Search for Christian America

Rating:
Summary: For every American Christian, and every Christian American:
Review: A fascinating look at the truly history of Christianity and the American state. The authors present a very well-researched treatise on how our nation has never been a Christian nation- both because such a nation is impossible, and because we have never been truly a Christian people. But the authors don't present there case too extremely- they strongly promote and welcome the idea of America having been influenced substantially by Christians and Christian thinking. Of particular interest was the chapter on the American Rebellion and Revolution, in which they point out only four of the founding fathers- John Jay, John Witherspoon, Roger Sherman, and Patrick Henry- were what we would consider evangelical today, and even they were not putting Christ first in their theology at all times. The vast majority of the rest were of course Deist.

Though these ideas may seem radical to some readers, Noll et.al. presents a great deal of evidence to back up the work, including references to more scholarly work on the their part and a very helpful and informative bibliographic essay at the end. The text is designed for the general public, so is not cluttered with difficult theological or political concepts, or copious notes.

After reading this, I found I could not consider myself "proud to be an American". Not that America is evil. Noll et.al. show clearly that there is a bit of God and a bit of satan in American history and culture, as there is in every society. But the clear presentation of how far America has been from the ideals of the gospel, and how often this gets covered up, was astounding. I am pround of the good parts- the God parts. But, if I once could, I can not now look at the history any longer and see it as something specially greater than that of other histories and other nations.

Rating:
Summary: De-myths the Golden Age of American Christianity
Review: I remember my seminary class on the History of American Christianity and the professor stating that the fundamentalist view that American was founded and needs to return to her Christian roots is fraught with significant historical errors made me ponder who was telling the truth here?

When I asked him for help, he did the right thing: said, go and look at the evidence yourself: primary historical documents. Giving me some good ones, I soon discovered that not all what the fundies have been telling is the story. Things taken out of context, paraphrased, others overlooked paints an unrealistic, unhistorical view of what they say is "the golden age of American Christianity."

These three prominent Christian historians in this book give great summary of this historical evidence in this book. What harm is done you ask? This book so aptly demonstrates that this distorts our dialogue over current public issues by incorrectly presenting American history.

They carefully expound the dangers of treating the naturalistic ideals of the founders on par with Scipture and likewise a lack of discernment between God's people and worldly culture.

This book is a short, precise and articulate presentation against the overdramatization of our founding history which zealouts then use to bully both those inside and outside the faith for Godly purposes. Higly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: A potentially great book diminished by flawed reasoning
Review: I was given this book by a friend who wanted to convince me that America was not a "Christian Nation." The book failed to do so, but not because it was not well written or scholarly in its approach to the subject. In fact, the research is excellent, and the book deals very fairly with the influence of religion in the early nation. The problem is that the authors' conclusions are based upon certain assumptions that I dispute, and that they fail to prove are legitimate in the first place. They claim that we are not a Christian nation because there is no biblical evidence that God planned a "new Israel" in America. I agree. But they have no way to prove or disprove that the faith and prayer of our forebears actually brought God's blessing upon this continent in a real and direct sense. It did not have to be prophesied to be a reality. Many of God's great works were never foretold.

They also claim that doctrinal impurity in many churches prevent this from being a Christian nation. That might be so if this were an actual theocracy, but that isn't what's under consideration here. We're talking about the general principles of law and civil government. Were they, or were they not founded in keeping with general Biblical principles? Of course they were. The actual doctrinal views of the founders is unimportant.

The authors argue that the majority of Americans have never been Christians. That is also irrelevant. According to II Chronicles, God doesn't demand that a whole nation turn to Him in order to receive His blessing - He only commands His people (as many or as few as that may be) to remain faithful, and the whole land will be blessed. And God's Word is replete with stories of His mighty works through a faithful few, in spite of overwhelming odds, and in spite of the disdain of the "majority."

But finally, the authors contend that it was never actually the intent of the founders to establish a "Christian Nation." Wrong. It was not their intent to establish a theocracy, but it was clearly their intent to establish a nation upon Christian principles. That fact has even been recognized by the Supreme Court (Vidal v. Girard's Executors, U.S. v. Church of the Holy Trinity).

The problem is clearly with how you define "Christian nation." The authors seem to define it as a Christian theocracy, and as such spend an entire book refuting a point that very few would argue in the first place.