Was America founded as a Christian nation? : a historical introduction / John Fea.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Fea, John, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Christianity and politics--United States--History.

Christianity and politics.

History.

United States--Church history.

United States.

Church history.

Genre:

Church history.

History.

Physical Description:

xxxi, 292 pages : illustrations, portraits ; 23 cm

Edition:

Revised edition.

Place of Publication:

Louisville, Kentucky : Westminster John Knox Press, [2016]

Summary:

John Fea offers a thoroughly researched, evenhanded primer on whether America was founded to be a Christian nation, as many evangelicals assert, or a secular state, as others contend. He approaches the titles question from a historical perspective, helping readers see past the emotional rhetoric of today to the recorded facts of our past. This updated edition reports on the many issues that have arisen in recent years concerning religions place in American society -- including the Supreme Court decision on same-sex marriage, contraception and the Affordable Care Act, and state-level restrictions on abortion -- and demonstrates how they lead us to the question of whether the United States was or is a Christian nation. Fea relates the history of these and other developments, pointing to the underlying questions of national religious identity inherent in each. "We live in a sound-bite culture that makes it difficult to have any sustained dialogue on these historical issues," Fea writes in his preface. "It is easy for those who argue that America is a Christian nation (and those who do not) to appear on radio or television programs, quote from one of the founders or one of the nations founding documents, and sway people to their positions. These kinds of arguments, which can often be contentious, do nothing to help us unravel a very complicated historical puzzle about the relationship between Christianity and America's founding."

Contents:

Introduction: How to think historically

Part 1. The United States is a Christian nation: the history of an idea. Evangelical America, 1789-1865

Evangelicals, liberals, and Christian America, 1865-1925

Christian America in a modern age, 1925-1980

History for the faithful: the contemporary defenders of Christian America

Part 2. Was the American revolution a Christian event? Were the British colonies Christian societies?

Christianity and the coming of the American revolution

The revolutionary pulpit

Nature's God: is the declaration of independence a Christian document?

Religion in the critical period

A "godless constitution"?

Part 3. The religious beliefs of the founders. Did George Washington pray at Valley Forge?

John Adams: devout Unitarian

Thomas Jefferson: follower of Jesus

Benjamin Franklin: ambitious moralist

What about Witherspoon?: three orthodox founders.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

Online version: Fea, John, author. Was America founded as a Christian nation?

ISBN:

9780664262495

066426249X

OCLC:

945072642