A Secular Faith: Why Christianity Favors the Separation of Church and State

Darryl Hart, the highly regarded historian of religion, contends that appeals to Christianity for social and political well-being fundamentally misconstrue the meaning of the Christian religion. His book weaves together historical narratives of American Protestantism's influence on the nation's politics, and commentary on recent writing about religion and public life, with expositions of Christian teaching. The tapestry that emerges is a compelling faith-based argument for keeping Christianity out of politics.

Darryl Hart, a historian of American religion, is director of academic projects and faculty development at the Intercollegiate Studies Institute in Wilmington, Delaware. He studied at Temple, Harvard, and Johns Hopkins universities, and at Westminster Theological Seminary, and has also written Defending the Faith, The University Gets Religion, That Old-Time Religion in Modern America, and The Lost Soul of American Protestantism. He lives in Philadelphia.