The Myth of a Christian Nation

Background: The Catholic Church in Renaissance Europe (ca. 1500)

• Led by Pope (Bishop of Rome)

• Claims to inherit “power of keys” from St. Peter

• Church institutional path to salvation

Background: Control over Sacraments: Baptism,

Penance/Confession, Eucharist

Background: Established Church as “the standard”

• Claim to universal sovereignty over Christendom

• Popes often challenge kings and emperors over worldly authority

Background: The Protestant Reformation

• Martin Luther denies power of Pope & institutional church 1517

• Bible and faith alone paths to salvation

• Given by God directly to believer

Origins: Evangelicalism

• Gospel, good news• Luther, Die

Evangelische Kirche: revival of Gospel-era Christianity

• Ev (or eu, good) + angelos (messenger)

Background: Luther’s Reforms

• Sees leadership in Catholic Church of his own day as corrupt and immoral

• Seeks to revive Christianity of biblical times

• But depends on German rulers for support and protection

• Lutheran (Evangelical) Church also established

Background: Church of England

• Henry VIII breaks with Pope over marriage annulment 1530s

• Church of England becomes independent national established church with King as leader

• But not much change in worship & belief

Background: English Puritanism

• Arises late 16c at Cambridge Univ.

• Aim at purifying C of E

• Opposed to RC theology & worship

• Corrupt, immoral, uneducated clergy

• General state of public morals

Massachusetts Bay Colony

• Non-Separating Puritans

• John Winthrop & Arbella 1630

• “Errand into the Wilderness”

The “Pilgrims”

• Separating Puritans• Sojourn in Holland• Mayflower arrives

Plymouth 1620

New England Puritanism

• Desire to start anew, without government interference

• Like Luther, return to apostolic Christianity

• Bible only source of religious truth

• But from beginning Puritan (Congregational) churches established

• Intolerant of dissenters like Roger Williams

Central Practices & Beliefs

• Bible = central authority

• Emphasis on preaching

• Predestination (John Calvin)

• God chooses “saints”

• Godly life best evidence of being chosen

• Entire society designed to proclaim and enforce God’s Law

Sense of Divine Purpose

• Images: New Israel, City set on a Hill

• Reenactment of Exodus

• Basis for American sense of mission

Colonial Diversity

• Puritans (Congregationalists) in New England• Anglicans in NY & South • Baptists in RI• Presbyterians & Dutch Reformed in Middle

Colonies• Quakers & Lutherans in PA• Methodists in NY & MD• Catholics in MD & PA• Jews in Atlantic seaboard cities• African Indigenous Religions & Islam throughout

The Great Awakening and Myth of a Chosen Nation

• 1740s• Begins in New

England with Jonathan Edwards

• Revival preaching• Aimed at emotions• Response to

perceived decline in religious fervor

George Whitefield

• English Calvinist• Spends most of career in

colonies• “Grand Itinerant”• Need for personal

conversion experience• Attack on “parochial

principle”• Helps shape sense of

common American identity

Summary: American Evangelicalism

• Origins partly in New England Puritanism (Congregationalists)

• Multi-denominational – also Presbyterians, Baptists, Methodists

• Stress on need for personal conversion experience

• Authority and centrality of Bible• “Missionary imperative”: evangelize all

nations

Meanwhile…The Enlightenment

• Late 17th – Early 19th centuries C.E.

• Core of Enlightenment thought = epistemological…– i.e. how do we know

things to be true?– Tradition?

– Authority?

– Revelation?

• Observation & REASON!!!

Deism & the Myth of Nature’s Nation

• Benjamin Franklin• Thomas Jefferson

• God as clockmaker --- notion of ‘deus otiosus’• Rejection of supernatural

• Common Sense philosophy (Scotland)– Thomas Reid --- all humans possess innate “moral

compass”

Question for Discussion

• Reflecting back, why do you think 18th century evangelicals like Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield felt threatened by the Myth of Nature’s Nnation?

The Question of Establishment in the New Nation

• Isaac Backus & Baptists in MA

• Thomas Jefferson &

other American philosophes

• Practical convergence of positions

Result: The First Amendment

Features

• Establishment Clause

• Free Exercise Clause

• De jure follows de facto pluralism

• General terms: actual implications subject of on-going litigation & court decisions

Consequences and Contexts of 1st Amendment in New Nation

• Formal separation of Church and State

• Established church no longer possible

• Large percentage of Americans not church affiliated

• Challenges of expanding frontier in south and west

• Difficult to continue Puritan quest for unified Christian society

Evangelical Response: The Second Great Awakening

• 1790s-1830s• Possibility of de facto if not de jure Evangelical hegemony (dominance)Strategies:• Revival preaching• Equation of Ev. Xnty with patriotism• Opposition to enemies of Church & Nation• Imposition of Xn morals through voluntary

societies, organization, & lobbying: Benevolent Empire

Two Leaders: Beecher and Finney

Lyman Beecher in Cincinnati

• 1775-1863• Congregationalist

from CT• Revivalist preacher• Preaches against

liberalism in Boston• Comes to Cincinnati

as president of Lane Theological Seminary

Charles Finney in New York

• 1792-1875• CT lawyer turned

evangelist• Ordained

Presbyterian but independent revivalist

The Burned-Over District

• Upstate NY 1820s• Displaced New Englanders

“New Measures” revivalism

• Anxious bench• Protracted meeting

Another Strategy: The Benevolent Empire

• 1820s• Ca. 2 dozen voluntary

societies• Goal: evangelism &

moral reform• Overlapping

membership• Interdenominational• Beecher major

organizing force

Causes

• Bible & tract societies• Home & foreign

missions• Missions to sailors,

Indians, prostitutes• Anti-dueling• Sabbatarianism• Colonization: Liberia

Challenge

• Competition among denominations on the frontier

• New groups such as Baptists and Methodists challenging more established Congregationalists and Presbyterians

• Catholics beginning to make presence felt…

Question for Discussion

• How did American Evangelicals adapt the myth of a Christian Nation to respond to the rapid influx of Catholic emigrants in the 19th century?

Strategy: Depict Catholic Church as Enemy of American Liberty

“A Plea for the West” 1835 – Lyman Beecher

“It is…clear that the conflict which is to decide the destiny of the West, will be a conflict of institutions for the education of her sons, for purposes of [Roman Catholic] superstition, or evangelical light, of despotism, or liberty.”

Strategy

• Identification of Evangelical Protestantism with American institutions

• Catholic Church now major enemy of American institutions

• New theme of Manifest Destiny: American future in West, Evangelicals must provide leadership

20th Century: Retreat & Reemergence of Evangelicals

• Scopes “Monkey” Trial – 1925– Creationism?– Evolutionism?

• Evangelicals withdraw from mainstream society & politics and form subcultures for @ 50 years

• Reemergence of Evangelicals on the political scene through Jimmy Carter’s campaign – 1976-1980

• Emergence of the New Religious Right: – Reagan, Bush & Bush; – Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell

Summary: Tracing the Contours of the Myth of a Christian Nation

• American Evangelicals & the First Great Awakening…

• Enlightenment and Deism…

• Second Great Awakening & Benevolent Empire…

• Retreat of Evangelicals from mainstream society from 1925 – 1976…

• Reemergence of Evangelicals/Rise of the New Religious Right – 1980s-present

19th-21st centuries: Three Challenges to Christian America

Challenge #1

• Perceived assaults on Evangelical Christianity from:

– Darwinian Evolution– Scopes “Monkey” Trial– Biblical Criticism

• RESPONSE = FUNDAMENTALISM

Challenge #2

• Christianity =– Imperialism/racism– destruction of the

environment

• Post-Vietnam War – influx of Asian immigrants;

c.f. Hart-Cellar Act of 1965

• RESPONSE:– Rebuild Christian Nation (Robertson- Regent U & Falwell- Moral Majority)

Challenge #3

• September 11th, 2001 – WTC bombings

• RESPONSE #1: Interpreting 9/11 in covenantal terms…

• RESPONSE #2: Demonization of non-Christians

Parting Questions

How has the myth of a Christian nation endured the variety of challenges arising throughout the past four centuries?

Have encounters with these challenges altered the myth itself? How so?

How does the history provided in the article, “Servants of Allah”, critique the myth of a Christian Nation?

Why aren’t critiques of this myth (such as that provided by the article: “Servants of Allah”) more widely known, taught in public schools, or reinforced through mass media?

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