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From State church to pluralism: a Protestant interpretation of religion in American history

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This book was first published in 1961. It describes the religious situation of the United States as Littell saw it then. He was very much troubled about 'Protestant nativism' a kind of view that a certain kind of Protestanism was the original and pure form of American religion, and that it belonged to the society as a whole. Littell denies this claim and points to a colonial America far less formally religious than it is today. He too is concerned that a more genuine kind of religious connection apply rather than the 'cultural religiousness' of nativism.

Littrell champions an America in which Protestants, Catholics, and Jews each in their own way develop their own religious institutions and promote authentic religious faith.

Reading this work today forty - five years later I could not help being struck by how the whole tone of discourse, and in fact 'religious street' has changed in this time. Littell writes with civility and understanding of others.

An Evangelical himself I wonder what he would make of the increasing influence of Evangelicals on American politics. I also wonder what he would make of the entrance of other religions into the American mix in a more prominent way, primarily Islam.