ABSTRACT
The United States has always had a very rich religious history, and the twentieth century saw a parallel enrichment of its journal literature. This flowering of the periodical press did not proceed on an even pace. When World War II ended, most urban and suburban Americans, particularly in the upper Midwest and on either coast, were either members of one of several well-established and somewhat distinct Protestant groups or were Roman Catholics. (Rural Americans, white Southerners, and African Americans had a somewhat greater variety of smaller Protestant denominations, in addition.) The only sizeable group of non-Christians was Jews. Publications reflected this compartmentalized social order. They concerned a specific denomination, and were written by and for its members. New, nationally circulated religious journals did arise intermittently, but not from new religions, or even from religions new to America. Rather, they tended to come from smaller religious groups long resident in the United States whose membership and finances had finally achieved sufficient critical mass to support a periodical published on a regular basis. Publications for the Greek Orthodox community were a typical example.
