The American Gospel–literally, the good news about America–is that religion shapes our public life without controlling it. In this vivi...
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Jan 27, 2009
Kate
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When I hear the claim that America needs to get back to being a "Christian nation," it makes me uncomfortable, and the reason is that the "gospel" of American public religion and the gospel of true Christianity are two different things. American public religion is based on the "God of Nature" of many of the Founding Fathers; even the Christian ones signed on to a view of the public God of America who is similar to the God of Christianity but does not, at least as fa
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Feb 17, 2008
Skylar
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Jon Meacham appears to take a genuinely moderate approach to his examination of the role of religion in American history. He argues that America was not founded as a Christian nation, but he also declines to classify it as a purely secular nation where religion must be expunged from the public sphere. In clear, concise language, he relates the role religion played in America from the founding of Jamestown to Ronald Reagan, although he is rather sporadic in his approach, often flying through gre
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Aug 23, 2007
Josh
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Don't get me wrong, this book covers all the basic points of American religious history. Meacham does a decent job of telling the important - not just the popular - stories of the American religious experience; however, it is written like a Newsweek feature piece. It uses broad sweeps and makes broad generalizations, supported by the evidence that suits the author. Meacham's thesis is stereotypically Episcopalian: when confronted with a choice, Americans chose the middle. While it is true th
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Jan 06, 2011
Joe
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Though you are likely to find this book shelved in the history section of your local library or book seller, this one is not so much a history as an essay expounding the author's vision of a concept of "public religion" rooted in beliefs first put forward by the Founding Fathers. His is a vision of a broad-minded religiosity with room for all faiths, including the most fundamentalist, but also with room for those with no faith at all. This book is an author's plea for mutual respect
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Apr 19, 2010
Judy
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I have owned this book for about two years and it kept finding its way to the middle of the stack of books waiting to be read. Then it was the selection for a book discussion group, so I pulled it out. Excellent book. Jon Meacham, the managing editor of Newsweek, takes an historical look at religion in the United States, especially the religious beliefs of many of the Founding Fathers to try to discover what place they believed religion should legitimately play in the Revolutionary period and
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Dec 11, 2009
Steven
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This is an interesting reflection on the role of religion in public life and government in the United States. Meacham's basic thesis is that the Founding Fathers "got it right." With respect to Jefferson (sometimes referred to as "Jefferson the atheist" in his own time) (page 4): "Jefferson surveyed and staked out an American middle ground between the ferocity of evangelizing Christians on one side and the contempt for religion of secular philosophes on the other. The ri
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Mar 29, 2009
Todd
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American Gospel looks at the history of religion in the US focusing particularly on the country's founders. The main theme of the book reinforces the fact that the founders never intended the US to be a christian (or any other religious denomination) nation, but that religion has always played a role in public life. He also discusses the idea of a wall of separation between church and state and that it is never perhaps as clear as we might like.
Unfortunately this analysis is not a t More...
Unfortunately this analysis is not a t More...
Nov 06, 2009
Fred
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A little dense but a well-argued book that makes some pretty cases against both extremes of the religion debate in America.
On the one hand its clear that the Founders worked pretty hard to keep religion out of the defining documents of our country. They were incredibly tolerant and pluralistic by any standards in history, and were by and large more concerned with shrewd politics than they were worried about which God was on America's side.
That said, we're not an atheist nat More...
On the one hand its clear that the Founders worked pretty hard to keep religion out of the defining documents of our country. They were incredibly tolerant and pluralistic by any standards in history, and were by and large more concerned with shrewd politics than they were worried about which God was on America's side.
That said, we're not an atheist nat More...
Dec 17, 2009
Gwynne
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This was one of the worse histories of religion and politics that I've read (and I have a lot to go on). The narrative meandered, evidence was unconvincing, and the argument was somewhat tortured. If you're interested in the subject, you're better off with books on religion and God that deal with specific periods.
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Jan 24, 2009
Cynthia Karl
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So often one hears "we need to return to the faith of our Founding Fathers" or words to that effect. This book is well worth reading to remind us that the Founding Fathers were a diverse group of men who wisely refrained from overt references to a particular religion - the Constitution does not mention a creator or god at all; the Declaration refers to a creator but there is no mention of Christ. (I did not know that there were Jewish people in the US as early as the 17th century.) I l
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Feb 17, 2010
Jay
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The book's value is summarized in a quote from the author, "Democracy is easy, rpublicanism is hard. Democracy is fueled by passion; republicanism is founded on moderation." Moderation can feel less fulfilling to many of us, but it also leads to more endurance.
The Founding Fathers (Jefferson and Madison principally) wisely thought of the checks and balances on a system in order to neither promote any one religion nor exclude any religion or set of beliefs. And while the nat More...
The Founding Fathers (Jefferson and Madison principally) wisely thought of the checks and balances on a system in order to neither promote any one religion nor exclude any religion or set of beliefs. And while the nat More...
Aug 07, 2011
Bank
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The separation of church and state is explored throughout American history , starting with the Work of Jefferson , Franklin , John Adams , and others who were there at the beginning and continues through 200+ years of Supreme Court decisions , political movements , etc. For some reason , I thought I understood the reasons and origins of this part of the Constitution ; and I must confess I had some prejudices ( Webster : pre judgments ) post 9/11 as to what it should mean . With all that said, t
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Mar 26, 2010
Nicole
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This is an examination of our Founding Fathers and their religious views and how those views influenced what became the U.S.; the way they designed our government. The FF knew that the U.S. began with religious INtolerance - especially the Puritans - and understood that religious governance was despotic. Because of that knowledge, they chose to separate government and religion. They appreciated religion in public life, but created a secular government. After that information, the book wanders th
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Dec 31, 2008
Emily
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Neil and I listened to this on the way home for the Holidays. It was boring. And I disagree wtih Meacham's thesis that American's (including the founding fathers) want to have a generic God who will be there when we need Him and will "bless America", but will not be specific enough to endorse a state church. I am "religious", but think that with the plurailty of relgious and agnostics in the US, a secular approach would be better. But besides my disagreement with his thesis,
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Jul 08, 2011
Magila
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this book is very well written. now, i listened to it and thus tuned some pieces of it out, but it moved at a reasonable clip. the author appears to have done a good amount of research and compiled the book in a fairly logical (mostly chronological) fashion.
i can't say i agree with everything, but it's worth a read. and thought provoking. one of the most entertaining subplots is that the author, through mostly just presenting facts, depicts the highly religious of these days as somewh More...
i can't say i agree with everything, but it's worth a read. and thought provoking. one of the most entertaining subplots is that the author, through mostly just presenting facts, depicts the highly religious of these days as somewh More...
Sep 01, 2010
Judy
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I found this a little difficult(one reviewer said dense, and I agree) to read but am glad I did and believe more people should read the book. It's always better to get your information from source documents and not popular culture entertainment figures.
The United States was was meant by the founders to be a nation of religious tolerance, end of story.
My favorite passage: "Will you drive from your shores and from the shelter of your constitution all who do not lay the More...
The United States was was meant by the founders to be a nation of religious tolerance, end of story.
My favorite passage: "Will you drive from your shores and from the shelter of your constitution all who do not lay the More...
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Jul 27, 2011
Michael
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Interesting book about the role of religion and faith in the founding fathers view of the creation of the constitution and its democratic institutions. Argues that while Christian belief was a bedrock for almost all the founders, that they did not intend for the country to be a "Christian Democracy" as some have claimed. Instead, the book argues, the founders completely understood and bought into the idea that religious freedom and diversity must be maintained for the country to achiev
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Nov 25, 2010
marcus
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Found this to be interesting but for some reason it was slow going. Meacham argues America's founders recognized the value of religion and the importance of religious values in establishing a new country,but at the same time realized if the new country was to survive it would have to be tolerant of different religious beliefs. Rather than create state support for one set of doctrines, Meacham documents how Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, Madison and others set about creating a new religion, w
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Oct 15, 2011
John
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Especially in recent years the faiths of the U.S.’s Founding Fathers has been a topic of controversy. In the rather dumb debate where people figure anyone you like agreeing with them will thus make them right, George Washington and Ben Franklin are hot commodities. Here, journalist Jon Meacham weighs in with copious quotations from journals, speeches, letters, legislation, public record and first-hand accounts to pin down exactly what some of America’s most important figures believed, running fr
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Jun 01, 2011
Telly
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I "liked it" (three stars) because of the historical content, but I was also a little let down. I thought the book would focus more on the late 18th and early 19th centuries and how the founding fathers grappled with religion and religious institutions in the early stages of the country. It does do that, but it also moves forward to cover every administration of significance up through Reagan. By the time you reach the mid-20th century, things move so fast that it's almost as if you
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Aug 14, 2010
Linda
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Author Jon Meacham attempts to “put the storms of the present in perspective—that we, in our time, could draw lessons from recalling how the Founding Fathers and more than two centuries of American presidents understood the delicate, sometimes corrosive, sometimes corrective connection between faith and politics.”
Meacham explores how beliefs in God shaped framing of our Constitution. “The American gospel is that religion shapes the life of the nation without strangling it.”
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Meacham explores how beliefs in God shaped framing of our Constitution. “The American gospel is that religion shapes the life of the nation without strangling it.”
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Jun 13, 2009
Cindy
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The basic idea of the book is that religious freedom has always been important in the history of America. The Founding Fathers did not want to eliminate God, or Providence as they often referred to him, completely from public life, but that they felt it best to leave the matter as open as possible, so that each person could define that Providence however they wished. They also designed the Constitution and the Republic to make it more difficult for minorities to control the whole, but also so th
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Jan 26, 2008
Debbie
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Jon Meacham's thesis is that "the great good news about America—the American gospel, if you will—is that religion shapes the life of the nation without strangling it." He stresses that there is a "sensible center" that has held a balance through the years--a consensus about the good that comes from commonly held values, and an awareness of the dangers of forcing any one religious viewpoint on others. I enjoyed reading the various examples Meacham used, from the writings of Je
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Sep 12, 2007
Nathan
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American Gospel is a unique study of the strange intellectual balancing act between religion and politics that has gone on in America since the founding of the nation. For some time, a batlte has waged between those who say religion has no place in government or society and those who say the United States was founded as a Christian nation. The thoughtful, well-researched book makes the case that neither extreme of thought on this issue is correct. It shows how many of our founding fathers, while
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Aug 04, 2011
I really enjoyed this book. It not only covers the founding of the United States, but touches on relion in American public life from before the founding up until the present. It doesn't advocate a side in the debate on separation of church and state, just documents the history. Neither side will be totally pleased by the book. He makes a good case that the US never was and was never meant to be a Christian nation, but that throughout our history politicians have openly talked about an "ecum
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Dec 05, 2008
Stephen
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Interesting quotes and tidbits, but poorly organized. The main argument could have been made in two pages or less. Even though I agree with him, it was a boring read. Then again, whenever I see politicians like South Carolina's Jim Demint make statements that suggest that our nation has a Christian, specifically an evangelical, heritage, I want to send them this book. The author hasn't provided a perfect counter-argument, but even the handful of interesting quotes in the book should be enough
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Jun 09, 2011
Mitchell
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Excellent synopsis of the Founding Fathers' views of religion and the ongoing struggle to balance religion with secular society. It's also an excellent reminder that much of what we debate today is not really new. From the beginning many Americans did not think America was "Christian" enough. Strangely, Meacham's discussion of recent presidents and faith fell a little short because he focused entirely on Republicans. No mention at all of Jimmy Carter?
Mar 11, 2009
Barry
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We seem to be emerging from a tense period of intolerance of diverse points of view, finally. Mr. Meacham's book was published during the peak of the Right Wing Christian movement's incorrect assertions that America was founded as a Christian nation. Without histrionics, he quotes the Founding Fathers, who both wrote and spoke against intolerance and for the need to respect the different faiths of our fellow citizens.
Sep 20, 2011
Barbara
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When I was recently reading another book--I believe it was American Grace--this book was mentioned, and I remembered that I had the book. I found it right on top of a stack of books. I had read it almost 5 years ago so wanted to read it again. Loved it--even more this second time around--and will probably read it again. This author is a favorite. I highly recommend this book!
Apr 23, 2011
Mary
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American Gospel traces the historical foundations for maintaining "God" in America's public life. Meacham defines the Founding Fathers' philosophy as Public Religion. The author states public religion is based on an ecumenical faith that includes individual rights, a sense of duty and morality. This "faith of our fathers" was preserve by presidents, even invoking scriptures in their speeches It was the same faith called upon by Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War and Ge
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