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A City Upon a Hill: How Sermons Changed the Course of American History

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Have sermons really changed the course of American history? That is the thesis Larry Witham attempts to prove in this book.

It is a fascinating study as he moves the reader from colonial times through the 20th century. In less than 300 pages, the author justly encapsulates sermonic trends from Robert Hunt, proclaimed as Jamestown's "good pastor" by Captain John Smith, to Martin Luther King, Jr. and Jerry Falwell. Each defining period of American history is marked by new preachers and their new messages. The question is; did the sermons change the culture, or did the culture change the messages? Who influenced whom?

Witham attempts to make the case that the sermons influenced culture enough to induce change. I was struck with the opposite impression. Other than the period extending from the colonial Puritans to the Great Awakening, each preacher cited seemed to either be responding to or a product of the zeitgeist.

Revolutionary preachers fomented the masses as America prepared to gain independence from England. Preachers used their pulpits to equate America's western frontier with the Old Testament Promised Land during the days of Manifest Destiny. Preachers from the North and the South preached conflicting messages of abolition and justification of slavery. The industrial age, sweat shops and urban squalor saw pulpits proclaiming the social gospel and movements for civic change. Wartime brought with it patriotic preaching while peacetime saw the prosperity gospel being proclaimed.

Despite the author's attempt to the contrary, I see each as an example of preachers being carried away with the spirit of the age. Rather than influencing culture, each was driven by the circumstances around them.

As a pastor, I recommend this book, not as a way to point out how influential the pulpit can be--but to remind us of how influential the world can be on our preaching. The fact remains that the Word of God, illumined by the Spirit of God is the only instrument that can truly impact history in the right way. As preachers, we fall into a trap when we use the pulpit to influence politics, drive movements and direct societal change. This book unintentionally illustrates that when those things become our focus, we are swept along with the cursed world in which we live.

The solution is to stay focused on the type of preaching in which our earliest American forefathers specialized. That is not to say our sermons should be two hours long and have 20 or more points, but they can have the basic puritanical traits.

Witham lists those traits in his first chapter as he quotes The Art of Prophesying, by English Puritan William Perkins.

1. To read the Text distinctly out of the canonical Scripture
2. To give the sense and understanding of it being read by the Scripture itself
3. To collect a few and profitable points of doctrine out of the natural sense
4. To apply (if he have the gift) the doctrine rightly collected to the manners of men in a simple and plain speech

With the Text as guide and primary interpreter, the preacher can resist the temptation to be swept away in the zeitgeist. As he is faithful to resist, his sermons will truly change the course of history--eternally, if not temporally.

I thought this would be a anthology of American preaching, but it is much more than that. It is an engaging and very readable history of the Christianity in the United States. I wish I had had it in seminary!

The sermon has shaped America's religious foundations and has always served as points of debate, so A CITY UPON A HILL: HOW THE SERMON CHANGED THE COURSE OF AMERICAN HISTORY examines not just religious history but an intrinsic part of American culture. History's most powerful sermons are examined in a survey that reveals how they are linked to important events in American history. By using the sermon as a foundation for analysis, A CITY UPON A HILL reveals the political, philosophical and military changes affecting both church and state, making it a top for both spirituality and historical libraries alike.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

Is preaching outdated?

Should we do away with sermons?

Should we respond to the postmodern aversion to authority figures by softening the authoritativeness presupposed by a pastor proclaiming the Word of God week to week?

My answer to each of the above questions is a resounding "NO." Indeed, we cannot answer "yes" to the above questions because the New Testament strongly emphasizes the public exposition and proclamation of the Word. Preaching styles differ from culture to culture, but the common thread in virtually all Christian circles is the public proclamation of the Word.

But there are other reasons that point to the importance of preaching. Several of these reasons are very lucidly described in Larry Witham's A City Upon a Hill: How Sermons Changed the Course of American History (New York: HarperOne, 2007). In A City Upon a Hill, Witham guides the reader through a history of the United States through the lens of American preaching.

A City Upon a Hill does not separate the history of preaching from the history of the United States, as if these two tracks run parallel to one another; Witham shows how preaching creates culture and how culture influences preaching. Sermons influenced American historical events. But American culture also influenced sermons.

Witham describes four beliefs that characterize American-styled preaching:

1. American chosenness.

He sees the Calvinistic individual dimension of chosenness spreading to the entire country, even in its secular counterparts ("Manifest Destiny," our national mission, the American Way of Life, American interest, etc.). Americans believe that our country has a special relationship with God.

2. Comfort.

Throughout American history, sermons have fueled the optimistic spirit of the United States. During times of national suffering, sermons have provided comfort. During times of national progress, sermons have often justified greed and indifference.

3. Challenge.

American sermons have often scolded people into better behavior, attacking individual sin as well as unjust social structures. Sermons that challenge the audience are important because they preserve liberty and order.

4. Belief in Good and Evil.

Each of the above themes has made an impact on American history because of the prevailing notion of "good" versus "evil" that exists in the American consciousness. Sometimes, Americans adopt these terms too simplisticly, but they retain them nonetheless because they are pragmatically helpful.

Witham's work deserves to be consulted by those of us who have the responsibility of preaching today. His narrative helps us understand the importance of preaching. It also helps us see how culture has always formed preaching and vice versa. The Timeline at the beginning of the book, which puts historical events together with sermon events is particularly eye-opening.

If you enjoy American history or enjoy American preaching, chances are you will enjoy A City Upon a Hill.

Witham wrote a history, a good history, of how sermons changed the course of American History. The book is readable and has many tales that will serve as cautions for any godly preacher. Yet I marvel that Witham was able to write nearly 300 pages and never even consider the possibility that God has used preaching in America. He sees that sermons have had an impact, but does not (or will not?) consider whether God was indeed behind some of the preaching.

You need not be a minister to enjoy this book. It is a history book. Witham takes us from Colonial days into modern times. He explains the historical background of the time each preacher is functioning, and explains changes in society's thinking that that preacher might have accomplished. I learned, for instance, that popular Catholic radio and television preacher Fulton Sheen helped to pave the way for a nominal Catholic president in 1960.

I was mostly pleased with the author's inclusions. Naturally the preachers who affected changes in our society are the ones who are best remembered, and he discussed most of them. I thought the long-running Missouri Synod Lutheran television drama, This Is the Life, might have been mentioned. An excellent program, it pioneered the genre of morality-based dramas. I also would have included Dr. D. James Kennedy. He was a well-accomplished Christian apologist with a pioneering preaching style, and was not afraid to tackle all the controversial issues.

The author went into greater depth with some of his subjects than he did others. Although he wrote of Solomon Stoddard, Jonathan Edwards, and Timothy Dwight, he did not mention the blood relationship of the three, which I thought would have been significant.

Witham presented each preacher without any sugarcoating. He covered doctrinal deviations and idiosyncrasies as well as orthodoxy. He reveals Baptist preacher Harry Emerson Fosdick's aversion to preaching Bible history. He hints at Aimee Semple McPherson's sexual escapades. On the other hand, he wisely avoids any discussion of the moral failings of more modern evangelists, who probably did nothing to change America's history anyway. William Sloane Coffin, Jr., is presented, with views on our nation's alleged arrogance that seem to anticipate a certain modern President.

The lives of the subjects of this book overlap in such a way that the reader sees their relationships and their cooperation or its lack as they labor to transform America. As has been stated, it is a concise book. But that is not a fault. Enough is said that the author's thesis is well documented and explained. Anything more would require separate biographies.