Land of Hope: An Invitation to the Great American Story

by Wilfred M. McClay

In the Anglo-American world of the eighteenth century, the spirit of Protestantism and the spirit of science were not seen to be in fundamental conflict with one another. Belief in some version of the biblical God and belief in an ordered and knowable universe were not seen as at all incompatible. There was a high degree of tolerance of religious differences, a by-product of the remarkable religious diversity of the colonies. Beliefs easily intersected; Edwards himself had a keen interest in Newton’s new science and saw the orderliness of nature as evidence of God’s masterly design, while Franklin, who tended toward Deism in his own beliefs, was captivated by George Whitefield’s preaching, and by its salutary effects upon his listeners, when the latter came to Philadelphia.