The Seeds of Secularization: Calvinism, Culture, and Pluralism in America, 1870-1915

by Gary Scott Smith

Book by Smith, Gary Scott

Paperback

First published February 1, 1985

About the author

Gary Scott Smith chaired the History Department and coordinated the Humanities Core at Grove City College where he taught from 1978 to 2017. His specialty is American religious history, and he is an avid sports fan. In 2001, he was named Pennsylvania Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education. He is the author or editor of nineteen books. His books include Faith and the Presidency: From George Washington to George W. Bush (Oxford University Press, 2006), Heaven in the American Imagination (Oxford University Press, 2011), Religion in the Oval Office: The Religious Lives of American Presidents (Oxford University Press, 2015), Suffer the Children: What We Can Do to Improve the Lives of the World’s Impoverished Children (Cascade Books, 2017), and religious biographies of Winston Churchill, Mark Twain, Jackie Robinson, and Hillary Clinton. His most recent book is The Greatest of All-Time: Fifteen Fantastic Athletes. Smith is also an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA). He served five congregations as an interim or stated supply pastor and is currently a parish associate at Saint Andrews-Covenant Presbyterian Church in Wilmington, North Carolina.

Reviews

[Sean Rhoades · Rating 3 out of 5]

His equivocation of Reformed and Calvinist is flawed. The same terms and used interchangeably throughout book and then there is talk of Southern and Northern Presbyterians as if they are neither.

That being said the final chapter is a great summary of the arguments of the book and I think he’s right - failure of Christian’s to push for pluralism has led secularists to secular even harder.