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Religion in American Politics: A Short History
The delegates to the 1787 Constitutional Convention blocked the establishment of Christianity as a national religion. But they could not keep religion out of American politics. From the election of 1800, when Federalist clergymen charged that deist Thomas Jefferson was unfit to lead a "Christian nation," to today, when some Democrats want to embrace the so-called Religious Left in order to compete with the Republicans and the Religious Right, religion has always been part of American politics. In Religion in American Politics, Frank Lambert tells the fascinating story of the uneasy relations between religion and politics from the founding to the twenty-first century. Lambert examines how antebellum Protestant unity was challenged by sectionalism as both North and South invoked religious justification; how Andrew Carnegie's "Gospel of Wealth" competed with the anticapitalist "Social Gospel" during postwar industrialization; how the civil rights movement was perhaps the most effective religious intervention in politics in American history; and how the alliance between the Republican Party and the Religious Right has, in many ways, realized the founders' fears of religious-political electoral coalitions. In these and other cases, Lambert shows that religion became sectarian and partisan whenever it entered the political fray, and that religious agendas have always mixed with nonreligious ones. Religion in American Politics brings rare historical perspective and insight to a subject that was just as important--and controversial--in 1776 as it is today.
301 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 28, 2008
12 people are currently reading
207 people want to read
About the author
Franklin T. Lambert
11 books6 followersFranklin T. Lambert is a professor of history at Purdue University, Indiana, United States. He received his PhD from Northwestern University, Illinois, in 1990 and has special interests in American Colonial and Revolutionary Era history. Before earning his PhD he was also a punter for the Pittsburgh Steelers from 1965 to 1966.
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
May 3, 2019
لا بأس به لكنه ملئ بالثغرات
January 23, 2018
Is the US a Christian country? Was it founded as one? The answer is complex because religion, specifically the various forms of Protestantism, have played an important cultural role from the beginning. The divisiveness the various denominations created within their own borders and among the states themselves deeply influenced many of the framers and led to a constitution that doesn't mention God at all.
Lambert, in a truly short history, tries to present landmarks primarily showing the conflicts that have arisen within Protestantism that have shaped political and secular culture, and, at times, politics itself. He does this by tracing the conflict between those who focus on the transcendental God versus those who emphasize God's immanence, those who see religion's role as primarily personal and emotional and those who are motivated by their faith to improve the world using all means at their disposal including secular knowledge, those who advocate the gospels of wealth, the "old-fashioned" gospel, and the social gospel.
This book is an excellent first stop for those trying to understand the role of religion in American politics, but it is hardly the last one. Lambert, recognizing the wealth of material, provides the reader with guidance throughout the book about where to read more deeply about the topics he only briefly manages to summarize. But then, knowledge, like faith, is a journey, not a destination.
Lambert, in a truly short history, tries to present landmarks primarily showing the conflicts that have arisen within Protestantism that have shaped political and secular culture, and, at times, politics itself. He does this by tracing the conflict between those who focus on the transcendental God versus those who emphasize God's immanence, those who see religion's role as primarily personal and emotional and those who are motivated by their faith to improve the world using all means at their disposal including secular knowledge, those who advocate the gospels of wealth, the "old-fashioned" gospel, and the social gospel.
This book is an excellent first stop for those trying to understand the role of religion in American politics, but it is hardly the last one. Lambert, recognizing the wealth of material, provides the reader with guidance throughout the book about where to read more deeply about the topics he only briefly manages to summarize. But then, knowledge, like faith, is a journey, not a destination.
August 15, 2025
This book is even-handed and fact-focused, except that the last chapter — covering up to publication time in 2008, before the US had seen *anything* yet with respect to religion in politics — falls really flat in hindsight. (Also, the rest of the book is crisp and concise, while the last chapter meanders quite a lot.) On the other hand, even in 2008 the Internet was still at best a secondary medium for a lot of people, so its impacts would have been very difficult to gauge until much later.
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November 10, 2025Religion in America is deeply complicated. Still confused about what it means when people claim America is a Christian nation. Thankful for this extended overview of the complexity of American religious history, which we all inherit living in this country.
November 28, 2021
This book was an enjoyable read for what it is, but there are some glaring problems.
"A Short History" is the subtitle, but 250 pages is really not enough to cover 400 years of the religious history of America and her forefathers (Pilgrims, etc.). Most of the history is presented fairly objectively, but as the author moves into his discussion of more contemporary movements (the last two chapters on the Religious Right and Religious Left respectively) he becomes far more biased. His disdain for religious participation in politics, especially theologically orthodox religious participation in politics is glaring.
Overall, though, it was interesting to read about how American views of politics have influenced the Protestant Christian vision in America. This book, of course, was primarily about Protestant religious influences in American politics as that is the predominant religious group in the United States. The American Protestant ethos bleeds into the Church, of course, and it is why, as I read, I felt a disdain for both the "Religious Right" and the "Religious Left." Neither of these groups has it right because neither group works for a fully integrated understanding of the Common Good that the Church promulgates through her Social Teaching.
The Religious Right focuses on abortion, gay "marriage," and the family at the detriment of speaking out for the poor, the environment, and the migrant. The Religious Left does the reverse. Both tend to make the faith more about politics than about faith, as well.
Religion absolutely has a role to play in politics, but it can't work if you put politicking before religion. In America, politics is our Golden Calf, our idol. We need to focus on evangelization and convicting each other of deep faith in Christ Jesus and if we do that--if we all pursue sainthood--the social change that we desire will come. We can't change the culture if we don't work on our own hearts first, though.
Let's become saints.
To get back to the book, though, this book is not that great and there are probably better books on the subject out there.
"A Short History" is the subtitle, but 250 pages is really not enough to cover 400 years of the religious history of America and her forefathers (Pilgrims, etc.). Most of the history is presented fairly objectively, but as the author moves into his discussion of more contemporary movements (the last two chapters on the Religious Right and Religious Left respectively) he becomes far more biased. His disdain for religious participation in politics, especially theologically orthodox religious participation in politics is glaring.
Overall, though, it was interesting to read about how American views of politics have influenced the Protestant Christian vision in America. This book, of course, was primarily about Protestant religious influences in American politics as that is the predominant religious group in the United States. The American Protestant ethos bleeds into the Church, of course, and it is why, as I read, I felt a disdain for both the "Religious Right" and the "Religious Left." Neither of these groups has it right because neither group works for a fully integrated understanding of the Common Good that the Church promulgates through her Social Teaching.
The Religious Right focuses on abortion, gay "marriage," and the family at the detriment of speaking out for the poor, the environment, and the migrant. The Religious Left does the reverse. Both tend to make the faith more about politics than about faith, as well.
Religion absolutely has a role to play in politics, but it can't work if you put politicking before religion. In America, politics is our Golden Calf, our idol. We need to focus on evangelization and convicting each other of deep faith in Christ Jesus and if we do that--if we all pursue sainthood--the social change that we desire will come. We can't change the culture if we don't work on our own hearts first, though.
Let's become saints.
To get back to the book, though, this book is not that great and there are probably better books on the subject out there.
February 13, 2023
Overall, this book gives a good overview of religion and politics throughout America's history and into the present day. I think it does a fantastic job at outlining the argument for and against America being founded as a religious nation. It's not an extremely biased book by any means, and it focuses more on sharing the beliefs of those who lived in a particular time period over the opinions of the author himself. There are times when I believe Lambert focused too heavily on specific subjects or spent far too much time just listing out the names of people, book titles, and organizations. However, this does not completely negate the value of the book, and it still serves its purpose of an introduction to religion in American politics quite well. If you're new to the subject and interested in learning more, I think Lambert's book is a good place to start.
October 23, 2019
Religion in America, particularly evangelical religion, is my field of study. What became clear from Lambert's research was how far back religion goes in the founding of the United States and how corrosive and destructive religious ideology is in a pluralistic democratic society. Religious advocates, particularly conservatives, resort to divisive language like "Atheist vs. Christian" when in reality it's a disagreement over theology. Fundamentalists usually believe they are right and everyone is wrong. They believe the "Christian nation" of America should be governed according to their theology. Lambert does a fabulous job explaining how we got here. This is a book everyone interested in politics needs to read.
August 29, 2024
Franklin Lambert, History professor at Purdue University, is the author of “Religion in American Politics: A Short History.” In it, he looks at the competing views that Americans have had about religion’s place in politics from the colonial times until now. The skirmishes between the Enlightenment thinkers and the “city on a hill” believers, the anti-slavery north vs. the slave holding apologists, the modernists against the fundamentalists, and the modern-day Religious Right against the “New Religious Left” were thoroughly discussed. The religious element of the civil rights movement found its way into his discussion, also. It is not a book that one “flies through,” but it is full of interesting information that has been gathered for the reader. (296 pages)
January 16, 2019
كتاب جميل يلخص لك تاريخ الدين في السياسة الأمريكية بطريقة شيقة ممتاز يحتاج اكثر من قراءة
January 29, 2023
Focused primarily on the Protestant faith. I'm glad I read it, but some of it was a slog.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 10, 2024
A little outdated, but it is amazing how well it foreshadows and explains what has happened from 2016 to the present.
September 21, 2024
Interesting. It's 99% about the Religious Right but maybe that's because the Religious Left likes to keep to themselves
February 16, 2025
This book provides a good overview of the subject. It would make a good first book on the topic for someone just getting into it. Good book; I liked it.
March 9, 2012
Disappointing. The "short history" format is a challenging one and it's unreasonable to expect a volume like this will necessarily be selective, both in terms of what it deals with and the sources it draws on. However, a good short history should do more than choose the most obvious case studies and provide superficial summaries drawn mostly from single sources. That's basically what Lambert does. His "two main arguments" are something less than stunning. "The first is that religious coalitions seek by political means what the constitution prohibits, namely a national religious establishment" and second "that religion in American politics is contested." Might have guessed both of those on my own.
I picked the book up partly because I don't have a lot of background in the early (17th-19th century) parts of the story, and partly because I assumed (wrongly as it turns out) that the Princeton UP would enforce reasonable intellectual standards. Viewed from 40,000 feet, there's nothing wrong with the focus of Lambert's chapters; he moves from the arguments between Madison and Patrick Henry and later Adams and Jefferson concerning the role of religion in the young Republic, through the clash between "the gospel of wealth" and the "social gospel" and on to the Civil Rights Movement and the rise of the Religious Right. Drop down a bit closer to earth--15,000 feet, say--and the problems start to come into focus. Each chapter begins with a *very* large summary of the main currents of the era, and there's no real attempt to nuance what amount to cliches. It's impossible to do a decent job with the "rise of secularization" in the New Deal and Cold War eras in two or thee pages. In addition, there's no sense at all of how one era relates to the ones that preceded it.
The more I knew about the topic of a chapter, the less happy I was with it. The treatment of the splits within protestant denominations in the years leading up to the Civil War is thin; the treatment of the science vs. religion arguments (evolution) simplify a multi-faceted debate into a binary choice. I got just enough in the way of detail to keep me reading. Probably wasn't worth the time.
I picked the book up partly because I don't have a lot of background in the early (17th-19th century) parts of the story, and partly because I assumed (wrongly as it turns out) that the Princeton UP would enforce reasonable intellectual standards. Viewed from 40,000 feet, there's nothing wrong with the focus of Lambert's chapters; he moves from the arguments between Madison and Patrick Henry and later Adams and Jefferson concerning the role of religion in the young Republic, through the clash between "the gospel of wealth" and the "social gospel" and on to the Civil Rights Movement and the rise of the Religious Right. Drop down a bit closer to earth--15,000 feet, say--and the problems start to come into focus. Each chapter begins with a *very* large summary of the main currents of the era, and there's no real attempt to nuance what amount to cliches. It's impossible to do a decent job with the "rise of secularization" in the New Deal and Cold War eras in two or thee pages. In addition, there's no sense at all of how one era relates to the ones that preceded it.
The more I knew about the topic of a chapter, the less happy I was with it. The treatment of the splits within protestant denominations in the years leading up to the Civil War is thin; the treatment of the science vs. religion arguments (evolution) simplify a multi-faceted debate into a binary choice. I got just enough in the way of detail to keep me reading. Probably wasn't worth the time.
April 26, 2012
Frank Lambert, Religion in American Politics: A Short History. (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2010).
Judul : Religion in American Politics: A Short History
Penulis/Editor : Frank Lambert
Ringkasan : Dalam buku ini, Lambert meneliti bagaimana kelompok Kristen sebelum era perang (antebellum) menghadapi tantangan pembagian masyarakat ke dalam kelompok Utara dan kelompok Selatan; tentang bagaimana Andrew Carnegie menulis mengenai Gospel of Wealth yang beradu dengan kelompok antikapitalis pada Social Gospel pasca industri perang, bagaimana pergerakan hak sipil barangkali dapat menjadi intervensi religius yang paling tepat dalam sejarah politik Amerika Serikat; dan bagaimana Partai Republik dan hak-hak religius saling berkaitan. Secara keseluruhan, buku ini berusaha menyadarkan bagaimana ketakutan para founding father Amerika menghadapi perbedaan-perbedaan agama dengan agendanya yang mempengaruhi kegiatan politik di Amerika. Buku ini menyajikan perspektif sejarah sejak tahun 1776 hingga zaman kontemporer.
Daftar Isi :
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ix
INTRODUCTION 1
CHAPTER ONE: Providential and Secular America: Founding the Republic 14
CHAPTER TWO: Elusive Protestant Unity: Sunday Mails, Catholic Immigration, and Sectional Division 41
CHAPTER THREE: The "Gospel of Wealth" and the "Social Gospel": Industrialization and the Rise of Corporate America 74
CHAPTER FOUR: Faith and Science: The Modernist-Fundamentalist Controversy 104
CHAPTER FIVE: Religious and Political Liberalism: The Rise of Big Government from the New Deal to the Cold War 130
CHAPTER SIX: Civil Rights as a Religious Movement: Politics in the Streets 160
CHAPTER SEVEN: The Rise of the "Religious Right": The Reagan Revolution and the "Moral Majority" 184
CHAPTER EIGHT: Reemergence of the "Religious Left"? America's Culture War in the Early Twenty-first Century 218
NOTES 251
INDEX 271
Bahasa : Inggris
Halaman : 250
Penerbit : Princeton University Press
Tahun terbit : 2010
Harga : $ 18.95
Judul : Religion in American Politics: A Short History
Penulis/Editor : Frank Lambert
Ringkasan : Dalam buku ini, Lambert meneliti bagaimana kelompok Kristen sebelum era perang (antebellum) menghadapi tantangan pembagian masyarakat ke dalam kelompok Utara dan kelompok Selatan; tentang bagaimana Andrew Carnegie menulis mengenai Gospel of Wealth yang beradu dengan kelompok antikapitalis pada Social Gospel pasca industri perang, bagaimana pergerakan hak sipil barangkali dapat menjadi intervensi religius yang paling tepat dalam sejarah politik Amerika Serikat; dan bagaimana Partai Republik dan hak-hak religius saling berkaitan. Secara keseluruhan, buku ini berusaha menyadarkan bagaimana ketakutan para founding father Amerika menghadapi perbedaan-perbedaan agama dengan agendanya yang mempengaruhi kegiatan politik di Amerika. Buku ini menyajikan perspektif sejarah sejak tahun 1776 hingga zaman kontemporer.
Daftar Isi :
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ix
INTRODUCTION 1
CHAPTER ONE: Providential and Secular America: Founding the Republic 14
CHAPTER TWO: Elusive Protestant Unity: Sunday Mails, Catholic Immigration, and Sectional Division 41
CHAPTER THREE: The "Gospel of Wealth" and the "Social Gospel": Industrialization and the Rise of Corporate America 74
CHAPTER FOUR: Faith and Science: The Modernist-Fundamentalist Controversy 104
CHAPTER FIVE: Religious and Political Liberalism: The Rise of Big Government from the New Deal to the Cold War 130
CHAPTER SIX: Civil Rights as a Religious Movement: Politics in the Streets 160
CHAPTER SEVEN: The Rise of the "Religious Right": The Reagan Revolution and the "Moral Majority" 184
CHAPTER EIGHT: Reemergence of the "Religious Left"? America's Culture War in the Early Twenty-first Century 218
NOTES 251
INDEX 271
Bahasa : Inggris
Halaman : 250
Penerbit : Princeton University Press
Tahun terbit : 2010
Harga : $ 18.95
November 17, 2014
Part of the reason I may not have enjoyed this book is my fault - I did not realize it was an abridgement when I downloaded it to listen to. If people are really interested in this subject, they should really download the whole book. This book was just a bit too superficial and not as engaging for me. It also seemed to repeat itself a lot, probably in the interest of identifying main themes throughout the book - i.e. the debate over whether the US is a "Christian nation," and the division between "conservative" and "liberal" Christians. While these are important points to make and definitely put the role of religion in American politics into perspective, the repetition of the themes just seemed redundant without more in-depth discussion and analysis. For example, I usually listen to my books while I run or exercise, and unless I fell asleep in the middle of a 10k or while cross training, the book seemed to skip the Reagan era completely! We went from talking about Jimmy Carter's attempts to energize the "religious left" to talking about George H.W. Bush. Apparently, nothing significant happened during the Reagan era in regards to religion and politics?! It was strange. So while this book was informative and a I got a lot of good insights from it, I really wish I would have read the full book.
November 17, 2012
Lambert's book is interesting and well researched but lacks a guiding idea. Each chapter reads like a separate essay so the book as a whole fails to deliver a historical narrative. Still an OK read, if you are interested in the subject matter.
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July 4, 2019الكتاب جميل ، برأي الشخصي أعتبره بسيط ، يستطيع القارىء أن يعتمد عليه في فهم تاريخ تطور السياسة والدين في أمريكا بشكل عام ، أما إن أردت التوسع سوف تجد مصادر ومراجع يمكنك أن تعود إليها.
يبرز الكتاب فقط ، أهم التحولات التي كانت فاصلة في تحديد والانتقال من مرحلة إلى أخرى .
يبرز الكتاب فقط ، أهم التحولات التي كانت فاصلة في تحديد والانتقال من مرحلة إلى أخرى .
November 27, 2010
This is an excellent introduction to the history of religion in America. It has a dry academic tone, but is also concise. Highly recommended.
October 14, 2016
Just okay. Very brief just like the title and length imply.
April 24, 2017
There are some fascinating insights throughout the book; however, he definitely does not discuss the Judaism, Mormonism, or Islam and their manifestations in the american socio-political sphere.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews