Description
Book SynopsisTrade Review"[
An Age of Infidels] offers anyone curious about the vexed relationship between American religion and politics a compelling explanation of how that relationship became established." *
Journal of the Early Republic *
"[Schlereth] has lucidly described the strategies and practices through which early Americans sought to bring religious convictions, Christians and deist, to bear on politics and culture." *
American Historical Review *
"Fresh and insightful. . . . [
An Age of Infidels] should remain required reading on church-state relations, and religion in the early republic, for quite some time." *
Journal of Church and State *
"In this important study of deism and free enquiry in the early United States, Eric Schlereth shows how religious "infidelity," whose specter had once terrified Americans, became a living, breathing-and not altogether terrifying-reality. Both broad in conception and judicious in its use of evidence, Schlereth's rigorous account of infidelity and religious controversy offers an exciting and original interpretation of early American cultural politics." * Chris Beneke, Bentley University *
Table of ContentsIntroduction. Remaking Religion
Chapter 1. Boundaries
Chapter 2. America's Deist Future
Chapter 3. Citizen Deists
Chapter 4. Partisan Religious Truths
Chapter 5. America's Deist Past
Chapter 6. Free Enquiry
Chapter 7. Political Religion, Political Irreligion
Epilogue. The Origins of American Cultural Politics
Notes
Index
Acknowledgments
