American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation

by Jon Meacham

NEW YORK TIMES  BESTSELLER • Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jon Meacham reveals how the Founding Fathers viewed faith—and how they ultimately created a nation in which belief in God is a matter of choice.

At a time when our country seems divided by extremism, American Gospel draws on the past to offer a new perspective. Meacham re-creates the fascinating history of a nation grappling with religion and politics–from John Winthrop’s “city on a hill” sermon to Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence; from the Revolution to the Civil War; from a proposed nineteenth-century Christian Amendment to the Constitution to Martin Luther King, Jr.’s call for civil rights; from George Washington to Ronald Reagan.

Debates about religion and politics are often more divisive than illuminating. Secularists point to a “wall of separation between church and state,” while many conservatives act as though the Founding Fathers were apostles in knee britches. As Meacham shows in this brisk narrative, neither extreme has it right. At the heart of the American experiment lies the God of what Benjamin Franklin called “public religion,” a God who invests all human beings with inalienable rights while protecting private religion from government interference. It is a great American balancing act, and it has served us well.

Meacham has written and spoken extensively about religion and politics, and he brings historical authority and a sense of hope to the issue. American Gospel makes it compellingly clear that the nation’s best chance of summoning what Lincoln called “the better angels of our nature” lies in recovering the spirit and sense of the Founding. In looking back, we may find the light to lead us forward.

Praise for American Gospel

“In his American Gospel , Jon Meacham provides a refreshingly clear, balanced, and wise historical portrait of religion and American politics at exactly the moment when such fairness and understanding are much needed. Anyone who doubts the relevance of history to our own time has only to read this exceptional book.” —David McCullough, author of 1776

“Jon Meacham has given us an insightful and eloquent account of the spiritual foundation of the early days of the American republic. It is especially instructive reading at a time when the nation is at once engaged in and deeply divided on the question of religion and its place in public life.” —Tom Brokaw, author of The Greatest Generation

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Religion, American History, Politics, American Revolution, Christianity

448 pages, Paperback

First published April 4, 2006

About the author

Jon Ellis Meacham is an American writer, reviewer, historian and presidential biographer who is serving as the Canon Historian of the Washington National Cathedral since November 7, 2021. A former executive editor and executive vice president at Random House, he is a contributing writer to The New York Times Book Review, a contributing editor to Time magazine, and a former editor-in-chief of Newsweek. He is the author of several books. He won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography for American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House. He holds the Carolyn T. and Robert M. Rogers Endowed Chair in American Presidency at Vanderbilt University.

Reviews

[Breck Baumann · Rating 3 out of 5]

From the anchoring of the Mayflower and settling of the Plymouth Colony, to the headlines of the modern mainstream media, the topic of religion has been ingrained in American culture. Indeed, the dialogue surrounding religious debate can lead to controversial and at times taboo discussion—though it can also be used otherwise as an enlightening and comforting perspective to understand and rationalize. Revered historian Jon Meacham takes the reader on a speedy chronicle of the beginnings and impacts of different religious sects and movements in North America, including both the people involved, and those whom had a powerful influence as a whole. While there are some interesting takeaways and a few rare and less-known facts that can be ideally used for a holiday dinner debate, the bulk of the book altogether is drafted to Meacham’s own musings and interpretations of past U.S. Presidents and Founders’ religious leanings and beliefs.

This is not necessarily a negative attribute for the reader, as Meacham is very moderate in his approach to America’s religious history and stances, where he uses a plentiful amount of quotes and sources to back up his overall argument in declaring that the United States is not simply a Christian or secular nation, nor does it lean heavily one way over the other. Relevant discussions are brought to the reader, ranging from the separation of Church and State, the varying degrees in which previous U.S. Presidents have used religious voice and agenda during times of war and hardship, to the concepts of “Nature’s God” and “public religion:”

Many committed secularists in our own age have largely made their peace with public religion. “Those of us who are Jeffersonian separatists live more or less easily with the accumulated chinks in the wall of separation like prayer at the beginning of legislative or judicial sessions, ‘In God We Trust’ on our money and as our nation’s motto,” wrote Kramnick and Moore in The Godless Constitution. “In remembering that Jefferson did in fact found human rights on a Creator’s intentions, we should pick fights carefully and not ever imagine that references to God will or should disappear from public rhetoric.”

As previously mentioned, the book runs relatively brief with almost half of it being dedicated to sources and bibliography—making for a quick and simple read to ease through and digest. American Gospel would go splendidly as a gift for the political or radical-minded sheep of the family, a topic-friendly ice breaker, or even as a “bathroom digest,” but there is nothing truly groundbreaking or earth-shattering in its approach. Nonetheless, the book both reveals and proves how truly vast and thriving the American melting pot has become throughout the centuries, and perhaps might remain so. Illustrations are scattered throughout, as well as two appendices included: with one in particular focusing on enlightening bible quotes used in presidential inaugurations beginning with Martin Van Buren’s term.

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

"In God We Trust", the official motto of the United States of America, emblazoned on places as important as the Supreme Court and as basic as an off-colour Lincoln penny. That simple, but powerful, sentiment fuels Meacham's exploration of the basis of religion in America, offset by the Founding Fathers' constitutionally entrenched separation of Church and State. By no means was this division as longstanding as the presence of people in the original colonies, for the early residents had fled England because of religious persecution and organised their settlements with a strong set of Christian beliefs. Meacham tackles discussions by those who attended the Constitutional Conventions, where early ideas of religion and faith within the new America proved somewhat divisive. Some wanted to entrench Christianity in their new country, as it was imbued in all laws and proved to be largely practiced throughout the Thirteen Colonies. However, Thomas Jefferson argued strongly that the country should be a more inclusive and less entrenched nation, possibly tied to his less than stalwart views on a Higher Being. The Founding Fathers knew that the country they sought to create would be one built on tolerance and, while not ridding the state of Christianity, ensured religious openness with the Bill of Rights and the First Amendment. Meacham explores how Washington steered the state through its early years, balancing on this precarious thread, which proved successful. Other presidents handled the religious debate with less aplomb, outwardly espousing the Christian God to save them in their time of need. Of greatest interest is Meacham's exploration of the three presidents who saw America through the tumultuous war years. Lincoln, whose various speeches sought to steer away from seeking God's blessing and sought instead to place his trust that the 'right' answer would come to pass. Woodrow Wilson and FDR took a more preacher-cum-president approach, seeking Americans to pray for success over their foes and vilifying those who did not fall into line or spoke out against these pleas to the Christian God. One might extrapolate this and look to Bush 43, whose fabrication of facts and declaration of a War on Terror bred xenophobia and a degree of Islamaphobia that still simmers to this day. The American State also had periods where public sentiment clashed with the inherent beliefs of some religious groups, namely acceptance of abortion and the ongoing debate over capital punishment. Meacham effectively argues that America weathered this storm and its leaders, while sometimes left to grit their teeth, never lashed out against all that was going on. These personal beliefs did not bring the country to its knees, nor did it create chaos amongst the masses, some of whom would not have worshiped the same God as their leaders. Meacham looks to the latter part of his book to explore public religion, which differs greatly from the personal tenets that Americans held in their hearts. Acknowledgement of religious holidays (Christmas and Easter), as well as the Judeo-Christian set of legal beliefs are two strong examples of this. These public ideals remove the neutrality that would be required for a complete separation between Church and State, though it does not adversely affect the citizenry, at least to the point of any violation of certain beliefs. This might seem like a minor point, but Meacham makes it nonetheless, wishing to keep all discussions aboveboard. Worthy of a brief mention, Meacham does touch on the judicial branch, which acted as a shepherd in guiding the state through some of its more trying times, ensuing that the First Amendment's freedoms were never curtailed, but that there was a balance to ensure the greatest cross-section of the population could live free from intrusion. While religion and the state remains a highly divisive issue and one that can spark many concerns, Meacham come to the conclusion that America's personal gospel is one of acceptance and openness, even when its leaders may seek to push the envelop and subtly turn the country into an 'us' versus 'them' battle. This is by no means a simple topic to digest, though Meacham has done a brilliant job in educating the masses.

Having recently completed a book that explored the depths of the First Amendment, I thought it a good idea to take some time to explore this topic. Meacham does a fabulous job in laying out his arguments clearly, with strong examples pulled from history, documents, and documented reports. He takes the entirety of the American political experience and focusses the Church versus State argument through the various political eras without weighing things down with too much information. Meacham's primary argument or freedom and acceptance flows throughout, while offsetting this with an equally compelling belief that one would have to live under a rock not to see the long-standing Christian values that shine through all laws and speeches made by political leaders. With two hundred and forty years of experience, America's views have held firm, though history has tossed enough tests into its path to force a few course corrections. But, as with any belief system, a reevaluation is always useful to match the flavour of the times.

Kudos, Mr. Meacham for another stellar political analysis. I wish I could do your work justice with my review. You take on so much and yet make it seem so effortless.

Like/hate the review? An ever-growing collection of others appears at:
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[Skylar Burris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jon Meacham appears to take a genuinely moderate approach to his examination of the role of religion in American history. He argues that America was not founded as a Christian nation, but he also declines to classify it as a purely secular nation where religion must be expunged from the public sphere. In clear, concise language, he relates the role religion played in America from the founding of Jamestown to Ronald Reagan, although he is rather sporadic in his approach, often flying through great expanses of history, including the Great Awakening (a rather strange omission for a book on religion and America). He argues that America has both "public" and "private" religion, the private religion being specific (Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, etc.), and the public religion being a type of general deism. He concedes that, on the whole, religion has been a positive influence on America.

While I appreciate that he approaches the role of religion with a moderate tone, I'm not sure I find his overall characterization of America or its founding fathers as religiously moderate convincing. Firstly, the founding fathers well may have been moderate for their own day, but they would hardly be considered so in ours. What if a modern President, as Abraham Lincoln once did, suggested that a present war was God's punishment for the national sins committed by Americans? (Indeed, Meacham himself, in the pages of American Gospel, reacts in horror at Jerry Falwell's extremism for suggesting our national sufferings in 9/11 were the consequence of our national sins.) What if a modern president where to make the kind of religious proclamations, today, that past presidents once made without concern that the public would scream, "Separation of church and state"? George Bush nearly sent people into fits merely by using words like "good" and "evil," but "moderate" politicians such as Ben Franklin routinely said things such as "We had daily prayer in this room of the divine power. Our prayers, sir, were heard, and they were answered." Meacham is right that the founding fathers were not sectarian zealots in their own time; what he fails to consider is the likelihood that they would be considered so in ours.

Secondly, Meacham's middle of the road approach fails to grasp how important the extremes of religious zeal were in bringing about major changes in United States history: abolition, the temperance movement, women's rights, and the Civil Rights movement—all major American political movements that were not fueled by moderate mainline attitudes, but by evangelical piety. Real historical change rarely results from moderation. Meacham makes some passing attempt to distinguish the use of the churches for the civil rights cause and the use of churches by conservative Christians to affect political change, but the distinction is quite spurious. Meacham's religious "extreme" appears to be those who use religion to further causes of which he doesn't personally approve; his religious "moderates" are those who use religion to further causes of which he does happen to approve. At any rate, the fact remains that, in U.S. history, religion has long mingled with politics, and it is not moderate and general religion, but deeply felt and specific religion, that has most often affected true change.

None of this is to suggest that America is a nation where Christians routinely strive to "force" their belief on others. Not even the most fundamentalist of American Christian denominations today advocates anything like a theocracy or the imprisonment of dissenters or the execution of homosexuals or religious tests for office. That is to say, one can be evangelical, zealous, or "extreme" in one's religion and still believe in religious tolerance and liberty; in fact, it is the most evangelical sects of Christians that have historically, traditionally supported the separation of church and state and not the presumably moderate "mainline" Christian denominations, which have tended, rather, to be established state churches.

America may not be a "Christian nation," but it is a nation OF Christians, many of whom are quite zealous compared to Christians in the rest of the western developed world. America boasts a more vibrant, more seriously held Christianity than any other western nation, with evangelicals numbering around 25% of the population. In America, church attendance greatly outstrips attendance in European countries with established churches. What America offers is not "moderation" in religion at all, but liberty, which is what makes real zeal possible. Established religion erodes zeal and slowly kills Christianity. But liberty gives birth to "extreme" religion, life-changing religion, nation-changing religion. What makes America unique is not that we are full of religious moderates or even that our founding fathers were religious moderates, but that most of our religious "extremists," unlike the religious extremists of most other times and cultures, have traditionally recognize that liberty is a friend of true religion.

So, while I appreciate that Meacham does not falsify history to fit it into a mythological Christian-nation mold as do too many fundamentalists, and while I appreciate that he does not wish to eradicate all vestiges of faith from the public sphere as do too many secularists, I ultimately find his thesis of moderations somewhat bland and lacking in historical insight. I had great hopes for the book from its opening pages, but it soon began to fall flat.

[Scott Rhee · Rating 5 out of 5]

“The atmosphere of our country is unquestionably charged with a threatening cloud of fanaticism, lighter in some parts, denser in others, but too heavy in all.” ---Thomas Jefferson, 1822

“Our fathers founded the first secular government that was ever founded in this world. The first secular government; the first government that said every church has exactly the same rights and no more; every religion has the same rights, and no more. In other words, our fathers were the first men who had the sense, had the genius, to know that no church should be allowed to have a sword; that it should be allowed only to exert its moral influence.” ---Robert Ingersoll, 1876

"If there is one thing for which we stand in this country, it is for complete religious freedom and for the right of every man to worship his Creator as his conscience dictates. It is an emphatic negation of this right to cross-examine a man on his religious views before being willing to support him for office. Is he a good man, and is he fit for office? These are the only questions which there is a right to ask…" ---Theodore Roosevelt, 1908

It irks me when I hear anyone say that the United States of America is a “Christian nation”. More often than not, the words are being spoken by right-wing fundamentalists whose myopic interpretations of Scripture are being used to justify their own often very non-Christian stances on a subject.

Not to mention that the very words “Christian nation” blatantly implies a disregard and dismissal of any and all other religions to be found in this country; as if Christianity were the only religion of note or value.

The very words “Christian nation” are used by people who clearly forget that our Founding Fathers believed that a separation of church and state was so necessary that it was written into the First Amendment of our Constitution.

As someone who (occasionally) considers himself a Christian, I take umbrage against the words “Christian nation” because they are words, more often than not, being utilized for political purposes to push agendas that I neither agree with nor consider very “Christian”, based on my own personal understanding of Christ’s teachings. Indeed, it sometimes seems that Christianity has been “hijacked” by the political---and generally religious---Right as a political tool to confound the---generally secular---Left.

But this is not a new problem. All the old problems are simply seen as new again because Americans have a very short memory, and they don’t learn from history.

Historian Jon Meacham’s book “American Gospel” is an immensely readable, fascinating, and objective historical overview of the conflict between politics and religion, between the religious and the secular, between private faith and public faith. It’s a short book (roughly 250 pages of text, with another 200 pages of end notes, appendices, and bibliography) that covers American history from the 16th-century to the Reagan Era and our attempts to meld and control religion and government.

Interestingly enough, Meacham’s book, published in 2006, does not cover the Bush Administration; he ends with the presidency of Ronald Reagan. It is, according to an afterword, a purposeful decision. He did not wish to cause problems or incite negative views of a sitting president. I admire his respectful decision, although, I will admit, it would have been interesting to read about the Bush presidency, which has, wittingly or unwittingly, ushered in a frightening era of radical religious fundamentalism.

To be fair, of course, President George W. Bush simply opened the door for people of faith to be more vocal about their religious views because Bush seemed like the first president to unashamedly espouse fundamentalist Christian views and speak openly about his faith. His openness excited Christians and terrified liberals and secularists.

There is nothing wrong with being open about one’s faith and espousing it. And, to be clear, Bush obviously wasn’t the first president to do so.

The problem becomes a question of fundamentalism.


American Extremism
If I had to articulate one major take-away from reading “American Gospel” it is that religion and politics can be a fruitful and healthy marriage as long as extremism on either side is kept in check, which is what the Founding Fathers had in mind when they wrote the Constitution.

Meacham writes, “If totalitarianism was the great problem of the twentieth century, then extremism is, so far, the great problem of the twenty-first. It need not be this way. Extremism is a powerful alliance of fear and certitude; complexity and humility are its natural foes. Faith and life are essentially mysterious, for neither God nor nature is easily explained or understood. Crusades are for the weak, literalism for the insecure. (p.17)”

It is perhaps odd that extremism in the U.S. should still be an issue, especially considering our rich history with religious extremism. It was, after all, a reaction to a perceived religious extremism of the British government that led many early colonists to the New World. While certainly not all colonists were fleeing religious persecution, a great many looked toward the New World as a place where they could, hopefully, be free to worship and believe according to the dictates of their own conscience and NOT the dictates of the British government.

Ironically, according to American history, the persecuted sometimes became the persecutors. Some of the first colonial settlements devised laws that were highly restrictive regarding religious worship. Connecticut, in 1650, made worshipping “any God but the Lord God” punishable by death.

Several famous incidents within the colonies involved religious zealotry and religious extremism, some of which ended in tragedy. All of these were first and foremost on the minds of the Founding Fathers when they met to create the Constitution. They noted “a consistent theme: civil societies dominated by compulsory religious rigidity were unhappy and intolerant, while religious liberty seemed to produce more prosperous, stable, and popular cultures. (p. 57)”

In Article XVI of the Virginia Declaration of Rights, using language similar to what would be used in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, writers George Mason and Patrick Henry decreed, “That religion, or the duty which we owe to our Creator, and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and conviction, not by force or violence; and therefore, all men are equally entitled to the free exercise of religion, according to the dictates of conscience, and that it is the mutual duty of all to practice Christian forbearance, love, and charity, towards each other. (p. 69)”

It is peculiar to secularists and, perhaps, integral to religious fundamentalists that the Founding Fathers would even create these documents using such religious language; liberally using words like “our Creator” and “Christian” throughout.

Their choice to do so has helped to incite a never-ending debate between secularists and religionists, neither side fully realizing or understanding how carefully crafted and nuanced such documents truly were.


Works in progress

“Properly understood, both religion and America were forged through compromise and negotiation. They are works in progress, open to new interpretation, amendment, and correction. It would be wrong to give up hope that things can get better, our conversations more civil, our culture more tolerant, our politics less virulent. The acts of reading, of contemplation and discovery, of writing poems and finding cures and composing symphonies are, for the religious, acts of piety, and of thanksgiving. For the secular, such things may be about the wonders of nature, or of rationality, or of logic. So be it: the point is that we are all on the same odyssey, if for different reasons. In either case, the story is about moving forward, through the darkness, searching for light. (p.18)”---Jon Meacham

The Founders, to the chagrin of secularists, were not completely atheists. They were, however, to the chagrin of Christian fundamentalists, not completely Christian, either. They all met somewhere in the middle, and that has made all the difference.

Heeding the warnings and the dangers of religious extremism throughout history, the Founders were extremely hesitant about making Christianity a state-sanctioned religion. Pre-Revolutionary public language was quite often steeped in overtly Christian language, and making open professions of one’s faith and belief in Christ’s divinity was common.

The Founders, in their declaration of independence from Britain, however, “were also making another declaration: that Americans respected the idea of God, understood the universe to be governed by moral and religious forces, and prayed for divine protection against the enemies of this world, but were not interested in establishing yet another earthly government with official ties to a state church. (p. 78)”

It is difficult for a twenty-first century mind---one programmed to believe or accept anything and everything---to comprehend just how revolutionary this concept of the establishment clause was to an 18th-century mind.

The idea that the U.S.A. is a “Christian nation” is completely antithetical to the Founders’ deepest intentions.

Meacham writes: “The intensity with which the religious right attempts to conscript the Founders into their cause indicates the importance the movement ascribes to historical benediction by association with the origin of the Republic. If [Jerry] Falwell and his seventy performers, or Tim LaHaye in his Faith of Our Founding Fathers can convince enough people that America was a Christian nation that has lost its way, the more legitimate their efforts in the political arena seem. The problem with their reading of history is that it is wrong. There is no doubt, as we have seen, that the Founders lived in and consciously bequeathed a culture shaped and sustained by public religion, one that was not Christian or Jewish or Muslim or Buddhist but was simply transcendent, with reverence for the “Creator” and for “Nature’s God”. To hope, as some secularists do, that faith will one day withdraw from the public sphere, if only this presidential candidate or that Supreme Court nominee comes to power, is futile. Humankind could not leave off being religious even if it tried. The impulse is intrinsic. (p. 233)”

What the Founders accomplished was both unprecedented and incredible: the Great Experiment that is our country is founded on the principle that, regardless of one’s religious views---and that includes those of us who choose to have none---we are not only equal under the Law but that no one is (to quote George Orwell from “Animal Farm”) “more equal” than others in the eyes of God.

[Bernard A. · Rating 5 out of 5]

In my years as a minister, I came to believe that The United States of America was founded as a Christian nation and, somehow, fell away from the true faith. As most Fundamentalists, I believed that America is the New Israel, chosen by God to be a haven of holiness and a light to the world, the Shining City on a Hill.

It took me years to break out of that mindset. In "American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation," Jon Meacham puts order to what I had put together on my own. America was, in fact, founded as a nation where all religions could exist in peace. Americans would be free to worship--or not worship--as they chose, not as dictated by the government.

Freedom of religion had long been a sticking point in America. Roger Williams and Ann Hutchinson were expelled from Massachusetts because the Puritans had established a colony that granted freedom for their own religion, not anyone else's. Later, Virginia law decreed that parents could have their children taken away if they did not baptize their children in the Anglican religion. These an d other stories showed the Founders that, "civil societies dominated by compulsory religious rigidity were unhappy and intolerant, while religious liberty seemed to produce more prosperous, stable, and popular cultures.

The Founders' own views on religion would not track well with the prevailing conservative view of today's American Church. In the treat with Tripoli, President John Adams wrote that America was not founded on the Christian religion. Franklin and Jefferson did not believe in the divinity of Jesus and, "the Holy Trinity was seen as an invention of a corrupt church more interested in temporal power than in true religion."

In the recent Presidential election, religion again became an national issue, from Romney's Mormonism to the religious objections to contraception. Once again, the myth that America was founded as a Christian nation was proffered as truth by the revisionist history of religious ultra-conservatives. "American Gospel" combats this ignorance with clear, well-researched history. Anyone who is repulsed by what is going on in the American church needs to read this book.

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I hear the claim that America needs to get back to being a "Christian nation," it makes me uncomfortable, and the reason is that the "gospel" of American public religion and the gospel of true Christianity are two different things. American public religion is based on the "God of Nature" of many of the Founding Fathers; even the Christian ones signed on to a view of the public God of America who is similar to the God of Christianity but does not, at least as far as I can tell, require and mediator. Orthodox Christianity requires a mediator, specifically Jesus Christ. True, Christianity and Christian people played a significant role in the history of our nation; but this has not been at any point in its history a specifically "Christian nation," and I think it is confusing to label it as such.

Meacham's book clearly lays out the history of religion in America and examines the contours of the American Gospel. He is widely read and uses original sources deftly to provide the reader with a clear overview of this important topic.

[Greg · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the trickiest subjects to discuss at any time is that of religion and, in these currently divisive and angry times, it is even more of a delicate matter.

As an American historian -- one who taught college early in my adult life and then a person who has always read deeply in history -- I frequently hear two equally false statements about "religion in the United States."

The first, also the oldest, is that the United States was founded as a Christian nation. Nope! The Founders wanted to avoid the entanglements that came with the state recognizing one or more religions as preferential. The first amendment to the Constitution makes this very clear.

The second, of growing currency in the midst of Christian conservatives asserting the former, is that the Founders hoped to keep religion entirely out of the public sphere. This is also wrong.

Most of the Founders were religious men, many of them formally affiliated with one or another of the Protestant churches then in existence. Even Washington and Jefferson -- two of the most prominent Founders who strictly avoided any public display of religion -- were Christians, albeit Jefferson admired Jesus of Nazareth for his moral code while being suspicious of his alleged divinity. Others were Deists, men who believed that the universe had a Creator but made no special claims about that Creator's nature.

Meacham's book ranges widely over this nation's history, and gives some attention to showing how the Founders came to incorporate the First Amendment provisions about religion in the Constitution. They were informed not only by their knowledge of the horrific wars of religion that had been fought for centuries following the 16th century Reformation, but also of the tensions and grievances that existed in some of the colonies which had various types of "established churches" prior to the Revolution.

Meacham repeatedly asserts that the Founders -- and a remarkable number of men and women after them prominent in public life -- did believe in what Meacham calls a "public religion," that is one that acknowledges the existence of a (undefined) deity in the Judaeo-Christian tradition and to whom they sought guidance during stressful times of this nation's history. He cites several examples that cover the spectrum of our history.

Such public religion -- seen in such manifestations as oath-taking on Bibles, the ritual invocation by presidents and the clerk of the Supreme Court in asking for God's blessings on the United States -- is a crucial glue, Meacham maintains, in helping bind what are really quite a disparate people as one, especially during times of crisis.

I suspect that modern secularists will find Meacham's conclusions unfortunate, but I think that he makes a convincing, truthful case for what will always be a contentious matter: some will think we are "too religious," especially as what faction or another appears to have the ear of those in power, and others will think we are not religious enough, even, God forbid, slipping into atheism.

"Can religion be a force for unity, not division, in the nation and the world?" Meacham asks. He goes on: "The Founders thought so, and so must we. As a force in the affairs of nations it must be managed and marshaled for good, for faith will be with us, as the scriptures say, to the end of this age. For many, reverence for one's own tradition is not incompatible with respect for the traditions of others...."

"Humility and a sense of history are our best hopes of avoiding the self-satisfaction of" of those convinced that only they have the truth. "Interpreting and ruling on the establishment and free-exercise clauses of the First Amendment will never be simple; there is no convenient three-point plan to offer as a way forward. Instead faith and politics and religion and public life will present each generation with dilemmas that are, in Augustine's phrase, so old and so new."

As always, it is up to us -- each generation -- to make the aspirations and guidelines set forth in the Constitution actually work. As today's roiling civic mess makes clear: this is far from being an easy task, but it is one to which we must always rally if our democratic republic is to survive.

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

#1 Best Book I Read in 2019

"The safety and prosperity of nations ultimately and essentially depend on the protection and the blessing of Almighty God, and the national acknowledgement of this truth is ... an indispensable duty which the people owe Him." - John Adams

"The government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion." - also John Adams

How could one president, in the course of one year, have both of those opinions? That's the question at the heart of this book. Adams honestly believed both statements were true, as did almost all of the other founders. They believed that "Nature's God" created everything, set everything into motion, and worked in the lives of the everyday person. They revered that God, and wanted Americans to be free to worship him as they saw fit.

But almost none of the founders considered themselves "Christian." Thomas Jefferson (literally) cut the parts about Jesus out of his Bible. He wrote, "While I claim a right to believe in one God, I yield as freely to others that of believing in three. Both religions, I find, make honest men, and that is the only point." In other words - Americans should believe in God because people who believe in a god make the best citizens.

As a Christian, I don't think good citizenship is the point of faith. But I think it's important for Christians to understand what our American history actually is, and that's why this book is so good.

It's not a perfect book - I think Meacham pushes the "Public Religion" a little too hard as the answer to society's ills. I wish he would have just presented the history. But that's a small quibble. This is a very well-written history that breaks through the "Christian nation/secular nation" rhetoric. Once you break through, you find the actual history of faith in America is incredibly compelling, and that the actual Christians in our history were on the right side of America's most contentious issues.

[Josh Tatum · Rating 3 out of 5]

Don't get me wrong, this book covers all the basic points of American religious history. Meacham does a decent job of telling the important - not just the popular - stories of the American religious experience; however, it is written like a Newsweek feature piece. It uses broad sweeps and makes broad generalizations, supported by the evidence that suits the author. Meacham's thesis is stereotypically Episcopalian: when confronted with a choice, Americans chose the middle. While it is true that a more radical position on either side of the one chosen can be found, this thesis does not stand in the face of history. Whether it be the Blaine amendments of the late nineteenth century, the religious zeal of the Great Awakenings, or the First Amendment itself, the U.S. has not always simply taken the Middle Way, and Meacham's preconceptions blind him to the courageous and sometimes dangerous stances the American populace has taken at points in history.

[Scott Neuhoff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Takeaway: as much as I want America to be a Christian nation, it is not and never has been.

[Brian Eshleman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rational, wise, balanced, gracious, these are not words that often surround or explode from the subject. They are, however, fitting descriptors for the author's tone in this book. This is fitting, somehow, since he seems to take the same approach to his biographical subjects.

[Maggie Doyle · Rating 3 out of 5]

The history of it all was so beautiful. I’ve been finding comfort in going back to the exceptionalism of the original founding ideals, especially in times that feel quite far from them.

However, the whole book was more a summary of quotes than a unifying theory of American public religion. The sense I get is that Meecham thinks public religion is kind of schrodingers cat, it is and it isn’t and we just shouldn’t try to hard to define it. Point heard evangelicals are wrong about the idea of a Christian nation, but kind of reductive to say anyone can insert their idea of God into public mentions of God in America. The ideals America was founded on (e.g. individual liberty) are pretty unique to the Judeochristian tradition, and other conceptions of religion do have real consequences for the ideals of a nation and the structure of a state. Idk. Thinking too much about the loss of cultural identity and meaning.

My favorite part was when Jackson brings in two Protestant ministers to be cross examined on the loose sexual morals of his secretary of war’s wife. History is so fun.

[☯Emily Ginder · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating look at how the founding fathers wanted to create a nation founded on Christian principles, but without any one religion taking precedence. These men wanted a worldly government where the people could be heard without the undue influence of one predominant sect.

Our founding fathers only had to look at Europe and its constant religious wars as an example. Many countries had a state religion that did not allow people to worship as they believed.

This separation between church and state has always been a balancing act, but the United States has been pretty successful in balancing the physical needs of the country, while allowing everyone to worship (or not) as they pleased. A large religious group in this country is trying to change this. Let's hope they are not successful.

[Elizabeth · Rating 1 out of 5]

Did not finish. I remember when this book came out, being really excited about introducing the concept of public religion and how that would change the discourse about separation of church and state. Unfortunately, instead of the theoretically driven analysis of American public life and how it can be read as a public religion, Meacham gives a defense of American exceptionalism based on the existence of a public religion. Choice quote: "Guided by this religiously inspired idea of God-given rights, America has created the most inclusive, freest nation on earth. It was neither easy nor quick: the destruction of Native American cultures, the ravages of slavery, the horrors of the Civil War, and the bitterness of Jim Crow attest to that." (Incidentally, this is one of the only places Meacham uses "Native Americans". Elsewhere it's always "the Indians"). I neither buy that what America has done is good, nor that its exceptional, and the few chapters of this book I could stomach did little to change that.

[Kevin Press · Rating 4 out of 5]

It probably won't come as a surprise that I found Meacham a bit dismissive of aetheism, but this book is very worthwhile just the same. It explains the misperceptions many of us have about the notion of a separation of church and state in the U.S. Meacham argues convincingly that it is practically impossible to separate the two. The Founding Fathers' notion of God-given, or natural rights are fundamental to our understanding of the U.S.

But it is just as incorrect to describe the U.S. as a Christian nation as it is to describe it as a secular nation. It is a republic that guarantees freedom of religion. In that way, it respects all religions equally (including the right not to believe). Meacham illustrates all this with multiple examples over three different centuries of U.S. politics, from pre-1776 to Ronald Reagan.

Really impressive.

[Valerie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't give too many 5 star ratings, but American Gospel was most deserving. This scholarly and thoughtful book about religion in American is a good refresher course in the American history and includes many facts not commonly taught. Starting with the colonists at Jamestown and ending with September 11, Meacham discusses how faith and religion played a part in the founding and development of our country. The last chapter is one of the best essays on the place of religion in America that I have every read. Whether you are a person of faith or not, I highly recommend this book.

[Brandon Escalona · Rating 2 out of 5]

Jon Meacham’s American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation gives a very extensive account of the role of religion throughout the history of the United States of America. This covers all the way from when the English Puritans were aboard the Mayflower in 1620, making their journey over to what will later become America, to the founding of America, all the way to the mid 20th century. Within the chapters, different topics are split into subsections, which range from a few paragraphs to a few pages in length. With this comes many different arguments about the various aspects of religion. However, throughout all of his discussions, Meacham consistently decides to take the middle ground. For example, he states that “belief in God is central to the country’s experience, yet for the broad center, faith is a matter of choice, not coercion, and the legacy of the Founding is that the sensible center holds” (5).
Even though Meacham makes various arguments in his book, there is one claim he continues to make from beginning to end: the benefits of religion throughout history have outweighed the costs. He extensively backs up this statement with a plethora of supporting evidence. In my opinion, one of Meacham’s strongest argument that helps strengthen his thesis is that humans naturally need someone to look up to when times get hard, which in this case, is God. This is an especially strong point since—according by Meacham—it is something that everybody can relate with. Additionally, it supplies a way that belief in God is able to improve the lives of the religious while not interfering with the nonbelievers. To make this point even stronger, Meacham follows up with a statement about the Founders’ belief: “religion, for all its faults, was an essential foundation for a people’s moral conduct and for American ideas about justice, decency, duty, and responsibility” (27). After discussing the Founders’ belief, he added in an opposing view, and went over how non-religious people still conducted themselves in a moral manner. This very well constructed argument in the Introduction Chapter, which included evidence and analysis, combined with the extensive 28-page bibliography included at the end of the book, leads the reader to believe that the rest of the book will also be filled with interesting arguments complete with an in-depth analysis for each. However, as I quickly found out, that is completely false.
The majority of American Gospel: God, The Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation is very poorly written in multiple aspects. One of the major flaws is an overuse of quotes and lack of analysis. This causes the book to be very boring in my opinion due to it just becoming a list of quotes. Very frequently, there is a new quote that is unrelated to Meacham’s almost non-existent argument after every two sentences, which leaves no room for analysis. There are even multiple quotes that take up more than a whole page, with little to no analysis afterwards.
Furthermore, Meacham tends to be extremely disorganized in structuring the information within each of the subsections. He jumps around from topic to topic, rarely leaving any analysis or transition between them. For example, Meacham was discussing Article XVI of the Virginia Declaration of Rights under a subsection titled “Diabolical Persecution.” The main focus of that subsection was George Madison asking Patrick Henry to change a phrase in the document from “all men should enjoy the fullest toleration in the exercise of religion” to “all men are equally entitled to the free exercise of religion” (69). The vote occurred on Wednesday, June 12, 1776. This subsection seems to flow smoothly at first. However, at the end of the paragraph that mentioned the vote, Meacham’s only analysis to the quote he gave was “It was indeed” (70). The very first sentence of the following paragraph, with no transition nor additional analysis in between, is “The months between the autumn of 1775 and the spring of 1776 were dark ones for Jefferson” (70). This paragraph is unrelated to the rest of the subsection. In the entire part that comes before it, Meacham never mentions Jefferson even once, making the sudden change even more confusing.
Meacham’s writing style takes away a lot of the persuasive power his arguments might have had. In addition to having holes in the analysis that is meant to support his claims, failure to analyse evidence against his claim hurts his assertion. Often, Meacham will supply an opposing person’s point of view and reasoning, like a good argument should include. However, the lack of analysis and a rebuttal to it causes Meacham to almost nullify the point he is trying to get across to the readers.
If his arguments weren’t already bad enough, many of them are based off of false assumptions about religion in the past. According to another reviewer of Meacham’s work, Gordon S. Wood, a Professor of History Emeritus at Brown University, Meacham incorrectly assumes that the Founders lived in a time similar to our own. Additionally, Wood states that Meacham “tends to ignore the fact that the First Amendment then applied to only the federal government and not to all the states.
Through reading this book, my knowledge of American history has grown by a decent amount. On the other hand, Meacham has not deepened my understanding of American history in any noticeable way. This is due to him covering many unrelated topics for short amounts of time without any analysis. It seemed more like a brief overview of events like the Founding of America and World War 2 as opposed to a history book.
I would only recommend American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation to people who either aren’t bothered by an overuse of quotes and lack of analysis, want to appear as an intellectual as a result of buying a history book written by a winner of the Pulitzer Prize, are rich enough to buy books for their collection without ever reading them, or people who have read every other history book that exists and have none left to read. Other than that, I wouldn’t recommend this book to anyone.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

"The preponderance of historical evidence, however, suggests that the nation was not "Christian" but rather a place of people whose experience with religious violence and the burdens of established churches led them to view religious liberty as one of humankind's natural rights--a right as natural and as significant as those of thought and expression."

This one was a complex reading experience for me. The authors says from the get go that this is not an in-depth history, it is an essay on religion and its role in American public life, and he covers such vast swath of time that by necessity he must skim across the events. I learned a few things I had not known (that Jews settled in the colonies in 1654, that slaves, some of them Muslim, were brought to Jamestown in 1619), and yet I feel that this topic of religion, and the many things in civil life it touches on, required deeper argument and analysis. I found this book both fascinating and frustrating, and also think I might have reacted differently to it if I had read it closer to when it was published, and not now, in 2017.

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was fighting an uphill battle with me after the introduction and first chapter. In the end, I was quite swayed. Set against the backdrop of history, change, activism, politics and progress in the US - the argument for moderate views on religion in politics is compelling.

I think the book starts pretty heavy-handed with its goals and thesis, in a way that I found immediately off-putting, but despite my bristling, I finished and Meacham certainly made his point to me. It’s a book I would love to see many more people read and consider genuinely.

Plus there were so many fun history facts about American figures and their relationship to religion!

[BooksNCrannies · Rating 3 out of 5]

While American Gospel contains a thought-provoking historical essay on American religion, some vague points and phraseology as well as the author's inconsistent position on Scripture make this an average read.

✏️ Review ✏️

In American Gospel Jon Meachem guides readers through the history of the United States, exploring both the implicit and explicit religious influences of the nation from colonial times to the early 2000s. Neither fervently Christian nor arduously secular, American Gospel examines the fine threads of America's religious history in a middle-of-the-road approach. Jon Meachem appeals to both the beliefs of Christians and secularists alike as he presents his treatise and applies the historical implications to the present day. While this apparently neutral approach is enlightening on many historical fronts (especially about the United States' founding), I found Meachem's language and phraseology to many times be vague, which leads to some confusion or unnecessarily overcomplicating many points.

Meachem tries his best to please both conservative Christians and liberal secularists throughout American Gospel. Despite Meachem trying to maintain neutrality, Meachem's bias towards a more liberal ideology is readily and subtly apparent in his remarks and commentaries on certain issues. His attempts at trying to defend Christianity from criticism while at the same time scoffing at historical sections of Scripture — such as Genesis — then calling them mythology as well as virtually denying Jesus' death and resurrection makes for a flawed defense premise from the very start. This ultimately weakens or negates many of his arguments throughout the book. Not to mention that many of the author's proposals discredit or do not align with the very Scripture he seems to be clinging to (see Random Comments below).

Although I did say that Meachem's phraseology on many points could be vague, the writing style itself is one that exudes a manner of eloquence. Meachem's incorporation of fresh vocabulary and syntax as well as his smooth integration of quotes and historical details provides for an engaging narrative (albeit the many vague sections do counteract against this engaging style, though).

This book is not meant to be a detailed or complex historical examination of American religion. Rather, American Gospel provides a thorough yet succinct overview of this topic. As the author explains, "My aim... is not to be comprehensive but to give readers a sense of the scope and debate" of American theology and religion. Many times, though, I found this overview style to be annoying in the way that it doesn't go very deeply into the history presented, leaves many of the author's points incomplete, and makes the reader grasping for further historical background more often than not. But I thought that many of the points Meachem made were insightful and balanced. He explains how the view that the founding fathers wanted the American government to be devoutly Christian is incorrect; and he also shows that arguing for the belief that the founding fathers wanted no religion in government is based on ignorance of the historical facts.

American Gospel provides a succinct overview of religion in American society and government. I would caution readers to be discerning, however, as not everything the author explains or promotes is correct or biblical (including many subtle implications which I do not have time to dive into in the Random Comments below; I trust that mature readers will be able to sort through this material). But if you want a topical read on this subject, then American Gospel will deliver a thought-provoking perspective of the role of God and religion in the past and present United States of America.

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📊 A Quick Overview 📊

👍🏼 What I Liked:
• The historical exploration of the role of religion in American society and government.
• The way this history is presented succinctly.
• The writing style — it contains an air of eloquence and features fresh vocabulary and syntax.

👎🏼 What I Did Not Like:
• The unclear/vague language and phraseology on certain topics.
• The author's flawed premise at defending Christianity — makes some of his arguments on this topic weak and invalid throughout the book.
• The unbiblical ideas the author promotes (see Random Comments).

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❓ To Read or Not To Read? ❓

— Would I recommend this book? Yes, selectively.*

— To whom? To those who are looking for a succinct though still informative look at the role religion has played in American society and government and how the founders and presidents viewed God and religion; and if you are aware of the author's bias towards a more liberal ideology, which promotes some unbiblical ideas (both subtle and obvious). Also, note that this book covers many sections of American history in a very brief manner, so having a working knowledge of U.S. history is a must while reading American Gospel.

*(Note: I leave it up to each individual to decide the maturity and discernment level required to read the books I recommend, based on my content warnings below [in my Book Breakdown]. My content warnings [if any] should always be considered alongside my recommendations when deciding who these books are best suited for.)

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📖 BOOK BREAKDOWN 📖 (Overall: 3/5)
~Fundamentals {Nonfiction Version}: (1=worst; 5=best)
— 📑 Didactics: 3/5

— 📝 Writing: 4/5

— 👀 Engagement: 3/5

— 🧩 Clarity: 2.5/5

~Content: (0=none; 1=least; 5=most)

— 🤬 Language: 2/5

• One vain use of God's name, one use of "g*dd*nm(ed)," two uses of "d*mn(ed)," one use of "a**," and two uses of "hell."

• Includes a blasphemous statement about God (the author does not endorse this type of language but includes it only for illustrative purposes).

— ⚔️ Violence: 1/5

• Recounts an instance of torture (mentions blood).

— ⚠️ Sexual: 1/5

• A few nondescript references to affairs.

• Briefly mentions homosexuality, rape, and incest.

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📣 Random Comments 📣

• Content notes: Do be aware of some obvious and not-so-obvoious unbiblical beliefs/ideas/philosophies presented in American Gospel (this is not a comprehensive list): (1) the the author believes the book of Genesis to be a myth and that Jesus' death and resurrection are just a "story." (It is interesting to note that the author is at least being logical here: when believing that Genesis is a myth, it is only natural and consistent that one would then delegate the Gospels as myths as well — for the very purpose and foundation of the Gospels is rooted in the first few chapters of Genesis, which explains the origins of sin and the need for a Redeemer.); (2) the author hints at or obviously states that Christians should be more tolerate of the sinful practices of abortion and homosexuality; (3) he excuses a nation's sins and seems to expound the belief that God does not or will never judge a nation for its sin; (4) the author proposes that if an individual discerns new truths different from "standing scriptural interpretation," then that person's reasoning is superior and should be embraced as the truth (yes, there are instances where a person's understanding of biblical ideas is wrong and needs to be corrected; but the author makes this a catch-all statement — he thinks the entire Bible should take a back seat position to fallible humanity's science and reasoning); (5) the author asserts that war is biblically justified and that "killing other creatures of God" for freedom's sake is Scripturally sanctioned.

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💬 Favorite Quotes 💬

• Extremism is a powerful alliance of fear and certitude; complexity and humility are it's natural foes. (p. 17)

[Steven Peterson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an interesting reflection on the role of religion in public life and government in the United States. Meacham's basic thesis is that the Founding Fathers "got it right." With respect to Jefferson (sometimes referred to as "Jefferson the atheist" in his own time) (page 4): "Jefferson surveyed and staked out an American middle ground between the ferocity of evangelizing Christians on one side and the contempt for religion of secular philosophes on the other. The right would like Jefferson to be a soldier of faith, the left an American Voltaire. He was, depending on the moment, both or neither; he was, in other words, a lot like many of us." Meacham goes on to note that (page 5) "Belief in God is central to the country's experience, yet for the broad center, faith is a matter of choice, not coercion, and the legacy of the Founding is that the sensible center holds."

Meacham is quite critical of the Christian political activists, such as Jerry Falwell, who wish to impose their own religious views on the larger public; on the other hand, he speaks admiringly of Billy Graham, after he ceased politicizing religion, as a better role model.

The book begins with the roots of American history, which includes theocracy and religious intolerance in Massachusetts. Meacham is not sympathetic with this wedding of religion and politics. He is more positive about the experience in Pennsylvania. When he examines the development of the Constitution, he is fairly nuanced in noting that the Founders were religious--but did not want to impose their own faith on all. He author notes how Madison's Federalist # 10, by advocating a large republic, justified a system where no single religious grouping could exercise power over the republic, since there were so many different faiths.

He then traces the role of religion and its linkages to politics over American history. He notes the place of religion for a variety of presidents, from Lincoln onward to contemporary times.

He concludes with the following sentiments (page 243): ". . .a true Christian ought to be more interested in making the life of the world gentle for others than he should be in asserting the dominance of his own faith. . . . If the first shall be last and the last first, then who are Christians to exert power over others by the sword or the purse or the polling place?"

This is an interesting work, making one think about the complex linkages between religion and government. The course of American history provides many examples--good, bad, and ugly--of how this has worked. I am not completely satisfied with Meacham's argument. Some of the narrative seems to drift away from the thesis he is advancing. Many examples are so brief that it is not fully clear how they mesh with his thesis. Nonetheless, in the end, this book is thought-provoking and provides a sensible perspective on the religion-government relationship.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

A deeply researched work with profoundly un-intellectual conclusions

Religious moderation is the preachment in these pages. To disavow religion in public life would be contrary to the delicate balancing act performed by the Founders, who were occasionally agnostics but more likely Christians or Deists, and skeptics all. Our greatest minds were motivated to varying degrees by religious faith – and now we have a work where Meacham boldly supports it as a core of the American experience (i.e. nothing substantive needs to change in our public discourse). But 18th century knowledge of evolution and cosmology and physics and biology and germ theory was hopelessly primitive! We have abandoned these regressive ideas and surely Meacham’s thesis reflects this! the reasonable among us might rejoinder. Shhh say the promulgators of religious moderation, Meacham unfortunately among them. It’s part of our history. Hush now.

Curiously, he makes no mention of the current public support enjoyed by religious organizations, most visibly in the form of tax incentives. It would prove enlightening to see how he squares this fact with the sentiments of the book. “God” should not be stricken from public life, he argues. Americans are deeply religious. They are not consummate followers of church doctrine, but Americans’ faith remains important to the daily lives of a majority in this country. The separation of church and state and the freedom from religion would seem to exclude religious organizations from public support. It is why churches of Flying Spaghetti Monsterism (FMSism) do not enjoy tax breaks.

Meacham makes a host of platitudes towards the cause of ecumenism, tolerance, and maintaining our collective faith. This tepid religious moderation provides no easy answers for the most pressing of real-world, modern questions to which the faithful among us have no useful things to say. Perhaps facing hard questions was simply too ambitious for a work of this kind. The axiomatically praised Reagan and Carter are not carrying the torches of the Deists Jefferson and Lincoln, with their unhelpful apocalyptic theology. Our next generation of American heroes in religious thought needs to have ideas compatible with modernity. That is to say: nonreligious thought.

[Colleen Browne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although by no means an exhaustive review of the subject, Meacham's book does a great job of explaining the difference between what he calls the public God and the private God. The public God is the god of nature referred to by Jefferson, Lincoln, TR, FDR, and most of the leaders in our history. It refers to kind of a generic god that is not specific. It can be Christian or non-Christian, or even atheist. He also discusses the Evangelicals of the last 40 years or so who have attempted to push the lie that the Founders were Christians who created a Christian nation.
This book is a balanced, well researched (like all of Meacham's work) book. If I have a criticism it is his discussion of Reagan. Always worshipping at the alter of Reagan, he (not for the first time) trips over himself expounding on the greatness of Reagan. For example, he talks about Reagan preaching tolerance and against racism but ignores the fact that Reagan announced his 1980 candidacy in Philadelphia, Mississippi the site of the 1964 murders of civil rights workers and his use of the racially charged term "welfare queens". I could go on. I guess for Meacham Reagan's words rather than his actions defined him.

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meacham is no historian and this is abundantly clear after reading this book. The content is interesting, but as a journalist Meacham does little more than document the major instances where God/religion appears in American political life and provides a slight exposition on the context and complexity of that appearance. With a misleading title, the 250 pages (before the appendices) of this book cover from the Jamestown settlement to September 11th, Meacham gives only a cursory glance at topics that could take up an entire book on their own and is basically a literature review rather than original research. Overall, perhaps an interesting read for someone unacquainted with the subject and only interested in an overview, but incredibly disappointing for someone looking for actual analysis of the place of God within the origins of the American political system.

[Bryson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jon Meacham's “American Gospel” is a book which shows us different aspects of religion and religious views during various time periods through the lense of the founding fathers. The book starts during the colonial time speaking of Historical figures including Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and George Washington. It progresses into later time periods speaking of other important American figures such as Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt, and Martin Luther King Jr. Meacham uses these figures and examples of their experiences to make the claim that religion and government should be intertwined. Meacham argues that the US government should embrace religious freedom as the founding fathers did. Throughout the first chapter of the book, Meacham tries to show that religious freedom has been a core concept of America since its creation. He acknowledges that religious freedom wasn’t the reason for the first settlers to come to America. On page 41, Meacham says “The first permanent English settlers arrived in search of gold not Gold.” Meacham tries to use this information to show that before the creation of America’s government, religious freedom wasn’t apart of America. Although this may clear up some ideas about America's founding, in the end, it is somewhat contradictory to Meacham’s argument. By opening the book with a segment about the lack of religious freedom in the early days of America, then proceeding to talk about how the founding fathers were religiously tolerant, this makes Meacham’s work inconsistent, occasionally confusing and hard to follow. On page 55 of the book, Meacham states the concept of religious freedom began to become accepted around the late 17th century. This is because of the Enlightenment and the Great Awakening happening during the time period. The founding fathers applied the concept of religious freedom to the Government's creation. They managed to use the term “God” in the Declaration of Independence without deliberately referencing any specific god or religion. Instead they also reference “nature” and a “creator”. They did this considering the concept of religious freedom. This is also why they didn’t reference God at all in America’s founding document, the U.S. Constitution. If the Founding Fathers wanted Religion to be tied in to the Government, they would have explicitly included this detail in the Constitution. Instead, they excluded the detail to allow people to believe what they want so that the chance of an oppressive or dominant rule that could be established would be lowered. This further shows evidence to why religion and government should be kept separate. On pages 56 - 61, Meacham tries explaining the diversity within the founding fathers. He goes into considerable detail about the complexities of their beliefs, especially the belief of Thomas Jefferson. Though they may have different religious beliefs, they are still not very diverse because they are all still different Christian sects. In order for the Founding Fathers to be truly diverse, other religions outside of Christianity would need to be represented. The Founding Fathers couldn't have accurately predicted the religious diversity represented today, therefore integrating religion into government would be too difficult and unfair for many people. Meacham’s work can also be hard to follow due to his constant movement between ideas. Though Meacham will stay within a certain time period, he will move from one area to a different, very loosely related topic that can make it hard for the reader to follow his writing style. For instance, on pages 123 to 126, Meacham talks about slave owners using the Bible to justify their actions. On page 127, Meacham uses a rough transition to speaking about “The 17th century battle between the Catholic hierarchy and Galileo on whether the Earth revolved around the sun or vise versa.” This transition amongst others can occasionally make Mecham’s work a bit more unappealing. Though his work may be hard to follow, Meacham still makes very compelling points about religion and brings up interesting religious perspectives. He speaks about religion's effect on leaders, decisions, opinions, and events such as Martin Luther King’s peaceful protests, Lincoln emancipating the slaves, the people’s opinion on John F Kennedy, and America’s involvement in WWII. He shows us that religion plays a major role in American society even if it isn’t apart of our government. Meacham’s writing brings ideas to your attention you normally wouldn’t recognize. This book is good for anyone who likes American history or anyone who likes to look into the subtext of ideas. If you like to learn about different religious ideas, events, and their impact on today’s society, then this is the book for you. Meacham, working as an editor and journalist for the Times, is a very educated historian. His insights on religions on American History and religion may sometimes be hard to follow, are always fascinating, highlighting key historical events. Though you may not always agree with Meacham’s views, each chapter is full of new events and content for you to learn about.

[Chad Manske · Rating 4 out of 5]

Meacham’s “American Gospel is a thought-provoking and insightful exploration of the intersection of religion and politics in America’s early history. Meacham, a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, delves into the beliefs and values of the Founding Fathers and their influence on the formation of the United States as a nation. An interesting aspect of Meacham’s book is his nuanced analysis of how the Founding Fathers navigated the complex relationship between religion and government. Meacham argues that the Founding Fathers were deeply influenced by their religious beliefs, but also recognized the importance of separating church and state to ensure religious freedom for all citizens. He paints a vivid picture of the struggles and debates that shaped the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, highlighting the delicate balance between religious liberty and political power. Meacham’s writing is engaging and accessible, making “American Gospel” a compelling read for both scholars and general readers. He brings to life the personalities and ideologies of figures such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin, showing how their diverse religious backgrounds shaped their vision for a new nation. Meacham’s thorough research and meticulous attention to detail lend credibility to his arguments, providing readers with a comprehensive understanding of the historical context in which the United States was founded. Overall, “American Gospel” is a must-read for anyone interested in American history, religion, or politics. Meacham’s thoughtful analysis and compelling storytelling make this book a valuable contribution to the ongoing conversation about the role of religion in American life. Whether you are a scholar seeking new insights or a casual reader looking for a captivating narrative, “American Gospel” is sure to enlighten and inspire.

[Damian Leverett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Meacham point is an important one and he makes it well. With concise and gripping historical depictions of important American figures from Jefferson to FDR to MLK to Reagan, Meachem is able to clearly define the American civil religion and its essential role in our nation's founding and development. So many of the struggles and debates in politics today are based around virtues deeply rooted in the American story. Faith is not the enemy and never has been. Rather, respecting the role of civil religion, Meachem points us towards how it might be a tool for the future, facing the challenges of today, and fighting the divisive extremism of radical religious and secular factions-and the harmful polarization they contribute to.

As a believer in Jesus, the Bible, and the supremacy of God in all things, I found this book helpful in distinguishing my faith and my duties as a citizen and participant in the American story. The two are not mutually exclusive and my faith is not/cannot/should not be divorced from my civic life. But at the same time I must and should respect the importance of having a civil society in which religious sectarian power is limited in the public sphere and people are free to believe and not beleive as they will. As someone who beliefs that faith in Jesus is the only salvation, this gives me hope. It makes me proud of what our nation can be when at its best and deeply committed to confronting what it often becomes at its worst.

[Sherrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

For a book published in 2006, American Gospel feels incredibly timely. So much of our public lives (news, media, etc) is colored by the opposition of people who believe the United States is a "christian nation" versus those who believe in complete separation of church and state.

The author goes through the writings of several founding fathers to show that they understood religion and government in a much more nuanced way. They wanted to form a nation where both could flourish. While they were almost all some form of Christian, the differences between their beliefs were strong enough to guide them to want a level of separation. They understood that the nation would become even more diverse over time.

I found the chapters on the earliest years of our nation affirming. I often feel that I'm the only person who believes as I do when it comes to faith and politics (public and private beliefs are fully separate, but informing one another) but it's clear that the founders of the United States felt similarly. The author believes we can get to that place again and I hope he is right.

Latter chapters move forward through history. Perhaps because I'm more familiar with modern history, but I found these eras less interesting. I know that people have used religion to justify the worst parts of our history. And also that religion can be credited with some of the best parts (example: slavery).

Overall, a good book that left me feeling encouraged about our ability to come to a place of mutual respect and coexistence. I desperately need to feel that encouragement these days.

[Judy · Rating 4 out of 5]

From George Washington to H.W.R. Bush, Meacham follows the history of religion among our nation's presidents and civic leaders. No matter their personal beliefs, most president's concurred with the founding father's insistence that the government at all levels be separate from religion, whether Catholic, protestant, synagogue, mosque or temple. Yet nearly all professed a "public religion" which informed the morals, values, and dreams of the whole nation. More importantly, the American people have on the whole followed a moderate course, holding to the founding fathers firm belief that "no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus building a wall of separation between Church and State. (Thomas Jefferson). There is an excellent bibliography and appendix. It is only when the extremists on either end of the religious spectrum attempt to attach religion to our legislatures and courts that we are in peril of losing "freedom" of religion.

[Joseph Sciuto · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jon Meacham's "American Gospel" is a detailed and comprehensive look at America and the influence religion has had throughout our country's existence from the time that the Mayflower landed at Plymouth to the present (2007). The "Separation of Church and State" (Also referred to as the Wall) is a theme discussed heavily throughout the book and if one comes away with anything, it is the importance in keeping the two separate that is one of the main reasons America has remained a democracy, not a theocracy, and the envy of the world. Welcoming people of all faiths and allowing the free practice and worship of the religion of your choice, is a hallmark that distinguished our country from other countries for centuries. 

Unlike other novels by Mr. Meacham, I found "American Gospel" quite a cumbersome and unwieldy book to read, possibly because of all the quotes. In truth, I could not wait to finish the book, and yet I cannot deny the importance of the subject and great analysis the author offers.