Customer Reviews

Prodigal Nation: Moral Decline and Divine Punishment from New England to 9/11

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Historians of American religion have been fascinated for decades by a distinctive American rhetorical genre they have come to call the "jeremiad." Both as a guide to earlier scholarship and as a valuable addition to that scholarship in its own right, Andrew Murphy's Prodigal Nation is a welcome contribution to an always relevant and ongoing discussion. Extending from the New England colonies to 9/11, the chapters include a nice balance between historical case studies and thematic essays exploring the content and social function of the jeremiad. Murphy identifies an overarching structure to sermons in the genre, which sustains a tension between the threat of punishment for national sin and a simultaneous hope for the future significance of a nation uniquely chosen by God to benefit the world. Corresponding to despair and hope are what Murphy calls the internal critique---which contrasts national sins with a virtuous founding past as a basis for the call to repentance---and the external critique---which focuses more broadly on the place of the nation in God's plans for human history. Written in jargon-free, readable prose, this book will be enjoyable for anyone interested in the religious overtones of American national identity.

I always hope that when i'm reading a book about two alternatives, in this case the traditional and progressive jeremiads, the author may reach the book's finish line not favoring one over the other. But my hermeneutic of suspicion kicked in to gear, and sure 'nuff, the book's last 4 pages put Murphy squarely into the progressive camp.

I should have seen it coming. First of all, trotting out the usual suspect bogeymen villians, Fallwell, Robertson, Bennett and Buchanan. Then, i was also surprised that the 2nd half of the book, when you count in chapter 4 as better belonging to part 2, is longer than the first, historical half. The author implies, several times, but does not explicitly say, that the progressive jeremiahs favor the advancement of blacks and women, then ergo the traditional jeremiahs don't. Non-sequitor. Tired chlicheic argument.

In essence the book is a brief for the so-called living constitution; strict constructionists, original meaning folks should just crawl back into their caves.

If we don't base ourselves on the Constitution as amended pro women and blacks, and the Judaeo-Christian tradition which lies behind it and from it for approximately 130 years, it will not be the USA anymore. It will be Anothercountry. Anothercountry may be better than the USA, just be honest and upfront about the radical change. But just be sure that when you throw out the good parts of the tradition, you don't settle for pie in the sky non existent alleged benefits.