A God-shaped nation : five hundred years of religion in America / Brook Wilensky-Lanford.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wilensky-Lanford, Brook, 1977- Author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

United States--Religion.

United States.

United States--Church history.

Genre:

Informational works.

Physical Description:

viii, 647 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Edition:

First edition.

First Grove Atlantic hardcover edition

Place of Publication:

New York : Atlantic Monthly Press, an imprint of Grove Atlantic, [2026]

Summary:

"Ever since conquistadores claimed Taino land in the name of their Catholic God and New England Puritans formed their strictly Protestant 'city on a hill,' religion has been central to American life. Even as some found religious freedom -- Rhode Island welcomed the Quakers, Jews, and Baptists that Massachusetts expelled as dissenters -- indigenous people and Africans forced into slavery struggled to protect their religious practices. With the constitutional separation of church and state, it fell to the American people to decide: would they sharpen religion's formidable powers of division, or reimagine its creative possibilities? In A God-Shaped Nation, Brook Wilensky-Lanford follows this essential American tension from first contact through the 2025 inauguration. It is a story of defiance: Anne Hutchinson, preaching against Puritan clergy; Reform rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise serving soft-shell crab to his kosher guests; the Paiute man Wovoka envisioning the Ghost Dance movement in the face of violent government repression. It is also a story of community: Millerites waiting together in vain for Jesus's return on a rainy October night in 1844; Chinese immigrants bringing Daoist and Buddhist gods to their California temples; Mormons pushing westward to build their 'new Zion' in Utah. And in the last fifty years, it has been a story of muscular political power, as the religious right has sought both to shape the present and to paint the past in its own image. At this moment, when religion appears to shape even the most secular aspects of American life, understanding its complex history is more essential than ever. 'It is in history that the very human work of religion happens,' Wilensky-Lanford shows us, 'and in ordinary time that even the most carved-in-stone tenets can and do change.'"-- Book jacket flaps.

Contents:

Establishment, 1492-1789

Freedom, 1789-1865

Awakening, 1865-1929

Dominion, 1930-1980

Morals, 1980-2025.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

Online version Wilensky-Lanford, Brook, 1977- God-shaped nation

ISBN:

9780802167347

0802167349

OCLC:

1535602771