Republicanism, Religion, and the Soul of America.
Heitzenrater, Richard P.
Republicanism, Religion, and the Soul of America. By Ellis Sandoz.
Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2006. xviii + 248 pp. $39.95
cloth; $19.95 paper.
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thought, using specific references to historical documents while drawing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.
doi: 10.1017/S0009640708001017
Richard P. Heitzenrater
Duke University
