Protestant Institutionalism and Christian America

During this first half-century of the republic, America’s religious and moral character was of interest not merely to culture warriors or to scholars as it is now, but to statesmen, jurists, and university presidents building the new nation. To discern Protestantism’s role in this period properly, Smith says we must reject the more familiar academic methodology focusing on a growing evangelical movement. In that familiar framing, used by Noll and others, Protestant influence in America is synonymous with biblicism, activism, and revivalism: it is concerned mostly with atonement or apocalypse. Above all, the evangelical is a reformer. While he may become an obnoxious moralist or slip into ugly apologetics for slavery, racism, or nativism, he’s never an irredeemable revanchist. He is likely to be a patriot during the Revolution, an advocate for religious freedom, abolition, women’s suffrage, and civil rights. Protestantism in this framing is individualistic if not always liberal.  Read Full Article »