The Myth of a Christian Nation
Background: The Catholic Church
in Renaissance Europe (ca. 1500)
• Led by Pope (Bishop
of Rome)
• Claims to inherit
“power of keys” from
St. Peter
• Church institutional
path to salvation
Background: Control over
Sacraments: Baptism,
Penance/Confession, Eucharist
Background: Established Church
as “the standard”
• Claim to universal
sovereignty over
Christendom
• Popes often
challenge kings and
emperors over worldly
authority
Background: The Protestant
Reformation
• Martin Luther denies
power of Pope &
institutional church
1517
• Bible and faith alone
paths to salvation
• Given by God directly
to believer
Origins: Evangelicalism
• Gospel, good news
• Luther, Die
Evangelische Kirche:
revival of Gospel-era
Christianity
• Ev (or eu, good) +
angelos (messenger)
Background: Luther’s Reforms
• Sees leadership in Catholic Church of his
own day as corrupt and immoral
• Seeks to revive Christianity of biblical
times
• But depends on German rulers for support
and protection
• Lutheran (Evangelical) Church also
established
Background: Church of England
• Henry VIII breaks with
Pope over marriage
annulment 1530s
• Church of England
becomes independent
national established
church with King as
leader
• But not much change
in worship & belief
Background: English Puritanism
• Arises late 16c at
Cambridge Univ.
• Aim at purifying C of
E
• Opposed to RC
theology & worship
• Corrupt, immoral,
uneducated clergy
• General state of
public morals
Massachusetts Bay Colony
• Non-Separating
Puritans
• John Winthrop &
Arbella 1630
• “Errand into the
Wilderness”
The “Pilgrims”
• Separating Puritans
• Sojourn in Holland
• Mayflower arrives
Plymouth 1620
New England Puritanism
• Desire to start anew,
without government
interference
• Like Luther, return to
apostolic Christianity
• Bible only source of
religious truth
• But from beginning
Puritan (Congregational)
churches established
• Intolerant of dissenters
like Roger Williams
Central Practices & Beliefs
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Bible = central authority
Emphasis on preaching
Predestination (John Calvin)
God chooses “saints”
Godly life best evidence of being chosen
Entire society designed to proclaim and
enforce God’s Law
Sense of Divine Purpose
• Images: New Israel,
City set on a Hill
• Reenactment of
Exodus
• Basis for American
sense of mission
Colonial Diversity
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Puritans (Congregationalists) in New England
Anglicans in NY & South
Baptists in RI
Presbyterians & Dutch Reformed in Middle
Colonies
Quakers & Lutherans in PA
Methodists in NY & MD
Catholics in MD & PA
Jews in Atlantic seaboard cities
African Indigenous Religions & Islam throughout
The Great Awakening and Myth of
a Chosen Nation
• 1740s
• Begins in New
England with
Jonathan Edwards
• Revival preaching
• Aimed at emotions
• Response to
perceived decline in
religious fervor
George Whitefield
• English Calvinist
• Spends most of career in
colonies
• “Grand Itinerant”
• Need for personal
conversion experience
• Attack on “parochial
principle”
• Helps shape sense of
common American
identity
Summary: American
Evangelicalism
• Origins partly in New England Puritanism
(Congregationalists)
• Multi-denominational – also Presbyterians, Baptists,
Methodists
• Stress on need for personal conversion
experience
• Authority and centrality of Bible
• “Missionary imperative”: evangelize all
nations
Meanwhile…The Enlightenment
• Late 17th – Early 19th
centuries C.E.
• Core of Enlightenment
thought =
epistemological…
– i.e. how do we know
things to be true?
– Tradition?
– Authority?
– Revelation?
• Observation & REASON!!!
Deism & the Myth of Nature’s
Nation
• Benjamin Franklin
• Thomas Jefferson
• God as clockmaker --- notion of ‘deus otiosus’
• Rejection of supernatural
• Common Sense philosophy (Scotland)
– Thomas Reid --- all humans possess innate “moral
compass”
Question for Discussion
• Reflecting back, why do you think 18th
century evangelicals like Jonathan
Edwards and George Whitefield felt
threatened by the Myth of Nature’s
Nnation?
The Question of Establishment in
the New Nation
• Isaac Backus &
Baptists in MA
• Thomas Jefferson &
other American
philosophes
• Practical convergence
of positions
Result: The First Amendment
Features
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Establishment Clause
Free Exercise Clause
De jure follows de facto pluralism
General terms: actual implications subject
of on-going litigation & court decisions
Consequences and Contexts of 1st
Amendment in New Nation
• Formal separation of Church and State
• Established church no longer possible
• Large percentage of Americans not church
affiliated
• Challenges of expanding frontier in south
and west
• Difficult to continue Puritan quest for
unified Christian society
Evangelical Response: The Second
Great Awakening
• 1790s-1830s
• Possibility of de facto if not de jure
Evangelical hegemony (dominance)
Strategies:
• Revival preaching
• Equation of Ev. Xnty with patriotism
• Opposition to enemies of Church & Nation
• Imposition of Xn morals through voluntary
societies, organization, & lobbying: Benevolent
Empire
Two Leaders: Beecher and Finney
Lyman Beecher in Cincinnati
• 1775-1863
• Congregationalist
from CT
• Revivalist preacher
• Preaches against
liberalism in Boston
• Comes to Cincinnati
as president of Lane
Theological Seminary
Charles Finney in New York
• 1792-1875
• CT lawyer turned
evangelist
• Ordained
Presbyterian but
independent revivalist
The Burned-Over District
• Upstate NY 1820s
• Displaced New Englanders
“New Measures” revivalism
• Anxious bench
• Protracted meeting
Another Strategy: The Benevolent
Empire
• 1820s
• Ca. 2 dozen voluntary
societies
• Goal: evangelism &
moral reform
• Overlapping
membership
• Interdenominational
• Beecher major
organizing force
Causes
• Bible & tract societies
• Home & foreign
missions
• Missions to sailors,
Indians, prostitutes
• Anti-dueling
• Sabbatarianism
• Colonization: Liberia
Challenge
• Competition among
denominations on the
frontier
• New groups such as
Baptists and Methodists
challenging more
established
Congregationalists and
Presbyterians
• Catholics beginning to
make presence felt…
Question for Discussion
• How did American Evangelicals adapt the
myth of a Christian Nation to respond to
the rapid influx of Catholic emigrants in the
19th century?
Strategy: Depict Catholic Church
as Enemy of American Liberty
“A Plea for the West” 1835 – Lyman
Beecher
“It is…clear that the
conflict which is to
decide the destiny of
the West, will be a
conflict of institutions
for the education of
her sons, for
purposes of [Roman
Catholic] superstition,
or evangelical light, of
despotism, or liberty.”
Strategy
• Identification of
Evangelical Protestantism
with American institutions
• Catholic Church now
major enemy of American
institutions
• New theme of Manifest
Destiny: American future
in West, Evangelicals
must provide leadership
20th Century: Retreat &
Reemergence of Evangelicals
• Scopes “Monkey” Trial – 1925
– Creationism?
– Evolutionism?
• Evangelicals withdraw from mainstream society &
politics and form subcultures for @ 50 years
• Reemergence of Evangelicals on the political scene
through Jimmy Carter’s campaign – 1976-1980
• Emergence of the New Religious Right:
– Reagan, Bush & Bush;
– Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell
Summary: Tracing the Contours of
the Myth of a Christian Nation
• American Evangelicals & the First Great Awakening…
• Enlightenment and Deism…
• Second Great Awakening & Benevolent Empire…
• Retreat of Evangelicals from mainstream society from
1925 – 1976…
• Reemergence of Evangelicals/Rise of the New Religious
Right – 1980s-present
19th-21st centuries: Three
Challenges to Christian America
Challenge #1
• Perceived assaults on
Evangelical
Christianity from:
– Darwinian Evolution
– Scopes “Monkey” Trial
– Biblical Criticism
• RESPONSE =
FUNDAMENTALISM
Challenge #2
• Christianity =
– Imperialism/racism
– destruction of the
environment
• Post-Vietnam War
– influx of Asian immigrants;
c.f. Hart-Cellar Act of 1965
• RESPONSE:– Rebuild
Christian Nation
(Robertson- Regent U &
Falwell- Moral Majority)
Challenge #3
• September 11th, 2001
– WTC bombings
• RESPONSE #1:
Interpreting 9/11 in
covenantal terms…
• RESPONSE #2:
Demonization of nonChristians
Parting Questions
How has the myth of a Christian nation endured the variety
of challenges arising throughout the past four centuries?
Have encounters with these challenges altered the myth
itself? How so?
How does the history provided in the article, “Servants of
Allah”, critique the myth of a Christian Nation?
Why aren’t critiques of this myth (such as that provided by
the article: “Servants of Allah”) more widely known,
taught in public schools, or reinforced through mass
media?
A Kitten Brothers Production