Steven K. Green. Inventing a Christian America

Steven K. Green is a lawyer as well as a historian, and he is one of the most notable contemporary experts on the history of American church-state relations. His earlier books and articles on this subject have primarily focused on the later nineteenth century. In this book, Green examines an earlier period from the colonial era to the early republic. Green explores an issue that has been one of his main interests since his 1998 dissertation: the roots of the idea that the U.S. is a Christian nation. He declares that his intention is to “unravel the myth of America’s religious foundings” (vii). He sees this myth as having two parts: that early American settlers intended “to establish a regime of religious liberty” and that “the political values and governing structures that emerged during the founding period owe their lineage particularly to Christian influences” (viii). He assures the reader that he respects the universal desire of all nations and peoples to have historical myths and that he does not consider a myth to be synonymous with a lie or a falsehood. Within a few paragraphs, however, he refers to “misconceptions” and “misunderstandings” (viii), and as the book progresses it becomes clear that Green does view these myths as creating a false narrative of American religious history, a false narrative that he believes greatly overemphasizes the role of explicitly Christian influences in the founding of the U.S. (The book jacket is more candid when it disparagingly refers to the Christian founding as “little more than a myth.”)

Aesthetics · Art · Literature · Mythology · Narrative · Period (music) · Political science · Politics · Sociology · State (computer science) · Subject (documents) · Classics · Historical Studies and Socio-cultural Analysis · History · Law · Philosophy · Religious studies · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies