Description
Book SynopsisThe role of religion in the founding of America has long been a hotly debated question. Some historians have regarded the faith of a few famous founders, such as Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and Thomas Paine, as evidence that the founders were deists who advocated the strict separation of church and state. Popular Christian polemicists, on the other hand, have attempted to show that virtually all of the founders were orthodox Christians in favor of state support for religion. As the essays in this volume demonstrate, a diverse array of religious traditions informed the political culture of the American founding. Faith and the Founders of the American Republic includes studies both of minority faiths, such as Islam and Judaism, and of major traditions, such as Calvinism. It also includes nuanced analysis of specific founders--Quaker John Dickinson, prominent Baptists Isaac Backus and John Leland, and Federalist Gouverneur Morris, among many others--with attention
Trade ReviewDreisbach and Hall's volume definitely advances the conversation about religion and the founding through widening the scope of topics considered and acknowledging the complexity of the issue. * Religion in American History *
This is a useful and fruitful collection of essays ... * Hermann Wellenreuther, Historischen Zeitschrift *
This is a unique and very interesting volume. There have been many works on the faith of the American founders, but this one is both notably comprehensive and intriguing. Its contents range from deism to Judaism to Calvinism to Islam, from Loyalists to Baptists, from Quakers to Presbyterians, from John Hancock to John Dickinson, from the Bible to race. Much of this work breaks entirely new ground. Kudos to Daniel Dreisbach, Mark David Hall, and their colleagues for a real contribution to the field and for some fascinating reading. * Paul Kengor, Professor of Political Science, Grove City College *
This book does a splendid job of illuminating varieties of American revolutionary and religious experience * Gerald F. Moran, Journal of American History *
Table of ContentsContributors ; Introduction - Daniel L. Dreisbach and Mark David Hall ; PART I: Religion and Political Culture in the American Founding ; Chapter 1 Deism and the Founders - Darren Staloff ; Chapter 2 Vindiciae Contra Tyrannos: The Influence of the Reformed Tradition in the American Founding - Mark David Hall ; Chapter 3 Jews, Judaism, and the American Founding - David G. Dalin ; Chapter 4 The Founders and Islam - Thomas S. Kidd ; Chapter 5 Religion and the Loyalists - Robert M. Calhoon and Ruma Chopra ; Chapter 6 The Antifederalists and Religion - Donald L. Drakeman ; Chapter 7 The Bible in the Political Culture of the American Founding - Daniel L. Dreisbach ; Chapter 8 Religion, Race, and the Founders - Jonathan D. Sassi ; PART II: Faith and the Founders ; Chapter 9 Gouverneur Morris and Theistic Rationalism in the Founding Era - Gregg Frazer ; Chapter 10 John Hancock: Congregationalist Revolutionary - Gary Scott Smith ; Chapter 11 Elias Boudinot, Presbyterians, and the Quest for a "Righteous Republic" - Jonathan Den Hartog ; Chapter 12 The Quaker Contributions of John Dickinson to the Creation of the American Republic - Jane E. Calvert ; Chapter 13 Isaac Backus and John Leland: Baptist Contributions to Religious Liberty in the Founding Era - Joe L. Coker ; Index
