One Nation Under God: Christian Faith and Political Action in America

by Mark A. Noll

Examines the interaction of religion and politics throughout American history, including during the drafting of the Constitution and the battle against slavery, and urges christians to become more politically involved

211 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 1988

About the author

Mark A. Noll (born 1946), Francis A. McAnaney Professor of History at the University of Notre Dame, is a progressive evangelical Christian scholar. In 2005, Noll was named by Time Magazine as one of the twenty-five most influential evangelicals in America. Noll is a prolific author and many of his books have earned considerable acclaim within the academic community. The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind , a book about the anti-intellectual tendencies within the American evangelical movement, was featured in a cover story in the popular American literary and cultural magazine, Atlantic Monthly. He was awarded a National Humanities Medal in the Oval Office by President George W. Bush in 2006.

Reviews

[Hank Pharis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I very much enjoyed this book. I actually liked it better than his History of Christianity in the United States and Canada which we are using for the class I am teaching. Noll basically traces the history of the relationship between the church and politics in U.S. history.

He makes numerous insightful, and sometimes surprising, observations. For example, "The role of Christianity in the process that led to the Constitution is something of a puzzle. On the one hand, Christian rhetoric and organized political action by Christians were largely absent, at least by comparison with the great amount of overt Christian attention to the war with Britain. On the other hand, it is much easier to show the compatability of basic Christian convictions with the Constitution than with the drive for independence. In addition, the governmental structure established by the Constitution seems to have provided an environment in which Christian belief and practice flourished, again in contrast to the Revolutionary period, when Christian political action led to the subversion of the faith itself." (68)

"When Christian involvement was intense - during the Revolution - Christianity suffered. When Christian involvement was much less intense - during the writing of the Constitution - the results were better for the faith." (72)

Especially interesting were Noll's chapters on Christians relationship to slavery and prohibition.

[Dan Gorman · Rating 3 out of 5]

A well written account of Christianity's positive and negative influences on America. Noll rejects the Religious Right's argument that God has specially blessed the American people, or that the U.S. is an explicitly Christian nation, while showing the legitimate influences of Christianity on the country's story. I found that the theological and historical chapters didn't fit together well, but I still found reading the book a thoughtful exercise.