Faith of the Founders (My Review of John Fea in the Christian Century)
Paul Harvey
I was very happy that the Christian Century asked me to review John Fea's Was America Founded as a Christian Nation: A Historical Introduction -- and even more glad they gave me relatively ample space (over 1200 words anyway, better than the average review) to develop some thoughts on John's book. The review is here. Here is an excerpt, and then continue at the jump:
Faith of the founders
Was America founded as a Christian nation? No, is John Fea's answer to the question posed in his title. But the answer is yes if we consider how Americans (especially from 1789 to 1865) understood themselves as a Christian nation. And then again, maybe it's just a bad question, Fea concludes, because it arises not from a rich understanding of the past but from present-day polemics. Only when we remove it from that context can we begin to make sense of it.
Comments
I reveal my own answer to the "Was America Founded as a Christian Nation?" during the Fea interview.
By the way, we also thanked your website at the beginning of our current podcast with Karrie Koesel on house churches in China.
Tony Gill
www (dot) researchonreligion (dot) org
We follow Fea's interview with Mark David Hall on July 4. Hall looks at the Calvinist (Reformed) influence on the Founders, with specific reference to Roger Sherman, and comes to a different conclusion than Fea. The two podcasts make for a good debate.
BTW, we also mentioned your blog at the beginning of our podcast with Karrie Koesel this week. She talks about Chinese house churches.
Tony Gill
www (dot) researchonreligion (dot) org