In Search of the City on a Hill: The Making and Unmaking of an American Myth

by Richard M. Gamble

In Search of the City on a Hill challenges the widespread assumption that Americans have always used this potent metaphor to define their national identity. It demonstrates that America's 'redeemer myth' owes more to nineteenth- and twentieth-century reinventions of the Puritans than to the colonists' own conceptions of divine election.

It reconstructs the complete story of 'the city on a hill' from its Puritan origins to the present day for the first time. From John Winthrop's 1630 'Model of Christian Charity' and the history books of the nineteenth century to the metaphor's sudden prominence in the 1960s and Reagan's skillful incorporation of it into his rhetoric in the 80s, 'the city on a hill' has had a complex this history reveals much about received notions of American exceptionalism, America's identity as a Christian nation, and the impact of America's civil religion.

The conclusion considers the current status of 'the city on a hill' and summarizes what this story of national myth eclipsing biblical metaphor teaches us about the evolution of America's identity.

Genres: History, Religion

224 pages, Hardcover

First published August 2, 2012

Reviews

[Maya Joelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Confusion between the 'things of Caesar' and the 'things of God' threatens the integrity of both realms. It elevates the secular government beyond its calling and capacity and robs the church of an essential part of its integrity.

Excellent historical research, fascinating findings, and a compelling narrative voice. I read this in two days and enjoyed it very much.

[The American Conservative]

'American exceptionalism is a bipartisan phenomenon, and in modern America its most potent expression is the “city on a hill,” a biblical image employed by John Winthrop in “A Model of Christian Charity,” the lay sermon he composed in 1630 on his way to New England. In fact, so iconic has that image become that Americans no doubt assume it has been invoked and appealed to in an unbroken tradition from its 17th-century drafting down to the present day.

Historian Richard Gamble, in his new book, In Search of the City on a Hill, finds the truth to be quite different. He traces the history of that Winthrop sermon from its composition aboard the Arbella—there is no evidence Winthrop actually delivered the sermon, it turns out, as opposed to merely writing it—all the way down to John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, and Sarah Palin.

In so doing, he found it was the proverbial story of the dog that did not bark."

Read the full review, "Whose City? Which Hill?" on our website:
http://www.theamericanconservative.co...

[Miles Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating history of an idea.

[Flynn Evans · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this work, Gamble offers an essential contribution to understanding the morphology of American civil religion by tracing the reception history of John Winthrop's "Model of Christian Charity" according to his hearkening to Christ's call to the church to be a "a city set on a hill" (Matt. 5:14). He reveals that this metaphor, though given a broader application to the collective whole of Winthrop's envisioned Puritan commonwealth rather than the church alone in his own exegesis, was not notable to either historians or American public figures until the scholarship of Perry Miller and the rhetoric of John F. Kennedy of the twentieth century infused it with greater civic significance. However, it was Ronald Reagan who appropriated it for maximal impact as far as it concerned his recounting of the origin story of American exceptionalism, giving rise to its retroactive preeminence today. As a result, Gamble contends both for conceiving of Winthrop and the Puritan errand in America on its own terms as well as reclaiming the metaphor for the church it originally belonged to. This study is superb in showcasing history's true purpose in scholarship: rightly interpreting the past instead of redefining it for our own purposes in the present. Thus, it is equal parts a call to sounder historiography for Americans regarding our political and cultural identity and a more faithful hermeneutic for Christians concerning our own respectively in the twenty-first century.

[Jordan J. Andlovec · Rating 4 out of 5]

A clear-eyed and level-headed historical assessment of America’s favorite phrase about itself that isn’t actually about itself. Richard Gamble is able to cut through all the political posturing to show how Americans have used this idea, rather than how this idea has shaped America (spoiler alert: it hasn’t).

Of particular value is the second and third chapters on the Puritan hermeneutic and political theology and the final chapter urging American Christians to not be duped into letting Jesus’ words get co-opted by Caesar.

[Persis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Review forthcoming. Suffice it to say that this is a very important book on the danger of appropriating a biblical metaphor for the church by politicians for their country. Civil religion can be an idolatrous substitute for true religion.