American heretics : religious adversaries of liberal order / Jerome E. Copulsky.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Copulsky, Jerome E. (Jerome Eric), author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Reformed Presbytery of North America--History.

Reformed Presbytery of North America.

Reformed Presbytery of North America--Doctrines.

Christianity and politics--United States--History.

Christianity and politics.

Christian conservatism--United States.

Christian conservatism.

Church and state--United States--History.

Church and state.

Democracy--Religious aspects--Christianity.

Democracy.

Religious right--United States.

Religious right.

American loyalists.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (380 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Other Title:

Religious adversaries of liberal order

Place of Publication:

New Haven : Yale University Press, 2024.

Summary:

A penetrating account of the religious critics of American liberalism, pluralism, and democracy—from the Revolution until today “A chilling consideration of persistent mutations of American thought still threatening our pluralist democracy.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review) The conversation about the proper role of religion in American public life often revolves around what kind of polity the Founders of the United States envisioned. Advocates of a “Christian America” claim that the Framers intended a nation whose political values and institutions were shaped by Christianity; secularists argue that they designed an enlightened republic where church and state were kept separate. Both sides appeal to the Founding to justify their beliefs about the kind of nation the United States was meant to be or should become. In this book, Jerome E. Copulsky complicates this ongoing public argument by examining a collection of thinkers who, on religious grounds, considered the nation’s political ideas illegitimate, its institutions flawed, and its church-state arrangement defective. Beholden to visions of cosmic order and social hierarchy, rejecting the increasing pluralism and secularism of American society, they predicted the collapse of an unrighteous nation and the emergence of a new Christian commonwealth in its stead. By engaging their challenges and interpreting their visions we can better appreciate the perennial temptations of religious illiberalism—as well as the virtues and fragilities of America’s liberal democracy.

Contents:

Introduction

1. Those Licentious Principles of the Times: The Loyalist Churchmen

2. We Cannot Yield Obedience, for Conscience Sake: The Covenanters

3. An Excrescence on the Tree of Our Liberty: The Proslavery Theologians

4. The Crowning, Original Sin of the Nation: The Religious Amendment Movements

5. A Derailment of the Christian Political Tradition: The Confessional Tribe

6. The Constitution Cannot Save This Country: The Theonomists

7. A Mistake with Lasting Consequences: Postliberals and National Conservatives

Conclusion.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

9780300277203

0300277202

OCLC:

1453915083