Back to the future: Why the Sunday school is key to denominational identity and growth 1

Abstract

This article is an historical and sociological analysis of the rise of the Sunday school movement, the “Southern Baptization” of that movement, and its growth and subsequent decline. Two related points are central to the argument: (a) the irony of the movement’s evolution from nondenominational Protestantism to Southern Baptist denominationalism to nondenominational evangelicalism; and (b) in a context of social and economic transformations that undermine not only the roots of the movement’s growth but also compromise its attendant fruits, the Sunday school’s continued importance for the religious socialization of successive generations. From the late eighteenth to the mid-twentieth century, denominationalism meant identity and growth, and the Sunday school drove both, first in Great Britain and later in the United States. The decline of the Sunday school for adults and then for children led to the erosion of denominationalism, especially from the 1960s onward. Research suggests that parental involvement in a religious tradition, children’s simultaneous age-graded religious education, and worship together (still) promote religious identity and assure continued church involvement across the lifespan. So what can be done?