In the Beginning Was the Word: The Bible in American Public Life, 1492-1783

by Mark A. Noll

In the beginning of American history, the Word was in Spanish, Latin, and native languages like Nahuatal. But while Spanish and Catholic Christianity reached the New World in 1492, it was only with settlements in the seventeenth century that English-language Bibles and Protestant Christendom arrived. The Puritans brought with them intense devotion to Scripture, as well as their ideal of Christendom -- a civilization characterized by a thorough intermingling of the Bible with everything else. That ideal began this country's journey from the Puritan's City on a Hill to the Bible-quoting country the U.S. is today. In the Beginning Was the Word shows how important the Bible remained, even as that Puritan ideal changed considerably through the early stages of American history.Author Mark Noll shows how seventeenth-century Americans received conflicting models of scriptural authority from the Bible under Christendom (high Anglicanism), the Bible over Christendom (moderate Puritanism), and the Bible against Christendom (Anabaptists, enthusiasts, Quakers). In the eighteenth century, the colonists turned increasingly to the Bible against Christendom, a stance that fueled the Revolution against Anglican Britain and prepared the way for a new country founded on the separation of church and state.One of the foremost scholars of American Christianity, Mark Noll brings a wealth of research and wisdom to In the Beginning Was the Word, providing a sweeping, engaging, and insightful survey of the relationship between the Bible and public issues from the beginning of European settlement. A seminal new work from a world-class scholar, this book offers a fresh account of the contested, sometimes ambiguous, but definite biblical roots of American history.

Genres: History, Religion, Church History, American History, Christianity, Christian, Theology

445 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 1, 2015

About the author

Mark A. Noll (born 1946), Francis A. McAnaney Professor of History at the University of Notre Dame, is a progressive evangelical Christian scholar. In 2005, Noll was named by Time Magazine as one of the twenty-five most influential evangelicals in America. Noll is a prolific author and many of his books have earned considerable acclaim within the academic community. The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind , a book about the anti-intellectual tendencies within the American evangelical movement, was featured in a cover story in the popular American literary and cultural magazine, Atlantic Monthly. He was awarded a National Humanities Medal in the Oval Office by President George W. Bush in 2006.

Reviews

[David Goetz · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars.

This is a solid history of how early Americans, from Puritans to Anglicans to Roman Catholics to women to freedmen, thought of and used the Bible. The research is impeccable, the writing lucid, and the conclusions compelling. I downgrade it to 3.5 stars because it's a pretty dry book; occasionally it starts to feel like you're just reading about different Americans saying the same stuff over and over again. But I want to affirm nonetheless that this newest offering from Noll is definitely worth your time if you're interested in U.S. history in general or in specifically religious history.

The most fascinating sections were those on the marginalized--the biblical supersaturation of Sarah Osborn, Phillis Wheatley's odd relationship to the idea of Christendom, etc. It was also interesting to read about the early effects of the versification of the Bible (which Noll admittedly doesn't focus on much; he says further research needs to be done on this, and I agree), the ways in which the Bible was used to support and oppose Christendom, the ways in which sola scriptura was progressively tabled when the topic of discussion was slavery or economics or politics, the ways in which pastors preached as patriots or as loyalists, and so on. I was especially intrigued when Noll noted that loyalists criticized patriots for faithlessness to colonial history in accepting and soliciting the help of the French, who commonly were denigrated as slavish papists. I might look into these arguments a bit more.

[Neil Tredray · Rating 1 out of 5]

Unreadable without a deep background in Christian sects. Hope you know what an anabaptist is. The author seems too interested in showing off sources they’ve found rather than actually making an argument or historiographical contribution. Spends too much time in minutiae such as which sect thought baptism of infants was heresy. Takes 100 pages to move the narrative from Europe to the americas. I wouldn’t use this book as a doorstop.

[Edward Sullivan · Rating 3 out of 5]

An insightful examination of the place of the bible, both as an object and a source of ideas, in early American public life.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating look at the role of the Bible in American religious history. This is a must read for anyone interested in religion, and especially for hermeneutics. Noll does an excellent job at highlighting just how difficult it has been to follow "Sola Scriptura" in an American religious context--while it is a noble aspiration in real life and practice it meant many different things to different people. One particular problem is that of the versification of Scripture--which he states is the perennial story of the Bible in America--which created an essentially Enlightement framework allowing people to "proof text" Scripture, which in turn allowed people to manipulate Scripture. It also created a greater openness to dreams and visions, and especially with revivals, allowed people to individually embrace and come up with creative new interpretations of Scripture. The most fascinating part for me was the warning at the end of the book that whenever Scripture has come into a fight already under way, it almost inevitably loses out to those who wish (whether consciously or unconscoiusly) wish to use it for their own purpose(s). This was especially evidence and well illustrated in this volume in the context of the American Revolution.

[Argum · Rating 3 out of 5]

Took me forever to slog through this book after putting it down many times. Interesting if overly dry and quote filled look at how the Bible was viewed and used in early America and how that changed over time. Just too many over long quotes and examples for any given point to make it enjoyable read.

[Vanjr · Rating 4 out of 5]

While this series is mainly focused on the Bible in the US (and in this first volume the pre-US) I found it to be equally or even more valuable in learning about religion in the colonies which for practical purposes was some variance of protestantism.
The time relationship between the Bible being translated into English, the discovery and settlement of the new world and the reformation is also a relationship I had not appreciated till it was pointed out in this volume (probably my own cluelessness).
Valuable not just for historians, but also for pastors and US Christians who may only have been exposed to a portion of their own denominational history.
Easier to read than the second volume in this series which I read before this one.

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is an excellent and thorough look at how the Bible was applied in daily life during the early years of American history. It is followed by a book that looks at the United States's first 100 years. In this part, Noll focuses on how use of the Bible in part promoted biblicism and yet also led to the decline of Christendom. I recommend this book for any history buff interested in colonial society and for Christians who want a more complex view of how the Scriptures have been used both positively and negatively in our history.

[Matthew · Rating 3 out of 5]

A somewhat uneven history of the usage of the Bible in the colonies through the Revolution. Where the history is good, it is engaging and helpful. The middle drags on a bit. Some particularly helpful parts on historical exegesis, particularly how colonists/Americans had a tendency to view themselves as a new national Israel and how the curse of Canaan turned into the curse of Ham and was eventually used to justify slavery.

[Mark K. Vogl · Rating 5 out of 5]

An important work by America's per-eminent expert on Christianity's role in the creation of this nation. Dr. Noll, of the University of Notre Dame, did a great service to every day Americans by providing a readable account of American history that reveals the importance of Christian faith in the European settlement of the New World. I strongly recommend the work.

[David Woods · Rating 4 out of 5]

While being the preeminent historian of Evangelical Christianity, Noll never fails to offer thoroughly well-researched coverage of his topics. However, the depth of details can leave even the most passionately interested reader overwhelmed and needing to re-read some passages repeatedly.

[Kristin Stone · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think the scholarship of this book was probably great, and I have been excited to read one of his books for a while now. But I just struggled with reading it. Sentences were long and convoluted, and I just found it to be a book I was trudging through rather than really enjoying.

[Danny · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not my favorite from Noll, but it definitely feels like the work of a historian well into his career. I preferred the second half of this one. All in all, well researched and worth the effort.

[Nicholas Abraham · Rating 4 out of 5]

This should be standard reading for American Christians. Noll rightfully outlines the complexities of the relationship the colonies and then the United States have had with the Bible. A good read!

[Lisa Brantly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tom read: Excellent

[Jacob Lines · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book tells the story of how the Bible was set loose by the Reformation and the printing press in Europe then taken to America, where it saturated colonial life. Noll does an excellent job of explaining Biblicism – attempting to live by the Bible alone – and how it shaped America during the colonial period. First, it gave some colonists, most notably the New Englanders, their basis for government and personal life. It informed everything they did. New Englanders especially identified with ancient Israel and tried to shape their lives and communities accordingly. For other colonists, the Bible did not dominate every part of their lives, but it was still a recognized authority.

The big tension was whether the Bible should be followed along with tradition, or alone. Noll explains the different approaches as following the Bible within Christendom – that is, recognizing the authority of the traditional hierarchies of church and state, and following the bible against Christendom – that is, using the Bible to challenge the established order because of its lack of explicit biblical support. Without strong established churches in the colonies, the Bible could be used in any number of ways. Thus, while Britain retained Christendom by treating the Bible as another authority, America gave the Bible free rein by ignoring Christendom.

In the slavery debate, both sides used it. The question there was whether to follow the specific exceptions in which it was allowed, or the spirit of liberty from the entire book. During the revolutionary period, the colonists had a near-monopoly on biblical authority, although loyalists relied on the Bible to support the monarchy. Tom Paine’s Common Sense’s argument against monarchy was based heavily on lessons from the Bible about the evils of having a king.

Noll explains how the Great Awakening deepened Biblicism – the preachers didn’t oppose established churches and hierarchies; they just ignored them. For their converts, the word of God in the Bible was their link to God. They didn’t necessarily need a church hierarchy for salvation. This led to all kinds of subversion of authority, especially from those at the bottom of society. The division of the Bible into chapters and verses made it so any literate person could proof text and thus argue from the Bible.

As Biblicism receded, the Bible, especially the King James Version, still provided the common language in America. Its images and diction and accounts were (and still are) the language of common discourse, especially in politics.

Overall, this is an interesting and well-done book about how America became such a Bible-centric culture.

[Stuart Bobb · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is more of a scholarly work than popular history. It succeeds in providing a detailed understanding of how the Bible was viewed and the role it had in society from the earliest American settlements of Europeans through the War of Independence.

For those that insist that the United State was founded as a Christian Nation, the book is a good read as you will be confronted with just how complex the views of Christians in the colonies really were. Likewise, the book does an excellent job of showing how pervasive Bible themes and terms were for all people, whether they were what might be truly Christian or not. If you were well read and well educated you almost by definition were also very familiar with the Bible.

In the end, Bible was used to defend rebellion and to defend loyalty to Great Britain. It was used to attack the institution of slavery and to rigorously defend slavery. It was used to advocate for the role of a combined state church and to advocate for a very clear separation of them. The latter position, by the way, was not just by Deists, but by Christians of many types and positions.

It does much to explain the background of why so many American Protestants insist on seeing America as playing the role of ancient Israel in the old testament.

The past is not a simple place and this is not a simple book. I found it very slow reading and a bit exhaustive in its quoting of 17th and 18th century sermons. If you stick with the book, there is a lot to learn, but it seems more like something that would be assigned in a "history of religion" course versus the readily consumable mix of popular and scholarly history that I typically prefer.

For those reasons, I wasn't able to give it a "really liked it" (4 star or higher rating). Your experience may differ.

[Adam Shields · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short Review: Noll is pretty much always helpful in understanding the complexity of history. Many people like historians to simplify but history isn't simple. This review of how early colonial Americans (and to a lesser extent Catholic Spanish and Canadian colonialists) understood and used scripture is helpful. Quotes from early american religious or political leaders come up all the time in modern politics, but Noll does a good job placing those types of quotes in context. This is a broad look, not just New England. And Noll hits on many areas, slavery, understanding of the US destiny, relationship to Native Americans, political and religious diversity and leadership and more.

I read this in conversation with God of Liberty: A Religious History of the American Revolution by Thomas Kidd. They were attempting different things, so even when there was overlapping discussion on the same sermons or documents, the orientation was different. I do think this should be read by many that are interested in the question of whether the United States was founded as a Christian country or not. (The answer is that, it is complicated.)

My full review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/in-the-beginning/

[Rob · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fantastic introduction to the bible in early America.

Mark Noll, as he usually does, invites readers into the historical conversation about the way the Bible shaped and was shaped by early America. He adeptly integrates historiography into a clear narrative of the shape of biblicism through the early centuries in North America. He challenges simplistic views of the bible's place in this society as both shaping and being shaped by the powerful cultural forces (slavery, relationships with Native Americans, and the revaluation) I appreciate his capacity to carry a narrative forward while doing significant historical work. I am looking forward to his next installment.

[Jacob O'connor · Rating 2 out of 5]

A few years ago I quized my colleagues. It was Good Friday, so I asked them what we were celebrating. They didn't know. So I asked about Easter. Only one person could connect the holiday to the resurrection. Talk about Jaywalking. We’ve entered into an age of Biblical illiteracy, but it wasn’t always this way.

I like Mark Noll, but this one was a little rarified. Recommended if you're writing a research paper. Dull for a read-through.


Notes:

(1) blacks pursuing literacy to study Scripture

(2) Greater Bible literacy didn't always equate to greater godliness (278)

(3) Interesting discussion on the attempt to equate blacks with Ham, and consequently justify racism (296)

(4) America as new Israel (393)

[Brit · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is not a fast read, but well worth the effort, both for its historical content and also for its insight into how easily it is to read into (eisegesis) the bible instead of doing exegesis.

[Matthew · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well researched and well written but not the most interesting topic.

[Todd Putney · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well written History of the impact of the Bible in colonial life leading up to the revolution.

[Dan Gorman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mark Noll's masterpiece. This work of transnational history begins in England and follows the exportation of Protestantism to the thirteen colonies. If Noll intends to write a trilogy of books on the Bible in U.S. culture, then he must venture beyond the Protestantism he typically studies and explain the function of the Bible in French Louisiana and Spanish Mexico. This task remains for later volumes. In this installment, Noll tells his tale skillfully. He shows how, in times of social discord following the Reformation, British subjects clung to the Bible and connected it to current events.

A sense of "Christendom" as a solid or uniform bloc decayed in the late 1600s. The Puritans in Great Britain and the thirteen colonies failed to create societies in which everyone towed the Calvinist line. 100 years of relative peace (from the Restoration through the Great Awakening) saw British subjects in North America deemphasize the Bible as the sole solution for social problems. The first evangelicals connected the Bible to the self instead of the nation, while other British subjects drew from the Enlightenment. The major exception came from the abolitionist community, since black slaves and white abolitionists used the Bible to condemn slavery. A series of wars — the Seven Years' War and the American Revolution — threw the British Empire into chaos, so people again used "Biblicism" to explain their views, Loyalist or rebel. The new United States rejected the homogeneity of Cromwell's Puritan Christendom as well as the combination of church and state that the Anglican Church endorsed. Christian rebels upheld the Bible as the ultimate moral source, but they interpreted religion in an individualist manner, which intensified in the Second Great Awakening. This informal reliance on the Bible would dominate American public discourse until the Civil War.

This book explains the literary context that contributed to a "republican synthesis" of Christianity, republicanism, and a loose separation of church & state. Noll has written both a prequel and parallel narrative to his famous 2002 book, "America's God." While Christendom as a political concept is hard to understand, and although the narrative meanders in the middle, the book is insightful. Noll shows how the Reformation inspired competition between Christian factions in the British Empire and how the Bible became a major part of U.S. culture.