God of Liberty
A Religious History of the American Revolution
A Religious History of the American Revolution
A "thought-provoking, meticulously researched" testament to evangelical Christians' crucial contribution to American independence and a timely appeal for the same spiritual vitality today (Washington Times). At the dawn of the Revolutionary War, America was already a nation of diverse faiths-the First Great Awakening and Enlightenment concepts such as deism and atheism had endowed the colonists with varying and often opposed religious beliefs. Despite their differences, however, Americans found common ground against British tyranny and formed an alliance that would power the American Revolution. In God of Liberty, historian Thomas S. Kidd offers the first comprehensive account of religion's role during this transformative period and how it gave form to our nation and sustained it through its tumultuous birth -- and how it can be a force within our country during times of transition today.
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Short review: This is a good supplement to revolutionary history. Thomas Kidd is particularly paying attention to religious history here. I just finished reading Mark Noll's In the Beginning Was the Word, which is particularly a history of how scripture was used in North American from 1492 until 1783. The two books are helpful together. Kidd is showing the broader history, Noll is showing the more particular use of scripture and how that effected the colonial self understanding and how that compared to British scripture uses.
My full review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/god-of-liberty/
