Finding the Founding

As the United States of America approaches its 250th anniversary, many Americans are wondering what binds them together as one people in a deeply polarized age. Is America a nation of ideas--the propositional nation, codified in the principles of limited government, individual rights, and liberal democracy--available to any and all? Or is America a nation of heritage, with a specific culture and set of customs shared by only a few? Some of America's deepest divides, gravest culture wars, and even most shocking news headlines arise from these very questions. In Finding the Founding, Casey Spinks turns to a close reading of the Declaration of Independence to meditate on these same questions. From these meditations arises the hope that they can be answered by paying close attention to the theology of the Declaration: the "Laws of Nature and of Nature's God," the "Creator," the "Supreme Judge of the World," and "Divine providence." It is on these principles, Spinks argues, that America is founded--both its ideals of equality, natural rights, and limited government, and its united civic culture. Perhaps if this truth is realized, then people today may also come to hold these truths of the Declaration as self-evident.

Casey Spinks is a contributing editor to Front Porch Republic and a postdoctoral fellow in the School of Civic Leadership at the University of Texas at Austin. He is also the author of Kierkegaard's Ontology (2026).