Evangelical Christianity in America and Its Significance for Evangelical Christianity in Germany

The first impressions on a German visitor are disturbing and confusing, because he is here confronted by a tremendous multiplicity of churches and sects. The many divisions in Protestantism are due in part to the various historical backgrounds and to the diversity of languages formerly used in their church services. Furthermore, the tendency toward individualism and independence, particularly strong among the pioneers, was an important factor in producing many separate church bodies. That human interests, bigotry, and pharisaism contributed toward the formation of sects is not to be denied. American evangelical Christianity is in no sense of the word homogeneous