American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation
Jon Meacham, 2006
Random House
448 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780812976663
Summary
The American Gospel—literally, the good news about America—is that religion shapes our public life without controlling it. In this vivid book, New York Times bestselling author Jon Meacham tells the human story of 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. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—May 20, 1969
• Where—Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA
• Education—B.A., University of the South
• Awards—Pulitizer Prize
• Currently—lives in New York City and Sewanee, Tennessee
Jon Meacham is an American publisher, journalist and author of historical works. His books include Thomas Jefferson: the Art of Power (2012); American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House (2008); American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation (2006); and Franklin and Winston: An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship (2003). Meacham was awarded the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for American Lion.
Currently executive editor and executive vice president of Random House, Meacham is also a contributing editor to Time magazine, a former editor of Newsweek, and has written for the New York Times and Washington Post, among other publications. He is a regular contributor on Meet the Press, Morning Joe, and Charlie Rose. A Fellow of the Society of American Historians, Meacham serves on the boards of the New-York Historical Society, and the Churchill Centre.
Background
An only child, Meacham's parents divorced when he was young and he spent his middle and high school years living with his grandfather, Judge Ellis K. Meacham. A legendary figure in Chattanooga and a renowned author, the Judge is credited with giving Meacham his interest in history.
Meacham attended the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee, graduating summa cum laude in English Literature. He studied religion under the revered professor Herbert S. Wentz, was salutatorian and elected to Phi Beta Kappa.
Meacham began his journalistic career at the Chattanooga Times. In 1995 he joined Newsweek as a writer, became national affairs editor in June of that year, and was named managing editor in November 1998 at age 29. In September 2006, he was promoted to the position of editor. He supervises the magazine's coverage of politics, international affairs, and breaking news, and has written cover stories on politics, religion, race, guns in America, and the death of Ronald Reagan.
He and his wife, a Mississippi native, University of Virginia and Columbia University Teachers College graduate, and the former Executive Director of the Harlem Day Charter School, live in New York City and Tennessee. (Adapted from the publisher and Wikipedia. Retrieved 1/16/2014.)
Book Reviews
[E]xamines over 200 years of American history in its quest to prove the idea of religious tolerance, along with the separation of church and state, is "perhaps the most brilliant American success." Meacham's... insights into the religious leanings of Jefferson, Franklin, Adams and Co. present a new way of considering the government they created.... [A] remarkable grasp of the intricacies and achievements of a nascent nation.
Publishers Weekly
Meacham here holds that, despite the strong religious differences of the Founding Fathers, religion...shaped the Constitution and the nation without strangling it. This is quite an argument to make given the...Quakers were at odds with Anglicans, and New Englanders engaged in witch trials while building a "City of God." Others massacred Indians.... [Yet] it was recognized that... God provided could and would serve as a uniting factor. Meacham provides a balanced account. —George Westerlund, formerly with Providence P.L., Palmyra, VA
Library Journal
Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
Also, consider these LitLovers talking points to help start a discussion for American Gospel:
1. Begin by talking about the religious views of each of the Founding Fathers. In their writings, they considered religion to be the basis for morality, but what were their individual, personal religious beliefs? Were they Deists, Christians, or aethists? Or doesn't it matter?
2. Why did the Founding Fathers consider religion important for the nation? What role did they envision it playing in communal life and in government? What was meant by "religious freedom"? What do we mean by it today? What about the phrase "separation of church and state"—where did it come from and what did it mean, then and now?
3. Jon Meacham says of the early years of this nation that "their time is like our time." What does he mean...and do you agree?
4. How would you describe the religious environment in colonial, revolutionary and post-revolutionary times? Why, for instance, in 1774 was there opposition to prayer in the Continental Congress? Why did the Episcopalians object?
5. In a treaty ratified by the Senate in 1797, John Adams wrote that "the Government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion," a statement that has caused much discussion and controversy as to its intent. What does Meacham have to say about Adam's statement? In what context does he place it?
6. Overall do you find that Meacham's discussion of religion in politics—arguably America's most divisive issue—makes any progress in moderating the subject? Do you find his book satisfying...enlightening...or off the mark? Has it altererd, or confirmed, your understanding of the place of religion in America?
7. Meacham seems to place himself in the middle: neither a religious zealot nor a diehard aethist. What does it mean to be moderate, to be in the middle of the road when it comes to religion in public life? Is compromise weakness, a betrayal of deeply held principles? Or is moderation the basis of tolerance? Where do you place yourself?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)