Customer Reviews

The Search for Christian America

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This very interesting book is aimed at evangelical Christians but can be read profitably by individuals of any faith, including those who lack religous faith. The 3 authors are all distinguished historians of American religion and also committed evangelical Christians. The goal of this polemic is to rebut ideas popular among evangelicals that the USA was founded as "Christian Nation," that our founding documents are extensions of biblical scripture, and that there has been a recent falling away of the USA from its Christian past. While this book was written approximately 20 years ago, these ideas continue to be popular. As conservative evangelicals have assumed a larger role in political life, there are increasing attempts to move these ideas out of the conservative evangelical Christian community. Some of the proponents of these ideas quoted in this book, like Tim LaHaye and Jerry Falwell, will be familiar from their contemporary roles in political life. Others, like James Dobson, have attained prominence more recently, but espouse doctrines essentially identical to the ones discussed in Search for Christian America.
Noll, Hatch, and Marsden base their critique on two planks. One is simply that the "Christian Nation" version of American history, particularly the early history of the republic, is wrong. Reflecting a large volume of outstanding scholarship, including some produced by the authors, Noll, Hatch, and Marsden, emphasize the relatively modest role that explicitly Christian thought had in the founding of the republic. Indeed, as they point out, some of the most explicitly Christian features of the Revolutionary period, such as Protestant anti-Catholic bigotry, are some of the least attractive features of this period of American life.
The second plank of this critique is theological in nature. The authors produce a cogent set of warnings about indiscriminate entangling of Christianity with nationalism and uncritical patriotism. They argue well that such entanglements can be detrimental to correct Christian action. As they stress, this criticism is hardly novel, indeed, some of the argument is based on the writings of notable American Protestant leaders like Roger Williams, Isaac Backus, Jonathan Edwards,and Samuel Hopkins. Noll, Hatch, and Marsden are not arguing that evangelical Christians should withdraw from public life or that religously motivated concerns are illegitimate in public life. Quite the opposite, but they stress that such action should be based on truthful understanding of American history and rigorous theological thinking.
This short book is written clearly, referenced well, and is backed by the impressive knowledge of the authors. Its a pity its not read more widely.

This book is a necessary edition for the Christian seeking a balanced, objective view of American history. The authors firmly establish Christianity's influence in the past without sentimentalizing or idolizing it, yet pay due (and accurate) respect to where Christianity and Christians have influenced history and may continue to influence American society.

The book has held up well since its initial 1980s publication, but recent events cry out for an updated edition.

A fascinating look at the truly history of Christianity and the American state. The authors present a very well-researched treatise on how our nation has never been a Christian nation- both because such a nation is impossible, and because we have never been truly a Christian people. But the authors don't present there case too extremely- they strongly promote and welcome the idea of America having been influenced substantially by Christians and Christian thinking. Of particular interest was the chapter on the American Rebellion and Revolution, in which they point out only four of the founding fathers- John Jay, John Witherspoon, Roger Sherman, and Patrick Henry- were what we would consider evangelical today, and even they were not putting Christ first in their theology at all times. The vast majority of the rest were of course Deist.

Though these ideas may seem radical to some readers, Noll et.al. presents a great deal of evidence to back up the work, including references to more scholarly work on the their part and a very helpful and informative bibliographic essay at the end. The text is designed for the general public, so is not cluttered with difficult theological or political concepts, or copious notes.

After reading this, I found I could not consider myself "proud to be an American". Not that America is evil. Noll et.al. show clearly that there is a bit of God and a bit of satan in American history and culture, as there is in every society. But the clear presentation of how far America has been from the ideals of the gospel, and how often this gets covered up, was astounding. I am proud of the good parts- the God parts. But, if I once could, I can not now look at the history any longer and see it as something specially greater than that of other histories and other nations.

I remember my seminary class on the History of American Christianity and the professor stating that the fundamentalist view that American was founded and needs to return to her Christian roots is fraught with significant historical errors made me ponder who was telling the truth here?

When I asked him for help, he did the right thing: said, go and look at the evidence yourself: primary historical documents. Giving me some good ones, I soon discovered that not all what the fundies have been telling is the story. Things taken out of context, paraphrased, others overlooked paints an unrealistic, unhistorical view of what they say is "the golden age of American Christianity."

These three prominent Christian historians in this book give great summary of this historical evidence in this book. What harm is done you ask? This book so aptly demonstrates that this distorts our dialogue over current public issues by incorrectly presenting American history.

They carefully expound the dangers of treating the naturalistic ideals of the founders on par with Scipture and likewise a lack of discernment between God's people and worldly culture.

This book is a short, precise and articulate presentation against the overdramatization of our founding history which zealouts then use to bully both those inside and outside the faith for Godly purposes. Higly recommended.

I get frustrated every time I talk to a fellow evangelical who has uncritically bought into the mythology that America was founded as a "Christian Nation" by "Christian Founding Fathers." It's not their fault... many Christian leaders have made it their life's work to perpetuate this myth...
* People like Jerry Falwell and his "Liberty Alliance" which claims that if we examine the Declaration of Independence, we will "discover that our Founding Fathers believed in four basic Christian tenets."
* People like D. James Kennedy and his "Center for Reclaiming America" which provides "non-partisan, non-denominational information, training, and support to all those interested in positively affecting the culture and renewing the vision of our Founding Fathers, as expressed in America's founding documents."
* People like James Dobson who, on his radio show and his appearances on cable talk shows, talks about "the Founding Fathers' Judeo-Christian beliefs."
* People like David Barton and his "Wallbuilders" which stresses "America's Godly Heritage."
* People like Richard Lee, editor of The American Patriot's Bible published by Thomas Nelson Publishers.

Well, the evidence is very contrary. Anyone who wants to know the facts can easily find them in this book, The Search for Christian America by Mark A. Noll, Nathan O. Hatch and George M. Marsden. Noll, Hatch, and Marsden are recognized as evangelicalism's finest historians. In 2005, Time magazine named Noll one of America's 25 most influential evangelicals; he just moved from Wheaton College to replace the retiring Marsden at Notre Dame (Marsden had previously taught at Calvin College). Hatch is President and Professor of History at Wake Forest University.

They write,
"There were, to be sure, a few founding fathers who affirmed the cardinal tenets of orthodox Christianity: John Witherspoon, Patrick Henry--an evangelical Anglican, John Jay--co-author of the Federalist Papers and the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and, like Henry, an Anglican of decidedly evangelical sentiments. Most of the early leaders, however, did not share the Christian convictions of Henry and Jay. The God of the founding fathers was a benevolent deity, not far removed from the God of the eighteenth-century Deists or nineteenth century Unitarians...They were not, in any traditional sense, Christian. What historian Daniel Boorstin, now Librarian of Congress, once wrote about Jefferson and his friends applies to most of the founders: they had found in God what they most admired in men."

"Does it really matter if people hold to this mistaken view that America is, or was, or could become a truly Christian nation? Yes, it does matter. It matters because, if we are going to respond effectively to relativistic secularism, then we need to base our response upon reality rather than error. This is not to deny the positive influence that Christianity has indeed had upon the American way of life. Rather, it is to take it all the more seriously so that we may respond to it all the more effectively."

Anything by any of these authors is always informative and well-researched. The only caveat I have about this book is that, published in 1989, it seems to be a trifle too defensive against conservative US Christians who identify very strongly with the US message of constitutional liberty. Conservative American Christians can sometimes be excessive, but most of them are not chauvinistic zealots.

Excellent Book. Noll, Hatch, and Marsden (all are Evangelicals) thoroughly dispel the myth that America was ever a "Christian" nation. They also dip into a little theology to show that Israel had a unique national covenant with God and nowhere in the New Testament do we see this with any other nation.

Taken from page 24:
"In the first place, we must agree with Roger Willaims that no nation since the coming of Christ has been uniquely God's chosen people."

This concept of the "chosenness" of America has been used to justified the wholesale slaughter of the Native Americans and the enslavement of black Africans. Noll, Marsden and Hatch point out that some of the most vocal men in support of the Revolution against the tyranny of Britain owned slaves. A very hypocritical stance indeed.

Recommended for every Christian in America, especially those that are still in the camp that believes that America was a uniquely Christian nation.

I was given this book by a friend who wanted to convince me that America was not a "Christian Nation." The book failed to do so, but not because it was not well written or scholarly in its approach to the subject. In fact, the research is excellent, and the book deals very fairly with the influence of religion in the early nation. The problem is that the authors' conclusions are based upon certain assumptions that I dispute, and that they fail to prove are legitimate in the first place. They claim that we are not a Christian nation because there is no biblical evidence that God planned a "new Israel" in America. I agree. But they have no way to prove or disprove that the faith and prayer of our forebears actually brought God's blessing upon this continent in a real and direct sense. It did not have to be prophesied to be a reality. Many of God's great works were never foretold.

They also claim that doctrinal impurity in many churches prevent this from being a Christian nation. That might be so if this were an actual theocracy, but that isn't what's under consideration here. We're talking about the general principles of law and civil government. Were they, or were they not founded in keeping with general Biblical principles? Of course they were. The actual doctrinal views of the founders is unimportant.

The authors argue that the majority of Americans have never been Christians. That is also irrelevant. According to II Chronicles, God doesn't demand that a whole nation turn to Him in order to receive His blessing - He only commands His people (as many or as few as that may be) to remain faithful, and the whole land will be blessed. And God's Word is replete with stories of His mighty works through a faithful few, in spite of overwhelming odds, and in spite of the disdain of the "majority."

But finally, the authors contend that it was never actually the intent of the founders to establish a "Christian Nation." Wrong. It was not their intent to establish a theocracy, but it was clearly their intent to establish a nation upon Christian principles. That fact has even been recognized by the Supreme Court (Vidal v. Girard's Executors, U.S. v. Church of the Holy Trinity).

The problem is clearly with how you define "Christian nation." The authors seem to define it as a Christian theocracy, and as such spend an entire book refuting a point that very few would argue in the first place.