Conceived in Doubt

Amanda Porterfield's book seeks to explain “the massive shift in the early republic from deism to evangelical religion” (p. ix). While pursuing that historiographical task, the book also tacitly poses two questions of ongoing political relevance: When did religious skepticism become the kiss of death in the politics of the United States? How did American evangelicalism acquire its antipathy to an activist federal government? Porterfield locates her answers in the Jeffersonian ascendancy. Prior to that moment of Democratic-Republican dominance, she argues, Americans across the social spectrum felt relatively free to subject both traditional forms of governmental authority and biblical Christianity to critical scrutiny. This spirit of open inquiry was sustained by the Revolution's high hopes for human reason. However, as the new nation divided into rival political camps, faced the uncertainties of a speculative economy, wrestled with the dangers of racial division, and feared the full implications of democracy, self-doubting Americans looked for a transcendent source of stability and assurance. Evangelical Christianity fit the bill

Antipathy · Christianity · Democracy · Historiography · Jeffersonian democracy · Political science · Politics · Politics of the United States · Sociology · American Constitutional Law and Politics · Law · Philosophy · Religion and Society Interactions · Religious studies · Religious Studies