So Help Me God: The Founding Fathers and the First Great Battle over Church and State

Church, Forrest

ISBN 10: 0156034875 / ISBN 13: 9780156034876

Published by Harvest Books, 2008

About this Item

reprint edition. 530 pages. 8.00x5.25x1.00 inches. In Stock.

Seller Inventory # x-0156034875

Bibliographic Details

• Title: So Help Me God: The Founding Fathers and the First Great Battle over Church and State
• Publisher: Harvest Books
• Publication Date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0156034875
• ISBN 13: 9780156034876
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: Brand New
• Weight: 0.61 kilograms

About this title

Synopsis

Today’s dispute over the line between church and state (or the lack thereof) is neither the first nor the fiercest in our history. In a revelatory look at our nation’s birth, Forrest Church re-creates our first great culture war—a tumultuous, nearly forgotten conflict that raged from George Washington’s presidency to James Monroe’s. 

Religion was the most divisive issue in the nation’s early presidential elections. Battles raged over numerous issues while the bible and the Declaration of Independence competed for American affections. The religous political wars reached a vicious peak during the War of 1812; the American victory drove New England's Christian right to withdraw from electoral politics, thereby shaping our modern sense of church-state separation. No longer entangled, both church and state flourished.

Forrest Church has written a rich, page-turning history, a new vision of our earliest presidents’ beliefs that stands as a reminder and a warning for America today.

About the Author

Forrest Church earned his doctorate in Church History at Harvard University and has written or edited over twenty-two books, including The Separation of Church and State.