Christians in the American Revolution

“Blending a commanding knowledge of the fi eld with a rare gift for synthesis and lucid expression, Mark Noll brings to life what it meant for Christians in a diff erent time and place to wrestle with the political implications of their faith.” Nathan O. Hatch, University of Notre Dame “His study . . . should provoke us afresh to a reexamination of the interpretation of belief and culture in our own time.” David F. Wells, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary When Christians understand the religious history of the United States, with its close connection to political history, they are better prepared to make knowledgable contributions to the current discussion of national values, priorities and purposes. Christians in the American Revolution begins with a brief survey of the political and religious background of the pre-Revolutionary years. Th e author then examines the influence of various religious convictions on the movement for independence and, conversely, the eff ect of the Revolution on colonial church bodies and their understanding of Christian truth. Colonial Christians responded in four major ways to the Revolution: they supported complete freedom in politics and religion; they advocated social and political reform; they called for submission to English authority; and they argued against involvement of Christians in the war eff ort. Whether Patriot, Reformer, Loyalist or Pacifi st, American Christian colonials infl uenced not only the fledgling nation, but the development of religious thought to the present. This revised edition includes a new bibliographic essay detailing contributions to this field since the first edition was published in 1977. MARK A. NOLL (PhD, Vanderbilt University) is McManis Professor of Christian Th ought at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois. In recent years he has been a visiting professor at Harvard Divinity School, University of Chicago Divinity School, Westminster Th eological Seminary and Regent College (Vancouver, British Columbia). A widely recognized expert in American religious history, he has written numerous books, including America’s God, The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind and A History of Christianity in the United States and Canada.