Questions relating to “religion and politics,” which have certainly presented lively debates in recent years, have been part of the American agenda for discussion since the beginning of the republic. Jefferson's letter to the Danbury Baptist Association in 1802, which speaks of a “wall of separation between church and state,” has caused more rather than less disputation on the subject. Recent studies have begun to examine more closely the religious mindset and practices of the founding generation and have proposed a host of revisions that move the discussion beyond the worn-out stereotypes.

In this carefully documented study, Professor Sandoz does not shrink from taking firm views on many of the issues relating to the role of faith in national life, past and present. In nine intriguing chapters, the book brings to light much of the recent scholarship in the area that supports the view that Protestant Christianity had a formative role in the founding of the American republic. The chapters, ranging from seven to fifty-two pages, fall into four main sections: observations on the intellectual context of the founding period, the nature of republicanism in America, the reflection of those ideas in the work of Eric Voegelin, and an epilogue on the concept of truth as it relates to the conceptions of history and the realities it portrays in human experience.

The first and lengthiest chapter is an intriguing synopsis of some specific elements of the role of religion in the founding period, including the ideas of Jonathan Edwards and John Wesley, two of the most influential Protestant thinkers of the period. Knowledgeable readers will find the discussion of the role of Edwards and Wesley in the shaping of the American religious and political mindset both informed and stimulating. The chapter examines carefully the interstices of biblical, philosophical, anthropological, epistemological, and political thought, using specific references to historical documents while drawing broad strokes that present a convincing picture of the period. In the process, the footnotes reveal a number of prime supporters from the current ranks of the academy, such as Mark Noll, Nathan Hatch, John Wigger, and David Martin. The author asserts that Christianity still plays an important role in shaping American society, just as it was instrumental in establishing the moral and legal framework of the republic in the founding period.

The nature and development of constitutional democracy, the rule of law based on individual liberty under the guidance of divine providence, comprises the next three chapters and represents the heart of the book. The narrative ranges from discussing the role of preachers in the Revolution to examining the work of James Madison on the Bill of Rights. The acknowledgment of American exceptionalism is never far from the surface of the discussion—the idea that the constitutional democracy established in the United States is the basis of a political reality that, if not unique in the history of civilization, is singularly distinctive in its manifestation on these shores. The book presents a strong argument that Christianity demonstrably plays a central role in shaping the virtue, morality, and liberty that are basic to the American republic, and that the biblical faith of Americans represents the “chief source of its strength and enduring resilience” (101–102)—no longer a popular view among the deconstructionists and reconstructionists who examine the same scenery.

The third section of the book examines more particularly the thought of Eric Voegelin, especially his later work and its contribution to the understanding of history and of religious experience. Professor Sandoz is Director of the Eric Voegelin Institute for American Renaissance Studies at Louisiana State University and has published several volumes by and about this prolific political philosopher. In many ways, the framework for this study emerges from the perspective of the somewhat mystic philosophy of Voegelin. Of particular concern in this study is the relationship of philosophy to history and to faith. The views expressed on these pages concerning reason and revelation also bring to mind the work of Carl Becker in The Heavenly City of the Eighteenth-Century Philosophers (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1932). One chapter also focuses on the running controversy between Voegelin and his rival Leo Strauss. The discussion of their disputes over the nature of truth, grounded in different views of the nature and role of philosophy, helps elucidate the thought of Voegelin and some of the larger points that the book is making along the way. Readers will also be fascinated by the argument that a Gnostic view of the universe is the foundation for “modernism,” especially modern rationalism. The work consistently provides solid support for Voegelin's view that history and experience are much more useful approaches to understanding reality and truth.

The last chapter provides something of a postscript on the nature of history with a discussion of truth in the context of the experience of epoch. The Renaissance was one of the most striking periods in which a culture conceived of itself as a new epoch, recapturing the classical civilization that was lost during the “dark” ages between. Likewise, the founders of the American republic considered their actions as charting a new course that would bring about a new age of freedom and liberty. The question of whether any group of people can actually be governed, or whether any form of government will actually change their basic nature, is a question concerning reality that begs the problem of perception, as the author recognizes. It is, nevertheless, one of the questions that fascinated Voegelin and continues to provide grist for the historian's proverbial mill.

Professor Sandoz draws on a wide range of theological, anthropological, political, philosophical, moral, and cultural views from across the centuries, distilling and weaving them together with amazing ease and dexterity. The synthetic nature of this study is itself a compelling testimony to the integrative realities that the author describes as a credible explanation of order and history. In particular, readers will benefit from the insights that Ellis Sandoz brings to the emergence of the American consciousness and the shaping of American political institutions as post-9/11 culture presents a variety of challenges to our national identity and political stability.