Reviving the Ancient Faith by Richard T. Hughes was published by Abilene Christian University but provides a very balanced and straightforward overview of the history of the Restoration movement from its beginnings to the 21st century. I think the reviews attest to its fairly unbiased approach as it is praised by CoCers and ex-CoCers alike. I really can't recommend it enough.
Why People Believe Weird Things by Michael Shermer, while not specifically about the coC or Christianity, is a great read on, well, exactly what it says.
Michael Shermer was also on an episode of Mr. Deity some years ago and made some interesting points on skepticism and faith. edit: And honestly, go look through the Mr. Deity Youtube channel. It's an interesting, often satirical look at organized religion and the dumb things people do in the name of religion, featuring: Mr Deity (god), Jesus, Lucy (satan), and Larry (god's PA).
I’m so sorry! I (27f, ex-CoC-now non-affiliated pluralist) struggled through mandatory religious classes at an evangelical university for similar reasons. I currently am working on an mdiv at a UCC Seminary and it is wonderfully different!
https://www.amazon.com/Dangerous-Religious-Ideas-Self-Critical-Christianity/dp/080705187X/ref=nodl_ perhaps this book would be supportive along your journey.
Every time this question comes up, I give the same answer: Reviving the Ancient Faith.
Published by Abiline, but it is a simple, straightforward telling of the history of the Restoration Movement, from its beginnings to the 20th century. Praised by coc-ers and ex-cocers alike.
That looks interesting.
For a more comprehensive worldwide history, I'll throw in:
Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years
by Diarmaid MacCulloch
https://www.amazon.com/Christianity-First-Three-Thousand-Years-ebook/dp/B0030CVQ5I/
If you are woman I might recommend Pure: Inside the Evangelical Movement That Shamed a Generation of Young Women and How I Broke Free
Not really about the CoC more about mainstream evangelical purity culture but it’s helped me and some others that grew up with toxic views around women’s sexuality.
I have a couple of prayer pieces of advice since I went through something similar:
Reading: When going through something tough, I started reading a couple of psalms every other day or so, and writing it down if it captured the emotions I was feeling.
If you're interested in the history of the CoC, I highly recommend Reviving the Ancient Faith by Richard T. Hughes. It's published by a CoC college, but his telling of the history is honest and straight forward. If you look at the reviews, the book made some people leave the CoC, and it made some people proud to be in the CoC - so it seems like a pretty balanced narrative.
> What is the Discipling Dilemma - a book?
Yep. Basically, back when the ICOC was the Boston movement they brought in external party from the Church of Christ to evaluate their discipling methods. Then of course give recommendations if their findings were harmful. To summarize they gave recent converts surveys that evaluated personality changes after joining the group. To absolutely no surprise, the results compared to highly controlling religious groups like the moonies and scientlogy.
The Boston leaders (including Kip) were given this info along with recommendations to lay off of people. Of course they did the opposite because the movement was growing.
https://www.amazon.com/Churches-Christ-20th-Century-Personal/dp/0817312803
It was interesting years ago when I read it while deeply into the CoC. Plus, there’s a pic of Homer Hailey shirtless, which is unheard of for the CoC 🤣
https://www.amazon.com/Encyclopedia-Stone-Campbell-Movement-Douglas-Foster/dp/0802869750/ref=sr_1_2?crid=12W45JRDN58DW&keywords=encyclopedia+of+the+restoration+movement&qid=1648294981&sprefix=encyclopedia+of+the+restoration+movement%2Caps%2C107&sr=8-2 link to an informative book on amazon
I'm here (REVEAL's Executive Director).
We're actually planning a former member social on Saturday (March 20, 2021) at 3pm EDT / 6pm PDT if you're interested -- announced on a bunch of the facebook groups.
Want the details?
Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/8089910629
This is CASUAL.
No need to turn on your video if you don't want.
We'll keep it to <= 2 hours.
Feel free to drop in / drop out.
No dress code 📷
Meeting ID: 808 991 0629
^^^ The easiest thing is to click the link and download the Zoom app.
One tap mobile
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Meeting ID: 808 991 0629
I mean gems like this: https://www.amazon.com/Straight-Talk-Teens-Randy-Simmons/dp/B009HDU5XI
​
I figured I'd do a chapter-by-chapter sporking
Let me also recommend The Encyclopedia of the Stone-Campbell Movement. It's very useful for checking on names, events, etc as they come up in discussions and putting them in the larger context of the Stone-Campbell Movement (which is much broader than than the narrow sect of NI CoCs I was raised in)
Think this "mainline" CofC author embraced this claim -- too long ago remember details: FW Maddox's The Eternal Kingdom: A History of the Church of Christ (1961).
Is this close enough? https://www.amazon.com/Voices-Concern-Critical-Studies-Christism-ebook/dp/B005QSSREW
I'm told that one of the writers called the COC (decades back) the "lower middle class on the make." I think the passage is supposed to be in that book.