Was the early United States a “Christian nation?” Did most of its citizenry accept God and the Bible as the moral authority that bound them together as one nation?
Scholars have taken a binary stance on these questions. Some argue that early America was a thoroughly religious place and that even those who didn’t attend church were on the same basic page as those who did. While others argue early America boasted an increasingly secularized society.
Christopher Grasso, a professor of history at William & Mary and the author of Skepticism and American Faith: From the Revolution to the Civil War, challenges and complicates these two ideas by offering a third explanation: the religious landscape of early America was a continuum where many people experienced both faith and doubt over the course of their lives.
Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/214
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Complementary Episodes
Episode 117: Annette Gordon-Reed, The Life and Ideas of Thomas Jefferson
Episode 127: Caroline Winterer, American Enlightenments
Episode 134: Spencer McBride, Pulpit and Nation
Episode 169: Thomas Kidd, The Religious Life of Benjamin Franklin
Episode 182: Douglas Winiarski, Darkness Falls on the Land of Light, the Great Awakening in New England
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