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

Forrest Church

ISBN 10: 0151011850 / ISBN 13: 9780151011858

Published by Houghton Mifflin September 2007, 2007

About this Item

Dust jacket covered in protective mylar sleeve.

Seller Inventory # 312679

Bibliographic Details

• Title: So Help Me God: The Founding Fathers and the First Great Battle Over Church and State
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin September 2007
• Publication Date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0151011850
• ISBN 13: 9780151011858
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: First Edition.
• Printing: First Edition
• Condition: Near Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine
• Signed: Signed By Author
• Seller catalogs:
  • History::American

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 powerful retelling of the birth of the American body politic, religious historian Forrest Church describes our first great culture war―a tumultuous yet nearly forgotten conflict that raged from George Washington’s presidency to James Monroe’s. On one side of the battle, the proponents of order―Federalists, Congregationalists, New Englanders―believed that the only legitimate ruler of men is God. On the other side, the defenders of liberty―republicans, Baptists, Virginians―cheered the Enlightenment and the French Revolution, and believed that only the separation of church and state would preserve man’s freedom. Would we be a nation under God, or with liberty for all?

In this vigorous history, Forrest Church offers a new vision of our earliest presidents’ beliefs, reshaping assumptions about the debates that still reverberate across our land.

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.