Initially a populist rebellion against the established Protestant churches, evagelicalism became the dominant religious force in the country before the Civil War, but the northerners and southerners split over the issue of slavery. After the Civil War, the northern evangelicals split, eventually causing a conflict between fundamentalists and modernists. Only after the Second World War would conservative evangelicalism gain momentum, thanks in large...

"Traditionalist Christians who oppose same-sex marriage and other cultural developments in the United States wonder why they are being forced to bracket their beliefs in order to participate in public life. This situation is not new, says Steven D. Smith: Christians two thousand years ago faced very similar challenges. Picking up poet T. S. Eliot's World War II-era thesis that the future of the West would be determined by a contest between Christianity...

Religious faith was a driving force behind our greatest national reforms, such as the abolition of slavery and the civil rights movement. These "great awakenings" happened periodically at crucial times in our nation's history to propel us toward the common good. The time is ripe for another movement that will transform this country. With The Great Awakening, Wallis [rediscovers] our moral center and provides both the needed inspiration and a concrete...

Examining the ways in which politics and religion have influenced each other over the last two hundred years, Burleigh reveals that throughout history the two realms have interacted in complex and sometimes lethal ways--just as they still do today. The overall effect was a widespread increase in secularism and a demystification of the power of politics. Burleigh encompasses the philosophies of the Enlightenment, as well as the pseudo-religious aspects...