006, review of Encyclopedia of Religion in the South; February, 2007, review of Faith in America.

Religious Studies Review, January, 1997, review of Christianity Comes to the Americas, 1492-1776, p. 91, review of Being Religious, American Style, p. 93.